People understandably want to hear music that is older than they like at concerts, even if there are few performers that they like as original and legitimate. Pink Floyd, who released their first record in 1967, combined the psychedelia of pop with the experiential nature of underground culture and created their skin as a pioneer band of experimental and ambitious prog.
The 1973 concept album The Dark Side of the Moon proved to be a unique success, fueled by the stadium popularity that has not abated, even though the band has been inactive for years. Saucerful of Secrets, launched three years ago by Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason, presents the less noticed music of the successful band from the time before that groundbreaking success record. The recycled material is partly the kind that no member of Pink Floyd has publicly performed in the last fifty years, or even ever.
The tone of the band’s original guitarist-singer Syd Barrett is respected in the repertoire, from classics to oddballs, but the movie music records More and Obscured by Clouds, which were branded as intermediates, are equally remembered. There are also the first architectural prog epics, which once established a place in the parent band’s concert repertoire. All the songs from the Ummagumma album’s live album were heard even now, and the title of the tour refers to the landmark work Echoes from 1971, whose successful interpretation was rewarded with perhaps the most devoted applause of the evening. Visuality has always had a significant place in the activities of Pink Floyd and its best tribute bands.
Mason’s band strips away this tradition. The staging was emphatically reduced, and the use of the back screen and lights supported the music but did not take away attention. Guy Pratt has been the trusted bassist of Pink Floyd circles since the 80s: the collaboration with Mason, who separated from his contemporary drummers in the 60s and is now 78 years old, is going well for a long time. Dom Beken reproduces Richard Wright’s signature keyboard parts, and knows how to use the free space he gets. The most challenging task is for guitarists. Gary Kemp and Lee Harris share the essentials of the core bodies of the songs, without emphatically trying to imitate Barrett’s effective playing or the skills of David Gilmour, perhaps the greatest stylist in orchestral rock guitar.
The quintet’s playing together here and now relies on its own vision, which is emphasized in many of the more free-form parts. The players are present and close, not far out of reach, which also brings the music from the remoteness of the premises to the surface of the earth.
Reproducing the experimentalism of 50 years ago is not very experimental, but Saucerful of Secrets has found its own space to respect the old and express itself. It created purposefully old-fashioned soundscapes in the same way as Pink Floyd of yesteryear: unconventional sounds are also sought from traditional instruments, the skillful use of echoes is made like its own instrument, and the extras offered by tape effects and sequencer beats are utilized.
But Saucerful of Secrets can’t replace Pink Floyd’s unique vocal tones with the mentioned tonality or charisma. Kemp and Pratt, who alternated as soloists, remained satisfactory but impersonal interpreters, but this is often part of the basic look of both cover and tribute bands. A knowledgeable diggar audience decides what to admire and what to ignore when the historic music they love is remembered and honored. He felt the collective gratitude strongly.
Review Sent In By Arto Pakukallio
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