LIVE REVIEW: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, 21/06/2024
Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan – Brighton Dome on 26th June
The SEC Armadillo was the perfect setting for Nick Mason and his Saucerful of Secrets ‘super group’ to play the back catalogue of Pink Floyd tracks, but with a twist: they mainly the psychedelic numbers that were released pre The Dark Side Of The Moon. We should introduce the band and you can make your own mind up whether this is a super group, Nick Mason needs little introduction as he was the drummer of Pink Floyd since their formation in 1965, Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet fame was on vocals and guitar, Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd’s touring bass player) on vocals and bass, Lee Harris on guitar and Dom Beken on everything else (keyboard, synth, organ, piano, harmonica).
As there was no support for this show, the band took to the stage at 7.30pm with the Armadillo almost at capacity as the fans eagerly anticipated what songs they would get to hear on this Set The Controls tour. We didn’t have to wait long to find out what the first song would be as Astronomy Domine began, a track from the band’s debut release in 1967 The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, the first of three from that particular album, Lucifer Sam and Scarecrow being the others. This was followed by Arnold Layne then See Emily Play; a great three tracks to start the set. Atom Heart Mother was one of the highlights of the set, an absolute epic track that leaves you breathless by the end. These five guys have been touring the early Pink Floyd tracks for six years now and show no signs of taking the foot off the gas, even though Nick Mason is now eighty years of age. The first part of the show ends with Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun before a twenty minute interval allows the fans to take in what they have witnessed so far.
As the band take to the stage for ‘set two’, audio and visual footage is played featuring original vocalist Syd Barrett, the crowd sit quietly taking in every word, Mason is doing his best to keep the memory of Barrett alive. Scarecrow and Fearless begin the second part and finishes with the brilliant Echoes, a song instantly recognisable by the opening ping as a loud cheer of appreciation goes up from the crowd, this turned out to be a twenty-two minute epic. It’s an unbelievable song to hear live still after all these years the reproduction of this track is played to absolute perfection so hats off to all five band members who were working their arses off on that stage! Lee Harris is particularly effective using the guitar and amp to create the unique psychedelic sounds. The encore consists of two songs, first up One Of These Days, like Echoes is taken from the 1971 Meddle LP, the collective musicianship on this track is special and even has the classic Doctor Who line in the middle “One of these days I’m going to break you into little pieces”. The night ends with A Saucerful of Secrets, the track that gave Mason’s band the name. As the band left the stage the crowd gave them a standing ovation and quite rightly so as this tour is very special, you won’t catch David Gilmour or Roger Waters playing many of these songs live on their next tours!
The UK leg of the tour finished up at The Royal Albert Hall on 29th June before the band heads off to Europe for a few dates. So what’s next for this interesting mix of musicians? Well they could maybe pull out a few more old tracks from the back catalogue or even expand it to include Dark Side Of The Moon. Here’s hoping anyway! 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
