Q&A with Colin Wilson on The Australian Pink Floyd Show’s 2011 tour

Having sold over three million concert tickets in 35 countries, The Australian Pink Floyd Show is the world’s most successful—and authentic—classic rock tribute act. This week, the group launches its Live at the Hammersmith Apollo DVD and North American tour, which kicks off tomorrow (Oct. 7) at the Paramount Theatre in Denver.

On this tour, the Aussies have assembled their most ambitious and spectacular show ever, unveiling a new quadraphonic sound system, and—for the first time ever—3D stereographic technology in addition to an awe-inspiring Floydian laser and light show and gigantic inflatables including a pink kangaroo.

After earning his stripes on the live circuits of Australia, Colin Wilson joined the Aussie Floyd in 1992 as a bass player, vocalist and designer of much of the artwork brought to life by the band. In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Wilson about the tour, his favorite Floyd moments, and the other tribute bands he’d secretly like to join.

Growing up in Australia, how did you discover Pink Floyd?

I got into Pink Floyd the same way as most people here. I remember two things, flipping through a music magazine and seeing this big spread photograph of this band called Pink Floyd, and it looked amazing with these lights shining and everything. The second thing was a friend of mine had the Dark Side of the Moon album, so we would just get together and listen to Dark Side, which was different from anything else we’d ever heard of at that time. So I guess it’s a similar way that most people around the world started getting into it.

What’s in store for the current tour?

The new tour is like a best of, greatest hits kind of deal. We’ve got all the classic Floyd tracks that people demand that we play, and things for the more diehard fans. We’ve also got quadraphonic sound, which Floyd were known for in their heyday, as well as amazingly designed light shows, laser strobes and 3D videos.

The first time I saw the group perform, I was amazed by the technical excellence. Tell us about how you came up with this and what the reaction has been over the years.

Obviously, it’s an important part of any Pink Floyd show to have these visual elements together, so we’ve always tried to make our own things that are based on the original Pink Floyd, with our own ideas. Originally we worked with a guy who works down in Holland with Pink Floyd. He’s a fan of the band and wanted to get involved, so we had him make some video clips for us that we project during the second half of the show. So yeah, he’s an important part of it and we’re always open to new ideas that we can use.

What did you think of Pink Floyd’s Live 8 reunion performance?

I thought it was fantastic, fantastic. The four members together was incredible. Actually, I had a sneak preview of what they were doing—Nick Mason’s drum tech, Clive Brooks, phoned me up. We were in South America at the time on tour, and I answered my phone and all I could hear was “Comfortably Numb” being played in a rehearsal.

Have you seen David Gilmour and Roger Waters’ recent tours?

Yeah, absolutely. I saw the On an Island tour that Gilmour did; I saw that in Amsterdam. Actually, the sound engineer for that, who, thank God, is working with us, is Colin Norfield, who also did [Pink Floyd’s] Pulse/Division Bell world tour in 1994, so he’s really experienced…for the On an Island show, the sound, everything was just so perfectly spot-on and, of course, the great thing about that tour, apart from the fact that I think that album was actually great, they had Rick Wright and David Gilmour together onstage. It was great to see Rick Wright—as we all know now, it turned out to be his last performances [Wright passed away in 2008]. We saw [Roger Waters’ performance of] The Wall in London and it was incredible.

The Australian Pink Floyd show did its own Wall tour several years ago, with a complete original video running throughout the show. How much work was it coordinating all that?

We definitely looked at as much of the original imagery as we possibly could, until we absorbed all of that. Because we had that video running throughout, we actually had to play every single song from start to finish. Any time we had a problem with any kind of tune at all, you couldn’t do anything about it because the next song was starting, so we were kind of swept along by the whole thing. There were a lot of technical things that needed to be reproduced playing-wise. It was a big challenge and it was actually quite physical, but we felt that we did achieve something quite important. It was a great experience and it was a thrill that it came out as well as it did, because prior to doing it we did have quite a few concerns about whether it was going to work or not. It was obviously out of our range to build a wall, so we couldn’t do that, and we had to capture the feeling of The Wall without actually being able to build that massive kind of thing.

Waters and Gilmour reunited onstage last year for a benefit performance. What are your thoughts about them working together in the future?

