The Spirit 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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