Brit Floyd band member Damian Darlingon chats to reviewer Richard Ely ahead of forthcoming UK tour of Brit Floyd - the UK's foremost Pink Floyd tribute band.
RE: Damian, can I begin by asking you what first drew you to Pink Floyd?
DD: I was twelve when I first discovered The Wall album. I was instantly drawn to it, just fascinated by this album - just to look at, the cover, opening up the gate sleeve to see all those Gerald Scarfe illustrations inside; and then, the music itself - I was fascinated by the music, the story, the guitar-playing, because I’d already started playing guitar by that point. I was particularly drawn to David Gilmour’s guitar-work.
RE: And David Gilmour is someone you have actually played in froth of, is that right?
DD: I played at his 50th birthday party! And I did actually get to play with Rick Wright, the original Pink Floyd keyboard-player, who has since sadly passed away. I got to play guitar on Comfortably Numb alongside Rick on Hammond organ!
RE: I did hear once - this is probably just an urban legend - that David Gilmour cannot play barre chords! I must admit that made me feel great, because I can’t play barre chords, either!
DD (laughs): I really don’t know where that rumour originated, because I can guarantee he certainly can play barre chords!
RE: They’re real, then? He’s not cheating them?
DD: You can’t get to the level of guitar-playing that David Gilmour does without being able to play barre chords. Who knows where that rumour came from?!?
RE: I understand what draws a lot of people to Pink Floyd: I think the cover art is very seductive and the concepts are very seductive, too. After Dark Side Of The Moon, every album they released had a storyline, didn’t it?
DD: Yes, definitely. Roger Waters certainly seemed to have a story to tell, many stories over the years and stories and the imagery conjured up by his lyrics are a very important part of the appeal of Pink Floyd.
RE: One of the objections that’s sometimes made to the Roger Waters era of Pink Floyd in particular is that the subject matter is relentlessly morbid and depressing. Do you have an opinion on that?
DD: I prefer ‘intense’ to ‘depressing’. I don’t think something can be compelling without being intense. If it’s a case of good news versus bad news, people seem to be more interested in bad news when it comes to reading the papers. I think if Pink Floyd had been all happy songs or love songs, they wouldn’t have had anything like the impact that they did. What makes Pink Floyd compelling is Roger Waters exploring the darker side of what’s out there.
RE: True! There aren’t that many straightforward love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue, are there- even if you go back to the Syd Barrett era?
DD: The only straight love song I can think of is one off the Division Bell album, ‘Coming Back To Life’ - and, of course, that’s very much a David Gilmour-penned song.
RE: Before we move on to talk about the current tour, do you have a particular favourite era of Pink Floyd?
DD: I go back to The Wall album: as that was my introduction, it’s stayed with me, though I enjoy all eras. It’s not like Animals, Wish You Were Here or Dark Side Of The Moon are distant seconds. I also very much like The Final Cut album - partly because that was the album that was released just after I’d discovered Pink Floyd music, so I was ready for it. It was a brand new Pink Floyd album to get all excited about!
RE: And that has led to a career in a tribute band. Is ‘tribute band’ a term you disparage?
DD: No-one yet has come up with a better term! It’s what we’ve got to describe the type of thing my band does.
RE: Pink Floyd didn’t have much of a visual identity - on stage, they were dwarfed by the lighting show and the effects. Does this make it easier for you, as you’re not under pressure to ‘look like’ the band members?
DD: Certainly there’s no pressure on us to put wigs on, or wear particular costumes, the sort of things you’re more likely to find with a Beatles tribute, or an Abba or Queen tribute. You don’t have that with Pink Floyd - they were quite an anonymous group. Only the Meddle album actually had a band picture on! To me, the persona of the band is the show itself rather than ourselves as individual musicians on stage - it’s the light-screen, it’s the scale of the show - having lasers, having an inflatable pig (if you can fit it in the venue!).
