MASON, NICK (NICOLAS, BERKELEY).
NEWS:13-05-2011:
David Gilmour and Nick Mason join Waters onstage! The surviving members of Pink Floyd reunited onstage tonight at London's 02 Arena during a stop on Roger Waters' Wall tour - marking only the second time that Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Roger Waters had played together in the last 30 years. Waters and Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" as the crowd at the arena went absolutely insane, and during the finale of "Outside the Wall," Gilmour returned to the stage alongside Mason, who played a tambourine.
As he did on the original 1980/81 tour, Gilmour played his epic solo on the top of the Wall. Last July, Waters promised that Gilmour would play the song during one show on the tour, but drummer Nick Mason's involvement was kept a secret. They last performed together at Live 8 in 2005. Original keyboardist Richard Wright died in 2008.
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YouTube: Encore with Nick & David.
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NEWS Oct 2009:
From www.brain-damage.co.uk:
Further to our previous story about Nick Mason's participation in one of the fund-raising efforts of this year's BBC Children In Need charity campaign, we have full information for you now of the release details, how you can buy the album and single, and how you can hear a sneak preview of the track that Nick not just drums on, but makes a rare vocal performance on too!
Nick was amongst the stars who assembled at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios on September 7th to help record a special version of the Beatles classic, All You Need Is Love, which will be used on the forthcoming Bandaged Together album that will be raising money for Children In Need.
We now know that the Bandaged Together album will be released on November 9th, 2009, and can be pre-ordered from November 1st at www.CharityGoods.com. It will also be available in all the main Tesco stores following this release date.
The album is a double album as the organisers had so many people interesting in being part this album this year, so it will cost £13.00 to purchase, and £7.00 of this will go straight to BBC Children in Need. Tesco have very generously agreed to match this figure for the sales in their stores.
The album consists of a mixture of nostalgic and children's songs all from years gone by:
CD1
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- All You Need Is Love - Bandaged (with Nick Mason)
- Zoo Be Zoo - Clare Teal and Pee Wee Ellis
- Que Sera Sera - Sir Terry Wogan and Cerys Matthews
- We All Stand Together - Hayley Westenra, Lee Mead and the Togs chorus (featuring Sir Terry Wogan)
- My Favourite Things - Grant Windsor Trio and My Favourite Girls
- Turn The World Around - Anthony Head
- Fields Of Athenry - Finbar Furey, Red Hurley and Sir Terry Wogan
- When You Wish Upon A Star - Gretchen Peters
- What The World Needs Now - Aled Jones and the Waringstown Primary School choir
- Confidence - Elio Pace
- Catch A Falling Star - Beth Rowley
CD2
- Me and My Teddy Bear - Sharon Corr
- Bangers and Mash - Mark Radcliffe and Sally Boazman with The Smithills School Senior Brass Band
- Silver Bells - Sir Terry Wogan and Aled Jones
- Little Boxes - Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds
- Baby Mine - Elaine Paige
- Listen To The Children - Red Hurley
- Bring Me Sunshine - Ken Bruce and Lynn Bowles
- Hole In My Bucket - Sarah Kennedy & Matthew Kelly
- Runaway Train - Alex Lester
- All You Need Is Love - Goodnight Mix - Bandaged (with Nick Mason)
- Goodnight - A D Chivers
They will be releasing "All You Need Is Love" as a single on download on November 1st, and are hoping to get the single into a high street outlet as well - this is to be confirmed. However, if you want a sneak preview of the track, and are in the UK, you can tune in again to Friday morning's Wake Up With Wogan radio show on BBC Radio 2, where they gave the world's first airing of the song.
You can do this by firing up the BBC iPlayer and going to October 16th show (direct link here). The song is played right at the end of the show, so you'll need to skip through to the 1 hour, 57 minute point. They play most of the song, and it's a nice version, with multi-handed vocals much like Do They Know It's Christmas had a line sung per performer. Nick is the drummer on the track, and also adds his voice to the choruses. One of just a handful of known Nick Mason vocal performances available!
