Peter Viney's Blog

The Australian Pink Floyd Show

All That You Love Tour

Bournemouth International Centre
Saturday 7th December 2019, 19.30

BAND
Steve Mac – guitar, vocal
Paul Bonney- drums
Ricky Howard – bass, vocals
Jason Sawford -keyboards
Chris Barnes – vocals
David Domminney Fowler- guitar, vocals
Mike Kidson – saxophone
Lorelei McBroom – vocals
Lara Smiles – vocals
Emily Lynn – vocals

SET LIST

Obscured by Clouds
When You’re In
In The Flesh?
The Thin Ice
Another Brick In The Wall Pt 1
Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2
Another Brick In The Wall Pt 3
Welcome To The Machine
Wish You Were Here
The Great Gig In The Sky
Money
Brain Damage
Eclipse

interval

Sine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1 – V
Learning To Fly
Cymbaline
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Time
One Of These Days
Run Like Hell

encore

Comfortably Numb

I’m coming round to tribute bands. In this case we have a tribute band that played at David Gilmour’s party. This band (or rather “show”) has been around since 1988 … thirty one years. They’ve got the merchandising well worked out by now. Loads of T-shirts.

Some musicians get incensed by tribute bands, others embrace them for keeping the material alive when they’re too (old / tired / bored / rich / stoned / senile / vocally challenged / arthritic) to go out and play the songs themselves. Carole King had the cast of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical join her on stage at Hyde Park. The sensible attitude, I think.

Pink Floyd are especially suitable for tributes. They don’t have a “signature singer” with an instantly recognizable voice, and most of the time it’s instrumental, therefore good musicians can reproduce it exactly. Also, they don’t have to act out the roles like The Bootleg Beatles do, because (sorry, guys) the originals’ personalities are not the major draw. Not here either. A lead vocalist who sits on a stool lacks a certain  … anything.

I saw The Symphonic Pink Floyd just three Saturdays ago with a cast of nearly two hundred and much of the same material. The same night, a different Pink Floyd tribute band. The UK Pink Floyd Experience,  was playing The Tivoli, Wimborne. Next May, the same venue hosts The Floyd Effect. The same month The Dark Side of Pink Floyd are also on tour.

I don’t count myself as a major Floyd fan. I bought See Emily Play and Arnold Layne though. I saw the originals back in the 60s, in the Syd Barrett era, and have zero recall. My only diary note is “crap.” I pontificated I’m sure that of the bands I saw that year, Spooky Tooth, The Alan Bown Set and Simon Dupree & The Big Sound would be the ones who would be stars in decades to come.  Definitely neither Pink Floyd or Fleetwood Mac (diary note “boring.”) would make it, I thought. Right. So my opinion was pretty worthless then! (But actually Spooky Tooth was the best of the lot).

I remember the blobs of oils light show though. The most important thing about early Pink Floyd was always the light show. Exactly the same tonight.

To me The Australian Pink Floyd Show was accomplished, very well-played but it was also sterile. Because of the lights and projection and inflatables (teacher, kangaroo and pig) the show must be tightly fixed. As one song leads into another, devoid of intros or banter, much like the albums, my mind hears a click track running right through for the musicians locking the tempos and lighting inexorably. The Bootleg Beatles change the set slightly from night to night. These guys definitely don’t … indeed, definitely can’t.

It was loud, impressive. For the BIC balcony, sound was very good.  I loved Ricky Howard’s chunky metallic bass sound. I didn’t love the cliched drum sound. In the end, there was none of the TRULY live feel of other recent shows … obviously the palmer james group, and P.P. Arnold and Van Morrison. Those all felt “live.” Even though the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra were reading, so playing to the sheet music in The Symphonic Pink Floyd, they were truly live. It never felt cemented to a pre-set click track.

The Australian Pink Floyd Show at least ventured beyond the tribute band album trio: Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. 

They started with Obscured By Clouds, the stage indeed obscured with a gauze surround with their shadows cast on it by the lighting. They went right on with track two from the album, When You’re In. Funny, I saw the 1972 Obscured By Clouds album secondhand earlier in the day. An unusual one. £14.95. I regret not buying it.

In The Flesh? was the first selection from The Wall. When it continued into The Thin Ice then Another Brick In The Wall Part 1 I wondered if they were going to work right on through the album, but no, they carried on with Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 and Part 3.

