Reuters News Service
By Dean Goodman
Tue Dec 20,10:07 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pink Floyd fans waiting in vain for the band to reunite for a tour will have to make do with the next best thing: the first solo trek in more than 20 years by singer/guitarist David Gilmour.
A week after he announced plans to tour Europe in March, Gilmour on Monday said he would play 10 shows in five North American cities, beginning on April 4 with a two-night stand at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
The trek will also take him to Toronto (April 9-10, Massey Hall), Chicago (April 12-13, Rosemont Theater), Oakland, Calif. (April 16-17, Paramount Theater), and Los Angeles (April 19, Kodak Theater; April 20, Gibson Amphitheatre).
Gilmour, 59, will be touring in support of his upcoming album, "On An Island," a follow-up to his second solo release "About Face," which came out in 1984, the last time he toured without Pink Floyd.
The new set is due in U.S. stores on March 7 via Columbia Records. The title track boasts guest vocals from David Crosby and Graham Nash. Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright, Roxy Music lead guitarist Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt and Jools Holland also appear on the album.
Pink Floyd's reunion with estranged founder Roger Waters to play the Live 8 charity concert in London last July raised hopes that the band would hit the road for the first time since 1994. But Gilmour said in a statement, "I'm rather hoping that with this tour announcement people will believe me when I say, honestly, this is the only band I plan to tour with!"
The European trek, meanwhile, begins on March 10 in the German city of Dortmund -- four days after he turns 60 -- and proceeds through Hamburg, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan and Rome, before ending on May 29-30 with a sold-out two-night stand at London's Royal Albert Hall.
