Doug talks To Damian Darlington of BRIT FLOYD about the upcoming Tour and Show In Detroit

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yeah, hither Detroit's wheels. Thisis this is Damian from Britt Floyd.
Damian coming back for another incredible BrittFloyd contract performance here in the Motor City.
I've seen the show a few times. I'm a big fan and I'm
looking forward to seeing you guys backhere. Well, it's it's it's going
to be great to play in Detroitonce again. It's it's one of our
favorite places to play. It's alwaysa highlight to come back there. So

(00:22):
it's a big year in the worldof Pink Floyd. It's their fiftieth anniversary
of Dark Side in the Moon.Will you be doing a full album or
just playing some songs from there?We're certainly going to be playing you know,
the majority of the album, youknow, all the all the all
the iconic tracks from that musical masterpiece. We won't be playing the album in

(00:44):
its entirety because they're one of thefew constraints playing that placed upon us as
a Pink Floyd tribute show is thefact that we can't play albums in their
entirety without a Pink Floyd's explicit permission. But we'll play you know, all
the classic tracks such as Time,Money, great gig in the Sky,
et cetera. Okay, partner thatlist, well, that's fantastic. I

(01:04):
know you guys have have always performedall of the great songs and even some
pretty obscure ones too, and youdo them, Damien note four note,
which is to me more certainly morethan a tribute band. I mean,
we've seen now over the years manyyou know, smaller tribute bands, but

(01:26):
I've never really looked at brit Floydthat way. I've looked at it more
as a you know, just areproduction really of the incredible sound of Pink
Floyd. Hey man, when didyou first put this band, Britt Floyd
together. Britt Floyd first started inthe beginning of twenty eleven, and I've

(01:47):
already been in another Pink Floyd tributeabout the seventeen years before that point.
So I've been doing this for twentynine years, nine in total. But
you know, I got to thepoint where I felt like I wanted to
start my own Pink Floyd show andhopefully do a better job of recreating this
wonderful music, not also recreating thevisual experience that companies that music. So

(02:08):
that's that's how Britt Floyd came intoBeing. Tell me about the musicians that
you have with you, because atone point I remember seeing the band and
you had some of the actual backupsingers from some of the Floyd tours.
But you guys have been together forquite a while now. So who are
these incredible musicians you have with youin the band? Well, you know,

(02:32):
I mean, I'm one of theguitars, one of the lead vocalist,
musical director. But alongside me,I'm looking enough to work with some
of the great musicians. Ian Ktell, for example, he's the he's the
other lead vocalist's it tends to focuson the Roger Walters vocal parts, although
he does do some film more stuffas well. He's also the bass player,
and I've been working with him allthe way through britt Floyd a bit

(02:57):
since its inception, and part ofthat in the later years have worked in
the Australian Pink Floyd. I've beenworking in Being as well. And you
know, we have a there's there'sa film called Aaron Arman who's been working
and been working with us right sincethe Brithwoys started, and various other musicians
who've come along along the way.You know, not everybody can GNT tour,
you know, year in, yearout, and so you know,

(03:19):
so a few members have changed overthat period, but you know, we
have to feel the guitar as Zidoscore there has been with us since twenty
fifteen, and ever A Villa,who's our great kid, great gig in
the Sky singer, one of theback in vocalists that she's been with us
a few years now. So youknow, there's there's a lot of familiar
faces that that people will see aproblem stage if they've been coming to Super

(03:40):
E Floyd for for the last nodyears. Yeah, and almost every time
I've seen the band here in Detroit, You've got a lot of the same
followers. They come back year afteryear after year. Uh. It is
really it's it's just an incredible musicalexperience. And by the way, I
want to mention the show that toMay eighteenth, and it's going to be

(04:01):
at the Cathedral Theater that's inside MasonicTemple. Now, I'm not sure if
I've ever seen you there. Idon't think I have, but that is
historic and it is going to bealmost acoustically perfect. This is going to
be a great venue for you.Yeah, I think you're right. I
don't recall playing at this particular venuein Detroit before. We certainly played another

(04:25):
of the other venues in the Detroitarea, but this, this one,
this particularly will be a first ofus. And I'm glad to hear that.
You you know, you say it'syou know, it's a very good
acoustic environment. So looking forward tohearing what the room sounds like when we
get there. Oh yeah, you'llhave a lot more room than the opera
house, and uh, you know, you'll be able to you'll be able

(04:47):
to fly the pig there. Yeah, there'll be no problem. What made
you? What made you? Andyou've been doing this for so long,
but what made you? You know, grab it to the Pink Floyd music.
And I first discovered Pink Floyd whenI was about thirteen years old.
You know. It was just oneof those things where a friend of mine

(05:10):
sort of produced this vinyl copy ofThe Wall and put it on and I
was, you know, instantly hookedon it, and you know, mesmerized
by the sort of narrative that wascreated in that album and all the all
the sound effects, and of coursethe wonderful guitar playing and vocals. From
Gilmore and Waters and obviously it wasit was very, very sort of fascinating

