'About Face' is David Gilmour's second solo album. The familiar sounding voice and guitar, and the melodicism in which they were couched, made 'About Face' the implicit case that Roger Waters had not, after all, been Pink Floyd's only major contributor. It was clear to everyone but the public that by the time 'The Final Cut' Both David's and Roger's solo albums of this time period could was completed, the gulf between Roger and the rest of the band would never be bridged. be described as the striving for reaffirmation of their individual talents and self esteem, respectively, if for nothing else. 'About Face' only reached #32 on the Billboard charts, while Water's solo, released about the same time, managed to only hit #31.

The album was recorded at Pathe-Marconi Studios, mixed at Mayfair Studios, orchestra recorded at Abbey Road Studios and mastered at The Mastering Lab in Los Angeles. California.

Pete Townshend wrote lyrics for 'Love On the Air' and 'All Lovers Are Deranged', and a 3rd song that David didn't use because he couldn't relate to the words. The rejected lyrics 'White City Fighting', would become Townshend's centerpiece for the 'White City' album.

Roy Harper was also given a shot at the same tune, but Dave rejected those lyrics as well. Harper went on to record his version as 'Hope', on his own album, 'Whatever Happened to Juglar'. David ended up finishing all of the 'About Face' lyrics himself.

The new album previewed with a 7" single edited version of 'Blue Light', backed with 'Cruise'. A 12" single, with vocal and instrumental remixes by Francois Kevorkian and Frank Filipette was also issued only in the UK as a DJ Promo. An accompanying promotional video was directed by Storm Thorgerson.

A second 7" single,'Love On the Air'/'Let's Get Metaphysical', was released April 27, 1984. Also issued as a shaped picture disc in the outline of a valve radio, backed with a picture of David.

David's band performed two songs, 'Until We Sleep' and 'Blue Light' live on the Channel 4 TV show THE TUBE, Mar. 30, with some of the same members he put together for tour opening.

The 'About Face' tour opened Mar. 31 at the National Stadium, Dublin with an assembled team of accompanists which included Mickey Feat (bass), Gregg Dechert(keyboards), Chris Slade(drums), Jodi Linscott (percussion), Mick Ralphs (guitar), and Raphael Ravenscroft (reeds)--who had just sessioned for Water's solo album. The setlist included all of the new album, 'Mihalis', 'Short and Sweet', 'Run Like Hell', and 'Comfortably Numb'. The tour lasted over 4 months and spanned 10 countries.

April 30, Rick and Nick attended the last of Dave's 3 sold-out concerts at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Nick sat in on drums for 'Comfortably Numb'. Roy Harper did a featured guest vocal on 'Short and Sweet'. This concert would be broadcast by MTV - whose crew had previously trailed the 'About Face' tour across France for a separate tour documentary. These two MTV films would also be marketed later on the CBS Fox videocassette as 'David Gilmour'.

The 'About Face' N. American tour opened in Quebec Canada, May 9. The set list included 'Money'.

Westwood One did a delayed radio broadcast of much of the 'About Face' concert from Stabler Arena, Bethleham, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1984, with Sid Evans, not Linscott, on percussion.

Although some Canadian dates were cancelled, the N. American leg of the tour enabled the show to turn a profit. The AF tour ended on July 16, the date Roger Waters launched his tour in Stockholm.

"Doing this album I wanted to make a really good record. I didn't want to do it very very quickly, and I wanted to get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me. Jeff Porcaro was top of my drummers list, Pino Palladino was top of my bass players list, and Ian Kewley, or the Rev, as he's known, he actually came and did the bulk of the Hammond and piano playing, and he was terrific. Steve Winwood was top of my keyboard playing list but he couldn't do most of the album, but I got him to do a bit. He played hammond organ on "Blue Light."
I had a bit more time and was feeling a bit freer about things on this album...just more "accidents" tend to occur. I mean the "Blue Light" track for example actually consists of two different songs. We wound up cutting bits out of each like making a jigsaw puzzle up and used bits of the backing track of one and then bits of the other and then swapping back and forth." -David
[Jeff Porcaro died 8/5/92 of a heart attack]

David--on how Pete Townshend came about to write lyrics on 'About Face':
"He stopped me in the corridor to say how much he had enjoyed my first solo album. I thought that was very nice of him...and also he said that if I ever needed any help with anything, to give him a ring." -David

"'You Know I'm Right' was the last track we did, it's the only one that...the only one of all the tracks that I didn't have a sort of quite reasonably recorded demo with lynn drums and the works on. It was terrific fun." -David

"The musicians on the tour are not the ones on the record. I've got a drummer called Chris Slade, who's played with Tom Jones, I've got a bass player named Mickey Feat, who's done practically everything in the world. Mick Ralphs is coming with me, he's a friend of mine, we live close by and I see him a lot, and I was telling him I was coming out on the road and he said, "ooooh, I'd love to go, can I come?" so I said 'sure'." -David

"I paid him [Steve Winwood] good money, about $1,000 a day, and he wanted me to use his studio and pay for the studio time. It seemed perhaps a little high. But he doesn't owe me any favors and I didn't know him very well. I've always loved Stevie Winwood. I used to go see The Spencer Davis Group when I was 18 and he was about 16. He used to play a really great guitar as well as great piano...I really wanted to hit the little f****r he was so good!" -David

"I was extremely pleased about that, (White City Fighting) because I'm probably the only person who's ever written a song on a Pete Townshend album apart from Pete." -David [David is also on 'Give Blood', same album]

"It's not my big priority to try and write songs with a message, but I see no more reason to shy away from them than sort of head for them. I find that if you steer yourself in that direction, they come out very contrived and preachy. I don't like those by other people, so I try to avoid them myself. But songs like 'Cruise' and 'Out of the Blue' definitely do have an observation of political reality." -David