NICK MASON'S SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS: LIVE AT THE ROUNDHOUSE

It was while participating in The V & A Museum's Pink Floyd exhibition last year that Mason started to feel the need to play again the drums live. And it's Lee Harris and Guy Pratt that approached Nick with the idea of forming this band. Guy Pratt has been touring for a long time with David Gilmour. The band didn't want to copy the music like those tribute bands. It was the opportunity to improvise and rework the songs. But what's the big difference if you haven't noticed yet it's the choice to cover the old songs before Dark Side of the Moon which is unusual for tribute bands of Pink Floyd.

So with a setlist of old songs from Pink Floyd first period some from Syd Barrett, we can expect a variety of styles from heavy rock, space, psychedelic, and pop. Some long instrumental songs like '' Set the Control for the Heat of the Sun'' provide more satisfaction for a Prog fan. The song ''Interstellar Overdrive'' with is great riff is the highlight of the show, it feels that there's a little momentum lost after this great song, but it picks up again later with more good music.

The members of the band seem to enjoy playing especially when they make eye contact with each other with a smile on their faces. The concert is a bit short, but I don't think they could add more great songs from that era. Being a follower mostly from the Meddle period and up to the Wall, I still enjoy listening to some of their old tracks.

If the band didn't want to copy the music like others Pink Floyd tribute bands, it is a special tribute album live of Pink Floyd that has the merit to play some songs rarely played in the past years.

I can't say anything wrong with the picture quality and sound of this concert. There's some special effect in the editing of the show but not too much. As for the voice of Spandau Ballet singer Gary Kemp and longtime bass player Guy Pratt, they were not trying to imitate Syd or David, but at times the voice of Gary had some similarity with David. You can watch the concert with interviews or without. In conclusion, this a refreshing take of some old songs... that will bring nostalgia for some who have loved the first period of one of the most influential bands of rock music, and some fun to young fans who want to discover the bands that their father always talk...

Some years ago I came to hate The Dark Side Of The Moon because it's the change point fron the early Pink Floyd to what followed. Well I really love DSOTM and the followings, including the underrated The Final Cut, but I must say that I like the early Floyd much more. I have enjoyed the fantastic performances of the Italian cover band "Pink Floyd Legend" when they played Pompeii and Atom Heart Mother (two different gigs).

So what about Nick Mason setting up a band to play the old stuff with new arrangements without replacing the original mood of the songs? Unfortunately there aren't long trippy improvisations: Interstellar Overdrive is just a little bit of the original psychedelic box, and contains little inserts from Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother is tied down to few minutes between two slices of "if" with the singer too high-pitched whose voice is too cold for that song.

It's not an issue. All the rest is excellent, including what is probably the only existing listenable version in terms of recording quality of "Vegetable Man". There's Obscured By Clouds introduced by a "Vangelis like keyboard", Remember A Day sounds better than the original. The band resisted to the tentation of transforming the hardest Floyd's song into a metal piece so that The Nile Song is still a psychedelic heavy track. It's a pity that the vocalist has added some unneded "personality" to it. His voice sounds much better on Green Is The Colour...still a great pop song, made even more pop by the country-rock coda, and still great. On Childhood's End his voice is almost perfect.

Some words about Mick's drumming: after many years of silence he appears in a very good shape and it's like being free from the two PF bosses has let him improve his skill. Not the usual metronome as we know him. Also Guy Pratt has more freedom and can even slap sometimes.

The most impressive arrangement is for me the electronic intro of Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. Just one minute, but for my tastes I would have appreciated a 20 minutes version of that stuff. Unlike on If, Kemp here is able to give the song the right mood without resembling Waters in any way. This is the only old song still present in Roger Waters' shows. Believe me, this is its best live version after Pompeii. Mason does a great work on percussions. This song makes me trip even if I'm just drinking milk.

