Nick Mason shares candid memories of what he refers to as “one of the last iconic studios left” in a previously unseen interview. The Pink Floyd drummer returned to Abbey Road Studios last year to mix Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets: Live At The Roundhouse – out now via Sony - and while he was there took part in an exclusive interview.
In the footage, recorded before the coronavirus pandemic, Mason chats about making the delayed double live album, which contains footage recorded during the band’s sold-out London shows in May 2019. The recording revisits early Pink Floyd material created prior to The Dark Side Of The Moon and, when asked if he ever expected Pink Floyd’s recordings to have the impact they did, the musician responds: “I’m tempted to say of course not because we were still living in a world that thought that rock music was entirely ephemeral and nothing was going to last.”
He adds, “People were planning what they would do with their lives afterwards. The concept of making a record that would have still been available let alone be bought 50 years later would have been completely absurd because pop music was for young people, for a generation, it was the music of rebellion and it’s extraordinary how often you meet someone who says, ‘My dad introduced me to your music!’”
The drummer also shares memories of recording Piper At The Gates Of Dawn while The Beatles were making Sgt Pepper in Studio Two, and recalls an impromptu collaboration with jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli on Wish You Were Here.
Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets Live At The Roundhouse is available now on double vinyl, double CD/DVD package and Blu-ray. The band, which also features Gary Kemp, Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken, are due to tour again in April 2021.
Watch the full interview below.
