JENNA OUTCALT
Staff Writer
For Chris Barnes, getting his tone right is the toughest part of his job. However, when he’s covering iconic voices like those of Syd Barrett, David Gilmour and Roger Waters, it’s also the most essential part.
“It’s kind of like doing an impersonation that you (are) constantly trying to perfect all the time,” he said.
Barnes is the lead singer of The Australian Pink Floyd Show, a Pink Floyd tribute band originally formed in 1988. The Australian Pink Floyd will perform at 8 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.
Rather than simply covering Pink Floyd’s music, The Australian Pink Floyd is known for recreating the full experience of a Pink Floyd show. According to Barnes, the show is a “multimedia assault on the senses in a nice way,” incorporating lights, smoke and a 26-foot-tall inflatable kangaroo mascot named Skippy, their own addition to the Pink Floyd experience.
“This production thing is such a part of what Pink Floyd were known for, and we recreate that as best we can with the technology that’s available to us at the venue space that we’ve got,” Barnes said. “It’s kind of giving people something that they may have missed.”
Barnes, who is from Manchester, U.K., joined The Australian Pink Floyd in 2015 after drummer Paul Bonney connected him to the band. Barnes ran a music workshop for children that Bonney’s daughter was a part of and sang for a smaller Pink Floyd cover band.
According to Barnes, Bonney arranged for the music workshop students to sing with The Australian Pink Floyd at a concert, where Barnes struck up a friendship with founding member of the band Steve Mac. When The Australian Pink Floyd finished their tour in 2015, they contacted Barnes to see if he wanted to step in for the lead vocalist.
“It was well established when I joined in 2015, and I basically just had to wait for the opportunity to come,” he said.
Barnes explained that after all their time touring, most of the original band members took a step back from performing.
“It is so taxing and so tiring being on tour and living out of a suitcase, and they took a step back after all those years of touring and found replacements, [and] here we are … 10 years, 11 years later,” Barnes said.
The Australian Pink Floyd has been touring across North America this summer with a show “covering all aspects of the Floyd catalog,” according to Barnes.
“This year’s set has been received really well by the crowds in America,” he said.
The show will touch on every Pink Floyd album and focus on the greatest hits, Barnes said.
“My favorite this year has been the song ‘On the Turning Away,’ which is from the A Momentary Lapse of Reason album from 1987,” Barnes said, “which previously I wasn’t a huge fan of, but as I’ve been given the song this year, it’s been so much fun to sing.”
Barnes said he appreciated the powerful lyrics, which emphasize not turning away from those in need. He said, “I think it’s quite relevant in the world that we live in at the moment.”
Barnes emphasized that Pink Floyd is “in its own category,” standing out from classic rock and progressive rock with its singular sound and variety of musical influences.
“I think because they’re so unique, they sit in their own box, when I look out to our audience and see people my dad’s age, people my age and people my kids’ age, you realize that it’s constantly being introduced to a new generation,” Barnes said.
Although Barnes said there were many bands whose songs would live on, he feels Pink Floyd “is just a little bit different.”
“It’s really great to see all these different generations of people coming to our shows, and certainly in the States, it’s a younger crowd,” he said. “We do see a lot younger crowd in the U.S. and Canada, which is fantastic, because obviously this great music is living on into the next generation and the generations to come.”
