Brit Floyd still in the pink

A little more than a year ago, Brit Floyd made its first Arkansas appearance as one of the most successful "tribute bands" -- the first "tribute band" having ever been booked into central Arkansas' biggest venue.

This salute to the music and visual appeal of Pink Floyd returns Wednesday to Verizon Arena -- not in a club or even an auditorium.

How does Brit Floyd do it?

Like Pink Floyd in its heyday, Brit Floyd isn't resting on its laurels, but intends to provide different perspectives on the legendary band.

"We're calling the new tour 'Pink Floyd Discovery,' after the Pink Floyd Discovery box set," says Damian Darlington, Brit Floyd's creator, musical director, guitarist and lead singer. "The box set includes all of that band's studio albums, so what we've done is come up with a show that gives fans a glimpse of some of the early hidden gems from all of the albums, including the Syd Barrett era.

"We'll still have material from their best known works, which are Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, of course, but we found tracks that people have very likely never heard performed live."

Darlington, a native of northeast England, first got involved in the music of Pink Floyd thanks to what happened in Australia -- a band named The Australian Pink Floyd Show was successful and eventually moved to England, where Darlington joined in 1994, replacing an original member. In 2010, Darlington left to start his own group, Brit Floyd.

By this time, Pink Floyd, founded in 1965, had been declared "finished" by founding member Roger Waters and lead guitarist David Gilmour, with whom Waters had long feuded, even after leaving the band and trying to prevent it from continuing without him. Keyboardist Richard Wright died in 2008 and Barrett, who had become unable to perform in the late 1960s, a victim of drugs, had died in 2006. Waters and Gilmour had moved on to solo careers and Pink Floyd's last tour, which did not include Waters, was in 1994. (Drummer Nick Mason and Waters are the only surviving original members of the group.)

Darlington has assembled a group that he assures can reproduce Pink Floyd's music. Band members are Rob Stringer on keyboards and vocals, Ian Cattell on bass and vocals, Bobby Harrison on guitar and vocals, Carl Brunsdon on saxophone, percussion and bass, Arran Ahmun on drums, Thomas Ashbrook on keyboards and vocals, plus backing vocalists Ola Bienkowska, Angela Cervantes, Emily Jollands and Jacquie Williams. Darlington's brother, Gareth Darlington, is the sound designer and engineer.

"We never stand still," Darlington says. "We have new video and the light show has grown, as have the animation and inflatables."

Darlington initially had to explain a year ago that his band had not been created as merely a part of a laser show, which had become a routine way of presenting Pink Floyd songs in planetariums and theaters. When Brit Floyd toured in 2013, the band called its show the P-U-L-S-E 2013 tour, or The Pink Floyd Ultimate Light & Sound Experience.

He notes that many new fans have discovered the group thanks to a PBS special, Brit Floyd: Live at Red Rocks, which stations around the country have shown.

"That is a DVD that came out, since that venue, Red Rocks, in Colorado, is quite well known for its acoustics and beauty," he says. "We'll be going back there in June, for our third visit there."

Style on 05/13/2014