'Any Colour' show at Stoneridge in the Pink

Excerpts from .. A review by Gary W. Young/GM-Editor Westside Star, Laurie, MO
Published: Monday, July 17, 2006 1:15 PM CDT

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If you weren't among music fans at Stoneridge Amphitheater Saturday evening, July 15, you missed a good show.

Old, white guys like me aren't supposed to know how to rock anymore, but I found myself grooving to the beat of an impressive performance by "Any Colour You Like," a four-piece band from Ohio replicating the musical genius of Pink Floyd.

The entire body of the Pink Floyd catalogue is stellar. And since the band hasn't toured since 1994's "The Division Bell" album was released, Any Colour You Like is the next best thing.

Any Colour You Like's renditions were striking in the group's ability to reproduce the signature Pink Floyd sound. After a small technical glitch opening the show in which lead singer Dan Gable's microphone wasn't switched on, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," demonstrated that Any Colour You Like could, indeed, make you believe you were hearing the great Pink Floyd.

When the opening song ended Gable said simply, "...that was for Syd — may you rest in peace."

The band immediately launched headlong into the next song, "Welcome to the Machine" ahead of the applause of the crowd, much of which like me sat mesmerized by the performance. Call me a rube; say I'm easily impressed; or simply believe these guys have worked long and hard to get it right.

"We spent two years in an abandoned warehouse working at it before we began touring," keyboardist-vocalist Mark McCutcheon told me after the show. "We've been doing Pink Floyd's music on the road for the past two years now."

The band members were selected for their unique ability to accurately reproduce the vocals and instruments of their Pink Floyd counterparts.

They pulled it off as far as I'm concerned. Even my 22-year old son, Zachary — born 11 years after Dark Side of the Moon was released — enjoyed the show.

 Dan Johnson impressively played the role of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, whose guitar riffs are signature elements of the band's music. Drummer-percussionist Chet Mull rounds out the band that played music from many of Pink Floyd's albums "Animals," "The Wall," "The Final Cut" and "Meddle."

They were not Pink Floyd, but they were the next best thing on a hot, steamy Lake of the Ozarks summer night.

— Gary W. Young

"Any Colour You Like is one of the most precise tribute shows, sonic and visually, we've ever presented!"

The ultimate Pink Floyd experience and a holiday tradition at Tangier. This band is unbelievable in it's transformation into the world's most popular rock icons, Pink Floyd. The music, the lasers, the lights, and the video screen make "Any Colour You Like" the best in their field.

Freddie Salem - Entertainment Director, Tangier Cabaret

"Any Colour You Like blows away every Floyd tribute show I've ever seen!"

Cleveland Scene Magazine

December 8, 2004

Oz and Them Cover band tackles musical mystery, leaves no stoner unturned: Chris Glazer

At first, Dan Gable brushed off rumors that Pink Floyd deliberately synchronized its classic Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz. For one thing, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and crew probably didn't have the technology back then to pull off the stunt. But Gable's Pink Floyd tribute band, Any Colour You Like, started to experiment with the urban legend. "I went into it as a total skeptic, thinking, How many bong hits do you have to do before Dark Side and The Wizard of Oz link up?" asks Gable, the band's bassist. For two years, Gable and his band-mates played the songs and watched the movie in their Barberton rehearsal hall, looking for "sync points." "If there were one, two, maybe three [synchronicities], you would say it was all a coincidence," offers Gable. "When there are 12 or 13, it exponentially becomes almost impossible to be such a coincidence." The band found 62. Now Gable doesn't know what to think. Pink Floyd has denied the rumors. Still, among those not-so-accidental pairings: In "Us and Them," Gilmour sings "black" when the Wicked Witch of the West first appears on the screen. "And she's in full black, with green around her from the smoke," notes Gable. "Then [he sings] 'blue,' and it shifts over to Dorothy, who's in the blue dress. It's uncanny." Any Colour's vocal imitations of Waters and Gilmour are also eerily similar. Gable handles all of Waters' leads; guitarist Dan Johnson sings Gilmour's parts. With the first 40 minutes of Oz un-spooling on a super-huge screen behind them as they recreate Moon, they've sometimes been accused of lip-synching. Like the time in Buffalo, when two guys in the audience challenged them. "It so happened the sound guy was there, and he said, 'I just did a sound check. There's no lip-synching going on here.' "But hey, I'll give them my bass and my mic," laughs Gable. "Have a good time. I'll sit back and watch anytime."