Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason Can Recall It All

Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason Can Recall It All

Jon Friedman
Wall Street Journal
June 26, 2011



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Nick Mason


Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason doesn’t expect to be performing any of the rock group’s beloved works on stage with his two band mates any time soon. So, the English band’s fans will have to be content with snapping up an ambitious, comprehensive set of Floyd releases this fall.

“Dark Side of the Moon,” released in 1973, is one of the most durable sellers in music history. EMI, the band’s label dating back to the beginning of its career in 1967, will unleash on Sept. 26 “Dark Side” products encompassing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, SACD and an array of digital formats including iPhone Apps. For instance, there will be expanded deluxe and special edition versions of “Dark Side” in a 6-disc box set as well as a collectors’ vinyl LP and various digital formats. In addition, 14 studio albums will be digitally re-mastered and sold separately or in a box set. “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall” will subsequently get special treatment as well.

Mason, a founding member when the band formed in 1965, was blunt when I asked him, Why the flurry of activity now? “I’m tempted to say it’s the last chance to put out physical packaging,” he said evenly. “Physical records are very nearly finished. In another two years, there will be a very tiny market.”

Pink Floyd, which has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, was one of the proponents of psychedelic rock during the 1960s and 1970s. The group had its share of turbulence. Its early leader Syd Barrett exited in 1968 because of his deteriorating mental wellbeing. In later years, the two front men, guitarist David Gilmour and bassist/lyricist Roger Waters argued constantly about the music they were making before Waters left in 1985.

Since Waters has gone on tour recently with a production of “The Wall.” I asked Mason if he ever expected to play live in the near future with his colleagues. “No, not at all,” he said sadly. “I live in hope. Someone might be a sufficient influence to convince Roger or David.”

For his part, Mason is gung-ho. “I’m ready – my bags are packed,” he said. “It’s to do with Roger wanting complete independence and David not wanting to be told what to do.”

Mason, an affable fellow with a razor-sharp memory, fondly recalls the night that he and his star-struck band mates met the Beatles, who were making their landmark album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“We were recording in Abbey Road, the temple of greatness, and they were recording ‘Lovely Rita,’” he said, still sounding awed. “They were God-like figures to us. They all seemed extremely nice, but they were in a strata so far beyond us that they were out of our league.”

I asked Mason how he reckoned that Pink Floyd might fare today if they were starting out. “Not very well,” he said. “The music industry today is a much tougher place. It’s much easier to become a good musician today than it ever was because you can get a good musical education in school, which was unheard of when we were young. But now, there is no structure for a young band to succeed. Record companies don’t have the financial muscle, and the cost of developing a band now is monumental.”

Mason is nostalgic for the good old days but stresses that Pink Floyd fans may not fully understand how hard the members of the group worked. Sure, he smiles when he remembers the time that world famous Paul McCartney came to see Pink Floyd perform when it was just starting out or when the band toured for three months on a bill with everyone from Jimi Hendrix to the Move.

“It does sound quite exciting to be talking about it now,” he laughed. “But what was Swinging London like? I really have no idea. I was usually in a van going up the motorway.”