Perfectly Recreating the Pink Floyd Experience

By Federica Montella

You don’t always need a time machine to go back in time and feel like a seven-year-old again.

I close my eyes: it’s August, and I’m in my parents’ car. It’s very hot and I’m a bored, impatient young girl asking every 3 minutes “When do we get there?” My father, snorting, turns up the volume and ignores me. ‘Money’ by Pink Floyd resounds in the car, and I try to focus on the song rather than annoying my parents.

Sadly, I’m no longer a child. I am in Dolan’s Warehouse, in Limerick city, enjoying the most accurate Pink Floyd tribute band I’ve ever heard.

“Breathe – The Pink Floyd experience” brings together some of the best session musicians in the country, and aims to recreate Pink Floyd’s unique live shows. Believe it or not, they have succeeded!

“This gig is very complex to play”, says the guitarist Karl Breen, “There’s so much to think about, so many technical issues. It’s very hard to relax and enjoy it. You’re playing to Pink Floyd’s fans, they know their music so intimately, so you can’t change it around. It’s not the most enjoyable gig, but it’s very satisfying”.

When you’ve been listening to Pink Floyd all your life, your expectations are very, very high. You know all the lyrics and every chord of each guitar solo by heart, and you’re able to recognise the songs after the first 3 notes. Therefore, you have no tolerance for mistakes. You want the concert to be perfect. Any alteration of the songs you’ve been worshipping for years is a huge offence.

“Pink Floyd fans are really, really fanatical, so it’s a huge responsibility and there is so much work, but I love it. This also means that the crowds are always great, the people usually know all the words and sing along”, says drummer Graham Carey.

“We are all big Pink Floyd fans, and we all played in different bands before. One night, Graham said ‘Oh, I’d like to do ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ live sometime!’, and this is how we got together just two and a half years ago”, adds Karl Breen.

Apparently the initial idea was to do only one show playing the album ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, but the first gig they played went so well that they decided to do more.

The concert was joyfully accompanied by colourful lights and visual effects that made the experience even more memorable. After the concert I asked to interview the members of the band, not expecting such a warm approval.

However, they welcomed me and my questions and it was a pleasure for me to have a chat with them about their amazing performance. What I appreciated the most was their humbleness and patience. Not everyone would answer the questions of a trainee journalist without any notice after a three hours long concert.