THERE can be few bands harder to emulate than Pink Floyd but The Floyd Effect seem to have ensnared a huge fan base around the bigger theatre circuit and return to The Wharf on September 16, so they are clearly doing something right.

Ellie Hudson put some questions to keyboard playing Gordon Reid.

The Floyd Effect has built up a remarkably credible reputation, when did you form and how many of you are in the band?

‘The Floyd Effect was born out of the ashes of a previous Pink Floyd tribute band based in East Anglia that Kerry (the drummer) and Gordon (the keyboard player) were in.

‘They later recruited Garry (on bass) and Mark (our amazing front man - guitars and vocals). All of this happened in 2007.

‘Three years later, the core of the band was completed by the arrival of John (also guitars and vocals) in 2010. In addition to these core members, we then have a wonderful pool of backing singers — the Floydettes — and there are always two or three of these performing at each concert, and they tend to get the biggest cheers of the night for their amazing rendition of The Great Gig In The Sky.

‘The band is completed by our saxophonist (usually Gerard, although we have one or two others that we can call upon when work makes him unavailable). So five core members and three or four additional singers and musicians at every concert.’

Give us a break down of who is in the band and what role they play?

‘Everybody fulfils multiple roles so, in addition to those described above, everyone sings — we can have as many as eight voices on Us and Them from Dark Side Of The Moon. Gerard also plays guitar on a number of tracks, Gordon has played guitar when we’ve performed our early years (psychedelic) shows and three guitar parts are needed, Garry has played extra percussion — and so on.

‘I don’t think that there’s anybody in the band who can’t play two or more instruments.

‘Everyone also has an important role to play off stage, whether it’s organising concerts and tours, designing videos for the tracks, sound design so that everything sounds completely authentic, liaising with venues, talking to the press, giving interviews and so on.

‘Together with our sound and lights crew, it really is a huge team effort.

Floyd were a band of technical brilliance, it must be very difficult reproducing that sound in a smaller venue with a tiny fraction of the budget, do you have a technical team travelling with you or is it all now just a click of a button?

‘There is absolutely no click of a button. One of the things that we try to make clear in our publicity is that there are no computers, no backing tracks, no click tracks to play along to. To put it bluntly, no cheating.

‘With the exception of sound effects such as the cash registers and the speeches from some of the albums, every note you hear is played, ever word you hear is sung.

There are other bands with huge budgets and much bigger shows, but their concerts can be sterile because every night is exactly the same. Every Floyd Effect concert is unique - a moment to be shared with the audience.

In Pink Floyd’s tracks the backing girls are as integral to the sound as the light show, especially for songs like The Great Gig in the Sky, tell us about your backing singers, the Floydettes.

We have the best backing singers I have ever worked with. We always perform the whole of Dark Side Of The Moon, complete and unbroken, as it was meant to be heard. The only pause is to ‘turn the record over’ between The Great Gig In The Sky and Money.

Comfortably Numb has always been a firm favourite among fans, what other songs are an absolute must for every set list?

‘Every year we change the first set - sometimes subtly, sometimes more radically, but set 2 has remained largely unchanged for ten years, comprising the whole of Dark Side Of The Moon, then Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell. It’s the same as the second CD in the Pulse box set, and possibly the perfect Pink Floyd set list.’

You must obviously be huge Floyd fans yourselves, do they know you are out there playing their music?

‘We don’t know for certain, but it’s possible because one of us has done a little work for them in his ‘day job’. We know that David Gilmour in particular is very supportive of the tribute bands.’

Lastly what can Floyd fans expect from your forthcoming show?

‘Our audiences can always expect the best possible show that we can put on at every venue and to hear the music of Pink Floyd played with huge affection and enthusiasm by a bunch of people who are genuine fans and who love the music as much as everyone in the audience does.’