As Nick Mason prepares to lead his Saucerful of Secrets band on its first North American tour, he said the ongoing feud between his former Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour is one of the the reasons he created the project.

"Finally, even I gave up," Mason told AZ Central. "After 20-something years, I was absolutely tired of waiting for the phone to ring with Roger or David going, ‘C’mon guys, let’s get the band back together.’ I thought, ‘Forget that. It’s not gonna happen.' I really got to the point where I thought I could never work again."

Those words echo a similar interview the drummer gave in December, where he said, "I live in hope" for the possibility of a reunion, but immediately added, "I mean, I don’t think we’re going to tour as Pink Floyd again. But it would seem silly at this stage of our lives to still be fighting.”

Mason's five-week tour kicks off tonight in Vancouver. If last year's European dates are any indication, Saucerful of Secrets will be focusing on Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and pre-The Dark Side of the Moon eras. Despite their differences, Gilmour and Waters gave their blessing to Mason and offered their support.

"I thought it would be sort of a courtesy to tell them both what I was doing," Mason noted. "And they were great. Roger threatened to come down and play some time. I think one day David might do the same. He lent me loads of equipment that we needed to go out. So they were both great, actually."

Mason was also inspired by an exhibition called Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains that opened at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in 2017.

"It was very successful," he said. "A lot of people came. But it suddenly just made me feel like the Tower of London or something. It was all about this ancient history. And there was that feeling that the one thing that was lacking was actually playing music. So that was a catalyst for me, I think. I ended up talking quite a lot about the history of the band and so on but the reality is what I really wanted to do was play some music."

 

 

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