Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has been awarded a CBE for services to music in the New Year Honours list.

The skilled percussionist featured on every album produced by the progressive rock group since he co-founded the band in 1965. Together with his bandmates, including David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Mason helped forge a new and commercially popular experimentalism in rock music.

Mason, 74, has been made a CBE in recognition of his services to music throughout decades in the industry.

He began drumming in bands alongside fellow Regent Street Polytechnic student Waters in the early 1960s, before they teamed up with keyboard player Richard Wright and frontman Syd Barret. From their debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Pink Floyd gathered an adoring audience and achieved major commercial success.

Mason was influenced by jazz music, which helped him provide the distinctive percussive elements to the band’s concept albums. He also had a hand in lyrics and co-wrote several songs, including Echoes. He still tours with his newly-formed band, Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, and has indulged his passion for motor racing and Ferraris between touring commitments throughout his career.