Brit Floyd – The Pink Floyd Tribute Show
Tuesday, 5 Nov. 2024, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Ljubljana / Mala dvorana Hale Tivoli / Slovenia
Brit Floyd are the greatest tribute act on the planet to the mighty Pink Floyd! So good, in fact, that even the grumbling old curmudgeon who stands as one of the two authors behind this piece — and who has always had a frosty relationship with tribute bands — dragged himself out on an adventure to Ljubljana’s Hala Tivoli that day. It was also wonderful to relive those youthful days, full of innocence and big dreams! Especially when the memories carried me all the way back to the hot summer of 1994. More precisely, to Munich, and August 4, 1994, when Pink Floyd played one of their concerts on what turned out to be their last-ever tour — The Division Bell. A concert you never forget! And 30 years later, here are Brit Floyd, whose reputation as the best approximation of Pink Floyd in our galaxy is no idle boast. Brit Floyd dedicated this particular tour to the memory of The Division Bell, released 30 years ago. Worth noting that they ran a similarly themed tour in 2013, when they also brought it to Hala Tivoli; all told, this was the fifth visit from this globally celebrated tribute act to our shores. They played Ljubljana in 2012, 2015, and 2018 as well. Always in November.
The actual playing time matched that of Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell tour: two hours and forty minutes. With the 20-minute intermission, the whole thing clocked in at exactly as long as the Pink Floyd concert in 1994 — three hours, that is. Just with a slightly reshuffled setlist and a few surprises that turned out to be a brilliant addition to the evening.
Brit Floyd kicked off at Hala Tivoli at half past seven in the evening! An unbelievably early start. The frantic scramble for parking spots outside Hala Tivoli remains, even in 2024, a beloved piece of Ljubljana folklore. Though I can’t quite remember my last visit to Hala Tivoli…. Was it actually Morrissey on October 10, 2014? Ten years ago! And yet they vanished in a flash — like a finger snap. Everything is still exactly where it should be. A basketball arena! Stage set lengthways, facing the western stand. That “halved” space filled up nicely — around 3,000 people, give or take. And they had plenty to see and hear. Without a doubt.
Brit Floyd have long been driven by their engine — the brilliant guitarist, vocalist, and artistic director Damian Darlington — flanked by vocalist and guitarist Edo Scordo, and third vocalist and bassist Ian Cattell! Then there’s keyboardist, Hammond organist, and backing vocalist Matt Riddle, saxophonist, percussionist, backing vocalist, and occasional bassist and guitarist Ryan Saranich, drummer Randy Cooke, and three backing vocalists Jessie Lee Houiler, Genevieve Little, and Chess Galea.
Since their formation in 2011, Brit Floyd have been diligently and persistently investing in their stage setup, continuously upgrading it year after year. With that, the scale and artistic reach of their shows has grown — all in pursuit of the original, of course! Today there is truly nothing to fault them on, and Pink Floyd can only be proud to have a tribute act that genuinely matches their enormous contribution to rock music. Every detail is studied to the dot. There’s that iconic circle of spotlights at the center, and projections that hit hard as they visually amplify the poetry and the message of the lyrics! The lighting is, naturally, combined with volleys of lasers darting back and forth throughout the show.
Executionally there’s not a single slip-up either. All three lead singers have clearly divided roles that are incredibly well-matched to the nature of the original compositions — or sections of them — where they must take center stage. All three can step into the role of Waters or Gilmour at any moment, with bassist Ian Cattell’s voice coming particularly close to Gilmour’s original. The band has taken their perfectionism so far that they perform on stage the additional guitar lines recorded in the studio originals and additional vocal parts that would be impossible for a quartet like Pink Floyd — unless you resort to pre-recorded tracks. When the three backing vocalists and the rest of the instrumentalists join in on the harmonies alongside the lead male vocals, the result is so breathtakingly convincing that you could easily mistake it for the originals.
