As there was such a big gap in between Brit Floyd shows I thought I'd give Aussie Floyd a go. I have watched some YouTube videos and wasn't expecting them to be Brit Floyd quality. How right I was! The music skills leave something to be desired. Not just musical skills. You get to appreciate what a good job Gareth and his "backroom" team do to give the audience a great show. The sound was off in many songs. Southend isn't the biggest theatre so sound control should be pretty easy for a professional. I'll list the members and rate them how I thought they did.


From left to right.
Guitarist/Singer: Most times his guitar was too quiet. The sounds were not accurate to the original music. Yes, he hit most of the notes but the sounds were not correct. I know Bobby got the sound bang on and passed them to BF. 5/10

Drummer: He was the best player but messed up the end of Time in my opinion. 9/10

Base/Singer: He was quite competent but his singing was hardly audible. 7/10

Main singer: He actually looks and sounds similar to Ian. He did a fairly good job. 8/10

Keyboard player: I think he needs to go through the whole PF catalogue and learn them properly. 5/10

Girl backing singers: They totally murdered GGINTS. Just watch Ola or Angela perform it, solo I might add. They all had a go at killing the song. Emily has a fantastic voice and the power she adds in songs like Us and Them really show up this lot. Sorry girls, 4/10

Lead guitar/singer. He is very competent. He mostly got the sound right but hasn't quite got the construction of them. 7/10

I am probably being too hard on them, but for a professional group who have been around so long I expected better.

Damian, you are doing a brilliant job. I think you would have been horrified if your group performed like TAPF last night.

Well.. I presume you didn't see Aussie Floyd when Damien was a member? I did and they were great, the best Floyd group around. Then Damien left and Brit Floyd became the best Floyd group around - and still are. It's the attention to detail, trying to replicate the Floyd sound, not doing 'their own take' , the vocals and the musicianship (if there's such a word) that Damien brings to Brit Floyd.
I've been a Floyd fan since I was 15 - I'm now 55 and still love them, my favourite band of all time. Booked last night for Basingstoke 2017 - looking forward to some Animals tracks - a great Floyd album, Dogs & Sheep are brilliant.

Me too Zippy, roll on the 5th March!

I have yet to see The Australian Pink Floyd Show when they have come to Pittsburgh (there is a caveat that I will explain after the quote), but that is about to change. They have a Pittsburgh date listed for the 2017 tour, but the venue is actually in my home town of Greensburg. This venue is much smaller than those in Pittsburgh. To give a fair comparison I have bought a ticket to see them. The venue that they are playing in is only 5 miles from my home (versus about 30 miles to travel to Pittsburgh).


zippy wrote:
I had actually bought tickets for the 2008, 2009, and 2010 show of The Australian Pink Floyd Show, but it turns out that I was actually seeing Brit Floyd. The only difference was that Jason Sawford was playing keyboards during the 2008 tour. Everyone else was the line up of Brit Floyd (Damian, Ian, Bobby Harrison, Arran, Carl Brunsdon, Ola, Jacquie, and Emily). In 2009 Rob Stringer replaced Jason, and in 2010 Rick Benbow was on the keyboards.

Should be interesting to see if the actual members of The Australian Pink Floyd Show actually show up in North America.

did you report on this show 1/16?

I actually saw TAPFS is 2005,2006,2007 as well not knowing i was actually seeing Brit Floyd, No wondeer they were so great back than!!!

I was finally able to log on so I will post my mini review of the show that was on August 1, 2017.

Overall the show was alright. After seeing Brit Floyd, who I consider the best Pink Floyd tribute in existence, the Australian Pink Floyd is definitely lacking. I didn't really care for the backing female vocalists especially on the Great Gig in The Sky which seemed to lack energy. When Mike Kidson was playing the sax he was barely audible. I couldn't tell if it was due to being too low in the mix or if that was how he was playing it. A big one for me was the poor performance of the opening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Steve Mac.

One of the biggest shocks for me was the lack of band introductions. I was curious to see who would receive the biggest ovation, but I guess that I will never know. Given that the cost of the tickets were slightly higher than what I pay to see Brit Floyd, that will be my last time seeing the Aussies.

To add one more thing since I did sound pretty harsh towards them the highlight of the show was the complete performance of Dark Side of the Moon which kicked off the show.