Decades back, we can hear mainly two things – the fact that we will never see and hear Pink Floyd live again, and the regret that we will never hear and see Pink Floyd live again. Younger generations with a set listen to the stories of the few elders who were at one of the concerts in Europe. The closest we could get to Pink Floyd was Waters’ audio visual revival of “The Wall”. But that’s not the end of the story of the big group. The story continues where it began more than half a century ago and is called Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.

The story began a long time ago, in 1965, and in addition to the two men mentioned, it was also started by Syd Barrett and Richard Wright. It started out quite progressive for that era, as psychedelic rock with atypical themes and an often atypical concept of musicianship. Nick Mason has just dedicated himself to the first period of the group ie. its very beginnings, and for that he gathered an enviable crowd of musicians: Guy Pratt on bass, who has decades of experience with Pink Floyd, Gary Kemp, singer and guitarist of the Spandau Ballet group, Lee Harris, guitarist, and Dom Becken, keyboardist.

“I’ve been touring for 57 years, and only now I came to Belgrade”, is the first sentence Nick addressed to the Serbian audience, and it followed the opening mystical gallop and sharp bass embodied in “One Of These Days”, a song that remained in Floyd’s set list until the last days. Right after that came the real stuff for rarities fans – “Arnold Layne”, the hit of the early works “Fearless”, the experimental “Obscured by Cloud”, and it was a real privilege to hear the song “Vegetable Man”, which was not recorded and released until three years ago. years. “Atom Heart Mother”, which is very reminiscent of Floyd’s later and better-known works, followed, “If” in a recognizable calm, lyrical tone, and the first part of the concert ended with the psychedelic manifesto “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”.

After a twenty-minute break and a couple of minutes of sound mix from the public address system, the spectacle in one plural word, “Echoes”, followed. Over 20 minutes of journey through the essence of Pink Floyd, starting with effects and samples, through soothing two voices, melodic colorful solos, a fiercer sound and a return to “Echo”. If there is one composition that is enough for the whole concert, then it is definitely this one. In the second part of the concert, two guitars stood out, i.e. two guitarists, and they had a reason, because they also played “Lucifer Sam”, “The Nile Song”, “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Astronomy Domine”. It must be emphasized that just playing the early works directly refers to and relies on the work of Syd Barrett, who started the whole idea and story that later grew to unimaginable proportions. In this connection, this project is largely dedicated to him and his songs. “See Emily Play”, “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Bike” were played during the encore. There are few groups or musicians who dedicate their tours to early and rare works, and a large number of fans want to hear those very songs that are rarely or never played live. It is true that the early works of Pink Floyd are far behind the later, well-known albums in terms of quality and music, but it is certainly a privilege to hear something that represents the beginning and the root of things.

The beginning that finally arrived in Belgrade after 57 years.

Review Courtesy Of Danilo Dotlić

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