“You’ve got to do it right, or you don’t do it,” said MacIvor, lead guitarist of Momentary Lapse: The Pink Floyd Show.
Among other things, MacIvor’s job is to re-create the guitar sound of Gilmour, whose guitar solos are a big part of the Pink Floyd sound.
“To me, he’s the master of tone and just hitting the right note at the right time.”
The group, whose first performance was at a fundraiser for Carlton Munroe earlier this year, was rehearsing for its Dec. 2 show at the deCoste Performing Arts Centre.
With three female backing vocalists providing support, Momentary Lapse intends on playing two sets at the deCoste that night: the first set will be songs from throughout the English band’s 50-year career – some of the songs perhaps lesser-known to the casual fan – while their second set is an ambitious undertaking, indeed: they’ll take a stab at playing Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, from start to finish.
With songs such as Time and Money, Dark Side of the Moon has sold an estimated 45 million copies and is considered the band’s greatest album.
MacIvor said he got the idea for the band after seeing Gilmour perform live in Toronto a couple of years ago. “I came back and said to (drummer Steve Keough), ‘why don’t we do this, since we’re both Pink Floyd fans?’”
It won’t be just about the music: Pink Floyd is well known for their eye-candy lights and video presentation.
The performance will be “pretty much a live documentation of what Floyd used to do,” bassist Ray Hedd added.
It will be a full animation show with all the light work that Floyd fans love.
“We’ve been working at it now for a couple years,” Hedd said. “We pretty much got it down to a tee.”
All of the band members are from Pictou County and are die hard Pink Floyd fans themselves, he said.
“They’re iconic. The sound is relaxing theatre atmosphere. It entertains any age.”
PLAYING DIFFERENT TUNES:
Lead vocals/guitar: Jofe MacDougall
Lead guitar: Murray MacIvor
Bass: Ray Hedd
Drums: Steve Keough
Keyboards: Rick Rankin
Saxophone: Brett MacDougall
Backing Vocals: Niki Veniot, Robyn Alcorn-Martin, Sarah MacPherson