Echoes to take you back in time

Go back to Pompeii this Saturday with Breathe, the Floyd Sound a Pink Floyd tribute band and see if they can relive the magic that pink floyd was

Tributes hardly get bigger than one paid to nearly four decades of the legendary band Pink Floyd. We were rather unexpectedly greeted first by a Labrador (Tyson) flinging itself at us as opposed to somber looking musicians that we had expected when we went to meet the Pink Floyd tribute band Breathe, the Floyd Sound.



The musicians did then come to the rescue and continued to go into light hearted comments about the incident for the rest of the morning. Breathe, the Floyd Sound, a UK band who took up the challenge to pay Floyd a tribute back in 2004, is here to woo their fans in the city a third time and promises to take you back in time to relive the magic of Pompeii (captured in the film Pink Floyd: Live in Pompeii).

What's in store for the evening is a planned and a partly rehearsed set to suit a gig they term opulent. The line-up of the band consists of Andy Frenton on lead guitars, Peter Worley on bass guitar and vocals, Dave Gee on the drums, Chris Barnes on guitar and vocals, Joel Anderson on keyboards and Miki Mumoz as sound engineer. "Floyd is like a closed book and we plan to pick something from every chapter. People in India know so much about Floyd," says Dave Gee. "Greatest hits are one thing; there are also a few surprises lined-up", he adds.

It began with Gee auditioning for a band that was to play Pink Floyd. "Over time I met people who shared the philosophy of playing a tribute to a band they were passionate about," says Gee. Talking about their favourite track and the challenge of replicating a band that has held cult status for nearly five decades, Gee says, "The challenge is what excited us. We would stop if we were bad". Their unanimous Floyd favourite is the track Echoes. "It's a big one to get right and we do get it right we believe," they say.

Being a tribute band and that of one such accord as Floyd comes with its advantages and shortcomings alike. The band confesses that it does give them the advantage of an inexhaustible source of tracks that span different decades all the way from the 60s to the 80s. "To be a tribute band to one that still exists and perform is a little spooky as you don't know what direction the band might take and if you will continue to like them.

Pink Floyd is a story closed, that is an advantage," says Gee. "The challenge comes with the amount of work it takes to reproduce each of the tracks. They used so many different sounds and so much equipment even at that time. We need to carry all that gear as every sound that people remember has to be kept intact. We are in the memorabilia business after all," says Frenton. "We can't help but put a bit of ourselves in it though. Only Floyd can play Floyd," he adds.

With fond memories of every gig in India including their recent countrywide tour, Echoes remembers a particular gig in Gangtok that's stands out as a stage mishap for them collectively, "We had a fan who walked up to us and asked us to play some Iron Maiden, we had to tell him he was at the wrong gig in that case," says Barnes.

Breathe, the Floyd Sound has brought Pink Floyd back to many for the past seven years and has no plans of looking back or performing original music as part of this set. "We will play Floyd as long as we can. They took the chance of penning down what they felt then and we actually believe in a lot of things they talked about," says Gee.

At: UB City Amphitheatre, Vittal Mallya Road
On: February 26, 6 pm
Call: 7760636654
For: Rs 750 onwards