I think the door definitely seems to have opened to some degree, certainly a lot more than prior to Live 8. Maybe there’s some possibility that we’ll see them do something together on the odd occasion, but I don’t think we’ll ever see a full-fledged tour as Pink Floyd with Roger Waters; I don’t think that will happen, especially since Rick Wright passed away. And of course, we’re all getting older and by this time, a full tour would be tough for them. They’d also have to tour the whole world and come up with something pretty amazing, which would have to cost a hell of a lot of money, because it would have to be really amazing and be better than the last time they came out.

Pink Floyd is putting out some deluxe reissues of their albums. What are you looking forward to hearing on those, if you haven’t already heard them in some other fashion?

Pretty much all of this stuff has been available one way or another before, on bootlegs and stuff like that. I’m not sure there’s anything brand new in that regard. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing how [longtime Pink Floyd art director Storm Thorgerson] packages it…it’s great for all of us whenever these kinds of things happen.

What are your personal highlights with The Australian Pink Floyd Show?

There are loads of high points. Obviously, playing for David Gilmour at a concert for his 50th birthday was an amazing high point, and it’s still hard to believe that it actually happened. We’ve have the opportunity to meet the individual members of Pink Floyd, and that’s obviously incredible. And also, certain shows around the world…I remember a certain time we played in New York City at the Beacon Theatre on Broadway, and just being in New York City for the first time and actually playing at a theater on Broadway was a real thrill for us.

What are your favorite songs to play onstage?

It varies sometimes, but this year we’re playing “Dogs” from the Animals album; we’re really big fans of the Animals album, and that’s probably my favorite album. It’s a really complicated piece of music, with a lot of changes and everyone’s real involved in it, so I particularly like plaything that. I also like playing the classic Floyd—“Money” and “Comfortably Numb” get a really great reaction from the audience. We’re also playing “Arnold Layne” from Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and that’s a really cool-sounding song going down pretty well with the audience.

Is there a trickiest song to play every night where you’re just dreading having to perform it?

(Laughs.) Well, again, things like “Dogs” are quite knotty…the timing has got to be spot-on. There’s a lot of songs like that where it takes a little bit of time to figure out, but as you play the songs you get more comfortable. [Sometimes] on center stage I can’t hear myself at a good level, so I try to get the notes afterward.

Do you try to match your gear onstage with what the real group used?

Yeah, we do…we have a look at whether it still exists and whether it’s not a liability. Like, we could have had an organ and all that stuff, but it’s not reliable because it’s old. We’ve reprogrammed everything to recreate the old sound. That takes quite a lot of work; we never buy something and use it like it sounds from the factory—that never happens; we kind of rework things. That’s part of the job for us, to get it to sound right.

If you had the chance to join a tribute band for another group, who would you choose?

(Laughs.) That’s hard. I’d probably say a Led Zeppelin tribute band; that would be great. But for all-out fun, I think it would be amazing to be part of a KISS tribute band, because of the craziness and to hide behind the makeup. Those guys have to have balls to do that.

I’ve seen a few of those; the audience loves it.

I just saw KISS last year, and it’s the best night out, you know?

They just keep adding more to it visually; that keeps me coming back. Do you have an absolute favorite Floyd gig?

Probably the Live at Pompeii gig, that’s my absolute favorite. I love Floyd in that early ’70s time when they were very experimental but they weren’t quite as psychedelic. I think things like “One of These Days,” “Set the Controls,” “Echoes,” that kind of ethereal dynamic of it, the fact that it was just those four guys and nothing fancy, just four guys playing.

Which solo works from the members of Pink Floyd would you recommend to the more casual fan?

Gilmour’s On an Island album, I think, is great, with the sound and the playing on the album. I’m quite a big fan of Roger Waters’ Amused to Death album, also; there’s some amazing stuff on that album. Also, Gilmour’s earlier solo stuff, there’s a great depth on them. If you’re a fan of Gilmour as a guitar player, check out his solo stuff as well as the Floyd stuff.

Do you have any other messages to share with your fans around the world?

As far as the North American tour goes, we just can’t wait to get over there again and see all our friends in America and Canada and do this new show. It’s our biggest show ever and we’re thrilled to be coming out!

The Australian Pink Floyd Show’s North American tour runs Oct.7 through Nov. 12. For more information and tickets, visit www.aussiefloyd.com.

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