Pink Fraud and Dayglo Pirates - Double Bill Tribute

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Website/s

Pink Fraud Official Website
Dayglo Pirates Official Website

Date/Sat 20 October, 2007
Reviewed by/Denis Hill & Nic Cooper

Dayglo Pirates - Tull tribute

This gig had been a long time in the making – the Pirates having postponed their first ever visit to Plinston over two years ago owing to a bereavement – and its taken all this time to find a return date. Worth the wait? Let’s see shall we…..?

A packed venue made for a supercharged atmosphere before a note was played and as I browsed the set list of this Sussex-based five-piece, I saw a few tasty morsels from Tull’s halcyon pre – 1980 days jumping off the page. As the band took the stage, my first impression was of Paul Forrest looking impressively like the Ian Anderson of old and during the first two tracks My Sunday Feeling (from This Was) and Living in the Past (album of same), the similarity was clearly more than skin deep as we saw not just the famous uni-dexter stance but also the very idiosyncratic flute-playing, Anderson-esque rasping vocal and even the devilish glare. The rather brooding opening to We Used to Know, taken from the classic Stand Up album, built up to a rich and powerhouse instrumental ending with all five guys meshing extremely well.

My God (Aqualung) was a real tour de force which gained a well-deserved lengthy ovation from the crowd. Graham Burgess on keys was prominent in the two selections from the Songs from The Wood album. Firstly, the title track and next Hunting Girl, which to my ears was a masterly Tull interpretation.

Thick As a Brick did not disappoint either and the band generated an impressively dark and glowering atmosphere on Aqualung which gave the track a real stamp of authenticity. Locomotive Breath was another gem which brought back memories of the Tull gigs of three decades ago.

What I liked most about Dayglo Pirates meaty one hour set was the great attention they paid to creating the spirit and flavour of a live Tull performance – to me that’s much more important than mimicry.

The Dayglo Pirates were:

Paul Forrest: Vocals, flute, Acoustic Guitar
Simon Taylor: Electric Guitar, recorders, backing vocals
Graham Burgess: Piano, Organ, Synthesiser, backing vocals
Steve Harrison: Bass Guitar
Tom Andrews: Drums. Glockenspiel, backing vocals

Pink Fraud - Pink Floyd tribute

Opening with excerpts from the 1979 album ‘The Wall’ it was immediately apparent that Pink Fraud had a quality of sound so rarely heard these days, bringing back memories of bygone era where you didn’t have to be deafened to hear the music. Add to this, great period visuals projected on to a large round screen, subdued lighting and the scene was set for an hour and a half of nostalgic pleasure.

For those not familiar Pink Floyd, ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’ taken from the album ‘Wish You Were Here’, is a tribute to the founder member of the band Syd Barratt, who became a victim of drug over indulgence to such an extent that he was forced to quit the band. It was the next number of the set, which began very quietly, and in the audience you could have heard a pin drop, such was the level of attention given.

For many ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ was Pink Floyds finest hour. A reflection of life, death, depression and lunacy, it is a concept album, which despite its morbid subject matter really works. It is strong and powerful. To say that Pink Fraud did it justice would be an understatement. They played the entire album from start to finish without a break. It would have been very easy to spoil, by playing too loud and losing the subtle light and shade of the original. ‘Time’ and ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ were fantastic and even made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up and take notice! At the end a standing ovation ensued.

For the old timers in the audience they then played ‘Astronomy Domine’, the first track on the very first Pink Floyd album ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’. I felt the band felt less comfortable with this more psychedelic number than with Floyd’s later material.

For the encore the title track from ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ from ‘The Wall’ rounded off the evening perfectly, and left the audience crying out for more.

I have seen other Floyd tribute bands and I’m of the opinion that Frauds’ vocals were better than the competition. Furthermore, to pick out any of the musicians individually would be unfair. Should you have been looking for faults there were none, except perhaps needing an hour more next time. If you weren’t there, you missed a great gig, definitely worth missing the rugby for!