Pure Floyd

With the chances of Roger Waters and David Gilmour ever again performing together remaining slim to non-existent, and with former keyboard player Richard Wright no longer with us, it comes as no surprise that Pink Floyd tribute acts have become the main alternative. And prog-rock baby boomers (as well as newer fans of the band) are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing one to see. One of the most highly rated, and one that is celebrating their own 25th anniversary this year, is Pure Floyd, a nine-piece band hailing from Norfolk and Suffolk, and whose tours regularly include visits to venues in our region. Last night they played Epic Studios in Magdalen Street, delivering a two-part journey back in time that took in a host of classic Floyd tracks, going right the way back to 1967 and ‘Astronomy Domine’ (from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn), and then travelling all the way through to 1983's The Final Cut.

The band are led by Tony Edwards, whose vocals sound uncannily authentic right across the decades, and who delivers the classic Gilmour guitar solos with unnerving accuracy. His partner in crime is bass player Mike Cocksedge, who also shares vocal duties. Mike’s wife Kelly is one of the three backing singers, his daughter Lizzie is another. The vocal trio is completed by Ruth Adams, whose brother Andy McNally plays keys. On sticks is versatile drummer Reubes, and rhythm guitar is supplied by Josh Simpson. And those glorious saxophone solos, so much a part of so many classic Floyd tracks, come courtesy of Phil Marshall and Vicky Cowles. And it does not stop there. The lighting, the video screens and the laser show are all provided in-house, and all adding to what becomes a wholly immersive experience.

I have always been slightly cynical about tribute acts, even though a lot of that changed when I came to see T-Rextasy at Epic Studios a couple of months back. I was also a huge Pink Floyd fan back in the Seventies, so I was once again concerned about being disappointed by a poor-quality imitation. But I need not have worried. As the band chronologically worked their way through a bevy of tracks from Meddle, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, I was transported back to my youth, back to the days when we would spend smoke-filled evenings debating our favourite Floyd albums and deciphering the meanings that we believed to lie behind the individual tracks.

Epic Studios was the perfect location for the evening - the in-house lighting and sound is always top notch, and the setlist included so many classic tracks - ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’ (from A Saucerful of Secrets) through ‘Echoes’ and ‘One of These Days’ (from Meddle). With five tracks from the legendary Dark Side of The Moon, the first half of the show was already a treat and a half. The vocal solo that ended ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ was truly impressive, and thoroughly deserved its own spontaneous round of applause. After the interval it was ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and ‘Have A Cigar’ (from Wish You Were Here); ‘Dogs’ and ‘Sheep’ (but no flying pigs) from Animals, and then a quartet of tracks from The Wall, and ending with ‘Comfortably Numb’.

The encore gave us ‘Not Now John’ from The Final Cut, and ‘Run Like Hell’ from The Wall. I was slightly surprised that there was no room for ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, especially as it gave Pink Floyd their only ever UK No 1 single, but to complain about such an omission would seem really rather churlish.