After having seen Emily play and listened to the ducks on bike, Guy Pratt has some fun with the only Pink Floyd's song on which Nick Mason's voice has been heard..."One Of These Days". Not much to arrange here. It can't be much different from the dozens of other live versions published during the years. Just a bit more psychedelia in the middle part introducing to the "vocals".

Saucerful of Secrets is shortened but it's still a good trip. It misses the "first movement" but of course has the metronomic drumming of the "second movement". Definitely a trip, but why so short? The third movement is longer and includes a guitar solo. Good but it makes it quite a "regular" song.

The story ends with the aborted soundtrack of Zabriskie Point. Point me At the Sky isn't the best Pink Floyd short song and very far from being a masterpiece. I've always considered it as one of the best Beatles' songs. But this is likely the reason why it has been used as closer: it's so stuck into its time, and ends with a "goodbye".

4 PA stars, 5 Octopus stars even with the little defects, especially in the vocals. I regret having missed them when they came to my country, even if at 600km from my city.

This review is for the 2 CD/DVD version.

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets had its origins not with Nick Mason, but with guitarist Lee Harris (formerly with the new wave, post-punk band Blockheads). Harris realized that no one asks Nick Mason to do anything anymore and no one was really performing the ancient stuff from Pink Floyd's oeuvre. Harris happened to be good friends with bassist Guy Pratt, Pink Floyd's bassist since the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. Harris didn't think Mason would ever consider his idea, so he sold it to Pratt and Pratt loved it. And so Pratt took it to Mason and the idea took off.

So, Pratt was also friends with Gary Kemp, lead guitarist and backing vocalist of new wave band Spandau Ballet, and Dom Beken, keyboardist from The Orb and collaborator of Rick Wright who is responsible for maintaining Wright's archive. He suggested them to Mason and they started rehearsing just to see what would happen. A rehearsal with family and friends was well-received and then a sold-out test show at Dingwalls, a 500-seat club in London in May 2018. A couple more small shows eventually led to a European tour in September 2018, followed by a North American tour in 2019.

This package contains 2 CDs of the live set recorded from concerts held at The Roundhouse in London, on May 3 and 4, 2019. It also includes a DVD of the performance. The live set included performances of selected songs from Pink Floyd's albums from 1967 to 1972, all pre-Dark Side material. The only album that no material was taken from was the studio portion of Ummagumma. The set list also included the singles Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, and Point Me at the Sky. It also included the song Vegetable Man which was considered for either their second album or as their third single, but was scrapped (it later appeared in the The Early Years box set).

So, Mason didn't want this to be just a covers band. He let the members add their personalities to the songs. Some of them were extended, some of the bass lines were modified, additional guitar solos were added, more modern keyboards were melded into it, and slight rearrangements here and there. But although they had this freedom to put their own stamp on these early songs, they tried to be respectful of the originals. The end result is a refreshing experience giving us not just a taste of what these might have sounded like back in the day, but bringing them into the present in a very tasteful manner for newer generations to hear.

One thing that really touches me with this one is it's diversity. They pulled a wide range of different types of songs from a five-year period in which Pink Floyd was experimenting in many ways just find who they were as a band. From dizzying psychedelic wipeouts using many interesting effects, to whimsical fairy-tale psychedelic pop songs, to heavy rock and rollers, to grandiose and pompous displays of instrumental prog rock. The gang here really put some thought into these selections so that they would gel together in a seamless manner,

Highlights for me were performances of Astronomy Domine; the amazing riff of Lucifer Sam; the very robotic and electronic feel they gave to Obscured by Clouds/When You're In; a stunning performance of Remember a Day that would make Rick Wright proud; the seamless integration of the first part of "If" with selections from the Atom Heart Mother suite, ending with a reprise of the second part of "If"; the wonderfully complex bass riff of Let There Be More Light; an extended performance of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (complete with gong); the whimsical Bike; the fan classic One of These Days; and an amazing performance of the band's namesake, the instrumental A Saucerful of Secrets.

