LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/
Killer Guitar) - Dave Kilminster has gained notice around the world as he sang and played to millions in a 110 show extravaganza with
Roger Waters' global staging of the Dark Side of the Moon Tour in 2006 and 2007. He has been interviewed by media around the world and featured in newspapers, radio, television and magazine interviews as his lead guitar work impressed both fans and critics alike. The
Roger Waters tour has proved so popular that the band will again tour the world in 2008 featuring Kilminster on lead guitar and vocals.
Fan and critical interest have been so extraordinary, that in a short Christmas vacation break in 2006, he completed his rock album Scarlet, which shows off not only the extraordinary guitar fans have grown to expect, but provide an unexpected and exciting foray into an exploration of Dave as singer and songwriter. That album is now in international distribution because of the immediate worldwide demand and acclaim.
Interest in Scarlet has propelled the guitarist to make arrangements to tour the album in 2008 as well as continue collaborations with other guitar greats, both those he has worked with in the past and with other high profile musicians he has not yet had the joy of collaborating with.
The astonishing response to Scarlet has prompted a renewed interest in Dave's other work, including his acoustic solo album Playing with Fire, which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Cosmogenic, a 2001 collaboration between Dave and vocalist Chip Jenkins, is being rediscovered by fans and critics for the first time, although only a limited number of copies from the first pressing are in stock.
Dave was a founding member of Qango, with Asia/King Crimson/UK vocalist and bass player John Wetton, ELP's Carl Palmer on drums and keyboard player John Young. That band was well-received, but only had the opportunity to release one album. That album, too, has been re-released in 2007, to the delight of happy Kilminster fans.
In the past year and a half, Dave has enjoyed tremendous attention from fans and critics. Included are features in Guitar Player Magazines's (the industry bible for professional and amateur guitarists) November issue, Guitar Techniques Magazine, a 28 page cover feature from a Japanese rock magazine, radio interviews with Sirius Radio's legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame disk jockey Carole Miller and with Jonathan Clarke, host of Q104.3 (the US's premier classic rock station), and the BBC's renowned Sue Marchant.
The newspaper and television coverage has been too wide and varied to mention specifically, but includes outlets in South America, Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States. Personal appearances and signings have reinforced Dave's popularity as fans clamour to speak with easy going, amusing and personable guitarist, asking for advice and for road stories.
Dave's exposure was capped by a Live Earth performance in July in Giants' Stadium in America, where Dave and the Roger Waters Band played a set to two billion people around the world - approximately a third of the world's population.
Roger Waters enthusiastically provided Guitar Player magazine with some very high praise. Pink Floyd founder and creative genius Waters is well-known as a precise perfectionist.
"Dave is an absolute natural for the job he does in my band. Because of the extraordinary level of his technical ability, he can reproduce the 'other' Dave's parts - including all the well-known solos - with fluency and accuracy, while also bringing his own special flair to them. He is, in many respects, like a virtuoso concert violinist. The notes are written in stone in terms of pitch and time, but the interpretation is all his own. It was always my intention to treat Dark Side as a classical piece, remaining faithful to the original, so Dave's special skills are an absolute godsend."
Dave Kilminster has also been noticed by fine musical equipment manufacturers around the globe. Fender featured his work and his telecasters on their website. Dunlop picks personalized picks for Dave which are treasured by fans when he occasionally provides one as a souvenir. Suhr Guitars have made several to order for Dave and Takamine has loaned guitars to him as he plays around the world. Daddario has recently announced Dave as an endorser for their strings, which he uses exclusively.
Prior to his work with Waters, he worked closely with Keith Emerson and also with John Wetton, Carl Palmer and other rock legends. He has a substantial body of solo work in addition that covers a vast variety of styles. Scarlet, the most recent album, is a rocker which is gaining airplay around the world with some cuts - Big Blue among them - and the longer Rain and Angel are gaining increasing traction with Fans. Playing with Fire was an acoustic, more classical guitar album which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Limited stock of the 2001 Cosmogenic is flying off the warehouse shelves. A re-release of Qango's Live in the Hood album is enjoying popularity again in its re-release.
There are a vast range of other CDs that Dave has been featured on or a collaborator on.
In addition,he is a writer for Guitar Techniques magazine, with over two hundred articles to his credit, and an instructor of guitar, with a series of instructional DVDs published by Lick Library.
