Damian Darlington – Brit Floyd
The 2015 Space and Time tour with Brit Floyd has a new light show plus what?
We put together a whole new set list. We are playing some songs that we haven’t played in the past few years plus some that we may never have played before. Also we have added some tracks from the latest Pink Floyd Album ‘Endless River’ into the set list. We have lots of new video animation and yes, we have added a lot of new light fixtures to the stage and laser lights to add to the whole experience.
With such a large production as a ‘tribute’ band, what challenges do you face with such an ambitious show?
It certainly is a challenge to do what we are doing! Pink Floyd was the biggest touring act in the world at one point and was such a pioneering band when it came to productions of such a large tour and for us to emulate that production is a definite challenge but it is one that we relish taking on and I believe that it is one that we are pulling it off in the venues that we are playing around the world.
How many piece band are you touring with this year including backing singers and support?
It is a 9 piece band as it has been for the past few years. You have to have that many musicians when you are covering some of the work of Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon Album has so many different things going on that to emulate it live, you must have that many musicians.
Did you hire all the band members?
I spent many years playing in the Australian Pink Floyd Show and many of the musicians from that band came over to Brit Floyd. Through the years, we have been many changes to get to the current lineup of Brit Floyd.
Damian, you are the Musical Director. Explain some of your unique responsibilities in this role.
As the Musical Director I have to oversee the other musicians and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing which is successfully recreating Pink Floyd Music. Also it is my job to pick the set list and decide what new things we are going to do new each year like whether we are going to do a studio version of a song or a live version of the song plus which older songs we are going to include. I also literally do collective programming with our lighting guys and work with our video techs in getting ideas of what we want for this track etc, etc. So I have many responsibilities.
Back in the beginning when it was the Australian Pink Floyd Show, how did things get together and did anyone involved imagine that it would grow as big as it has?
I don’t go all the way back when the Australian Pink Floyd show began, oddly enough, in Australia back in the 1980s. When they relocated in the UK in the early 1990s is when I became involved. It wasn’t by design that I joined a Pink Floyd band. It was an opportunity that came my way. Plus I have been a huge fan of Pink Floyd music since the age of around 12 or 13 when I first started to play the guitar. So it was an opportunity that was perfect for me to do what I was wanting to do as a musician. Here I am 21 years later touring around the world playing hundreds of show playing in some iconic venues. I never knew that it would grow into what it has but every year I am happy that it keeps growing
Were you able to attend a Pink Floyd concert?
My first Pink Floyd concert was in 1988 when they were touring on the ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ tour.
Since you are filling venues, do you feel that the world needs the Pink Floyd experience to continue?
I definitely feel that there is a desire. I think there are many countries around the world that have never had an opportunity other than to listen to the music on albums. It is one thing to listen to an album but something totally different to experience hearing the music with the stage production that makes it special. Seeing young people to older fans who may have had the opportunity to see the original Pink Floyd on their last tour in this atmosphere would make me think that there is a life in this for many years to come.
Beside playing guitar and lap steel, are there any other instruments that you play fluently?
I don’t regard myself as playing it fluently, but one instrument that I’ve been getting to play with this set list is the mandolin
When you first started playing guitar, what was one of the first songs that you mastered?
Going right back to the very beginning, I’ve always been a fan of an English musician called Mike Oldfield. People over in the States may know of him from his ‘Tubular Bells’ Album in which a part was used in the Exorcism movie back in the 1970s.
Talk to me about your guitars that you use. Are they Vintage or Reissue?
I do use two Fender Stratocaster Plus Deluxe guitars which are not the vintage 1960s or 1970s models but they are about twenty five years old so they are getting classic in their own right! I did replace the pickups in them with EMG DG20 David Gilmour Signature pickups; the ones he was using in the 1980s and 1990s. I also have a custom made guitar by a French guitar maker called Philippe Dubreuille who was commissioned by Storm Thorgerson to make some guitars. Storm Thorgerson was responsible for all the Pink Floyd Album cover art so I have this beautiful ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ themed guitar which is a beautiful instrument. I also have lap steel guitars made by Industrial Steel guitar, Ovation and Martin acoustic guitars