Set The Controls For 60s Floyd
New Nick Mason project to play Syd-era songs live.
By the time you read this, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason will have played his first four shows with Saucerful Of Secrets, his new project that salutes the early albums Floyd made with Syd Barrett in the 60s. In the lead-up to the London shows, Mason talked to Classic Rock about the pleasures and challenges of revisiting the seminal material from 1967’s The
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and 1968’s A Saucerful Of Secrets – and where his new band might go from here.
“I didn’t want to go out and be doing another Australian Pink Floyd, or what Roger’s doing, what David does,” Mason explained of his idea for the project. “I thought it needed to be something a bit different after the V&A exhibition, which I’ve really enjoyed doing, but you end up feeling like you belong to English Heritage. Everything you talk about and do is something that happened forty years ago. It was actually beginning to make me feel a bit old. So it was the right time.”
Admitting he was feeling “some trepidation, because it’s a long time since I picked up the drum sticks”, Mason said that rehearsals with the line-up of Guy Pratt, Gary Kemp, Lee Harris and Dom Beken had been an eye-opener. “I’d hardly listened to any of that material at all. Unless it comes up on the radio, I never deliberately listen to any of the work we’ve done, ever. But the interesting thing is how complex Syd’s writing was. Weirdly, I think we’d all agree that one of the most challenging songs is Bike, which has a very curious feel. I really like playing Set The Controls, which is an unusual drum part, played with mallets rather than sticks.”
As for Piper centrepiece Interstellar Overdrive, Mason is allowing himself artistic licence: “What I don’t want to do is slavishly copy what we did on the album. The great thing with Interstellar is that it’s a piece that lends itself to improvisation. What I’d like to do is capture some of the weirdness – some of the very specific things that Syd did – but actually bring a bit of our own language into it.”
By extension, Mason stressed that he wouldn’t be aiming for a ‘time capsule’ vibe at the Saucerful Of Secrets shows. “I think you’d be trying too hard if you told everyone to come in their granny glasses and flared trousers. We’ve all grown older and things are different.”
Mason says more dates will depend on the audience reaction. “Will there be more shows? I hope so. Certainly, in my mind. What we really want to do is play some shows to an audience, see how it feels and whether people like it. I’m absolutely enjoying being back behind the kit.”