Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets
Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Ontario
April 16, 2019
Review by Kevin Barrie
There are many ways to be dedicated to a group, ranging from collecting all of their records to screaming at band members travelling in their limos. Groups like Pink Floyd have inspired a more cerebral (but not at all unemotional) dedication to their music. One need only look to the large number of successful Pink Floyd tribute acts playing to crowds of 1000-plus, touring year-in and year-out, to see the Floyd’s enduring popularity. But what is often missing from these acts is any major acknowledgement, performance-wise, of Pink Floyd‘s early period, beginning in 1967 and ending around 1972, one or two songs excepted. Very little Floyd music could be called truly obscure, but relative to the mammoth success of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, albums like Obscured by Clouds, Ummagumma and Piper at the Gates of Dawn most certainly qualify.
Enter Nick Mason. Arguably the least well-known member of the band throughout its history (albeit the only one to have appeared on all of their albums), he has become the band’s unofficial archivist and biographer (having written “Inside Out: a Personal History of Pink Floyd”, the only book by an actual Floyd member, first published in October 2004), and even spokesman. The band have recently released a number of box sets and collections focusing on 1967 to 1980, and it is often Nick engaging in the publicity. At some point in all of these recent re-releases, with no genuine Pink Floyd reunion of the remaining members appearing on the horizon, Nick seems to have either asked or been asked, why not take some of the early music on the road? And so began A Saucerful of Secrets tour.
Nick Mason brought his A Saucerful of Secrets show to Toronto on Tuesday April 16th, at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (soon to be renamed Meridian Hall). He brought with him four other musicians, most notably Guy Pratt (who has toured with both Floyd and David Gilmour) on bass and lead vocals, Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet) on guitar and lead vocals. His band also included Lee Harris on guitar, playing the majority of David Gilmour’s solos, and Dom Beken on keyboards and background vocals.
The show’s setlist consisted of nothing beyond the band’s 1972 soundtrack album Obscured by Clouds, which was the last before Dark Side of the Moon. Nick Mason has expressed that he considers this album to be a “sensational LP”, and the crowd response to the three tracks played from the album would seem
to indicate they felt so as well.
Other songs performed included what could be considered “well- known obscure” Pink Floyd songs, such as Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, One of these Days, and A Saucerful of Secrets, all of which were featured in the cult-classic concert film, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. Nick’s band also performed songs that (as far as we know) had never been performed live by Floyd themselves, including Fearless and the unfinished Syd Barrett-era track, Vegetable Man. Speaking of Syd, many tracks from the Barrett-era of Floyd were also performed, including Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive. Nick took a special moment to remind everyone that without Syd, there would have been no Floyd.
It is likely that this tour is a one-off. Hopefully, one or more of the shows has been professionally recorded (audio and visual) to document it.
Setlist:
Interstellar Overdrive
Astronomy Domine
Lucifer Sam
Fearless
Obscured by Clouds
When You’re In
Remember a Day
Arnold Layne Vegetable Man
If
Atom Heart Mother
The Nile Song
Green Is the Colour
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
See Emily Play
Bike
Childhood’s End
One of These Days
A Saucerful of Secrets
Point Me at the Sky
All photos by Paul Barrie
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