(05:33):
to look at all the artwork overGerald Scarf artwork on the album once you
opened up the gatefold sleeve. Sothat that was my introduction to Pink Floyd
The Wall. But I, youknow, I quickly when I went out
there and discovered Dark Sadamoon and Animalsand Wish You Were Here, et cetera.
You know, so that really mademe a fan and made them one

(05:55):
of my favorite bands. When itcame to actually playing Pink Floyd music prepared
some which I did, you know, some years later, from about the
age of twenty four onwards. Thatthat was kind of just a chance opportunity
that came my way. You know. It was in the very early days
of tribute bands being a thing,and and I just got I got an
opportunity to join this this existing tributeas the austral and Pink Floyd Show Tribute

(06:18):
Band, and the rest is history. Absolute, you know, the wide
variety of music that you play fromPink Floyd going all the way back really
to see Emily play, Um,what's your favorite era of Pink Floyd?
Would it be The Wall? Oris it some of the earlier stuff that
you discovered later. What's your feeling. I suppose it is that eeries that

(06:42):
you know, I still sort ofa look at the Wall and the albums.
You know that the animals wish youhear Dark sigm in that periods as
being my favorite and period of PinkFloyd music, although I do have a
quite a soft spot for the FinalCut, which came out after the Wall,
because that that nuts was the firstPink Floyd album after I'd become a

(07:03):
fan. That was the first albumto be released as a brand new Pink
Floyd album, So it was itwas very exciting obviously at the time to
discover that album. But you know, it's definitely the sort of classic period
I suppose. I suppose from thenineteen seventies that I I'm you know,
the biggest fan of So you mentionedthat members of Pink Floyd, or at

(07:25):
least their management, would have toagree to allow you to do the entire
album, So that tells me thatthey're aware of the band. You've been
around long enough now, have havethey ever approached you about it? Have
they seen it? Have they findyou for anything? At one point?

(07:46):
Find this end. It's just kindof one of It's kind of one of
those things where when you are sortof like, you know, the most
visible Pink Floyd tribute banned out there, you know, the one that you
want that is sort of touring internationally, touring all over North America and all
over Europe and elsewhere and the wild, then obviously Pink Floyd themselves are going
to be more aware of you,of what you're doing than than some of
the Pink Floyd rebute bands. Soit's kind of a double edged sword.

(08:11):
Yeah, so you know, they'recertainly aware of us. They know that
they know what we do, theyknow the quality of the show. And
if you go right back to thenineteen nineties, I met David Gilmore backstage
at a contact was playing all theway back in nineteen ninety four originally,
and I subsequently got to play hisfiftieth birthday party a couple of years a

(08:33):
couple of years after that, andyou know, so he and other members
of Pink Floyd of you know,they've been aware of me and more latterly
Britt Floyd for a long time.No, that's awesome, Yeah, yeah,
well definitely, I mean they haveto be proud of the work that
you do. I mean the wayyou guys handle it on stage, from
every aspect, from the lighting,the props, and of course the music

(08:58):
in the vocals. I mean,it is really second to none. Do
you feel like your toes are beingstepped out a little bit? These days?
There are so many more tribute bandsthan I've ever seen before, And
it's probably, you know, partof it is a cause of the fact
that, you know, not alot of these classic rock bands are touring
anymore, just like Pink Floyd.But you know you'll have, you know,

(09:22):
bands playing bars that do the entireDark Side of the Moon album.
Now nobody's asking anybody's permission for that, um, but you were one of
the first. You were one ofthem, really truly pioneers. I mean
outside of you and maybe like aband like Rain who does the Beatles,
there are no better than what youguys do. So what do you have

(09:43):
to do to keep yourself above thefray? Do you do you rehearse more?
Do you dig in deeper to themusic? I mean, what's the
plan? Well, there's many manysort of components to you know what,
when it comes to to keeping thestandards of this show as high as it
is. You know, the factthat there are so many Pink or the

(10:05):
Pink Floyd should be bands out thereis obviously first and foremost. It's a
testament and wonderful. The music ofPink Floyd is um and plus as you
say, you know, when itcomes to classic rock music in general,
so many of the the original artistssadly are are not touring anymore or they've
passed away. So you know,as you do want to hear this music

(10:26):
live, you know, the tributebands are kind of where the the option
is to it to have that experience. When it comes to maintaining the show,
Yeah, the key to it isjust never to be complacent. It's
always to be trying to improve it, however small those improvements are, you
know, And when it comes tothe music, the performance that the sounds

(10:46):
that we try to recreate when itcomes to performing that music, and also
all the visual side of things,you know, the light show, the
video, the lasers, all ofit. You know, it's just it's
it's we're never, We're never sortof just sort of lying back and thinking
that's it. You know, theshow's good enough now We're always trying to
improve it wherever we possibly can.So I think that's the key to to

(11:07):
you know, keep keeping yourself upthere at the top of the pile.
As yeah, it comes to doingthis kind of thing, Well, you're
certainly you are certainly at the topof the pile. Let me just say
that, Damian, no doubt aboutthat. Do you have to get together
often? Do you see each otherall year the other members of the band
or what's the rehearsal time to getback to another year's worth of touring.

