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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsDavid Gilmour’s houseboat recording studio is called Astoria. Moored on the Thames at Richmond, it became a working studio associated with Pink Floyd albums including A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, as well as Gilmour’s solo work. Gilmour has said he bought the boat as a houseboat first and only later considered recording aboard it.
What is David Gilmour’s houseboat studio called?
It is Astoria, a Thames houseboat that Gilmour adapted into a recording studio. Its story is striking partly because the studio was not the reason he bought the boat. In an interview, he recalled: “In my case, I just happened to find this beautiful boat that was built as a houseboat and was very cheap, so I bought it. And then only afterward did I think I could maybe use it to record.” Read Gilmour’s account.
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The boat’s domestic layout and recording spaces made it a distinctive place to work. Gilmour described a control room measuring 30 by 20 feet, along with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a lounge. Those dimensions and rooms are his description at the time of that interview, not a current measured survey. A 2006 interview also describes a Neve mixing console in the control room and a small parlour used as a tracking room. MusicRadar’s interview notes Gilmour said the boat was not built to sail and would need a tug to move.
Where is the Astoria houseboat?
Astoria is on the River Thames in Richmond, according to a 2024 profile by The Independent. Its river location is part of the setting, but the available reporting does not establish that the boat or studio is open to visitors or offers public tours.
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Which Pink Floyd albums were recorded on Astoria?
Accounts associate Astoria with Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. They also associate it with David Gilmour’s solo recordings, including On an Island. This is a partial recording history: it should not be read as evidence that every track on any of those albums was recorded exclusively aboard the boat. The Independent’s profile and MusicRadar’s interview discuss the studio’s connection to the recordings.
The Division Bell and “Louder Than Words”
Pink Floyd’s official archive connects “Louder Than Words” to the band’s 1993 The Division Bell sessions. In a statement dated 10 October 2014, Gilmour described the three members playing together aboard Astoria: “The music for Louder Than Words is from those final sessions, the three of us playing together on the houseboat Astoria with Rick’s idiosyncratic keyboards reminding me now that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Pink Floyd’s official archive identifies this as Gilmour’s comment.
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Why Astoria stands out
Astoria was both a houseboat and a purpose-adapted place to make music: a control room and tracking space set within a vessel on the Thames. That unusual working environment gives the studio its documentary appeal. The accounts establish where Gilmour worked and which recordings are associated with the boat; they do not establish that the river or the boat itself gave the recordings a particular acoustic advantage.
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