The Australian Pink Floyd Show (aka TAPFS ) are a Pink Floyd tribute band formed in 1988 in Adelaide, South Australia. Their live shows attempt to recreate the look, feel, and sound of Pink Floyd's later world tours, [1] achieved by the use of lasers, props, and a large display panel similar to "Mr Screen ." The Australian Pink Floyd Show are renowned for international venues worldwide, setting them apart from local or regional Pink Floyd tribute bands.

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History

thumb In 1993, the band flew from Australia to perform at the First International Pink Floyd Fan Convention at the Wembley Conference Centre, an event organised in conjunction with the Pink Floyd fanzine Brain Damage . The lineup consisted of five Adelaide musicians: Lee Smith, Grant Ross, Jason Sawford, Steve Mac and Colin Wilson. In January 1994 guitarist Lee Smith retired from the band and was replaced by Damian Darlington. In 1998 drummer Grant Ross also retired from the group and was replaced by Paul Bonney. Since 2002 the band has expanded to include female backing singers and a saxophone player. Additional musicians have also been recruited to enable the band to fulfill its demanding and ever-increasing worldwide tour schedule.

In 1994, David Gilmour attended an Australian Pink Floyd Show performance at The Fairfield Halls in Croydon. ^[2] He subsequently invited the band to attend the end-of-tour, after-show party for The Division Bell tour at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. ^[3]

They are the only Pink Floyd tribute act to play for any Pink Floyd member. In 1996, TAPFS performed at David Gilmour's 50th birthday. ^[4] They are the only Pink Floyd tribute act to have performed at the Royal Albert Hall, first performing there on 26 November 2001 and being joined with the choir from Islington Green School for a rendition of Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2, and again sold out the Royal Albert Hall in May 2007. Roger Waters is reported to have attended this performance.The show has also had associated with it people who have worked with Pink Floyd over the years, including Colin Norfield who has worked as a sound engineer for David Gilmour for both his solo work and on The Division Bell tour ^{[5] [6]}, and also the drummer Clive Brooks as a drum technician. Brooks was also a founding member of the English progressive rock band Egg and was the drummer for the British blues band The Groundhogs

In 1994, the band appeared on Irish national television performing "Young Lust" on the chat show Kenny Live . ^[7]

In 1998, the band played at the Glastonbury Festival on the acoustic stage. ^[8]

In 2004, the band performed The Dark Side of the Moon at the King's Dock, Liverpool, which was recorded and released as a DVD the same year. This was released as a 2-DVD set with the full concert on disc one and bonuses on disc two. Also in 2004, the band commenced a major tour of The United States, Canada, Germany and Italy, including a show in Switzerland. The Liverpool Pops DVD and more recently the performance at the Royal Albert Hall have been aired on public television in several of the United States on a number of occasions ^[9]

In 2005, the band released a CD of live recordings of Animals and Wish You Were Here, again at the Liverpool Pops. In the same year the band undertook a two-week tour of South America consisting of dates in Mexico City, Buenos Aires and shows in Brazil. Also in 2005 a documentary about the group was shot at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec and broadcast in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2007. ^[10]

In 2007, the band performed at several major European Music Festivals, including the Sweden Rock Festival, Malta Jazz Festival ^[11], Arrow Rock Festival, Rock Werchter and Festival do Sudoeste. A DVD of the band performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2007 was released later that year.

In September 2007, the group commenced its longest-ever continuous tour of the Americas, performing for the first time in Panama, Venezuela and Chile. In the same month a performance of the show in Buenos Aires was aired on Argentine national television as part of the Pepsi music festival ^[12]

February 2008 saw the group commence their "Best of The Wall" tour on a 5 week tour of Europe performing in Spain, ^[13] Luxembourg, Poland, Norway and the Czech Republic for the first time and were later to play in Raanana, Israel in May of the same year.

The group performed at the Isle of Wight Festival for the first time in June 2008 ^[14] , were the headline act of the last night of Guilfest 2008 and in August of the same year made their first appearance at the LokereseFesteen ^[15] in Lokeren, Belgium.

TAPFS performed their first shows in Ukraine and Slovakia in September 2008.

A complete production of The Wall , which incorporates new animation by Bryan Kolupski, was performed for the first time by TAPFS for the 2008 U.S and Canadian tours. The production has continued throughout the 2009 European tour, which includes dates in the UK, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, Portugal, and for the first time, Belgrade, Serbia.

The summer of 2009 saw TAPFS perform for the first time in Austria at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen and the Castle Clam Classic Rock Festival in Klam.In the same month they were the closing act of the Bospop festival in the Netherlands.

