As we have to do without backing vocalist Katie today, the bartender plays “Great Gig In The Sky” from Pink Fraud’s CD “Darker Than The Moon”, their rendition of The Dark Side. It made me wonder why they would want to make a CD though; as their goal appears to be to get as close to the original as possible, why would you want to play their CD instead of the real stuff? It’s probably to get gigs I guess, and indeed it’s impressive to hear how close they get…

And then the real band start, with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. Excellent sound, nice and deep guitar and excellent drumming, which surprised me as shortly before the drummer looked as if he was about to fall asleep… is it just the way he looks or has he consumed a bit too much of Holland’s national vegetable? Whichever is the case, his drumming is excellent. Funny detail: in “Pompeii” Floyd drummer Nick Mason had a double bass, so this drummer has a double bass too. But only one bass drum is amplified, the other only serves as decoration… The guitar succeeds in playing the sax parts quite well.

Next is “Atom Heart Mother”. With the projections and the sound the band succeed in creating a seventies atmosphere, that makes you feel as if you are in a bar somewhere in London in ‘75 where some local band called Pink Floyd is doing a gig…I need a joint. Oh no, I’m working. Oh well, who needs drugs when you have music… it’s enchanting enough in itself. The band really get into it now, especially “Dave” (Pete Heyward, the guitar player, with wig) gives it all.

“Echoes” is played in the Pompeii version instead of the studio one, which is not too surprising, as Pompeii appears to be one of the main inspirations of this band. Well, could you have better inspiration than this legendary concert? As Pete says after “One Of These Days”, when the crowd is cheering the band: “Thank Roger, Dave, Nick and Richard. It’s theirs, not ours.”

After a short break it’s time for “Embryo”, illustrated with a Unilever picture about pigs and sheep, and of course “Sheep” comes afterwards. Close scrutiny by some fans, who comment on every detail: the big disadvantage of being a cover band; every note you play is compared to the original. In this case we miss the driving bass and the second guitar. But still, I’ve never heard a cover band play a better version of “Sheep”, which is an extraordinarily hard song… but has one of my favourite bass lines.

Time for The Dark Side, except for “The Great Gig In The Sky” of course, excellent rendition, you can hear this is their main focus. Even the keyboard player sings his part in “Time”, as is the case in the original. The audience is happy, singing along and laughing at the right time during “Brain Damage”. Then, the first part of my favourite album, The Wall’s “In The Flesh?” sounds, followed by its successors up to and including “Goodbye Blue Sky”

The band want to leave, but of course are called back to play “Comfortably Numb”, The Wall’s great guitarist’s wet dream, originally not written for the Wall but for “David Gilmour”, and therefore the one song in which David could put some of his own ideas. Nicely sung by Pete and bassist Phil, who by the way looks way too good to make me concentrate on the parts he plays. How am I ever going to know how to play Floyd if I’m constantly distracted by handsome musicians? The solo is not done badly at all… And the final encore is of course Wish You Were Here, sung very well and with a lot of feeling.

All in all, a great show for the Floyd fans. The intimate feel of a bar gig with a very satisfying performance of the Floyd songs by only four guys, excellent job.

For those of you who long for another Floyd experience, I can definitely recommend the shows of Pink Noise (check our agenda for dates), who concentrate on performing The Wall in its entirety.

Oh well, the great masters themselves no longer do it, but as long as there are young people who work very hard to keep the Floyd spirit alive, the music will remain alive and well, and who knows, if David’s money might ever run out…

Pictures taken from the band`s website, www.pinkfraud.co.uk

(Review & Pics: Tressy Arts)