Showtime! Rehearsals last week saw us ready to take a trip back into Floyd land and effectively try and 'become' the Floyd themselves for a couple of hours, and for the most part I was really happy with it.Arriving at the venue at 3pm, I was most excited to see the venue was big and well laid out. The backstage area was comfortable and spacious, bordering on luxurious, even (a shower?). For the first time ever, the rider was more than an esky with a couple of cans of coke, and the band were treated to free beer, wine, and soft drink, gourmet sandwiches and fruit. No brown M&Ms though.
The stage layout was spacious, and given the amount of gear I was actually using up there, that was a relief. It's so hard to do the job well when you're competing for space in a small cupboard or alcove in the side of a wall. This stage was huge and given the size of the guitarists, looked huger (Is that a word?).
We eschewed the standard intro music (not my choice as I LOVE it and everyone else seems to, but Dean hadn't time, and although his alternative reasoning I don't accept entirely, I can fully sympathise with the time thing...), and I walked out to begin Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
Keyboards sounded fantastic. But given the size of the stage I should have actually HAD guitar in my wedge. It made it a little hard for me, especially as a number of cues are from guitar. Lachlan had the same problem. I think we expected to get a complete mix in our wedges with just louder vocals/keys/guitar etc. Not so.
First set largely was very strong. I felt very moved singing 'Wearing The Inside Out" as it's obviously a very personal Rick Wright track and with his death late last year, I felt the spirit there a bit. Probably imagined but it was a nice feeling. Lachie had a brown moment in 'Mother'; again... monitoring, and all in all it is hard to judge without hearing the FOH mix to know if we were good or not! Seemed to be, judging by audience feedback.
The newie, 'One Of These Days' was excruiating for me as ALL my cues are from the slide guitar. So I had to watch Dean's hands to actually fathom what was about to happen. I know there was one hiccup somewhere but as to what it was, I can't remember.
All in all, pretty good though. I am interested to see it from the audience perspective (We did film it).
Intermission was 20 mins and flashed by in a heartbeat (no pun intended). BAckstage the band was relaxed and the vibe was warm. Chris and I chatted and there seemed to be more friends than band members backstage. And a Vietnamese promoter chappy blagged his way back to talk to Dean about a Vietnamese tour!!! We obviously had not the time to discuss anything. And likely shall not do so either.
The second set saw some real problems for me. I buggered up the start of 'Echoes'. There is a complex little midi change I need to do to get one of my digital keyboards to sound like a big old piano through a big old Leslie speaker. Which is fine, but I forgot to make it a piano. And got a Wurlitzer electric piano instead. Stupid bastard had left it there from 'Money' in the first set. So I changed it, forgetting the midi would also change the other keyboard sound (on the second keyboard) to a very cheesy 90's midi-piano sound. Ouch. So whilst I fumbled around trying to change it on the fly, I must have played some very 'interesting stuff'. My mind was elsewhere. Problem solved, I continued into the song proper, which was absolutely fine right through to the second bit, the Hammond/Guitar duet, when disaster struck.
I have a little curse that seems to rear it's head after intermission. Once I lost my ARP Prosoloist, which suffered meltdown and from which it's still to recover. It makes strange farty noises now. On stage at Camden in 2007, I lost EVERYTHING in the 'Arnold Layne' keyboard solo which was a huge brown moment, and managed to get myself back online at the end of the song.
One of the 'wall-warts' that was powering my OTT volume pedal on the Hammond came out of the powerboard enough so instead of losing signal rapidly, it sort of farted out then back in, and disappeared. When you're using a 40 year old organ stuffed full of tubes, this sort of sound is like seeing smoke coming out of your kitchen. Not a good sign at all. I promptly shit myself.
Anyone would have seen the keyboard player disappear quickly into the bowels of his rig, with just his hand tapping away at the Roland Fantom that sort of resembled a Hammond Organ. To quote Dougie from Anubis "Digital Hammond Death".Somehow, I got the thing back on, when I noticed that the power thing was half hanging out. Then I could play OK. But the wire precariously balanced in the back of the pedal was an issue that in the event I made any excited foot jabs at the gain pedal, would result in total Hammond meltdown, I had to sedate myself somewhat. From the ambient section of 'Echoes' onwards, it sounded brilliant, and the climax was very very authentic.
(Perversely, the one review I have read of the show cited this song as the absolute high point, but didn't mention the keyboards... either they didn't notice the mess up or I was just not very good and not worthy of a mention....)
The monitoring was slighty better, but still not THAT great.
'Time' was competant. Screen films looked good.
'The Great Gig In The Sky' was probably the highlight. The piano and organ work was good, and the vocals were just extraordiary. Katrina's finest hour I think... Very very happy with that one.
'Us and Them' was very good and Martyn's sax was, I believe very strong. 'Brain Damage' was okay but the tempo fluctuated too much and we went out of sync with the films. 'Eclipse', I believe was good... I couldn't hear anyone else. I think they were good!
The encores were enthusiastically recived and the vocal on 'Have A Cigar' was extraordinary. I was very happy with that one. I had a moment with the old Moog going into spasm in the first dual lead section, but I fixed it almost straight away. Hoary old chestnut's 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Run Like Hell' were good and very enthusiastically recieved.
The band convened for a central bow and recieved a stanging ovation. We must have been good!
I am looking forward to seeing the film as I have no idea what the show sounded like out front. I was so loud that quite clearly every keyboar error (and there were more than one!) was blindingly obvious at the level I played, although in the mix it's possible that it's barely audiable, if at all. High points were 'Shine On', 'Brick', 'Inside Out', 'Money', 'Us and Them', 'Eclipse', 'Have A Cigar' and the Encores.
All in all, I loved the show, and hope we get to continue the momentum by playing sooner rather than later. Another one this year, or maybe even another two this year would be ideal.
Photos and further info when I have them!
I think the biggest thrill for me, is that the band, although really only 5 shows old has arrived at a line up which is truly exceptional. Lachlan and Lex are as always on song, but loose enough to be authentic. Chris and Dean played exceptionally and sounded wonderful. I had all the sounds at my disposal to do my job well. The harmonies were tight and well done. Biggest credit goes to Elle who not only learned the whole set in two weeks but sounded marvellous, looked incredible and added to our chemistry ten fold. And my lovely Katrina who sang her heart out and was rewarded with the biggest cheer of the evening, and deservedly so. Taking the bow with the band was the thrill as it again proved we have the musical muscle to achieve much. And For the most part, when we're playing the 'same tune', there is much good will and affection.
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