Pink Floyd, the band, may not be around anymore, but its music endures, and has even inspired “tribute” bands to take up the challenge of performing classic music that combines audio and visual elements. One of the best known of these bands is Brit Floyd, which sounds as if it’s British, but actually has Australian roots.
“The Australian Pink Floyd Show relocated to England in 1993, and I joined in ’94,” says Damian Darlington, the show’s musical director, guitarist and main vocalist. “One of the original members, the guitarist, left, and I joined. Tribute bands were a relatively new thing at the time, and I was a fan of Pink Floyd. Having learned the material, it was an easy decision to join.
“In 2010 we left the Australian group, and I started a different group which took the name Brit Floyd, although despite the name, we do have one token American in the band, which has nine members, three or four of which are the backing female vocalists.”
Darlington, a native of Middlesbrough, Teeside, in the northeast part of England, grew up with a host of musical influences, including King Crimson, Yes, Tears for Fears, The The, John Martyn, Nick Drake and Francis Dunnery. He first saw Pink Floyd in 1988, and a couple more times in 1994.
“And I got to see them in 2005 when they re-united with Roger Waters [a founding member who left the band in 1985] at the Live 8 event.”
One of the highlights of his days as a Pink Floyd tribute musician came when David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s guitarist and singer, sent word to Brit Floyd that he wanted the band to play at his 50th birthday party in March 1996.
“Obviously, we agreed to do so and were delighted to go,” Darlington says. “And then Rick Wright [Pink Floyd’s keyboardist] came up and asked if he could play Hammond organ on ‘Comfortably Numb.’ The guest list was pretty impressive, too: George Harrison, Sting and Kate Bush, along with others.”
With no Pink Floyd to steal the spotlight from them, Brit Floyd has quietly assembled a show that Darlington is confident will impress fans of the original Floyd. He brought in Bryan Kolupski to take charge of such visual elements as animation, graphic design, video and film production and inflatables. For the lighting, 30-year veteran Dave Hill, who has worked with The Rolling Stones, Eagles and Led Zeppelin, was enlisted.
“We call it the P-U-L-S-E2013 tour, or ‘The Pink Floyd Ultimate Light & Sound Experience,’” Darlington says. “The music speaks for itself. There have been some people who think this is just a laser show, but it’s not that at all. We do our best to try and sound like the original guys, but we don’t try to look like them. Our bass player, Ian Cattell, does the vocals on the Roger Waters songs.”
When asked to name a single Pink Floyd song that he always makes sure is in the show, Darlington is unable to do so, instead reeling off “Comfortably Numb,” “Another Brick in the Wall,” “Money,” “Time,” “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”Brit Floyd
8 p.m. today, Verizon Are
na, East Broadway and
Interstate 30, North Little
Rock
Tickets: $55
(800) 745-3000
ticketmaster.com
Style, Pages 29 on 04/30/2013