Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has shared his thoughts on Roger Waters’ re-recording of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ – hailing it as “absolutely brilliant”.
Waters announced that he would be re-recording the iconic Pink Floyd LP without his former bandmates earlier this year. The original release – which first debuted in 1973 – is lauded as one of the greatest records of all time, and celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.
Now, drummer Nick Mason has shared his opinion on his bandmate’s upcoming release, and confirmed that he has already heard snippets of the project.
“I heard the rumour that Roger was working on his own version of it,” he said when speaking at a playback of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, at London’s Dolby Atmos Immersive Studio. “There was this suggestion that this was going to be a spoiler and Roger was going to go head-to-head with the original version and so on.”
He continued: “He actually sent me a copy of what he was working on and I write to him and said, ‘Annoyingly, it’s absolutely brilliant!’ It was and is. It’s not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it’s an interesting add-on to the thing.”
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright onstage at Live 8 London 2005. Credit: MJ Kim/Getty Images
Currently, Mason has teamed up with Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, and performs early Pink Floyd tracks under the band name Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets.
The 79-year-old musician also explained why he supports the concept of re-visiting classic tracks and presenting them in a new way – stating it allows musicians to “develop” the original release.
“One of the things I like about any sort of existing piece of music is to develop it or find some extra quality in it,” he said. “I just like this idea of developing music rather than trying to retain it exactly as it was.”
This isn’t the first time that the drummer has come forward to publicly support his former bandmate. Earlier this month, Mason signed a petition which called upon the reversal of a ban placed upon one of Water’s upcoming live shows.
The former Pink Floyd guitarist was set to perform in Frankfurt, Germany on May 28, as part of his ongoing This Is Not A Drill tour. However, the show was pulled by the officials at Frankfurt City Council following accusations of anti-Semitism.
Following the ban, a petition to overturn the decision was launched online, and signed by names including Nick Mason, Eric Clapton, Brian Eno and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. Currently, the petition has over 23,000 signatures.
Waters also threatened to take legal action following the concert ban, with his team stating that the decision was “unjustifiable” and infringed on Waters’ freedom of speech.
Roger Waters’ re-recorded version of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ is expected to be released in May.
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