BEGINNING with the obligatory Shine On You Crazy Diamond, The Australian Pink Floyd Show proved yet again why they are widely lauded as the ‘best tribute band in the world’.

Their attention to detail is phenomenal and they have taken the music of Pink Floyd to places that the original band could only dream about.

The Aussies don’t just recreate the sound of Floyd, they have put their own stamp on it by tweaking the arrangements ever so slightly so that they are both Pink Floyd and the tribute band.

Of course, the music – presented by ten superb musicians including founder members Steve Mac on guitar and keyboard player extraordinaire Jason Sawford – is played to perfection, and enhanced by a light show that many an artist would give their Grammy’s for.

The first half also featured Welcome To The Machine, Learning To Fly and one song from the Syd Barratt era – Arnold Layne.

Dogs from Animals closed the first half, and to be honest, it was a tad over-long.

The second half was much better, with a few more up tempo numbers and more recognisable hits.

A handful of tracks from Dark Side Of The Moon started us off with the Aussie Floyd’s new attraction – 3D images.

The band have said that they tried to think of what Pink Floyd would be doing in their shows if they were still touring, and this was the answer.

The visuals were indeed stunning, but to be honest – again – they didn’t add anything to the previous 2D images.

Really, the light show and lasers are the true stars visually – and of course the inflatable kangaroo and schoolmaster (from Another Brick in the Wall).

Brick In The Wall led to Wish You Were Here, Astronomy Domine and Comfortably Numb, which ended the show to rapturous applause.

They had to come back for an encore, and what else could they play but the tour de force that is Run Like Hell. Although there was no inflatable pig with searchlight eyes this time round.

These more popular numbers brought the almost sell-out crowd to their feet and the band left the stage for the last time with cheers and applause echoing around the Apollo.

There were a couple of songs in the set that hadn’t been played before, and while this is good for the band’s increasing repertoire some punters would perhaps have wished for more favourites like Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and Us And Them.

Apart from those little gripes, I can’t really fault them.

Good on yer, cobbers!