Nick
Mason, signing Pink Floyd records for New York fans this week, eschews
looking like a rocker; after all, he says he’s not famous, he’s just
‘‘someone in a famous band.’’
Floydian analysis Drummer Nick Mason wants to set the record straight on Pink Floyd with his new book. But what he really wants, it seems, is to tour again PETER HOWELL ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
NEW YORK—The coincidence is positively cosmic, although in this case it's probably better to call it Floydian.Pink
Floyd's Nick Mason strolls into the lobby of The Mercer, a hip SoHo
hotel, and the burgundy shirt and black slacks he's wearing match the
uniform of the waiters in the adjacent lounge. He blends in so
well with the staff, he could pick up a tray and start serving
cocktails and no one would be the wiser — except for maybe the crazed
fan peering through the glass from the street, with his vinyl copy of Dark Side of the Moon clutched to his chest, anxiously awaiting an autograph.Mason,
the drummer and unofficial historian for the influential band — the
brand name and icon for highbrow rock — isn't the least bit bothered
about blending in with the scenery. At 61, with his hair cut short and
quite grey, he long ago abandoned all rock-star pretensions along with
the shaggy black hair and handlebar moustache of his youth. "If
I wanted to be a rock star, I'd have done something about it years and
years ago, you know?" he says, sliding into a banquette for an
exclusive Canadian interview with the Star."I'm not a
famous pop star, I'm someone who is in a famous band. And there is a
difference. I think that's how we always played it. We settled
absolutely into that (anonymous) groove, and we thought we were lucky
to do it. And what does it matter? The only time I would ever describe
myself as `Nick Mason of Pink Floyd' is when I'm doing a radio gig. The
rest of the time it's just `Nick Mason, Boy Drummer.'"He smiles
at the joke. But he's not kidding about the anonymity. Pink Floyd is
one of the most successful rock bands in history — Dark Side,
the classic 1973 album clenched so tightly by the above fan, has sold
more than 35 million copies worldwide — but the group has always been
known for its sound, not its personalities. Even rock fans might have
trouble naming all the members of the Floyd, which besides Mason
include guitarist/vocalist (and unofficial leader) David Gilmour and
keyboardist Rick Wright. Hovering in the wings are the two
black sheep of the Floyd story, bassist/vocalist Roger Waters (he quit
the band in 1985 and still feuds with Gilmour, but is still involved in
major decisions) and guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett (fired in 1969 for
aberrant behaviour later diagnosed as mental illness, the impetus for
the Wish You Were Here album).The groupthink of the
Floyd has historically been so strong, it's something of a head-rattler
to see Mason doing a one-man world tour promoting not a new album, but
rather a coffee-table book called Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Orion,
$60). It's a superbly written story, rare for rock tomes, told from the
generous and self-deprecating perspective of the quiet man behind the
monster drum kit. He also happens to be the only member of Pink Floyd
who has been there through all of its personnel changes.If he'd
had his druthers, Mason would have been a contributor to an official
band biography. Even better, he'd be out promoting a new Floyd studio
album and tour, which the world hasn't seen for more than a decade,
even as the band's legend has continued to grow. Such current bands as
Radiohead, Coldplay, Sigur Rós, The Secret Machines and countless
others are all children of Pink Floyd.But with the band
currently on hiatus, awaiting the muse to strike the recalcitrant
Gilmour, the quiet man decided to take matters into his own hands. He
decided to go the solo route with the book because it was faster than
trying to seek out "the agreed-upon story on every subject."Still,
much agreement was needed and proffered. Mason's innate sense of fair
play and diplomacy — he refers to himself only half in jest as "the
Henry Kissinger of the group," dating himself with a memory of when
Kissinger was considered a peacemaker — prompted him to confer censor's
rights upon Gilmour, Waters and Wright. They were allowed to read and
red-pencil Inside Out prior to publication, an invitation
Waters took up all too eagerly (he dismissed as "bollocks" parts of an
earlier draft of the book)."I have the advantage and disadvantage that I get on with everyone still," Mason says."I
talk to Roger, David and Rick. And I don't want to do a book that
upsets one of them so much and one of them feels so marginalized by it
that the equilibrium is upset. I worked quite hard at that. Because at
the end of the day I'm trying to tell the readers something about what
they want to know, bearing in mind that I want to retain the
friendships with the rest of the band."Despite its collegial tone, Inside Out is
chock full of the kind of revelations that could hit Floyd freaks like
an acid flashback. Mason describes in fascinating detail the
inspiration and perspiration that went into the creation of such Floyd
landmark albums as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), Atom Heart Mother (1970), Meddle (1971), Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and the two most recent works, made without Waters (who threatened to sue them over it), A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994).Mason talks about such Floyd arcana as the giant inflatable pig that was hoisted over a London power station for the Animals
album cover (interfering with aircraft landing at nearby Heathrow
Airport), which became a mainstay for subsequent tours by the band. He
details the ups and downs of the fabulously creative but insanely
expensive brief tour behind The Wall, which involved erecting a stadium-sized white-brick structure and a "shadow band" to play Pink Floyd in effigy.He
sadly recalls the necessity of sacking Barrett, so much a part of the
band's image in its original '60s incarnation, after he fell prey to
the psychedelic drugs of the era; and the bitter battle with Waters in
1985, when the mercurial bassist demanded complete control and the
firing of the timid Wright, gaining both before finally leaving the
group himself. (Wright later rejoined the group.) The book is
also loaded with unseen photographs of the extended Floyd family at
work and play, the latter including a 1967 romp on the beach at St.
