Operating in a band with people you don't like is surely a skill to be crafted. Writing complex guitar licks and singing excruciatingly painful high notes is one thing, but suppressing a desire to punch your bandmate in the face on stage is an entirely different thing. Just ask the Eagles or Pink Floyd, both of them trod that line for years.
The latter example succumbed to their temptations during one fateful Long Beach gig in 1980. But while Pink Floyd never came to striking blows, they did end things on a deeply bitter note that has never since been resolved. The band's fearless leaders, David Gilmour and Roger Waters, seemed to coalesce with complete musical harmony on their 1973 effort Dark Side Of The Moon, but in reality, their personalities are like oil and water.
By the time 1984 rolled around, Gilmour was completely liberated and operating as a fully fledged solo artist. Sure, it meant that he may not hit the same stratospheric musical heights, but he was freed of the burdening sense of conflict he continuously experienced working alongside Roger Waters.
He had carte blanche to enlist some friends and make the process of recording a little more upbeat. Capitalising on the freedom, he recruited Stevie Winwood, a former member of The Spencer Davis Group, to play guitar. But in true Gilmour fashion, he wasn't all plain sailing.
"I paid him good money, about $1,000 a day," he said. "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 favours and I didn't know him very well."
A compliment thinly disguised with a subtle dig that may have stemmed from his musical jealousy of the guitarist. "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 fucker he was so good!"
Ultimately, that was par for the course for Gilmour, who was solely focused on making the best record he possibly could and so ensured he recruited the very best musicians.
"Doing this album I wanted to make a really good record," he added. "I didn't want to do it very very quickly. I wanted to get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me. So I thought I'd just make a little list of all my favorite musicians, you know. The best drummer, best bass player, best keyboard player. Then I'll work through the list to see who I can get."
There's a pretty strong case to be made that Gilmour was perhaps one of the best guitarists on offer, but he needed support, and why not receive it from a guitarist so good he wanted to punch. It's safe to say the pair never came to blows during the recording of the album, and maybe that's the reason it didn't perform as well critically, because it seems that, sadly, Gilmour's musical brilliance was inextricably linked to the conflict he experienced with his bandmates.