Pink Floyd During the
Wall Tour, where a giant wall was constructed across the stage during the performance, the song was performed with Waters dressed as a doctor at the bottom of the wall, and Gilmour singing and playing guitar from the top of the wall on a raised platform with spotlights shining from behind him. It was the first time the audience's attention was drawn to the top of the completed wall. According to Gilmour, the final solo was one of the few opportunities during those concerts in which he was free to
improvise completely. Gilmour said: After Waters left the band, Gilmour revised the verses to suit his preference for "grungier" live performances. Verse vocals were arranged for
three-part harmony; these were sung by
Richard Wright,
Guy Pratt and
Jon Carin. The ending guitar solo was also extended substantially, which resulted in performances often reaching 10 minutes or longer. In December 1988, a video of the live performance from the
A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, released on the live album
Delicate Sound of Thunder, reached number 11 on
MTV's Top 20 Video Countdown. The video was two minutes shorter than the album version and the video clip had different camera angles from the home video version. Pink Floyd performed the song at
Knebworth Park on 30 June 1990 and it was published on
CD as
Knebworth: The Album, and on video as
Live At Knebworth 1990, along with "
Run Like Hell". This version followed a similar arrangement to the A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour version, however featured a slightly shorter ending solo, which was then cut down even further on the 2021 release
Live at Knebworth 1990, which documented Pink Floyd's entire performance at the event. Pink Floyd's performance on 20 October 1994 at
Earls Court, London, as part of
The Division Bell Tour, featured the full 10 minute performance of Comfortably Numb. The
Pulse album and
video releases edited out approximately 1:20 minutes of the ending solo, whereas the original pay-per-view video broadcast showed the unedited version. Pink Floyd, complete with Waters, reunited briefly to perform at the
Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005. The set consisted of four songs, of which "Comfortably Numb" was the last. This version was arranged near-identically to the studio version.
Roger Waters After leaving Pink Floyd, Waters first performed "Comfortably Numb" at the 1990 concert staging of
The Wall – Live in Berlin on 21 July 1990. The event's purpose was to commemorate the fall of the
Berlin Wall. Waters sang lead,
Van Morrison sang Gilmour's vocal parts backed by
Rick Danko and
Levon Helm of
The Band, with guitar solo by Rick Di Fonzo and
Snowy White, and backup by the
Rundfunk Orchestra & Choir. This version was used in the 2006 film
The Departed, directed by
Martin Scorsese. Van Morrison's 2007
compilation album Van Morrison at the Movies – Soundtrack Hits includes this version. Waters subsequently performed the song at the
Guitar Legends festival in Spain in 1991 with White on guitar solos, Waters playing acoustic guitar during the second solo, and guest vocals by
Bruce Hornsby; and later at the Walden Woods benefit concert in Los Angeles in 1992 with guest vocals by
Don Henley. During Waters'
In the Flesh concert tour,
Doyle Bramhall II and
Snowy White stood in for Gilmour's vocals and guitar solos; a role carried out by
Chester Kamen and White in 2002. Waters played acoustic guitar in unison with Jon Carin, with
Andy Fairweather Low on bass; his part was performed by Harry Waters in 2002. In his show
The Dark Side of the Moon Live, Gilmour's vocals were performed by Jon Carin and Andy Fairweather Low, while both playing acoustic guitar and Waters playing bass, with
Dave Kilminster and White performing the guitar solos. During Waters'
The Wall Live, Robbie Wyckoff sang Gilmour's vocals, and Dave Kilminster performed the guitar solos with G E Smith on bass. Both Wyckoff and Kilminster stood on top of the wall as Gilmour had done in the original tour. During the performance of 12 May 2011 at the London O2 Arena, David Gilmour appeared as a guest during this song, and both sang the choruses and played guitar from the top of the wall, echoing the original performances from
The Wall Tour. The song contains one of the show's most memorable moments, when, at a specific point of the final guitar solo, Waters steps toward the wall and pounds it with his fists, triggering both an explosion of colours on the previously dark-grey screen projections and a collapsing wall. Waters performed the song with
Eddie Vedder singing Gilmour's vocals at
12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief. During
Mexico City and
Desert Trip shows, Waters performed with the same band setup as The Wall Live. During the
Us + Them Tour, Gilmour's vocals were performed by
Jonathan Wilson with guitar solos by Kilminster and bass by Gus Seyffert. On
This Is Not a Drill, Waters performed a new "stripped down" version of the song as an introduction to the concerts.
David Gilmour Gilmour has performed the song during each of his solo tours. In About Face, his 1984 tour to promote
his album of the same title, the set list referred to the song as "Come on Big Bum". The vocals during the verses were performed by band members
Gregg Dechert and Mickey Feat (in harmony). In 2001 and 2002, the verse vocals were performed on different dates by guest singers
Robert Wyatt,
Kate Bush,
Durga McBroom, and
Bob Geldof, who had played Pink in the
film version of The Wall. Wyatt and Geldof, who had not memorised the verses, read the lyrics as they sang. On 29 May 2006, at the
Royal Albert Hall,
David Bowie made a guest appearance and sang the verses, in what would be his final live performance in the United Kingdom. The next day, 30 May, Richard Wright sang the verses by himself (as on the rest of the tour) at the same venue. Both performances were included on Gilmour's
Remember That Night concert video, compiled from all three of his shows there on 29, 30 and 31 May 2006, which were part of his
On an Island concert series to promote
his album of the same title. For the final show of the On an Island Tour, Gilmour performed the song at the
Gdańsk Shipyard,
Poland, with the Polish
Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra providing the orchestral parts that had usually been created with
backing tapes or multiple
synthesizers. This version was released on
Live in Gdańsk. On the 2016
Rattle That Lock Tour, the verses were sung by Jon Carin (on legs 1–3),
Chuck Leavell (on leg 4) (this version can be seen and heard on
Live at Pompeii), and Bryan Chambers (leg 5). They were also performed by
Benedict Cumberbatch on 28 September 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall. During a performance at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 April 2016, Gilmour and his band incorporated the final refrain of the
Prince song "
Purple Rain" into the song as a tribute to Prince, who had died three days earlier. On Gilmour's 2024
Luck and Strange Tour, the song's verses were sung by Guy Pratt (longtime touring bassist for Pink Floyd) and David Gilmour. Romany Gilmour, David Gilmour's youngest child, sang backing vocals for the chorus with her father. ==Reception==