Nick Mason on Pink Floyd reunion: ‘I'm ready, but I won't hold my breath.’

Nick Mason says he’s “ready” to take part in a Pink Floyd reunion but doesn’t think it will happen as Roger Waters and David Gilmour are happier working separately.

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 27th Feb 2019

The drummer recently caught up with Talkin' Rock With Meltdown to promote Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets’ North American tour when he was asked the burning question – do you ever see a day when Pink Floyd will get back together?

Firm in his response, Nick replied (via Ultimate Guitar): "No. It's the question everyone would like answered, but I don't really think so. I think Roger (Waters) and David (Gilmour) are happier doing their own things and not working together.

"It would be great if they did, I'm ready, but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath."

Speaking to Rolling Stone two months ago, Nick expressed his disappointment that Roger Waters and David Gilmour are “still at loggerheads”.

“I think the problem is Roger doesn’t really respect David,” he explained. “He feels that writing is everything, and that guitar playing and the singing are something that, I won’t say anyone can do, but that everything should be judged on the writing rather than the playing.”

Also citing David’s decision to continue with Pink Floyd in 1985 after Roger quit as a primary  source of the friction, Nick added: “I think it rankles with Roger that he made a sort of error in a way that he left the band assuming that without him it would fold. 

“It’s a constant irritation, really, that he’s still going back to it. I’m hesitant to get too stuck into this one, just because it’s between the two of them rather than me. I actually get along with both of them, and I think it’s really disappointing that these rather elderly gentlemen are still at loggerheads.”

Elsewhere in his interview with Talkin’ Rock, 75-year-old Nick said he was still as interested as ever in playing music, enthusing: "Absolutely, love it. I mean, my experience with this particular band (Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets’) is almost like a time machine to 50 years ago. Enthusiasm to play and to work together - that's absolutely remindful of early Pink Floyd."

Despite Pink Floyd’s legendary status, Nick also revealed that he “tries not to” think about their legacy: “What's always interesting is sort of what we are doing now, and I think one of the reasons this band exists is because we actually spent quite a lot of effort a couple of years ago, putting an exhibition together in London at the V&A museum, which is sort of traveling around now.

"That really was a sort of look-back through history, it was really interesting to do it, but at the end of the day, you go, 'I really like what I'm doing now,' rather than, 'This is what I did 20 years ago.'"

Following their rapturously received shows last year, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets play a clutch of sold-out headline UK shows in April and May taking in Cardiff, Aylesbury, Cambridge and two nights in London.  

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