Tropez in which the band's loyal lighting man Peter Watts holds his
baby daughter, whom we now know as the actress Naomi Watts.
`As far as I'm concerned, we still exist.'Nick Mason
Mason reveals himself to have a keen memory, putting the lie
to the old joke that if you can remember the '60s, you weren't there."Funnily
enough, I think the early stuff is fairly easy to remember. Perhaps
because there's less of it, perhaps because it's a bit more
crystallized in the mind because it's so important. The first American
tour is actually much easier to remember that the tenth."He is
self-critical almost to a fault about his drumming style, which despite
his mammoth drum kit — his kit list for the 1994 tour included 30
drums, 40 cymbals, 20 pads, one gong and one division bell — is far
more melodic than the typical rock basher."I think when you've
got that sort of multi-layering of sound, you probably are better off
with a drummer like me who is looking for spaces rather than things to
hit, because it just works better with the music."Mason owns up to numerous regrets, including the wish that 1980's The Wall
tour had done more than just New York, London and Los Angeles (it was
just too bloody expensive), and that the band had toured more in
general during the 1970s and early 1980s, when it was at its creative
peak. He also feels the group did a fair bit of wheel-spinning creatively prior to its 1973 breakout with The Dark Side of the Moon,
which also benefited from the iconic prism imagery by the band's visual
mastermind, the artist Storm Thorgerson, who has lately suffered from
ill health.But most of all, perhaps, Mason seems to regret the
current inertia of Pink Floyd, which for the past decade has simply
contented itself to put out greatest hits collections and reissues of
back catalogue, rather than record new material or tour like a rock
band should.It's clear from listening to Mason in the interview,
and from the questions he's received from fans during months of
bookstore meet-and-greets for Inside Out (Toronto isn't on the itinerary yet; maybe later this year), that he's restless and raring to go.He refuses to think of Pink Floyd in the past tense, even though many people seem to assume the group is finished. "As far as I'm concerned, we still exist," Mason says firmly."If
there's some sort of official recognition that we don't, if Dave says,
`Right, never again,' then maybe it's never again. But we are still
active in terms of revitalizing some of the old stuff." (Watch for a
DVD release of PULSE — a concert recording released on VHS in 1995 — soon and a rarities anthology further down the road.)"I
suppose the truth of the matter is that I live in hope. I'm definitely
not going to be the one that declares no sign of life."One of the revelations of Inside Out is
the lack of communication between the various band members. Even when
they were all getting along well, they never really spoke with one
another."I suppose we didn't talk in the American sense that we
didn't actually have a way of addressing our real feelings," Mason
explains. "Actually, we're all reasonably articulate. We would talk,
but we never really got to grips with how we all felt about each other,
in a way of trying to be constructive rather than just trying to piss
people off."Hardest of all is trying to persuade Gilmour to get out of his luxury houseboat and hit the road."Dave
does not like being pushed. The line I've used on this tour is you can
lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink — and Dave you can't
even get to the water." But Mason is keeping his fingers crossed
that Pink Floyd might yet make new music and yet again tour — maybe in
a year or so, after Gilmour finishes a solo project he's working on.
The quiet man has heard that the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney are
planning to hit the road this year."I'd love to go out and
compete with them. Because I think we could do really well. The
technology exists now to do fantastic shows. And I think also,
particularly as some of the other (bands) are beginning to pull away
from the big show, I think we could actually get in there and knock
their socks off."Might the porker fly again? Stranger things have been known to happen, especially for Pink Floyd.
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