On the single (the sleeve of which is shown to the right, under the album cover) are the following people:
Midge Ure, Nick Mason, Bill Wyman, Brian May, Terry Taylor, Jason Rebello, Sharon Corr, Lee Mead, Hayley Westenra, Paloma Faith,
Clare Teal, Cara Dillon, Bailey Tzuke, Red Hurley, Sir Terry Wogan, Finbar Furey, Ade Edmondson, Troy
Donockley, Andy Dinan, Peter Gabriel, Hugh Cornwell, Anthony Head, Beth Rowley, Heather Small, Imelda May, the Kingswood School Orchestra and Singers ( Leader: Laura Cross). The Chorus Vocals: Mark Moraghan, Samantha Bond, Rosie Austin, Evy Lee, Ennis Langdon, Carlton Sheekey, J La Touche, Sarah Greene, Geneta Crooke, Judie Tzuke, Monica George, Ciara Janson, Angie Shaw, Emily Breeze, Bevin Sutherland, Catherine Anne Davies, Lenny Savage, Deborah Jordan, Esther O'Connor, Sophie Delila, Emma Payn, Caroline Harrison, Katey Brooks, Alex Lester, Hayley Daviss, Melanie Gabriel, Emma Stockton, Astrid Brook, Caroline Loftus, Kate Eden, Jasmine Nelson, Maureen Beattie, Bronagh Gallagher, Nina Hynes, Alex Kilpartrick, V Ross, Annette Bowen, Rebecca Thomas, Bazil Mende, Josh Cadmon, Jo
Pasquale, Mick Sturbs and Norman Macintosh... and others!
Finishing touches are being made to what is being described as a "fantastic video" that goes with the single.
NEWS Sept 2009:
Nick Mason: is to take part in the recording of a charity album in support of this year's Children In Need appeal. The album, entitled Bandaged Together will be recorded at Abbey Road and will feature amongst others, Bill Wyman, Bryan Ferry and Peter Gabriel. Mmm i heard some other great names too, but i can't confirm that... Anyway "All you need" will be covered.
NEWS: Pink Floyd on Live8:
NICK MASON ON THE REUNION
Matt's excellent long running Pink Floyd site Brain Damage has posted an interview Nick Mason had the the magazine Radio Times. Nick says that Bob "wanted a 'novelty' act really. It was a toss-up between us and the Spice Girls. Not sure if we lost or won".
"Bob approached David Gilmour and David was not hugely enthusiastic. With good reason, I felt. He's in the middle of a solo project. Bob rang me and said, 'David Gilmour won't do it'. And I felt, well that's Dave. You can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink. In Dave's case you can't even get him near the water. But Bob then spoke to Roger and he agreed. I think he felt - we all felt, actually - that it was a shame we didn't play Live Aid, but we didn't really exist as a band at the time. So Roger rang David and that cemented it. There's not been much conversation in the past ten years. So this was a fairly hefty thing for us".
"You can't carry on World War Three forever". He concluded: "If we hadn't reformed for Live 8 we'd have done it for another charity event, I suspect. It's a good reason to do it; a way of building bridges for the right reasons rather than burning them down".
Born in Birmingham, 27 January,1944 at 11 pm. He studied architecture at London's Regent Street Polytechnic. He has been the drummer of Pink Floyd from the start of the group.
He started with piano and violin, but that wasn't his thing.
His first singles he bought were: Bill Haley "See you later Aligator" and Elvis Presley "
Don't be cruel".
His firs lp was Elvis Presley 'Rock 'N Roll".
Sigma 6; late '63 with;
Roger Waters -lead guitar,
Richard Wright -rhythm guitar, piano, organ and brass,
Nick Mason -drums,
Clive Metcalf -bass,
Keith Noble -vocals.
The screaming Abdabs; begin '64 with;
Nick Mason -drums,
Rick Wright -rhythm guitar and later organ,
Clive Metcalf -bass,
Roger Waters -lead guitar,
Keith Noble & Juliette Gale –vocals. Later on she and Rick got married.
Soon they turned up in;
Leonard Lodgers;
Syd Barrett -who took over the lead guitar and vocals,
Bob Klose -vocals, harmonica and guitar,
Roger Waters -bass,
Rick Wright -organ,
Nick Mason -drums.
When Bob Close left in '65, they played R&B classics. Syd changed his direction and began to improvise on guitar and keyboards.
They changed their name to:
The Pink Floyd Sound.
Syd Barrett - guitar and vocals,
Roger Waters -bass,
Rick Wright -organ,
Nick Mason -drums.
In the beginning of his musical career he married a girl called Lindy. She played the flute on The Grand Vizir's Garden Party and Green is the Colour ('69).
The drawing on the sleeve of Relics is Nick’s handiwork.
The only Pink Floyd songs that are solely credited to Mason are “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party Parts 1-3? (from Ummagumma) and “Speak to Me” (from The Dark Side of the Moon). The one-off song by the band entitled Nick’s Boogie was named after him.The only times Mason’s voice has been included on Pink Floyd’s albums are “Corporal Clegg”, the single spoken line in “One of These Days” and spoken parts of “Signs of Life” and “Learning to Fly” (the latter taken from actual recording of Mason’s first solo flight) from A Momentary Lapse of Reason. He does, however, sing lead vocals on two unreleased but heavily bootlegged tracks, “Scream Thy Last Scream” (1967) and “The Merry Xmas Song” (1975-1976). In live performances of the song “Sheep”, he did the spoken section.
