New Glaswegians can rock out comfortably numbly on Nov. 5 when Pink Floyd tribute band PIGS roll into town.
And New Glaswegians are more than just another brick in the wall for PIGS, who will recreate the British rockers’ glory days of the 1970s at Glasgow Square Theatre.
“I think we all can’t wait to run out there and dip our toes in the ocean and bring our music to people who haven’t experienced it in these 40 years,” said frontman Josh Szczepanowski.
PIGS, who hail from across the country in Victoria, formed in 2008 and have played to sold-out audiences throughout British Columbia and Alberta for the last four years.
Szczepanowski’s own interest in Pink Floyd came from his father, who often listened to them while he was growing up.
He was born one month after Pink Floyd’s album The Final Cut was released in 1983, at the tail end of their heyday.
His decision to found PIGS – named after the song on the album Animals – came from a desire to recreate an authentic Pink Floyd stage show complete with period light and sound effects.
“It’s really, really wonderful to speak to people afterwards who are big fans and saw them back in the day and say it was just like how they remember them,” said Szczepanowski.
However, there is one song that Szczepanowski, an elementary school teacher, finds ironic: Another Brick In The Wall.
Forming part of the album Wall, the 1979 single was a protest against Britain’s strict school system that many felt stifled free thinking. It featured a choir from London’s Islington Green School.
“There’s a delicious irony in me singing that song as I believe very much in education,” said Szczepanowski. “I certainly would these days be looking towards a more open education [system].”
Pink Floyd formed in London in 1965, made up of students Syd Barrett on guitar and lead vocals, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass and vocals and Richard Wright as keyboardist/vocalist.
As they found fame in London’s underground music scene, guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined in 1967 and Barrett left the following year due to mental health issues.
Pink Floyd’s heyday was in the 1970s and early 1980s, when world-famous albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983) were released.
However, the band fell apart amid personal conflict, reuniting in 2005 to perform at Live 8. Barrett did not join them and died in 2006.
Barrett’s death was followed by Wright’s in 2008.
Pink Floyd’s final studio album, The Endless River, was released in 2014, based mostly on unreleased material.
Pink Floyd entered the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the U.K.’s Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
By 2013, the band had sold more than 250 million records worldwide.
“I think they’ve had an impact across probably the whole spectrum of pop culture,” said Szczepanowski.
