“Shine On in North Wales - Australian Pink Floyd Deliver a Cosmic Masterclass at Venue Cymru”
- Desh Kapur
- Nov 20
- 3 min read
VENUE CYMRU, LLANDUDNO – 19th NOVEMBER 2025
WORDS AND IMAGES DESH KAPUR
A masterclass in tribute done right. Floyd fans, don’t walk — run.
If there’s one thing you learn as a lifelong Floyd fan, it’s that chasing the magic of the originals is a risky game. But tonight, in a windswept Llandudno with the Irish Sea roaring behind Venue Cymru, The Australian Pink Floyd Show didn’t just chase the magic — they bottled it, lit it up with lasers and sent it floating across the North Wales coast.
From the moment the lights dropped, the theatre was pulled into a parallel universe. A low hum, a heartbeat almost, rolled across the room… and before anyone could exhale, that unmistakable opening shimmer of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” rose like a ghost from the stage. And for a split second, everyone — grey-haired diehards, young tribute-show first-timers, couples in merch older than their marriages — just froze. It was that accurate. That faithful. That beautiful.
Tonight wasn’t just another greatest-hits jukebox. Aussie Floyd were treating the songs with the kind of respect usually reserved for religious texts. Every guitar swell was surgically precise, every synth drone wrapped around Venue Cymru like a warm fog, every backing vocal hit that perfect celestial sweetness Pink Floyd were always famous for.
And the visuals? Christ. You could feel the collective serotonin of the room spike when the lasers kicked in. Their production is a love letter to the grandiosity of classic Floyd — retina-searing beams, kaleidoscopic projections that could hypnotise a brick wall.
When they slipped into “Have A Cigar,” the whole theatre shifted gear — groovier, dirtier, dripping with attitude. By “Wish You Were Here,” you could hear people singing along with that quiet, reverent tone usually reserved for funerals or football terraces.
They ripped through Floyd heavyweights: “Time”, “Another Brick in the Wall Part ”, “Money” — each one delivered with the confidence of a band who’ve been doing this longer than some actual Floyd members toured in the latter years.
The musicianship tonight was frighteningly good. Their guitarist didn’t just play Gilmour — he channelled him. Those solos? Liquid emotion. The kind that makes your ribs vibrate. The backing singers? Faultless. The rhythm section? A machine.
And look — there are Floyd purists who’ll say nobody should touch this material. That nobody can recreate it. But watching in Venue Cymru tonight, with lasers slashing the air and 1,500 people transported to somewhere between Llandudno and 1975… I’d say those purists are missing out.
This wasn’t imitation. This wasn’t cosplay.
This was the closest thing any of us are ever going to get to the real thing — played with heart, skill, and an understanding of exactly why these songs matter so much.
Walking out into the cold North Wales night after the closing notes of “Comfortably Numb” dissolved into the rafters, it hit me just how rare it is to feel a show in your chest like this. Aussie Floyd didn’t just play Pink Floyd tonight. They honoured them. And for two glorious hours, Llandudno felt like the centre of the universe.
SET LIST
Set One
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
Welcome to the Machine
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)
In the Flesh?
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3
Goodbye Cruel World
Set Two
Arnold Layne
Time
Breathe (Reprise)
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Sorrow
Marooned
Coming Back to Life
One of These Days
Run Like Hell
Encore
Comfortably Numb
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