Brit Floyd still in the Pink
When Brit Floyd’s Damian Darlington was very young he was captivated by the mystical progressive acoustic rock/folk sounds of Mike Oldfield, known for haunting 1973 opus “Tubular Bells” partially used in horror classic “The Exorcist” which came out the same year.
It was “Tubular Bells” and Oldfield’s 1975 album “Ommadawn” that fuelled Darlington’s musical passion.
“Ommadawn” was Oldfield’s third album and I remember hearing that when I was about six or seven years old,” says Darlington, who is the musical director, vocalist, and guitarist for Brit Floyd — a globally-acclaimed Pink Floyd songbook band.
“I remember that album having a big effect on me at the time and to this day, I still listen to it,” notes Darlington, in his Northern England lilt, via phone from Lewisville, Kentucky.
Brit Floyd is currently in the throws of a 145-date North American tour. “Ah, in fact, I was listening to Ommadawn only last week,” he adds with a laugh, noting that album track “On Horseback” is a wonderful little piece of music.
“Mike Oldfield was probably the musician that I discovered first when I was getting into the idea of being into particular artists and bands,” he continues. “He is an amazing musician because he can play such a vast array of instruments. He is also a great composer with very, very simple tunes and pieces of music that he would create in a certain way which are also very complicated at the same time,” says Darlington who got his first steel acoustic guitar at age 11 and got into Pink Floyd at age 13.
Darlington comes from a family of six brothers and sisters. Five siblings are musicians. He says it was inevitable that he would follow in his siblings’ footsteps.
Younger brother Gareth Darlington is front of house engineer/ sound designer for Brit Floyd.
“Gareth is musician in his own right,” says Darlington. “He is very talented violin player and guitarist. But he became involved in the audio side and production of music. And it quickly became apparent that he was also very talented at that. So he developed into the role of front-of-house sound engineer. He also mixes all of our audio CDS and live DVDs in addition to programming keyboard sounds so he is a very integral part of how Brit Floyd sounds,” he adds.
Darlington, also a sound engineer, performed with Aussie Pink Floyd from 1994 to 2011, playing 1,300 shows the world over. He created Brit Floyd for more a nuanced visual and audio experience.
The ensemble is comprised of 11 musicians from around the world — all with suitably impressive artists’ pedigrees.
“We have actually had formal auditions where you get a number of people coming along and trying out for the part,” says Darlington. “Sometimes I get a recommendation from someone I respect. I spotted someone else on YouTube and that was our most recent guitarist’s audition. Edo Scordo is Italian and he got to work with us because I spotted him playing (“The Wall” classic) “Comfortably Numb” and doing it extremely well. So there are all sorts of ways that people can end up playing with the band,” he notes.
The Brit Floyd Immersion Tour — set to a million-dollar highdefinition sound, light and laser extravaganza complete with Pink Floyd’s signature circular screen — features selections from Pink Floyd albums “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here,” “The Wall,” and “The Division Bell,” plus a special tribute to the “Animals” album, now 40 years old.
Darlington says it’s hard to say which Pink Floyd song is more difficult to play.
“Epic tracks like “Echoes” and “Dogs” — the very long, more complex tracks — a little more difficult to pull off musically. There are lots of Pink Floyd songs that are not the easiest to play, to get it right, to get it exactly the way Pink Floyd played them back in the day,” he notes. “It is a big production,” he adds. “And it has to faithfully and authentically recreate the Pink Floyd concert experience. People say the lights, video and lasers, are a very important part of the show. You need lots of technically capable people to set all of that up and make it work in just the right way during the concert.”
Darlington wants to showcase some of Pink Floyd’s fan favourites giving older audiences the experience of reliving their youth while introducing Pink Floyd to younger or newer fans that never had the chance to see the band live.
He says Brit Floyd changes the set list every year and they are already thinking ahead to next year’s tour from the set list to behind-the-scenes prep as they continue touring through North America.
He says one of his most incredible experiences was performing in 1996 at the 50th birthday celebration for Pink Floyd vocalist/ guitarist David Gilmour.
“I got to play “Comfortably Numb” with Rick Wright, Pink Floyd’s original keyboard player who has since passed away,” recalls Darlington.
“But given what I do, it was an amazingly special moment for me as a musician and as a fan of Pink Floyd. I got to play beside one of the original guys with David Gilmour and (Pink Floyd drummer) Nick Mason watching on in the audience.”