Saturday morning I had no idea that I was going to be at a gig that evening. I got a message from a mate to say he had a spare ticket for The Australian Pink Floyd. Happy days, drove to his place in Plymouth and we went to the Pavilions with two of his friends.
We were sat almost at the back in the penultimate tier, but the view was good. The sound has improved so much at the venue, and we weren’t disappointed.
The tour is billed as The Darkside 50 tour, and unsurprisingly the band started with the album. Yep start to finish. So started with Speak to Me and straight into Breathe. We were up and running!
The instrumental On the Run followed, with graphics on the screen and kookaburra sounds! Time then followed on. Of course if you know the album, you’ll know that The Great Gig in the Sky - another instrumental, follows Time. The track’s lead instrument is the vocals of the female backing singers. They absolutely nailed it. One of the best versions I’ve heard. Outstanding.
Money follows, with that recognisable bass riff, then the gorgeous Us and Them. This is probably my favourite track on the album. They absolutely delivered it. Any Colour You Like was next, another instrumental, before Brain Damage (with some interesting graphics!), and Eclipse finished the album off.
Got to be honest, I like the album but do like to hear different tracks, but I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of it this evening.
With Dark Side done, we were greeted by the band. Quite a long intro to a gig! We had two more tracks to finish the first set. The wonderful On the Turning Away off Momentry Lapse of Reason was next. This is a high quality track that deserves to be played more. So pleased they played it tonight, and the version was excellent.
The first set concluded with a visit to The Wall with The Happiest Days of their lives / Another Brick in the Wall pt2, (complete with inflatable teacher!)
Set 2 began with In the Flesh again from The Wall, with a touch of integrated Waltzing Matilda! We then went old school with a brilliant version of See Emily Play. It was now time to focus another album, my favourite, Wish You Were Here. Shine on You Crazy Diamond was followed by Welcome to the Machine. We then had an Aussie interlude with mini clips from Neighbours, Skippy, Crocodile Dundee, ACDC, and Men at Work before going into Wish You Were Here. The guitarist had issues during Machine, so played it on his Strat. It worked well.
The wonderful High Hopes followed with the only dig into Animals with Pigs following that. One of These Days and Run Like Hell finished the second set.
The band returned to do an encore with the usual ending - Comfortably Numb. They absolutely rocked it and with the lighting, lasers and huge mirror ball, was a brilliant ending.
Actually the effects and light show was superb throughout.
Another quality gig, with a good Setlist. These guys are the business, and I hope to see them for a 4th time in the future.