Before the show began, the hall was filled with sounds identical to those Pink Floyd used on The Division Bell tour — sounds taken from a rainforest: croaking frogs, the rush of heavy rainfall, and the like. The band opened with Astronomy Domine. The intro briefly dipped into Pink Floyd’s psychedelic era before jumping forward to the post-Waters years as the rousing Learning To Fly followed. Exactly as The Division Bell tour played out 30 years ago. And then there it was — the deeply moving Pink Floyd requiem called High Hopes. That fascinating, timeless tombstone that Pink Floyd erected at the tail end of The Division Bell, which with its yearning melancholy and magic literally knocks you off your feet. Right from the off, Brit Floyd impressed with the incredible flexibility of all three lead vocalists, the brilliantly crafted division of guitar solos, and the interplay between both guitarists — with Damian Darlington’s pedal steel solo in the bombastic closing stretch of the epic High Hopes writing its own chapter entirely. The synchronicity is top-notch; you can feel how much this band has played together. Nothing escapes them. The sound in the hall was excellent that evening too! People in a hypnotic trance. Frozen. Rapturous applause, naturally. Brit Floyd effortlessly stirred up passions and emotions, backed by the tremendous nostalgia that ties us all to the mighty Pink Floyd. The only The Division Bell classic from the original tour that the band dropped was What Do You Want From Me.
Even their gear replicates David Gilmour’s original guitars, and the performance justifies every bit of it. The first set was effectively dedicated to Pink Floyd’s post-Waters era — the last two albums (Sorrow delivered one hell of a highlight too). For the second set, the band held back just one track from The Division Bell album: A Great Day For Freedom. The minutes flew by like seconds, and the undisputed highlight of the first set was the Animals epic Dogs — a brilliant setlist surprise — performed in its entirety, with Brit Floyd teasing the crowd with Pigs On The Wing (Pt. 1) as an intro, as that fantastic, slightly overlooked Pink Floyd album demands. Dogs was the clearest example of the perfection Brit Floyd hold themselves to. Most of the layered guitars audible to the untrained ear in the original are performed live using both guitars, and the same goes for the vocals, which blend and interweave on the studio version. Whatever Darlington and Cattell couldn’t cover, the backing vocalists’ harmonies filled in. Masterful! Meticulous to a fault. And of course, the Gilmouresque reinterpretation — from the solos to the guitar tone itself, chasing the original to the letter — repeatedly steals the lion’s share of the attention and wonder!
Then the 20-minute intermission. The second set opened at least at the level of the supremely vibrant closing stretch of the first — with Shine On You Crazy Diamond, where the opening guitar solo belonged entirely to Edo Scordo. It was also the first time that night Ryan Saranich properly stretched his lungs, combining tenor and alto saxophone (these classics are simply unimaginable without a sax). Apart from one excursion into Pink Floyd’s early era — the wound-up The Meddle classic One Of These Days — the band in the second set alternated mostly between The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon, with the obligatory Wish You Were Here woven in, where Darlington once again showed everything he’s made of. The setlist largely mirrored Pink Floyd’s setlist from thirty years ago. The central female vocal role in The Great Gig In The Sky fell to Jessie Lee Houiler, who nailed this demanding task and delivered one of the evening’s highlights in the second set. The softness and the shifting moods were especially masterfully absorbed within Us And Them, with brilliantly rehearsed vocal harmonies in the chorus! Then of course came Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 and Money, and for the grand finale, the always eagerly anticipated The Wall classic Comfortably Numb. For it, Cattell put on a doctor’s coat and worked on building the dramatic theatre on stage, theatrically attempting to revive the “human shell surrounded by bricks” sitting on a chair — representing the central character of the concept, that is, Floyd, who has been carried off by drugs into another world. Saranich stepped in on bass, while Darlington absolutely killed it with one of the most powerful Gilmour solos in the entire rock and roll era, adding a few spices of his own in the theatrical finale. An exceptional end to the main set.
And for the encore, Run Like Hell — explosive, backed by generous light effects, bulldozing everything in its path! There’s nothing more to add. Except that we’ll be coming back to Brit Floyd shows from now on — every single time they roll into Ljubljana. Once you’ve seen them once, attending their concerts simply becomes an obligation. Outstanding.
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
Set 1:
1. Astronomy Domine
2. Learning to Fly
3. High Hopes
4. Take It Back
5. Coming Back to Life
6. Sorrow
7. Keep Talking
8. Pigs on the Wing, Part 1
9. Dogs
—20 min. intermission—
Set 2:
10. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
11. A Great Day for Freedom
12. Time
13. Breathe (Reprise)
14. The Great Gig in the Sky
15. Wish You Were Here
16. One of These Days
17. Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
18. Us and Them
19. Money
20. Comfortably Numb
—encore—
21. Run Like Hell