(11:33):
Well, it's it's surprisingly not asmuch as you might think. Because we
do this so much year in yearout touring, you know that we're sort
of its second nature to play youknow, a lot of these songs.
But you know, nonetheless, youdo have to sort of like just the
cob webs off certain tracks that youmight not have performed for quite a while.

(11:54):
And so you know, as individualswill certainly be preparing for not coming
to for some months before you actuallyget together as about to play it.
But once we get together in thesame rahearsal we're in, you know,
it could be just a week ofrehearsals. It's easy enough to get it
up to the standard where we cando our first show. And this time
around, we actually had our rehearsalsin Canada because we played our first first

(12:16):
concert of this tour in Hamilton justa just about a week ago now,
so, and then we've moved intothe US and we're on about our fourth
fourth US state. Man, sowe're early days in the tour. So
how many how many shows were youdoing twenty twenty three? Probably about somewhere
in the region of one hundred andtwenty five shows we've finished here, and

(12:39):
that's you know that that's not thatmany we've we've done. We've done like
one hundred and forty from forty fiveshows a year's in sometimes in the past.
Well, I'm sorry. If Ihadn't known that, I wouldn't have
asked that question about rehearsing. Yeah, you guys are you guys are together
a lot. So do you followthe news of the ginal being a pink

(13:01):
Floyd? Do you? I mean, do you see all this stuff about
the feud going on and all ofthat. Of course, you know you
have to sort of keep up,you know, with what's going on,
and you know, in the withwith the original guys, and you know,
the feuding part of things, Well, it's it's it's kind of been
that way for a long time now. Yeah, you know, so it's

(13:22):
something that you just kind of areused to in the context of a Pink
Floyd. You know. Obviously,obviously it's not it's not a good thing
to see books, you know,but nonetheless it's it's it's wonderful to see
that Roger is still getting out thereon stage and doing it. Nick Mason
is still staring with the sources ofFull of Secrets, and hopefully I think

(13:43):
we might see one more one moretour out of David Gilmore as well.
So fingers crossed it. Yeah,you'll have the urge to go and do
it one more time at least I'llcross my fingers on that as well.
Um, what about the solo music, Damian, do you have you have
you ever considered incorporating it or doyou I don't recall any solo songs as

(14:05):
much, but do you incorporate thatinto the shower? Have you ever thought
about it? I mean, DavidGilmore here recently, in the past few
years is has really put out someoutstanding music. Yeah, we've certainly we
haven't done it, but we've certainlyconsidered it, you know, doing like
a Gilmore track and a Waters trackfrom one of their solo albums in the

(14:28):
set list. It's but you sortof part of you sort of ends up
thinking, well, but if youdo that, you're just pushing a Pink
Floyd track out of the set listor to the two tracks out of the
set list to make way for it. So it's it's a debate that is
ongoing. You know, it mighthappen at some point, but we just
haven't done it to done it asyet. But you know, you're right,

(14:48):
there are certainly some wonderful tracks onGilmore sold albums and on on Roger
waters solo albums. You know,things from abuse to death for example,
that would be wonderful to Yeah,let's go at some point. So have
you had a chance to hear thenew version of Dark Side of the Moon
from from Roger Waters. I've onlyheard of The Man that that was the

(15:11):
first sort of sneak peek. RogerWalts has released The Man, but that's
all of her stuff. Well,I have to tell you, Damian,
we're certainly looking forward to having theband back here in Detroit. As I
mentioned that Masonic Temple that's going tobe on May eighteenth. If you're looking

(15:31):
for tickets, you better get themquick because it's always a sellout. It's
always an outstanding show. Every songnote for note, My personal favorite is
when you do Shine on Crazy Diamond. I mean it takes what forty five
minutes and it's quite long, andit's it is now. Yeah, the

(15:52):
truck yourself, it's about thirteen afourteen minutes, okay, something like good.
I closed my I was in likeI don't know, the tenth row
I had incredible seats. I closedmy eyes and I really I couldn't I
couldn't tell the difference. I mean, it really is, and you guys
really do perform this music. Notefor note, um it is. It's

(16:18):
just uncanny and we love it andwe can't wait to see you back here.
So you'll love the Masonic Temple.I know it. It's going to
be a great show for you andwe're all looking forward to seeing Britt Floyd
back in the Motor City. CanI just can I just interview there?
It's Britt Floyd official dot com,Floyd Official dot com. Okay, yeah,

(16:41):
well, thank you so much andcertainly looking forward to coming to Detroit
all right, man, looking forwardto it. Thank you so much for
your time and uh we'll see youhere in Detroit with Damien and Britt Floyd.
Thanks for Colin Wheels