Live performances

Beginning with their 2007 tour, their shows now include a psychedelic light show modelled after the light shows used by Pink Floyd during their 1987 and 1994 world tours. ^[16] The show includes a round screen with intelligent lights arranged around the perimeter. During each 2½ hour concert, movies and animations are displayed on the screen while lights and lasers turn the stage and auditorium into a swirling mass of colour. Inflatables such as the pig used by Pink Floyd during the 1994 Division Bell tour and the band's own giant pink kangaroo are also used. ^[17]

TAPFS is noted for the obsessive detail to the music and visual aspects of the show. ^[18] The guitar rig of Steve Mac closely recreates David Gilmour's guitar set up including custom made elements made by Pete Cornish. ^[19].

The show employs much of its own imagery based on Floydian designs, but altered to include humorous Australianisms and the use of the band's own trademark pink kangaroo, which appears on many of its posters and T-shirts. ^{[20] [21]} TAPFS often use the image from the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album as their logo, but rather than a triangular prism refracting light, they use a glass silhouette of Australia. Additionally, when performing The Wall , the well-known marching hammers have their heads replaced with kangaroos.

The shows typically follow the format of one hour of music, followed by a 20-minute intermission, resuming with another hour of music, and often concluding with an encore of "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell". Sometimes the band will play certain Pink Floyd albums in their entirety during a show, usually as a first set. To date they have performed in this format The Dark Side of the Moon , Animals , Wish You Were Here and on the 2008/9 tour, The Wall . When not performing a specific album the band will perform songs from all periods of Pink Floyd's oeuvre including early material by Syd Barrett and longer songs such as "Dogs" and "Echoes" to later material from the albums The Wall , The Final Cut , Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell .

The 2008 US tour of The Wall included minor theatrics, which consisted of Ian Cattell playing the part of Pink watching television from his armchair whilst singing "Nobody Home", as well as performances during "In the Flesh" and "Waiting for the Worms"—an allusion to similar scenes in the film Pink Floyd The Wall .

Band members

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• Paul Bonney - drums
• Carl Brunsdon - saxophones, clarinet, bass, acoustic guitar, percussion
• Ian Cattell - bass guitar (outside Europe),vocals
• Damian Darlington - guitar, vocals
• Steve Mac - guitar, vocals
• Jason Sawford - keyboards
• Colin Wilson - bass guitar, vocals (Europe)
• Ola Bienkowska ( Aleksandra Bienkowska )- backing vocals
• Emily Jollands - backing vocals
• Amy Smith - backing vocals
• Jacquie Williams - backing vocals

Touring Members

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• Arran Ahmun - drums, North America 2008
• Bobby Harrison - guitar, North America 2008
• Rob Stringer - keyboards, North America 2008
• Jamie Humphries - guitar, North America 2006, 2007
• Bianca Antoinette - backing vocals, North America 2005, 2007
• Mike Kidson-Saxophones 2005-2008

Other Information

The saxophone player Mike Kidson is a former member of the Liverpool based band The Muffin Men and has also played with Dream Theater in a performance of Dark Side of the Moon ^[22]

There is a mention of TAPFS in the Rough Guide Music Series paperbacks called The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd by Tony Manning, published 31 August 2006. There is a mention of TAPFS in the book Pink Floyd by Patrick Humphries, published by Andre Deutsch Ltd, 23 September 1997. The Australian Pink Floyd Show is mentioned in the book Like a Rolling Stone by Steven Kurutz. ^[23]

The book Echoes - a complete history of Pink Floyd is written by Glenn Povey who managed the band in the early years of TAPFS in the UK (1993-1995).

See also

• List of Pink Floyd tribute bands

References

1. Petridis, Alexis. "The copycats who got the cream", ''The Guardian'', 18 May 2007; on the tribute scene including interview with keyboardist of The Australian Pink Floyd Show.
2. David Gilmour / Pink Floyd interview dotmusic January 2002
3. Thompson, Geoff. "Tribute to the masters", ''The Sun'', 13 April 2007.
4. CMP Main Page
5. Entec Sound And Light Production
6. david gilmour
7. The broadcast is featured on the ''TAPFS-Live at Liverpool'' DVD which was recorded at the Liverpool Pops in 2004.
8. Glastonbury Festival 1998 - Bands
9. TPT e-newsletter
10. Discovery Channel CA (link broken as of 2008-11-17)
11. LineUP 2007: Malta Jazz Festival
12. Pepsi Music 2007, Buenos Aires – Last.fm
13. Pink Floyd Is Actually Australian < Events | PopMatters
14. The Official Isle of Wight Festival 2008 Line-Up
15. Lokerse Feesten: Home
16. RADlite NG1 in Action with Australian Pink Floyd - www.etnow.com
17. The Australian Pink Floyd Show @ M.E.N. Arena - Live Reviews - Music - Entertainment - Manchester Evening News
18. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/5208809/The-Australian-Pink-Floyd-Show-s
19. PETE CORNISH Client List
20. The Australian Pink Floyd Show
21. Express - The Australian Pink Floyd Show breaks the "cover band" mould
22. Dream Theater Perform Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon' | News @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
23. Amazon.com: ''Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band'': Steven Kurutz: Books