The Spirit Of Pink Floyd

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
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This is HullandEastRiding

Nobody could have faulted the ambition of Pink Floyd.

With Dark Side Of The Moon, the progressive rock band compressed an entire life-span onto a single album – from the sound of a heartbeat inside the womb to death.

"In Dark Side Of The Moon, every song was a story in itself – but if you'd removed any one of them, the album would not have worked in the same way," said Dave Cottrell, the drummer with The Spirit Of Pink Floyd Show.

"It was like a movie in the way that it flowed, in that each track helped to create a story."

The Brighton-based drummer – together with eight fellow musicians – brings the sound of Floyd to Hull City Hall this Saturday.

Together with tracks from the progressive rocker's best known – and biggest selling – album, this tribute band moves from the psychedelic strangeness of Floyd's late '60s work through to more obscure songs from their 1983 album The Final Cut.

And alongside the music is a Floyd-style light show.

Formed from two existing tribute bands, The Spirit Of Pink Floyd Show aims to offer "something different" to the 40 or so Floyd imitators reckoned to operate in Britain alone.

"It was about the way that some of us felt the tribute band market was going," said Dave.

"We felt we needed to set ourselves apart by doing a bigger show, with all the lights and lasers.

"If you're doing a Police tribute show, it's just about the music. With Pink Floyd, it's about all those visual aspects as well."

Alongside the use of lasers is a screen which shows animated films and photo stills of the original band.

And at the back of the stage, busily plugging away, Dave says he remains fascinated by the atmosphere the music creates.

"The drumming is not technically demanding, in the way that heavy metal is – which is like doing a work-out at the gym," he said.

"But it is about creating a feel. Every time I listen to Pink Floyd's music, I hear something new.

"I've probably done 800 concerts over the past five years, and each time you play, you try and pick out something different – it might be something as simple as the use of a cymbal in one particular bar, but it can change the whole feel of the song."

This attention to detail was something shown recently, during the band's first trip to Japan.

"The audiences were incredibly attentive," he said.

"They listen to everything. While you are playing it is silent, then once the final note is finished they applaud."

And while his own childhood listening was more informed by the "classic rock" of his dad's record collection, including Led Zeppelin, he said Pink Floyd remained endlessly fascinating.

"Once you get into them, you start to realise how huge their influence has been on other bands," he said.

"They changed forever what an album could be."

* The Spirit Of Pink Floyd Show is on Saturday, 7.30pm, at Hull City Hall, Queen Victoria Square, Hull. Tickets are £18-£20, call (01482) 226655

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12 Comments

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by east hull tiger, holderness road

    Sunday, December 06 2009, 11:22PM

    “For God's sake I apologise, they really are feeble, and so am I”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Easthulltiger, Holderness Rd

    Sunday, December 06 2009, 5:16PM

    “WTF ................With the exception of "Dark side of the moon" their output has been utterly contemptible excrement of the very worst self-indulgent kind, and they are the most grossly over-rated band ever to waste our time. ????? WHAT PLANET OR DRUGS ARE YOU ON!!!!!!!!!! GET ON YA TV ELSE Y'LL MISS XFACTOR!! HOW DID THE EBAY BID FOR FOR THE CLIFF RICHARD BOXED SET GO??? GET A GRIP MATE.........”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Your opinion is nonsensical twaddle, Get a grip there Poindexter

    Friday, December 04 2009, 3:43PM

    “Your opinion is mere mashed potatoes”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by My opinion is, Better than your opinion.

    Friday, December 04 2009, 1:38PM

    “An opinion is a belief that cannot be proved with evidence. It is a subjective statement and may be the result of an emotion or an interpretation of facts; people may draw opposing opinions from the same facts. An opinion is neither right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of said subject.”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Grow up you pathetic idiots, Pink Floyd were and still are rubbish

    Thursday, December 03 2009, 11:28PM

    “I was conned as a schoolboy in to buying thie drivel. Roger Barrett's songs were great, but the other four tur'ds were talentless. It took them three albums before they came up with "Dark side of the Moon ". Who goes to a Floyd concert expecting to hear their fave from Atom Heart Mother, Umma, Gumma, or Meddle? That crap should have buried them without trace”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by trevor, hull east

    Thursday, December 03 2009, 8:08AM

    “it's good to see that not every one follows blindly with every new album that comes out just hailing whatever rubbish they bring out as" brilliant" and that Nick mason, he's the luckiest drummer after ringo,”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Its not true what they, said about the lump fish

    Wednesday, December 02 2009, 11:31PM

    “It's inadvisable to accept freshly cooked jam tarts whilst absent-mindedly watching mid-saturday afternoon wrestling during the early seventies, gum, and upper soft palate injuries may ensue”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Pasta Spirals, The Royal Mail 1972

    Wednesday, December 02 2009, 11:25PM

    “Trevor A-la-Brazznicks (for I know that to be his Lithuanian moniker) is absolutely accurate in his opinion apropos this tribute band's subject. Pink Floyd had a real and credible talent in Syd Barrett. He left in January 1968, and it took them five years to produce anything anyone wanted to listen to. With the exception of "Dark side of the moon" their output has been utterly contemptible excrement of the very worst self-indulgent kind, and they are the most grossly over-rated band ever to waste our time. They're even worse than that puerile bunch of geriatrics called Stikky Fingers, The Rolling Stones? Pah what chancers”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by trevor, hull vest

    Wednesday, December 02 2009, 11:16PM

    “And another thing, I don't like Clive, or his stupid wife (who's as thick as porcine faeces, and looks like popeye), or his stupid kids, God know's what planet they came from, and anyway a tablestone of Hay”

  • Profile image for This is HullandEastRiding

    by Paul, Hull

    Wednesday, December 02 2009, 8:48PM

    “Looking forward to another brilliant concert!, watched them in Grimsby earlier in the year. Probably the best Pink Floyd tribute band around. Well worth going to see.”

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