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Pink Floyd tribute band's elaborate theatrics limits when, where it can play
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Saturday, Jun 13, 2009
When Wish You Were Here takes the stage, fans of the Pink Floyd tribute band get more than an earful.
A screen in the shape of a giant tambourine flashes images, automated lights flicker from every angle, and fog envelops the stage as a pig the size of a Volkswagen Beetle moves across the ceiling.
Hired actors portray scenes from the movie Pink Floyd The Wall, and roadies handle props that include a cardboard ''brick wall'' that can be 40 feet long, depending on the size of the venue.
At a couple of shows last year, the band even added a children's choir.
''I had almost 30 people on the payroll,'' band co-founder Eroc Sosinski said of a particularly elaborate production in Mansfield last December.
''I didn't make any money for that show.''
But he knew he wouldn't.
''I did it for the reputation of the band and to say that we did it and to give the fans who come see us all the time something special,'' said Sosinski, who lives in Cleveland.
The rest of the year, Wish You Were Here needs to make money.
Just the light and sound requirements of a typical show can cost $7,000 to $10,000, he said.
But there's no going back now. Fans have come to expect a Pink Floyd experience, not just Pink Floyd music.
For Sosinski — bass, co-lead vocalist and creative director of the band — it's an investment decision that has slowly evolved since he launched the group with Jim Tigue in 1995.
Before then, the pair had been with a band called Tie-Dye Harvest, which had been doing a Pink Floyd set at each gig since 1987, putting it on the leading edge of the tribute band wave.
When Sosinski and Tigue decided to create a nothing-but-Floyd band, ''we were just starting out. We didn't have anybody bankrolling us, so we were mostly focused on the music,'' Sosinski said.
The six-piece, two-crew band was accompanied by a small light show and a couple of props when it sold out its first show, at the Odeon in Cleveland.
''People were looking for their Floyd,'' Sosinski said of the instant success. ''There's this need of people to have the communal experience of seeing a band live playing their favorite music.''
In 1999, Wish You Were Here did its first performance of the rock opera The Wall, and that motivated Sosinski to move the band in a more theatrical direction.
Actors, sound effects, more props and a wall made of 2-foot-by-3-foot cardboard boxes added to production costs. A couple of more roadies were needed to move equipment around.
Two female vocalists joined the lineup.
Tigue left the band in 2001, but returns for about four shows a year, when Wish You Were Here grows into a nine-piece band.
In 2005, Sosinski invested $3,000 in a custom-made inflatable pig so he could re-create Floyd's Animals Tour. About the same time, he added a merchandise director.
Not surprisingly, ticket prices have inched up, but fans keep paying — up to $40 for prime seats in some venues.
''Pink Floyd was always about the show,'' Sosinski said. ''The band was relatively faceless, so we didn't have to worry about dressing up . . . to look the part. There weren't pictures of them on the album covers, so Pink Floyd became know as 'the show' and that became our selling point.''
In addition to higher ticket prices, adopting those theatrics has limited how often and where Wish You Were Here can play.
The band needs about 800 people in the seats to meet financial goals, so that means sticking to large con
cert clubs or outdoor arenas.
It stopped performing at city-sponsored concert series in Akron (Rock the Lock) and Cuyahoga Falls (Rockin' on the River) because it affected the group's ability to attract people to paying events.
''I found they were starting to devalue our worth in that market,'' Sosinski said.
(The band is playing at the Cuyahoga Falls River Square Amphitheater on July 11. Tickets are $10.)
Limited to the venues that can handle the crowd it needs, Wish You Were Here performs 12 to 15 times a year.
While the band can pull out all the stops for an outdoor show, it will play large indoor concert halls (like the House of Blues on July 25) even if that means leaving the pig tucked in a duffel bag in Sosinski's basement.
Another mitigating factor, Sosinski said, is that as the band grew in prestige, he replaced departing members with the best local musicians money could buy, even if those people had full-time day jobs.
That — in addition to the growing cost of trucking equipment to shows — keeps Wish You Were Here a regional and not a touring act.
''We can't go on the road. There is magic in terms of our lineup and I don't want to lose it,'' he said, ''so I would rather work within their limitations.''
But Sosinski, 43, is a full-time musician and keeps busy five nights a week with other groups.
He's the bassist for Michael Stanley and the Resonators as well as the Midlife Chryslers, and performs weekly with two acoustic acts.
Sosinski admits the last couple of years, he's been wondering whether Wish You Were Here has run its course.
But it's hard to let go with new Floyd fans coming on board every year. At a recent concert, he guessed a fourth of the audience was under 21.
''Every year, there's a newgeneration that discovers it. Every year there are new college-age or high school-age kids who find Dark Side of the Moon and pick up on its universal themes of birth, school, work,'' he said.
And for him, ''it's still rewarding for me to be able to go out and play for 1,200 people and make them happy.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
When Wish You Were Here takes the stage, fans of the Pink Floyd tribute band get more than an earful.
Get the full article here.
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