ULTIMATE FLOYD
Nick Mason opens up about jam-packed box set and the band’s future in salad dressing
Pink Floyd’s mammoth new box set isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia — it’s exercise equipment, according to Nick Mason.
“It’s a fitness test,” chuckles the 72-year-old Pink Floyd drummer down the line from London in an exclusive interview with Postmedia. “If you can carry it around and carry it up and down stairs, you’ll find it does you a world of good. It’s a cardiovascular workout in a box … sort of a health thing, really. Like granola, but bigger.”
He’s only half kidding. Weighing in at 4.5 kilograms, The Early Years 1965-1972 is the most extensive and exhaustive reissue of Pink Floyd’s career. With more than 25 hours of rare audio and video spread across 27 CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs divided into seven volumes, the $650 set is arguably the ultimate fan goody. Unreleased recordings, long-lost quad mixes, full-length movies, footage of doomed original frontman Syd Barrett — you name it, it’s in there.
Along with more than 200 performances by the classic Floyd lineup of Mason, guitarist David Gilmour, bassist Roger Waters and late keyboardist Richard Wright, of course.
With the box arriving Friday, Mason chatted about shiny clothes, outliving Ready Steady Go and an upcoming foray into salad dressing.
Q My compliments on this. It’s not the usual box of remastered albums padded with a few extras. What prompted this approach?
A It was something that actually got started quite a long time ago, which was this thing of trying to at least archive what existed — not necessarily needing to have it all or even own it, but just to know where things were. I had a very useful discussion with the guys at Apple. This was a few years ago now. They were working toward what eventually became Eight Days a Week, the movie that’s just come out. It’s that thing of, ‘If you assemble it all, then you can work out what to do with it.’ It’s easier to find out what’s there and then work out what to do, rather than work out what to do and then find the bits to fill in.
Q I’m sure you saw that Roger recently said he can’t “take this stuff seriously” because you “were just young guys getting together, wanting to be rich and get laid.”
A (Laughs.) Well, Roger can always be relied upon to undo all my good work. But I have to say, I look at some of the material and I think he’s absolutely right. Someone asked me what my reaction to watching some of this stuff is. It’s partly nostalgia — but there’s also enormous embarrassment. Us all scampering about in our shiny clothes — it’s quite bizarre, now that we’re rather elderly grandees of the industry. But it was fun, and I think that’s quite nice, perhaps, to celebrate that.
Q Does the quality of the work still stand up?
A It’s a real mixture, actually. It’s interesting from that point of view. There are things where you think, ‘God, that was really well done,’ or ‘That was clever.’ And then there are things where you think, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s a really strange mix. And I think that’s why this whole thing is of interest, not to everyone, but to a number of people. You can glean from it how we ended up where we got to, I suppose. Or how we transitioned from one period to another.
Q What are your favourite bits?
A (Laughs.) I’m not sure … I do have this sort of fascination with the clothes I had at the time. And also, it’s also nice to see the full range of moustaches and beards that I carried.
Q Speaking of shiny clothes: Is there a favourite outfit?
A Well, I think it’s the cowboy hat. (Laughs.)
Q The box also includes your live soundtrack to the moon landing. What’s the story behind that?
A Well, obviously it was a hell of a job getting the equipment up there. (Laughs.) No, I think it was the BBC’s idea. They were doing some sort of broadcast … and the suggestion was that we do a soundtrack. So we just simply, as far as I remember, went into the BBC and noodled along to accompany the moon landing. Which was a very great idea, whoever thought of it. It certainly wasn’t me, I’m ashamed to say.
Q And are a couple of unreleased songs with you singing lead — Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man.
A Curiously, they never quite made it to the record shop. They were both Syd Barrett compositions. They were recorded for Saucer (Full of Secrets). And it was really during Syd’s breakdown, so they never really got finished. I’m not sure I was ever destined for a great career as a singer. It might have been Syd deliberately trying to make trouble.
Q Were you surprised by anything in the box, or is your memory fairly intact?
A (Laughs.) What tends to happen is you see one thing and it reminds you of a group of things. There were certainly things where I remembered the bones of it, but I couldn’t remember — for instance, it might be video footage — whether it was in Belgium or whether it was in France, and which tracks we played or whatever. The strangest thing I had forgotten was how after Syd left, we were still playing the same songs, but of course, on occasion, Dave was having to mime to Syd’s vocal track.
Q Any revelations after wading through all this stuff?
A What on earth happened? How come I’m still here 50 years later? And why didn’t I go back to college and get on with my life?
Q I see Roger’s started playing some of the old stuff. You being ever the Pink Floyd optimist, what do you read into that?
A It’s only a matter of time before we announce that we’re going back and starting all over again at the very beginning.
Q You shouldn’t say that — it’ll look like you mean it in print. So what’s really next, then?
A I think maybe we’ll do double (window), glazing and salad dressings. Obviously, we’ll find something to sell. Otherwise, God forbid, we’d have to play something.