Welcome To The Machine from Wish You Were Here was a particularly strong number (but then it’s my favourite album). I liked the projected images of “Dotify” royalty statements … i.e. nothing, just as with Spotify.

Wish You Were Here (I think)

They stuck with the album and went on to the title track Wish You Were Here. Again a very strong song, and rendition. It started out with 12 string acoustic guitar, then they both switched to six string acoustics. The vocal was excellent.

The Great Gig In The Sky was the first one from Dark Side of The Moon. The backing singers came into their own with magnificent (apparent) scat singing, shared between two of the vocalists in turn.

Money had the expected images and we were sticking with Dark Side and Roger Waters compositions through to the interval. I’d been wondering where the sax player, Mike Kidson was. He marched on at the exact picture of a saxophone on the screen, walked forward and gave a blistering solo. Then marched off. One minute. Done for the first half. You have to wonder if he gets paid the same as the other band members! He got another minute in the second half.

Money

I’m never sure where Brain Damage stops and Eclipse starts, but as I pointed out in the review of The Symphonic Pink Floyd, you always played a whole side of Dark Side of The Moon, not selected tracks. The projected collage was footage of politicians. I noted that while there were a few ‘boos’ at Boris and Trump, the main reaction was laughter. When Rees-Mogg appeared, the reaction was only booing and at a much louder level. It echoes my opinion, but they should have had Corbyn in there, intercut with the Queen’s Speech perhaps.

The backing singers at last …

The interval – huge queues for the gents (as with King Crimson), the ladies free to walk straight in. The queues were so long for the gents that in spite of finishing my bottle of water in the first half, I decided to sit and think of England in the second half. Even with a minute to go there were thirty or forty guys in line.

The lights …

Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V took us back to my favourite Wish You Were Here. As in the previous review, my mind goes back to a microlight aerial ballet at an air show. Projected photo of Syd Barrett to end it obviously. (That ‘obviously’ reads two ways).

Learning To Fly is from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and was also done in the Symphonic concert three weeks ago.

Cymbaline I didn’t even recognize (but Set List com shows the set doesn’t change). It’s from 1969’s Soundtrack from the film More. Unusually early. The stage was in deep orange lighting.

Careful With That Axe, Eugene. Way back in time to my era! It was originally a B-side to Point Me At The Sky 45 in 1968. They re-did it for Zabriskie Point with a new title, then it featured on compilations Relics and Echoes and live on Ummagumma. A memory. Helping Blossom Toes in with their gear at Hull (we had mutual friends), ‘Can you take the axe, man?’ I was looking round for a large chopper (and wondering why they needed one)  when I realized he meant ‘guitar.’ Blossom Toes at that point were  better live than Pink Floyd too.

Pigs (Three Different Ones) is from Animals (1977), another Roger Waters song, one they liked to extend live. It was very long here.

Time is back to Dark Side Of The Moon. It was especially good opening the Symphonic Pink Floyd show, without vocals. This was as Pink Floyd did it.

Lights … and inflatables too. A kangaroo of course

One Of These Days opened Meddle in 1971. I’m getting impressed at the scope of their view of the catalogue. It sits on the bass guitar and we got close ups of Ricky Howard’s hands too – I assume recorded.

Run Like Hell is very strong, as featured on The Wall. We got the pig inflatable emerging at the side. Noticeably, in Run Like Hell, lead vocalist Chris Barnes was exhorting us to clap along from his relaxed seated position. It doesn’t work. At least the three female backing singers were jumping around and really getting into it. Good for them. The guys were wooden. To say they are charisma-lite is an understatement. Then, mainly Pink Floyd were uncharismatic apart from Roger Waters. That’s not what they do.

Comfortably Numb

The encore was Comfortably Numb from The Wall, sang again from that seat, though this time at least he had the excuse of playing guitar. It’s not as if the guy can’t walk. In previous songs I was amazed at his long slow walk off into the wings when not needed, followed by a long walk back on one minute or so later. Most of us would have stayed there.

Though the Australian Pink Floyd WERE live, I reckon they could have mimed to a recorded backing and we wouldn’t have known any different. Yes, it’s all about the music. The light show is state of the art.  Nevertheless, I was somewhat under-whelmed. If you’re a Pink Floyd fan, they’re fantastic. I suspect that given the straitjacket that the elaborate pre-programmed lighting imposes, I’d have felt much the same if the real Pink Floyd were up there.

SEE ALSO:
The Symphonic Pink Floyd, November 2019