The band is tight, plays well together, and plays off of each other skillfully. Lee Harris is no David Gilmour or Syd Barrett, but he pulls off all the solos with grace and skill. Pratt's bass playing is, in my opinion, an improvement over Waters. Kemp's guitar work is also skilled and definitely has the effects down pat. Both Kemp's and Pratt's vocals are no replacement for the originals and that might be the only thing somebody might have something negative to say. However, they made these songs their own and stamped their personalities on it. The harmonies the two do together are a nice fit. Beken very much nailed Wright's style of playing and you even hear a little bit of his experience from The Orb here and there. He keeps with the original sounds when it seems right and ventures off into new territory in places where it seems to make the songs better than the originals. It's a nice and refreshing touch.

The star of the show is of course, Nick Mason. The pre-Dark Side period of Pink Floyd has some of the most complex and adventurous drumming Mason did during his career. At the age of 74 (at the time of the recording of this concert), he can still perform this amazing stuff in all its glory. I was quite impressed with his performance. And he hasn't forgotten how to use the mallets.

The lighting at the show was in the true Pink Floyd fashion. The Victorian features of The Roundhouse give it an almost surreal atmosphere. The building was originally constructed in 1847 and it contained a railway turntable inside of it. It reopened in 1964, first as a cultural centre with a theatre, and in 1966 as an arts venue. Both Pink Floyd and Soft Machine performed on its opening night. Performances were on a makeshift stage with power running from nearby buildings. So in a way, this 2019 performance was a way of making a full circle back to the beginnings of Mason's career.

The DVD also has some bonus features. There is a short film of some of their band rehearsals. This was nice and all that, but it was too short and not enough band banter to make it interesting. The meat of the bonus features are interviews with each of the band's members. This was a joy to watch to learn about how they all knew each other and how the band evolved and some of the history of Pink Floyd.

So, in closing, a big thank you to Lee Harris for having this gem of an idea. And a big thank you to Nick Mason for having the guts to bring this early period of Pink Floyd back to life and presenting it in such a refreshing and tasteful manner.

A well deserved five stars.

If I think about Pink Floyd of the last decade I can't help but getting the feeling of a musical legacy spread thin by its former members. That awfull film of the Wall by Roger Waters being the low-point. Yet, this live recording (dvd/cd/lp) of Nick Mason and friends had the power to suprise me with a fresh new look on the band's early career. No renditons of Dark Side of the Moon and everything that came after it, but the psychedic pop, garage rock and early symphonic prog of the Syd Barret era and the years following it. The band works with the original material trying to land a song like 'Emily Plays' in a meaningful and playful way into the year 2020; which is perhaps harder than recreating the timeless material of albums like 'Wish You Were Here'. The band plays the psychedelic pop songs with great enthusiasm and songs like Interstellar Overdrive and Atronomy Domine are played with a nice piercing psychedelic rock vibe. The telecasters shriek nicely. The more progressive songs like 'Saucerfull of Secrets', 'Set the Controls for The Heart of the Sun' and even 'Atom Heart Mother' (a short medley) are played with a great sense of authenticity. There is no David Gilmour type soloist here, but by playing the songs with two guitarist the band adds a nice layer of musical interaction. Nick Mason's drumming is suprisingly steady and on point and his experience of being a member of that early sixties Pink Floyd is fellt during the concert. The keyboards have a nice warm sound, slightly more modern but the sounds are well chosen to recreate the original vibes. The band plays songs from the earlier albums and also from 'More' and 'Obscured by Clouds', of whom the two instrumental opening tracks are a welcome addition. As a final remark I would like to say this concert does not sound like a concert played by overly mature men, as some later Pink Floyd-related releases tend to do. It is fresh, fun and pretty deep as well (when it comes to more progressive material). The stage presentation has a nice early psychedelic touch and the camera work does a good job in showing what is interesting at that particular moment (solo's, vocals, fills, etc). This little light hearted gem might just be the best Pink Floyd releated release of the last twenty years.