When I saw earlier this year Brit Floyd would return to Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, Pa., I decided right away to look for a ticket. Five years ago, the British Pink Floyd tribute band had blown me away at the same venue with incredible renditions of the English rock band’s music and an impressive stage show. As such, I had high hopes. Showtime finally came last Saturday, and once again Brit Floyd delivered the great gig in the sky!
The genius behind Brit Floyd is founder and musical director Damian Darlington, who also provides vocals, guitar and lap steel. Prior to forming the band in Liverpool, England in 2011, Darlington had played for 17 years with long-running Aussie tribute The Australian Pink Floyd Show. According to his bio, between the two tribute groups, he has fronted more than 2,500 live gigs over the past 28 years. That works out to approximately 90 shows per year – an impressive track record!
Doing Pink Floyd’s complex music justice live requires an army of a backing band, and Brit Floyd has many mightily talented artists who are all listed on the group’s website! Apart from Darlington, Saturday’s performing band featured Ian Cattell (vocals, bass), Edo Scordo (guitars, vocals), Matt Riddle (keyboards, synthesizers, Hammond organ, vocals), Randy Cooke (drums, percussion), Ryan Saranich (saxophone, percussion, guitars, bass keyboards), as well as backing vocalists Chess Galea, Genevieve Little and Eva Avila.
In addition to The Division Bell, Brit Floyd mostly drew from Pink Floyd’s ’70s albums, especially The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, as well as Meddle and Animals. They also gave a nod to the Syd Barrett era with Piper at the Gates of Dawn and touched on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which like The Division Bell falls into the band’s late stage after they had parted ways with Roger Waters.
The show included two sets that were divided by a 20-minute intermission, as well as an encore. It all added up to more than 2.5 hours of magnificent live music. As much as I love The Dark Side of the Moon, I would have been okay with fewer tracks from that gem and a few more songs from the Barrett era. But Brit Floyd essentially recreated Pink Floyd’s 1994 final concert tour, The Division Bell Tour, which was captured on Pulse, their third live album released in May 1995.
Time for some music! The band explicitly encouraged taking photos and video, as long as you wouldn’t use flash and would respect the folks around you – to me, both goes without saying! Let’s kick it off with the opener of set 1, Astronomy Domine. Co-written by the brilliant Syd Barrett and Floyd keys man Richard Wright, the instrumental is the first track on the band’s debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn released in August 1967.
While The Division Bell isn’t my favorite, I felt a concert tour that celebrates the 30th anniversary of Floyd’s 14th studio album warranted capturing at least one track. The Division Bell marked their final regular studio project. The Endless River, released in November 2014, features posthumous contributions from Wright who sadly passed away from lung cancer in September 2008 at age 65. High Hopes, composed by Gilmour, features lyrics by English novelist, lyricist and journalist Polly Samson who has been married to Gilmour since 1994. One of the highlights of Brit Floyd’s mighty rendition was Darlington’s lap steel action!
Initially, I had been reluctant to capture Dogs, a 17-minute track. I also didn’t anticipate Brit Floyd would throw in the preceding short Pig On the Wings (Part 1), effectively playing the entire side 1 of Floyd’s January 1977 Animals studio album! My arms felt comfortably numb afterwards, but as a Pink Floyd nut, I thought it was worth it! Both tracks were written by Waters. On Dogs, he was joined by Gilmour on vocals. The Darlington-Edo Scordo harmony guitar action and Matt Riddle’s neat keyboard work were the highlights of Brit Floyd’s great set 1 closer.
Hey you, are you still out there? Cause I just got started! This brings me to the second set. As much as I was tempted to capture the majestic opener Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V), the thought of filming another 10-minute-plus track was a deterrent even to me. Instead, the first song I captured from this set is Hey You, a favorite off The Wall. While I really dug Floyd’s 11th studio album when it came out in November 1979, nowadays, it’s no longer in my top 3, though perhaps still in my top 5. Hey You was solely written by Waters who essentially had taken over the group. Generously, he shared vocal duties with Gilmour on this track.
If I could only pick one Pink Floyd album, it would either be The Dark Side of the Moon or Meddle. The latter foreshadowed the sonic brilliance of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Here. Here’s One of These Days, Meddle’s charging instrumental opener. It was credited to all four members of the band at the time, i.e., Gilmour, Waters, Wright and Mason. Once again, Brit Floyd delivered the goods while Cattell doing a great job playing that pulsating bass part, while Darlington was shing like the sun on lap steel. Be careful, you might get blown away!
I deliberately held back on filming tracks from The Dark Side of the Moon, especially obvious choices like Money or The Great Gig in the Sky. That said, just like in 2019, the latter was a highlight of the night. But I couldn’t entirely ignore this masterpiece, so decided to go with another gem, Us and Them, co-written by Waters and Wright.
Once again, I resisted capturing an audience pleaser and, yes, another highlight of the night, Comfortably Numb, the final song of set 2. But at the last second, I decided to film the encore, Run Like Hell, another track of The Wall. While it’s not among my favorites, I know many other folks dig it, so here you go. Plus, the light show went into interstellar overdrive!
In addition to The Great Gig in the Sky and Comfortably Numb, there would have been many more choices of tracks I could have filmed. If you visit my post about Brit Floyd’s 2019 gig, you can find these two songs and four additional tracks I captured at the time. Of course, you could also simply check Brit Floyd’s YouTube channel, which features many excellent (professional) clips. My only beef is they are 9-plus years old and, as such, capture a largely different band. That said, Damian Darlington has always surrounded himself with top-notch musicians, and earlier lineups of Brit Floyd sounded just as compelling as the current group.
Here’s the setlist from last Saturday:
Set 1:
• Astronomy Domine – The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
• Learning to Fly – A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
• High Hopes – The Division Bell (1994)
• Take It Back – The Division Bell (1994)
• Coming Back to Life – The Division Bell (1994)
• Sorrow – A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
• Keep Talking – The Division Bell (1994)
• Pigs On the Wing (Part 1) & Dogs – Animals (1977)
Set 2:
• Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) – Wish You Were Here (1975)
• Hey You – The Wall (1979)
• Time – The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• Breathe (Reprise) – The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• The Great Gig in the Sky – The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• Wish You Were Here – Wish You Were Here (1975)
• One of These Days – Meddle (1971)
• Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1 – The Wall (1979)
• Us and Them – The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• Money – The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• Comfortably Numb – The Wall (1979)
Encore:
• Run Like Hell – The Wall (1979)
If you dig what you’ve seen and heard and are interested in catching Brit Floyd during the U.S. leg of their current tour, upcoming gigs include Syracuse, N.Y. (tomorrow); Erie, Pa. (March 27); Atlantic City, N.J. (March 29 & 30); Johnstown, Pa. (April 1); and Toledo, Ohio (April 2). The full schedule is here. I’d say, if you dig Floyd, you really can’t go wrong with Brit Floyd.
I’m leaving you with a Spotify playlist capturing all tracks of the show, mostly pulling from the Pulse album to make it as authentic as possible.
Sources: Wikipedia; Brit Floyd website; Setlist.fm; YouTube; Spotify