RE: Your current tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of The Wall. Can you describe what the show is going to be like for those coming to see it?
DD: We’re certainly celebrating that anniversary. We’re not going to play the entire album but we’re certainly playing a large chunk of it in the set-list. The Wall tracks will be interspersed with plenty of other tracks from the other albums, so there’s plenty for Floyd fans if The Wall isn’t their favourite album! We’ll be playing for over two and a half hours, which is a standard thing we do, it gives us plenty of opportunity to play large parts of the catalogue in a set-list of that length! And it’s accompanied by a spectacular lighting show. We have a specially-produced video throughout the show to accompany the songs. And it’s a nine-piece band up there on stage, who can play any era of Pink Floyd’s music.
RE: So, you’re running the gamut from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn up to….?
DD: …The Division Bell in 1994. We have played tracks off The Endless River (the final Pink Floyd album, released in 2014 but featuring music recorded much earlier), but The Division Bell is usually regarded as the cut-off point where Pink Floyd is concerned.
RE: How difficult is it to achieve an authentic, faithful sound when playing in a tribute band?
DD: It’s a challenge! It’s one thing to learn the song, and obviously there’s a lot of hard work and skill involved in learning the notes but, over and above that, you’ve got to get the Floyd ‘feel’, which is much harder to achieve. Floyd were such pioneers in the recording studio, using the latest gadgets and effects that were available at a time - and recreating the Pink Floyd sound from every era of the band is not the easiest thing to do! It takes a lot of effort, some research - checking what gear was used - and then just listening very carefully, trying to recreate every nuance of the original song.
RE: Would you say you now know The Wall album so well that you could just get up and play it at the drop of a hat?
DD: Well, there are times when I need a reminder! My brain doesn’t retain information in quite the same way it did, but it doesn’t take long for it all to come back. I’ve played every track off The Wall over the years and, probably, most tracks from the entire Pink Floyd catalogue. We must have done 85% of their output over the years - that’s 15 studio albums!
RE: Where does touring normally take you to?
DD: We do a lot in the States and Canada every year - that’s probably our biggest market. But the new tour will be starting 28th February in Liverpool and we have 15 UK dates this year, before we go off to America.
RE: I suppose one of the most crucial things about being in a band is the chemistry between the band members. How important would you say chemistry is towards creating a sound?
DD: Obviously, it’s important. If you think about a band like ours, which basically recreates another band’s music: it would be easy to just get up on stage and regurgitate your individual parts in a very robotic way, but that wouldn’t be very entertaining. I think people want to see a real band up there on stage - they want to hear all the drum-fills and all the guitar solos in all the right places but, nevertheless, they want to feel that it’s a real band performing all this music for them. In order to do that, we have to gel as musicians - there has to be chemistry between us on stage and the audience can recognise that.
RE: And how long would you rehearse for for a tour like this?
DD: Not that long, really! As individuals, we’ll look at certain parts, but as a band, it’s usually about a week. We’ve been doing this for quite some time, so we can slip back into it fairly easily. Obviously, if there are some new songs being brought into the set, or things we haven’t done for a long time, those are what we have to concentrate on, but it doesn’t take us that long to do it, really.
RE: Is it possible to rehearse by conference call these days?
DD: I think there’d be issues with delays there - it might be difficult to have a nine-piece band rehearsing by conference call!
RE: Are you all based in Britain, or are you scattered around the globe?
DD: We’re all over the place! A fair few of the band are in the UK, but we have a number of Americans, we have an Italian guitarist, we have a Canadian backing vocalist, we’ve had Polish singers, Spanish singers, Brazilian singers performing with us before, so, yes, all over the globe.
RE: And, once you’ve finished a tour, how do you wind down?
DD: It’s just good to get home and not live out of a suitcase on a day to day basis: you get to be at home and to see your family. That’s the best way to unwind, in my opinion!
Interviewer - Richard Ely
on - 6/2/19
Interesting interview. Thanks :)
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