David Gilmour Says He Wants Pink Floyd Hologram to Play Vegas Sphere
Posted on: September 11, 2025, 03:16h.
Last updated on: September 11, 2025, 03:43h.
Beneath the towering screen of London’s BFI IMAX theater on Wednesday night, David Gilmour leaned into the microphone with a wry smile. The premiere of “Live at Circus Maximus, Rome,” his latest concert film, had just wrapped and the former Pink Floyd guitarist was about to lay a bombshell on the screening audience during the Q&A session.
“The Sphere?” he repeated, when asked about his future plans. “Well, you know, I’m hoping, one of these days, to go there and sit and watch myself doing it… My avatar, you know? So I don’t actually have to get up and do it”.
The room chuckled, but the implication was serious. Gilmour was openly entertaining the idea of a Pink Floyd hologram show — a la the one that ABBA is reportedly bringing to Resorts World — to feature at the Las Vegas Sphere.
Would it Work?
Of course! The Sphere’s 16K wraparound screen and beam-formed audio could recreate “The Wall” and/or “Dark Side of the Moon” with hallucinatory precision. Fans could float through the prism, walk the bricks, or watch Syd Barrett dissolve into stardust.
But just because Gilmour wants it doesn’t mean that Sphere chair James Dolan will.
For one thing, it would require a huge investment to create the avatars. “ABBA Voyage,” currently playing in London, took six years and $175 million to develop, making it one of the most expensive live music experiences ever.
But a Sphere show would also require $8-$10 million just to create the visuals to fill the Sphere’s 160,000 square-foot wraparound screen behind the avatars.
And who’s going to pay for all that?
Don’t Take a Slice of My Pie
The reason that concerts work at the Sphere is because the artists chosen all have tremendous box-office appeal — enough to earn back their initial visual investment. (Only U2 were fronted that money, because they volunteered to be the guinea pigs — before their drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr., could even recover from shoulder surgery!)
But if the headliner doesn’t show up, the fans won’t, either — at least not in the droves they would if say, the surviving members of Pink Floyd (Gilmour, singer Roger Waters and drummer Nick Mason) reunited in person. (U2’s “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere” residency was an unparalleled success, while the film made of the tour, “V-U2,” was an unparalleled flop.)
An avatar show would basically be more like a glorified movie.
Could it be a movie with the universal appeal of “The Wizard of Oz”? Maybe, but probably not.
Even more significantly, the Sphere owns the version of “The Wizard of Oz” that it screens, and as such, it reportedly takes at least 70% of the gate — leaving most of the rest to Warner Bros. Discovery, which still owns the licensing rights.
But a Pink Floyd avatar show, by Gilmour’s own admission, would mean the Sphere would need to compromise on its traditionally high profit margin. As he told Britain’s “Uncut” magazine last year about the possibility: “If someone came up with all the money and all the brilliant ideas — and then once we’ve agreed to a series of very, very difficult and onerous conditions — I’d say, ‘Yeah, OK.'”
Good luck getting James Dolan to agree to any of that.
Last Comment ( 1 )
I’d pay to see it and I know many others would as well. Especially if Roger and David agreed to play together for any part of it. The marketability of a Pink Floyd United on the Sphere would be an extravaganza beyond words. Figure it out y’all. Build it and they will come.