Of all the bands from the early progressive rock scene, British Pink Floyd has the most tribute bands. In The Netherlands, we have Pink Floyd Project, Pink Project, Pink Noise and Steel Breeze. The most famous Pink Floyd tribute band and probably the world’s best are The Australian Pink Floyd Show. The name of The Hungarian Pink Floyd Show sounds very much alike. In their home country, the band calls themselves Hitrock Pink Floyd Tribute Band. They gave four live shows in our country of which one of them was close to my hometown. Thus, it was a perfect chance to find out whether they were as good as the Aussies.

At the start of their performance, it was not immediately clear which song would be the opener of the concert. I heard some musical fragments from The Wall, but also some snippets from Dark Side Of The Moon. As soon as keyboardist Tibor Füchsel entered the stage and touched the keyboards, it became clear that Shine On You Crazy Diamond was the first musical delicacy on the menu. One by one, the musicians hit the stage to perform their parts. Although they didn’t play the entire piece, I enjoyed it a lot. Guitarist László Birta came pretty close to the original sound of David Gilmour. Before we could enjoy a rather strong version of the almost entire Dark Side Of The Moon album, the band performed Learning To Fly from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason sung by György Gönczi. In my opinion, he is not the perfect singer for the band. His voice is not strong enough and his English had too much of an accent.

The band performed Dark Side Of The Moon without the 'flying bed' song On The Run, but with the 'clock song' Time. Then the pianist played the first notes of The Great Gig In The Sky and I asked myself how the two female background singers would handle those difficult vocal parts. They both have strong voices, but they couldn’t even stand in the shadow of the original version by Clare Torry. However, I have to admit, it’s certainly not an easy song to sing. Money got the original Pink Floyd live version - like many other songs in Uden - including the additional bass and guitar parts. On Us And Them, the saxophonist had a leading role and he managed to play his part in a proper way. After Us And Them, I expected Any Colour You Like, but to my surprise, they ended the medley with Brain Damage/Eclipse including the well-known voice-over, originally recorded in the studio. According to the set list this piece was the end of the first set but One Of These Days, the first piece of the second set, became the last of the first set, but without a pig at the ceiling… Máté Nógrádi played a very strong bass line and brought the audience in the right mood. György Gönczi appeared to be a very gifted lap steel guitarist.

After the break, we could enjoy a collection of songs from The Division Bell. They kicked off with a strong rendition of Take It Back followed by Coming Back To Life and High Hopes. Just like the original version, drummer Tibor Poszsonyi used the sound of a real bell, but what surprised me most was the guy in the audience standing with his back against the stage during the performance of The Division Bell. As soon as the band started a short version of The Wall, he turned around with his face towards the musicians. He apparently refused to listen to the songs recorded without Roger Waters… The short version of The Wall included six tracks ending the second set. For me, it was rather strange that the band played the tracks in random order. As a result, the opening tune In The Flesh came after Young Lust. The only hit single from this magnificent album was also on the set list. Another Brick In The Wall - part 2 started with the sound of a helicopter, just as on the original album and just like Pink Floyd, they ended the set with Comfortably Numb. Both guitar players performed David Gilmour’s excellent guitar solo at the end of this song. They both got the chance to show their skills. The lightshow accompanying the guitar solos was fine, but that was not the case with the solos themselves. Those solos should belong to the highlights of a Pink Floyd-tribute but unfortunately, they didn’t.

During the encores, we got no surprises. Wish You Were Here and Run Like Hell are the usual songs for Pink Floyd to end with and the band stuck to this tradition. Actually, I would like to see a different show from a tribute band, something the original band and other cover bands don’t do. Why didn’t they play songs from the early days? Songs as See Emily Play and Arnold Layne can be found on many compilation albums. The show also lacked material from Animals or Atom Heart Mother. Maybe they´re afraid to be less successful if they include rather unknown tracks on their set list. For a real Pink Floyd-adept it doesn´t matter what’s on the menu as long as the songs are performed in the right way. The Hungarian Pink Floyd Show are certainly not as good as The Australian Pink Floyd Show. That’s my conclusion after seeing a band trying to entertain an audience the best possible way without the use of additional stage props. In my opinion, the vocals were the weakest part of the show. If they had been good, I wouldn´t have had much to complain.

Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)