David Kilminster (born 25 January 1962) is a British guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer and music teacher, who has toured as a sideman to several prestigious musicians, including

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

artists

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosi ...

and Roger Waters.

Biography

Dave Kilminster began playing piano in childhood, and later took up the guitar. During his youth he also sang in a barbershop quartet. In 1991 he won the 'Guitarist of the Year' award in a competition run by ''Guitarist Magazine'' with the instrumental song ''Sundance''; at that time he had a temporary job working on computers for IBM. Shortly after, Kilminster was asked to teach at the Guitar Institute in Acton. His job there also involved writing exam material and courses for Trinity College and Thames Valley University. Kilminster has taught at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford and written for ''Guitar Techniques'' magazine. He has launched a series of instructional DVDs for Roadrock's Lick Library after the success of his global satellite series, named ''Killer Guitar''. In 2002, Kilminster toured with Keith Emerson and Emerson's group

The Nice The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band. The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jack ...

, emulating the guitar work of

David O'List David O'List (born 13 December 1948) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist and trumpeter. He has played with The Attack, The Nice, Roxy Music (before being replaced by Phil Manzanera), and Jet (replaced by Ian Macleod). He also briefly deputi ...

. An album has been published called ''Vivacitas Live at Glasgow 2002'', starring Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson and Brian Davison of The Nice, as well as Dave Kilminster, Phil Williams and Pete Riley assisting. From 2006 to 2008, he toured with Roger Waters on his

The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. The album was primarily developed during live performances, and the band premiered an early version of ...

and from 2010 to 2013 he toured as lead guitarist on Waters'

The Wall Live ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

2010–2013 tour. On both tours, he performed similar parts to David Gilmour on the original studio albums. He has also played alongside

John Wetton John Kenneth Wetton (12 June 1949 – 31 January 2017) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. Known for his dexterous bass playing and booming baritone voice, Wetton first gained fame in the early 1970s. Wetton was the singer and p ...

(ex

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

Ken Hensley Kenneth William David Hensley (24 August 1945 – 4 November 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, best known for his work with Uriah Heep during the 1970s. He wrote or co-wrote the majority of Uriah ...

(ex Uriah Heep), Qango (an

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

spin-off),

, and

Carl Palmer Carl Frederick Kendall Palmer (born 20 March 1950) is an English drummer best known as founding member and the last surviving member of the progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He was also a founding member of progressive rock s ...

. In May 2015, Kilminster replaced

Guthrie Govan Guthrie Govan (; born 27 December 1971) is an English guitarist and guitar teacher, known for his work with the bands the Aristocrats, Asia, GPS, the Young Punx and the Fellowship, as well as his solo project Erotic Cakes. More recently, he ha ...

's band for its 2015 North American tour. From 2017 to 2018 Kilminster joined Roger Waters on his North American "Us + Them" tour. David is playing guitar on Roger Waters’ 2022 / 2023

This Is Not A Drill This Is Not a Drill is the seventh concert tour by English songwriter Roger Waters. The tour, originally scheduled to take place between July and October 2020, was suspended after the COVID-19 pandemic advance, and rescheduled to take place in ...

farewell tour. Dave re-released his acoustic guitar album 'Playing with Fire' in 2004. In 2007, he launched the rock album ''Scarlet'', which featured Emerson bandmates, drummer Pete Riley and bassist Phil Williams. The album was re-released as 'Scarlet – The Director's Cut' in 2012. This was followed up by a new album of original material, ''and ... The Truth will set you free'' in 2014. Kilminster co-produced

Anne-Marie Helder Anne-Marie Helder is a British singer and songwriter, best known for fronting the UK rock band Panic Room. She has also performed internationally as a solo artist and with various bands since circa the year 2000. In 2005 she supported Fish o ...

's first solo album ''The Contact'' (2004). She sings backing vocals on ''Scarlet''.

Style and equipment

Kilminster is

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subject ...

, but after damaging his right wrist in a go-kart accident, he started playing guitar right-handed. He has since said he is

ambidextrous Ambidexterity is the ability to use both the right and left hand equally well. When referring to objects, the term indicates that the object is equally suitable for right-handed and left-handed people. When referring to humans, it indicates that ...

He has used many different playing techniques such as

tapping Tapping is a playing technique that can be used on any stringed instrument, but which is most commonly used on guitar. The technique involves a string being fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion. This is in contrast to stand ...

and

sweep picking Sweep picking is a guitar playing technique. When sweep picking, the guitarist plays single notes on consecutive strings with a 'sweeping' motion of the pick, while using the fretting hand to produce a specific series of notes that are fast a ...

, but considers them to be "just tools really" and not an important part of his playing style. Kilminster has used

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

s and Takamine acoustic guitars. For the ''Dark Side of the Moon'' tour, he used a ''

Richie Kotzen Richard Dale Kotzen Jr. (born February 3, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As a solo artist, Kotzen has back catalogue of more than 20 album releases. He was a member of glam metal band Poison from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Big ...

'' signature telecaster with custom DiMarzio pickups. He has used Cornford guitar amplifiers. As of May 2015, he uses Suhr custom-made guitars and Brunetti amplifiers.

References

External links

Dave Kilminster.com
─ official site
Brunetti Tube Amplification
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilminster, Dave English rock guitarists English male guitarists English songwriters English male singers Living people 1962 births Qango (band) members British male songwriters