April 10, 2019

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Nick Mason, the drummer and “heart beat of Pink Floyd” brought his Saucerful Of Secrets tour to The Akron Civic Theater on Monday evening.

 

This tour is celebrating the songs of early Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was in the band. Every song played was pre Dark Side Of The Moon; much to the delight of fans who were eager to hear those early songs performed live.

 

Mason put an amazing band around him for this tour.  The members include: Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet on vocals and guitar, Pink Floyd touring bassist Guy Pratt, guitarist Lee Harris and keyboardist Dom Beken.

 

The stage was bathed in red light as the band took the stage and appropriately went into “Interstellar Overdrive” from Pink Floyd’s first album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

 

Pratt and Kemp’s voices blended nicely together and they both traded lead vocals on tunes like “Lucifer Sam” and “Fearless.”

 

At one point in the show, Mason addressed the audience and said that he wanted to honor the memory of Syd Barrett who originally put the band together.  Over time, he stated that “We ran out of Syd or Syd ran out of us.”

 

Mason also noted that the song “Vegetable Man” was never officially completed and was never played live until this tour.

 

Many gems were pulled out and flawlessly played, including “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” which is the only studio song that all five band members played on.

 

The set two-hour set closed with the classic song from Meddle “One Of These Days.”

 

Mason and crew returned to the stage to encore with “A Saucerful Of Secrets” and the very rare “Point Me At The Sky.”  

 

The audience left the theater with smiles on their faces as they realized that this may be the first, and perhaps the last time they may ever get to hear those songs performed live by one of the men who originally recorded them.

 

It truly was a treat for all that attended the show.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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