Almost since I started listening to music, I’ve had Nick Mason in my mind as the old Pink Floyd drummer who has now given up music and is into racing cars. When word suddenly broke a few years ago that he had gathered musicians – including Guy Pratt – to tour playing tracks from early Pink Floyd, my eyes welled up in genuine wonder when I first read it.
On a second reading, Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets is an honest undertaking. Mason probably just really wanted to do it and didn’t obey some material need, since he certainly doesn’t need the money. That the tour is spread over many stations and confined to small places is extremely positive because it makes the viewer see the spectacle with more intimacy. With about a little under a thousand people gathered in the seats of the very beautiful courtyard of the Lazarist Monastery and in the still light of the sun, the musicians appeared one by one in front of us.
The intro with “One Of These Days” brought the first cheers, “Arnold Layne” made us young again, and on “Fearless” we even had sing alongs on the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” part. Mason took the mic 2-3 times during the set and referred with much love and appreciation to Syd Barrett, while Guy Pratt did the same for (his father-in-law) Rick Wright. “Vegetable Man” is an unreleased track that Syd never finished but they did here half a century later. The medley of “If” with “Atom Heart Mother” brought us to the touching “Remember The Day” dedicated to Wright. Approaching the end of the first set, the welcoming darkness has already fallen almost everywhere around and the projections gained more momentum.
The intro to the legendary “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” was done with Mason telling us that for 30 years at their concerts he had seen Roger Waters hit the gong without letting him touch it, but now he had come his own time. The lighting on the stage took on a fiery yellow color that somewhat resembled lava spewing from a volcano. Mason stroked, tapped and manipulated the gong to fill the air with his sound waves, which Guy Pratt did mid-track by temporarily leaving his bass. This piece was a spacey closing that caused the warmest applause to date.
In the break time between the two sets I was trying to digest what I had seen for an hour unfold before my eyes and ears. Questions such as how relevant Pink Floyd’s music can be today and particularly that of their early period, whether the band Mason formed is more than a good cover band or not, how well an old man will perform have already been answered. The band was perfectly competent and Floyd’s music was timeless and ageless. And the vocals were quite worked and showed a careful approach to the songs.
By the time the second set started, the crowd had gotten bigger. Unfortunately on the ticketing platform, the start time listed was incorrect and this resulted in some arriving late and missing part or even the entire first set. Ignoring this unpleasantness, the powerful “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Astronomy Domine”, aided by matching projections at the back of the stage, continued the star journey we were experiencing.
“The Nile Song” was the first Pink Floyd song that Guy Pratt loved, who informed us that all the kids his age had “Relics” because, due to company policy, it was half the price of everyone else disks. A completely different situation, from a completely different era. “Burning Bridges” and “Childhood’s End” represented “Obscured By Clouds” and “Lucifer Sam” took us back to the early psychedelic days. At the first note of “Echoes”, excitement was built that was driven to a transient frenzy. But after a while, as the respectful audience that we were according to Mason himself, we settled down to enjoy this iconic suite. At one point I looked up to the sky and saw the lights of an airplane passing directly above us.
I don’t hide that in my head I thought it was a spaceship. I imagine what more I would have thought with a bit of psychedelic assistance, which was certainly more common in the “Meddle” era. Fortunately, on this leg of the tour, Mason has added this particular track to his setlist, either fulfilling some inner need of his own, or listening to how much it would make us happy.
Amid cheers from all of us who were already out of our seats and standing, the encore featured the archetypal Floyd single “See Emily Play”, the title track from “A Saucerful of Secrets” and closed as “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” – that is, with “Bike”. With a bow before us, the five left to the applause of people who had all had a good time. One because he remembered his youth, another because he just had fun, another because he experienced what unfolded before him.
For what we saw, we definitely owe a “thank you” to Lee Harris, who performed guitar duties for the band and gave an amazing performance as well. He was the one who had the original idea and convinced Nick Mason to do this particular tour. Dom Beken on keyboards performed Rick Wright’s parts very masterfully. Veteran Guy Pratt went from being a huge fan of Pink Floyd to becoming a member, while still playing with Gilmour’s band. The very well kept Gary Kemp handled both his guitar and vocal duties with seriousness. And the protagonist of the evening acted as an observer of the history of Pink Floyd and was an absolutely likable and acceptable figure. Let’s not forget that apart from the creator of the music, Mason is the only one with a presence on each of their releases.
At one point in the concert, Gary Kemp said that both he and other listeners in the late ’60s were buying Pink Floyd records and listening to them they thought they were some of the best records they had ever heard. Then he said that today, fifty years later, they know that it is one of the best records they have ever heard. We all know that.
Review Courtesy Of Αφροδίτη Ζαγγανά
Can YOU help? We are looking for any material related to this show. Scans of posters, news items, ticket stubs, show pictures, or anything else you may think be of interest to our visitors. Thanks. Please send any show material to liam@pinkfloydz.com