“I play with Nick Mason to make Pink Floyd more fun”

It is a band that offers the repertoire of the (first) Pink Floydeven though its members actually include a member of Pink Floyd. But i Saucerful Of Secrets Of Nick Masonthe group formed in 2018 by the founding drummer, played smart. At their concerts you don’t hear the most obvious great hits, but the pieces from Floyd’s first catalogue, that of the Syd Barrett era. “All stuff that David Gilmour and Roger Waters don’t play,” says the singer and guitarist, Gary Kemp.

Play “See Emily Play”, “Interstellar Overdrive”, “The Nile Song” and “Fearless” instead of “Comfortably Numb”, “Money” and “Another Brick In The Wall”. This is the secret that makes Saucerful Of Secrets more than one tribute band: “Yes, we play those old songs, but we play them with a youthful energydespite the age we all have. I think there’s a sense of fun and fury in what we do,” says Kemp.

The best thing about this band are the gags. There’s a competition to see who can make the most jokes. And this is also reflected on stage, which I think is a real revelation for Floyd fans. If you go to a Floyd tribute, or watch them on YouTube, you will notice an absolute seriousness in what they do. That seriousness forever became Floyd’s image. We wanted a sense of fun, a sense of dynamism. Strangely enough, Roger now moves a lot on stage – it’s quite theatrical.

“As a band, we never thought: we’re trying to emulate the source and get a result exactly the same as the record. We don’t need it because we’re not a tribute band; we can go in any direction, as long as Nick agrees” concludes Kemp.