Unlike the other members of Pink Floyd, Mason has rarely played an instrument other than his usual one (drums). He has only ever played non-percussive instruments on “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party”, his personal composition from Ummagumma, where he provided some keyboard, guitar and bass noises, and on live versions of “Outside the Wall”, where he played acoustic guitar along with the rest of the band. He has claimed that he took some failed violin and piano lessons as a child.
He liked collecting cars and racing them. Together with
David Gilmour and Steve O'Rouke, their manager, thye
drove the Pan American Race in Mexico ('91).
One of his lates carracing was in Le Mans ('03).
After the split of Pink Floyd, he financed, assisted by David Gilmour, the tour of Pink Floyd. From the benefits he bought a few cars and kept the nickels in his own pocket.
With the help of Storm Thorgerson (and Rick Fenn / from 10CC) he wrote some books, one of which is called Passion of Speed. Another is "Into the Red" - a coffee table book of articles / pix of his favourite cars, complete with a CD of the engine sounds!
SOLO-WORK.
Nick Mason has made no solo-album in the strict sence of the word. However, he has collaborated on, co-written and co-produced two albums. Furthermore he did some drumming and he made some sound tracks.
Fictitious Sports ('78, released in '81) a jazz-album (Frank Zappa-style). Cover-design by Hypnosis. With Carla Bley who composed all the pieces, co-produced them, sung and played keyboards.
Robert Wyatt & Karen Kraft –vocals,
Chris Spedding - guitar,
Steve Swallow -bass,
Gary Windo -woodwind,
Gary Valentes -trombones,
Michael Manter -trumpets,
Howard Jones -tuba,
Terry Addams -piano,
Nick Mason -drums, co-producing,
Carlas Ward, D.Sharpe, Vincent Chancey & Earl McIntyre -vocals.
Profiles ('85).
Rick Fenn -writing, co-producing, guitar, keyboards, vocals (10CC),
Aja Fenn –additional keyboard on Malta,
Danny Peyronel - lyrics and vocals,
Mel Collins -saxes,
Craig Pruess -bass,
Nick Griffiths -engineer,
Maggie Reiley &
David Gilmour -vocals on Lie for Lie (later it became a single).
White of the Eye ('87) soundtrack with Fenn and the script was also from both of them.
Tank Mailing ('88), with Fenn.
Sh-boom with vocals of Eric Stuart (also 10CC) for the movie "Life could be a Dream" with Fenn.
This film is a 20-minute semi-autobiographical account of Mason’s motoring and professional career, featuring material from "Pompei".
NEW FILM WITH NICK MASON APPEARANCE: A new British film opens on Friday 3rd October '03, called "Bright Young Things". Marking comedian and writer Stephen Fry's film directorial debut, it is an inventive adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies.Nick said about it: "...there's a sequence of motor racing at Brooklands [Motor Racing Circuit] which I'll be doing...".
Nick Mason has written a book, Inside Out, detailing his years in the band during good
times and, er, not-so-good times. According to MOJO magazine, Roger Waters says 'it's a
good, light read, but he's surprised there's not more sex in it'...
A very detailed
book and it's really fun to read.
Higly Recommended!
GUEST APPEARANCES AND PRODUCTION.
Roger Waters & Ron Geesin, Music for the Body; together with David Gilmour and Rick Wright.They played on the last track of the album, (the best track- to my taste at least).
Principel Edward's Magic Theatre, The Asmoto Running Band ('71) & Round One ('74); produced.
Robert Wyatt, Rock Bottom ('74), I'm Believer ('74) & Ruth is Stranger than Richard ('75); produced.
Gong, Shamal ('75); produced.
Michael Manter, The Hapless Child ('76); produced.
The Damned, Music for Pleasure ('77); produced at Brittania Row (a studio bought by Dave & Nick).
Steve Hillage, Green ('78); co-produced and a little bit on the tom-tom.
Michael Manter, Live ('87); playing drums, with Rick Fenn on guitars and others.
Gary Windo, His Master's Bones ('76 released in '96); Mason plays drums on one track (Steam Radio Tapes).
Roger Waters, Well, not only did Nick Mason participate in the soundcheck for Roger Water's gigs at the Wembley Arena on June 26th and 27th 2002, but he also climbed behind the drumkit for Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun during the shows themselves. Thus was half of the classic Pink Floyd line-up briefly reunited.
At Highclere Castle, Newbury, Berkshire, 20 May 2006.
Roger played a few songs with Nick Mason,
Eric Clapton (electric guitar on WYWH & second solo on Comfortably Numb!), Geoff Whitehorn
(played lead on the first solo), Mike Rutherford, Andy Fairweather Low &
Georgie Fame (also connected with
On An Island).
That night also appeared;
Bryan Ferry, Roger Taylor
, Gary Brooker among others.
and more... See Brain Damage for a full report.
Symfo-Index.