Tag Archives: Pink Floyd

Live review: On Thin Ice – Pink Floyd tribute at Blackbox, Hastings 6/3/26

Hastings music scene, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , ,

While someone banging out some half-decent AC/DC or Stones covers will invariably bring a smile to my face, when it comes to Pink Floyd you’ve either got to get the sound bang on or else it’s simply not worth bothering. And while I was never lucky enough to see the original Pink Floyd, I’ve seen a few Pink Floyd tributes over the years, from the internationally-renowned (Australian Pink Floyd) to the downright dodgy (remaining nameless to spare blushes).

Formed in 2014 and hailed as one of the UK’s leading Pink Floyd tribute acts, proudly proclaiming their commitment to authenticity, I had high hopes for On Thin Ice and was not disappointed.

Performing three sets that delved into songs from across the band’s career, the first set began with a convincing selection of classics from the Syd Barrett-era Floyd, followed by a couple of tracks from Meddle before moving on to a mammoth rendition of songs from Dark Side of the Moon. It was all done in QUAD sound, too, with four channels of sound filling the room, echoing the original Pink Floyd tours of the late ‘60s and ’70s and ensuring maximum sonic impact in terms of those memorable special effects on albums like Dark Side.

Mish B, one of two female backing vocalists, did an absolutely incredible job taking on the lead vocal for ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ and received rapturous applause for her own take on that stunning, other-worldly performance which session singer, Clare Tory, will always be best remembered for (Tory’s second most memorable performance being the theme song for BBC’s Butterflies, for all you trivia fans out there.)

After a short break, we are into the second set, which is a celebration of the Wish You Were Here album that is every bit as good as their exploration of the Dark Side of the Moon, before ending in an epic performance of ‘Sheep’ from Animals. It’s great to see Hastings’ Blackbox back on the circuit. As a gig venue it pretty much does what it says on the tin, a long oblong box painted completely black with the stage at the front and the bar at the back. The sound is great, the guitars, keyboards, sax and vocals are mind-blowingly authentic and in a venue like this you can half close your eyes and mentally transport yourself to some huge stadium somewhere seeing the real thing.

After another short break the third and final set, focuses on the band’s later studio albums with a couple of tracks from The Wall, and a track apiece from the post-Roger Waters albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, before drawing proceedings to a close with a stunning rendition of ‘Comfortably Numb’.

The guys (and gals) do put every ounce of effort into making themselves sound as close to Pink Floyd as humanly possible so if you are looking for a night of Pink Floyd classics in a live setting, On Thin Ice are absolutely worth checking out.

https://www.onthinicefloyd.com/

Related posts:

Review: ‘Their Mortal Remains’ Pink Floyd Exhibition at the V&A

Rock: album review – David Gilmour ‘Rattle That Lock’

Review: ‘Their Mortal Remains’ Pink Floyd Exhibition at the V&A

Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , , ,

I was raving about the Rolling Stones exhibition last year, saying they have utterly rewritten the template for what a successful rock memorabilia exhibition should look like and set a new global standard. So when a Pink Floyd exhibition was announced at the V&A I was expecting something really creative. Surely, an arty band like Floyd, and one that has always loved spectacle and grand statements, wouldn’t allow themselves to be outdone by the Stones?

The Pink Floyd exhibition is meticulously curated and a fascinating insight into the band’s history but for the most part I found it very, very traditional. Whereas, the Stones went for breathtaking recreations of their squalid Edith Grove flat, of the studio where many Jagger/Richards classics were laid down and of the very private world of the Stones’ backstage area, Floyd have gone for things displayed neatly in glass cases in chronological order. Don’t get me wrong I loved seeing these items but an exact recreation of the interior of the UFO Club in 1967 or a mock-up of the studio where Dark Side Of The Moon was recorded there was none.

Towards the end of the tour we did get some 3D installations of images from The Wall and Battersea Power Station – and the room devoted to the sculpture from the Division Bell album cover was particularly poignant. Overall, however, while I felt with The Stones I was being taken on a very personal journey through the life of the band, with Pink Floyd I never really felt much more than a visitor to a museum looking at some artefacts, albeit very, very interesting ones.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/pink-floyd

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Rock: album review – David Gilmour ‘Rattle That Lock’

Album reviews, Rock music, , , ,

Only a year after releasing what was billed as Pink Floyd’s final album, The Endless River, late 2015 saw David Gilmour bring out a new solo album, too. Rattle That Lock is his first solo offering since 2006. While Sid Barrett and Roger Waters both have their enthusiastic advocates as the holder of the creative genius behind Pink Floyd, for me it was always David Gilmour I looked to first and foremost. Gilmour’s vocals and guitar are the sound of Pink Floyd for me. I found the Waters-inspired The Final Cut little more than a self-indulgent ranty dirge, but hugely enjoyed both of the post-Waters albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. And Gilmour’s 2006 solo offering, On An Island, very much continued in the same vein.

So what, then, of Rattle That Lock? I’ve played it several times over now. All of the musical ingredients you would expect from a David Gilmore album are there: the beautiful melodic guitar solos, the lush atmospheric keyboards, the deliciously rich backing vocals and that clear, sensitive unmistakable lead vocal. But somehow, unlike previous offerings, it doesn’t quite seem to add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not a bad album and there are some really beautiful moments on it. But in places it does begin to sound a bit like Pink Floyd by numbers. On An Island followed exactly that same formula, of course, but perhaps had the benefit of featuring a number of really well-written memorable songs that added to the creative output of, rather than merely sought to copy, the classic Floyd back catalogue.

There are some lovely stand-out tracks, like Faces of Stone and In Any Tongue. And apart from the truly horrendous disco beat on Today there are very few low points on this album. But overall, although it’s mainly songs rather than instrumentals, Rattle That Lock is more in the business (like 2014’s The Endless River) of offering atmospheric Floydish soundscapes rather than genuinely classic new material. Having said that, it’s still a thousand times better than The Final Cut…

Released: September 2015

http://www.davidgilmour.com/rattlethatlock/

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