Music / Reviews
Review: Australian Pink Floyd, Bristol Beacon – ‘Pitch perfect Floyd’
People have tried to write about Pink Floyd’s music for sixty-odd years.
The iconic back catalogue. The lore. The masterful lyricism and sloping, sensuous instrumentals. Which leaves me rather in a pickle, doesn’t it? What combination of words can I feasibly string together that offer a unique take on their genius?
I suppose this review should hinge more on the extraordinary nous of the musicians on stage here.
Six core members and three backing vocalists – a so-called tribute band but so much more than that. After all, how many cover artists embark on fully-fledged world tours?
The infamous visuals of Pink Floyd’s original albums, as created by the band in collaboration with the Hyp-Gnosis agency, have been given a work-over by the Australian tribute act
The Australian Pink Floyd Show has been doing so for decades, and is the closest you can get to seeing the real McCoy live.
It’s actually the third time I’ve seen this lot, and they never drop the ball.
We start with Wish You Were Here in its entirety. Quite naturally, too, given the show marks that album’s 50th anniversary.
Nothing says ‘a band at the peak of its powers’ like spending the first four minutes hanging on the captivating drone of a few organ notes and the languid noodling of a guitar. Then those four wonderful notes get the ball rolling in earnest.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond is an ethereal, emotive masterpiece. Every part of it. It’s an opus that bookends the record.
David Parsons is on keys; he ushers us in and fades us out. The synths are spectacular, as is the slide guitar on Pts 6-9 – another string to the impressive bow of Luc Ledy-Lepine. He and David Domminney Fowler trade Gilmour’s mesmerising solos with absurd aplomb.
The rest of the record is fascinating, somehow combining tenderness and tedium in a coherent body of work. Welcome to the Machine is a glitchy, fuzzy track with themes prescient of the politically charged Animals.
And so outrageous is their canon that Have a Cigar feels criminally underrated. “The band is just fantastic that is really what I think. Oh by the way… which one’s Pink?” captures the sort of alienation that Roger Waters’ lyricism lays bare across The Wall.
Then, as a sort of antidote to those heady directions, there’s the mournful, yearning tone of Wish You Were Here, which principal vocalist Chris Barnes delivers beautifully.
A picture of Syd Barrett appears beyond the band – a quiet, poignant moment amid the spectacle.
The band’s take on the classics pays warm tribute to the original music and the minds behind it
Another Brick in the Wall is perfection. Enough said on that. After the interval, Time and Money maintain the pulse, the latter bolstered by sublime saxophone work from Alex Francois.
It’s an elysium of an evening out, seeing these folks perform. The Great Gig in the Sky always manages to choke me up a little. Here, the three astonishing backing singers step forth and nail every note, from the soaring highs to the lamenting lows.
There are a few from The Division Bell thrown in for good measure. Thrashy and reverby to slight excess, perhaps, but the Gilmour brainchild of Coming Back to Life is a lovely turn, making up for its more literal lyrics with exemplary guitar work.
Suffice to say that Paul Bonney on drums is basically Nick Mason with a bucket hat, and Rick Howard – the band’s bassist – takes on Gilmour’s deeper register turns with warmth and gravitas.
View this post on Instagram
The performance deserves more energy than an all-seated affair allows, but the incessant bounce of One of These Days gets the blood pumping.
It’s ripe ground for the band’s staple inflatable kangaroo, and the spectacle ramps up from there: lasers slicing through a mist of haze, a giant mirrored disco ball scattering light across the hall.
They finish with the two big hitters from The Wall – Run Like Hell and Comfortably Numb. Applause rings out, trying in vain to pierce sound so loud it thuds through your ribs.
Yeah, few bands have come close to Pink Floyd at their zenith. An evening with the Australian Pink Floyd Show allows us to relive the mastery and bask in it once more. What an honour.
All images: Sam Fletcher
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
