Brit Floyd will mark 50 years since the groundbreaking album The Dark Side of the Moon by performing in Elmira’s Wilson Center on July 14th. Dubbed as one of the world’s premier Pink Floyd shows, its founder Damian Darlington hand-selects musicians for each performance – many former studio and road members of Pink Floyd are included as part of this phenomenal band!
At the dawn of the Sixties, love and drugs were in full bloom. Roger “Syd” Barrett, an accomplished guitarist himself, joined four Cambridge teenagers — Nick Mason (an experimental percussionist); Rick Wright (keyboard player); and David Gilmour (who first experienced singing through Spontaneous Underground events in London); all eager to experience a new era of freedom through music. They formed The Tea Set before playing their debut shows at Countdown Club.
Soon, Hipgnosis became part of an emerging underground scene. Their music ranged from rock and roll into experimental, psychedelic jazz; soon enough they were performing live sonic freakouts half-hidden by newfangled light shows and projections at London venues such as All Saint’s Hall. Hipgnosis pioneered adding visual aspects to live performances; their engaging sleeve art from former Cambridge ensemble Hipgnosis helped cement them as one of the UK’s most visually inventive bands.
By 1974, The Band had achieved great success with their antiauthoritarian song ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ and its album Animals broke sales records across Europe. Yet internally the group was discordant due to lead singer Roger Waters becoming increasingly disgruntled with his role as stadium rock star and cog in music business machine; on tour in Montreal during one stop-off Waters snapped at and spat upon an audience, an act that ultimately inspired their most ambitious project yet, The Wall: Waters’ personal reflection on feelings of isolation, isolation and mental fragility that began.
After 1994’s The Division Bell album and tour proved highly successful, however they eventually parted ways and split in 1995. Reunited for one-off performances at Earls Court in 2004 and again in 2023 under their PULSE production – featuring inflatables, lasers, circular projection screens and other spectacles to match those found at Earls Court concert – their performance at Wilson Center should prove equally captivating.
