Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason hails Roger Waters’ re-recording of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ as “absolutely brilliant”
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has shared his opinion on former bassist Roger Waters re-recording the band’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon for the album’s 50th anniversary.
“I heard the rumour that Roger was working on his own version of it,” Mason said at the original album’s playback at London’s Dolby Atmos Immersive Studio. “There was this suggestion that this was going to be a spoiler and Roger was going to head-to-head with the original version and so on.”
“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.”
Mason has often acted as an intermediary between Waters and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Both Pink Floyd and Waters have been celebrating the album’s anniversary, with the band reissuing the album with additional material and Waters re-recording the entire LP.
Waters originally left Pink Floyd in 1985 after the release of The Final Cut in 1983. Gilmour and Mason continued the band without Waters, releasing three albums between 1987 and 2014. The duo were joined by founding member and keyboardist Richard Wright, who was fired by Waters in 1981 after touring The Wall.
In the interim years a feud has refused to go away between Waters and the band. However, recently, Mason was one of the many musicians who lent their name to a petition campaigning for Waters’ concerts in Germany which were cancelled over antisemitism accusations to be overturned.
The petition claims: “Waters’ criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is part of his long-term advocacy on behalf of human rights across the globe. Waters believes ‘that all our brothers and sisters, all over the world irrespective of the colour of their skin or the depth of their pockets deserve equal human rights under the law’.”
Many deemed Mason’s support to be controversial and his subsequent praise regarding Waters’ remastering has only increased that volume of that narrative among certain fans of Pink Floyd.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.