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Date: Sun 07 Apr, 2002 at 00:00
Headline: Pink Exposition
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Greetings and Salutations!
I have just returned home from our first Floyd
Tribute rehearsal since the show at Flyin
Zion last week. We ran through some of the rough spots in the current
setlist, working out the kinks in the arrangements, and picked some fresh
tunes for this upcoming show on May 10. It's all sounding good, and we're
getting psyched to go back and do it again...only better. Since we seem to
be devoting a lot of time and space to this project lately, I thought I'd
share with you some of the history and motivations behind it.
To begin with, this show has been over 10 years in the making...in a
roundabout sort of way.
It was Webmaster Fozz who actually first suggested the
idea to me when we were students at Utah State University.
Pink Floyd was one of the bands
that made a huge impact on us as teenagers, and yet we had never seen them
in concert because they hadn't been to Utah since...well, before we were born. We theorized that there must be others in our area and/or age group who would be interested in experiencing this music performed live by someone. At the time we had no idea that "tribute bands" who did this sort of thing professionally even existed. We just wanted to have some fun.
Since I was involved in both the Theatre and Music departments at USU, I
decided to exploit the resources at hand by putting a band together and
booking an on-campus venue. For a of kid who had no experience in
booking, promotion, or campus politics, this was a fairly ambitious project. I'm still
not sure how we managed to pull it off, but there were a lot of people who
were willing to help us out and on May 27, 1992, we
performed approximately two hours of Pink Floyd tunes (some done well, some not-so-much) at USU's Morgan
Theater. A hundred or so people were in attendance, and seemed to enjoy
themselves. It was incredibly fun, a ton of hard work, and a fantastic learning
experience. I had named the band Sons Of Nothing,
a reference to the
working title of the Floyd
classic 'Echoes'. We worked day in and day out for 4 months
straight to put this single concert together, then never played
again. In fact, the night of the show was the last time I ever saw our lead
guitarist. I always regretted that we had not built in an opportunity to
play more shows -- to have a chance to improve and see all of our hard work
truly pay off.
A few years later when I relocated to Salt Lake City, I
attempted to resurrect the idea, but the results were less than I had hoped
for. The new band was made up of capable musicians, but internal conflicts
made the job of getting the show together much more difficult and the
business side of things was an abysmal failure. Thus we ended up playing in
a High School auditorium in Spanish Fork for precious few people. It was very little fun, but
also a great learning experience. And once again, it was the band's only show. I subsequently dropped the idea altogether and spent the next few
years in original bands, writing songs and working my way into the local scene. I ultimately found this to be the most fulfilling way to go as a musician, but it always nagged at me that I never was able to pull off the Floyd
Tribute thing as well as I had wanted.
When I met Tim Hollinger in 2001, I realized immediately that we had a strong musical connection through our mutual Floydian fandom (and in a fit of soon-to-be irony, I had gone back to the name Sons Of Nothing for this new original band). Tim and I would often break into spontaneous Floyd jams during rehearsal, much to the amusement and eventual irritation of our other
bandmates. SoN gigged regularly throughout that year, and
occasionally we threw a Floyd cover
or two into the set for fun. The audiences we played to seemed to dig it -- in fact, at one show we were deluged with requests for more and had to
improvise/remember a few tunes on the spot. Fozz was in attendance at that show, and afterwards he once again planted the seed..."since Tim loves this music as much as you do, why don't you try the tribute thing again sometime?"
And strangley enough, we were contacted some months later by Carl Roehmann (who had got wind of our
influences and penchant for breaking into Floyd at the slightest provocation) to do that very thing for the
2002 Flyin Zion Easter Party. I knew the chance had finally come to "get it right", and Tim and I jumped at it. Fozz
joined us to document the whole thing for posterity, and a grand
time was had by all.
Of course, getting it right not only means putting on a successful show
that does justice to the source material (as I feel we did at FZ), but also
building in the opportunity to do more shows, and improve our craft. I am very much looking forward to taking advantage of that opportunity and making this project as dazzling for audiences over the next year as it has been for us these past few months.
Stay tuned to the site for updates on when/where we'll be going with
this, and invite a friend or ten to come feel the "Space-Cadet Glow". Our
next concert (May 10 @ Getty's) promises to be even more theatrical and
showcase a broader range of material. Even if you're a die-hard fan of
the Floyd, you'll walk away
satisfied...and if you're NOT a die-hard fan, this show will make
you one. :-)
Shine On!
your humble correspondent
Thom Bowers
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