The Australian Pink Floyd, The Regent, Ipswich, March 30

The Australian Pink Floyd, The Regent, Ipswich, March 30

IT MUST be quite a cool feeling to make 1,700 seated people jump three inches in the air at once.

The Australian Pink Floyd managed it with the opening salvo from In the Flesh; you know there’s a sonic hammer blow following the gentle opening warbles but you just can’t help but lift off the seat a little when it arrives.

As ever TAPF were technically very good, although the sound initially lacked the clarity I recall from their last visit and they seemed slightly short on the passion and polish of previous shows.

That may or may not have been due to the absence of Damian Darlington, the former front man who has forged his own path elsewhere, but the first half felt slightly underwhelming.

Whatever the reasons the second half was another matter.

With a visual bag of tricks that included a 25ft inflatable kangaroo that gyrated slightly obscenely in the background and a laser show of glittering intensity they lifted their game to the right level for a canon of Floyd classics.

The hymn to Syd Barrett, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, surely be one of prog rock’s finest achievements, was given the proper treatment.

Time, Us and Them, Wish You Were Here, Meddle – we loved them all and they way they were performed. Their standing ovation was well earned.

Dom Castle