NICK MASON’S SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS
“THE THUNDEROUS RIFFING OF ONE OF THESE DAYS LEAVES A HEAVING ROUNDHOUSE HOWLING ITS APPROVAL IN UNISON.”
VENUE the roundhouse, London
DATE 04/05/2019
What a difference a year makes. It was May 2018 that Prog first eagerly stood in a packed and sweaty Dingwalls, just down the road from the Roundhouse, to witness the first ever gig of Nick Mason’s new Pink Floyd-related outfit Saucerful Of Secrets. Back then prog forums were awash with those questioning the worth of guitarist and singer Gary Kemp, most unaware of A) what a damn fine guitarist he actually was (not strictly the fan’s fault - one can barely hear any guitar on Spandau Ballet records) and B) the fact he’s actually a huge prog fan. By September of last year, when the Saucerful Of Secrets played at the Roundhouse for the first time, Kemp’s inclusion was met with nodding approval. Tonight he’s a massive part of the whole, now well-oiled machine, fellow bandmembers Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken operating on a similar, almost telepathic level. The band’s jaunts around Europe and more recently America have clearly served them more than well.
The bulk of the set remains similar to the one anyone that’s seen the band before is used to, concentrated between debut single
Arnold Layne and 1972’s Obscured By Clouds (rumour persists that David Gilmour suggested, “I’d rather you didn’t” when asked if the band might perform Echoes). But there are some surprises. Following the opening barrage of Interstellar Overdrive, Astronomy Domine and Lucifer Sam, as fine an opening triptych as one is likely to hear, the welcome strains of Remember A Day are eventually heard - the addition to the set in March of this year the very first time the song had ever been played live. Later in the set, Childhood’s End from Obscured By Clouds gets an equally welcome airing.
In and around these, the likes of See Emily Play, Vegetable Man, The Nile Song and excerpts of Atom Heart Mother are delivered with a polished sheen that’s now taken over from the slightly more ragged version of the band’s early days. This, however, takes nothing away from the performance, only adding more weight to the fact that even in their early experimental phases, grandeur was what Pink Floyd were always striving for.
This arrives even more emphatically with a spirited
Set The Controls For The
Heart of The Sun, alas not with Roger Waters as it had been in New York, and the thunderous riffing of set-closer One Of These Days, leaving a heaving Roundhouse howling its approval in unison.
Behind his kit, seemingly unruffled as ever, Nick Mason smiles and waves to the crowd. His particular mode of timekeeping is the very heartbeat that fires on so many of these early Floyd songs. Indeed, it would be fair to say he’s drumming as well today as he has at any time in his elegant and lengthy career, his Saucerful Of Secrets allowing him a deservedly fitting but sightly unexpected time back in the spotlight.
As Mason points out, tonight’s show has been recorded for release, capturing in posterity a wonderful return to the stage. One wonders what early Floyd gems they’ll choose to unearth for audiences when Mason and his Saucerful Of Secrets open their second live chapter?