Nick Mason and The Saucers Brisbane 2023
When the tour was announced I was extremely disappointed that once again Adelaide had been left off the map, this happens an awful lot with touring bands, I don’t really know why, Adelaide is a great city with loads of great food, wine and craft brewery’s and close to the beautiful coastline.
As the two Melbourne shows were standing only and this old boy has a major spine disorder I went in to a major huff. I decided right, that’s it, bollocks..I’m not going… It’s going to cost me a fortune to see one show. Grizzle, grizzle…moan…
After many weeks of looking and hoping things would change..they are waiting to see how sales go before they finally announce a show in my town… I thought…. Nope…it’s not happening… I sat up one evening enjoying an IPA or two and decided just to see what seats were still available in Brisbane… To my surprise, there were two seats, at the end of row three, centre block, right in front of Lee….. I always pick an aisle seat for me to extend my left leg when the sciatica kicks in..
I got all enthused (beer) and messaged my brother in law, Frazer, and said… ‘If you will, I will’… and with that I went to bed.
When I got up the next morning…forgetting my message to Frazer, I opened messenger and there was a reply that just said… ‘I Will’…
That was it..online I go…and two tickets were purchased.
Frazer travels a lot with his own propeller repair business and is a Qantas Club Lounge Member and so I asked him if he’d like to sort the flights out… Job done.. The next job was to contact my Cousin Mic, he lives in a place called Canungra, about 1h15m away from where the show was going to be… He had already been hassling us to go to the show and had his tickets right from when they went on sale..after sending him a screenshot of our tickets I got the reply I was hoping for. Excitement that his older cousin was not only coming for the show, but to stay with him and see his new house that they just built and see the now 10 years older – younger cousins whom I hadn’t seen since they came to me and my Wife Jodie’s wedding in October 2019…(every year is getting shorter)
Excellent!
And so.. During an online chat with my long time friend and former band mate Steve Mac from TAPFS, he said he’d mentioned to Lee Harris that I would be attending the Brisbane show of the tour, Lee said to Steve, here’s my contact details and tell Lee to get in touch nearer the show date so we can organise a meet up.
This made me somewhat anxious… I’m an anxious type…but thrilled all the same. Late in the week before the show I contacted Lee and said how I’d been chatting with Col T from AFG and that Col and I were hoping to catch up too.. Lee replied and said to get in touch on the day..cool.
Sunday came, the day we decided to fly up to Coolangatta just outside of Brizvegas (as it’s known in these parts) . The show is on Tuesday. With Frazer being a Qantas member we took advantage of free food, beer and wine before boarding our flight and off we went…
As we hit the ground my phone pinged and Cousin Mic messaged Touchdown! He was already there waiting for us as he had a clear run in from home.
Hugs all round and off we went in the darkness of night to his home.
I could write about and show pictures of the next morning when I got up and went outside and saw for the first time where we were..it was beautiful, an alien landscape from what I’m used to in Adelaide but I’d best get to show day.
Show day… I woke up with a belly full of butterflies. Everyone could sense I was a bit nervy and left me to faff about… The day before we had gone to collect Mics Hi-Fi amp from the repairer ..just in time for me to re-install it for him…which I gladly did as it made me concentrate for an hour or so and not get too overwhelmed…
We were all ready and the car packed, it was going to be warm so we all had a change of clothes for the show…and off we went.. I sat in the back next to my young 16 year old cousin Ida and got my phone out to message Col.. We’re on our way! This is where things got a little bit more exciting… Col said he’d been chatting with Guy and that he had got him backstage passes! I messaged Lee and said we were on our way, Lee said to let him know when we were in the venue and perhaps we could catch up by the merch stall later? I told Col this and Col said to ask Lee for some passes. I hadn’t yet met Lee and didn’t think that was appropriate. I then wrote back to Lee and said that Col was meeting Guy to collect some passes perhaps we could all meet up? Lee, to his eternal credit, picked up on my hint and asked how many of us there were, three? I said three adults and my 16 year old cousin….message back…Go to the Box Office and there will be four passes waiting for you! Gasp! I told Col, he was chuffed too.. I then announced the message to the car who all gasped and wowed just like I did…except Ida, because she was gazing out of the window with her earphones in…I gave her a nudge with my elbow and showed her the text, her face lit up with a beaming smile… It was such a thrill … Now I am getting properly anxious!!
After spending the afternoon wandering about Southbank having the odd beer here and there, one place had a self serve thing where you put in a pre purchased card with the amount you paid for it in and you helped yourself to the 18 beers available…the amount served and the amount left on the card displayed as you poured…cool concept. We had tea at the Fashionable Squire and finally headed off to the venue 10 mins down the road.
We went in and headed to the VIP counter (I actually forgot we had bought VIP tickets) Collected our Tote Bag and had a look inside… a Stubbie/Can Holder, a pair of Official Nick Mason Drumsticks and some earplugs.. The drumsticks are very cool and will sit nicely in my studio. From there it was a short walk to the Box Office and I eagerly went up and said who I was and the lady happily asked us all to come closer so she could put on a blue waxy, paper wristband.. “This will get you in to the meet and greet room after the show, just over there”, she said…pointing at a door.. Ooo, exciting…
And with that I looked at my phone to see Col had messaged and said where he was… I said to my family, I just have to go and meet Col…back soon…
I wandered over to where Col was and I spotted him sat at a table with his son, Chris. We had a warm greeting between us, it has been many years since we last hooked up, probably Roger’s In The Flesh show… Col introduced me to his fine Son Chris, and after our initial catch up I took them over to the Box Office so they could collect their passes that Guy had sorted for them.
At this point my family peeps came over and everyone was introduced to each other, Col opened an envelope which had two tickets in it. At this point I thought Oh…bugger…he has proper backstage passes and I have a wrist band… There must be two Band happenings… Alas, no! They were actual concert tickets, Col said ” I told them I already had tickets, I don’t need these”… I asked where they were for as Mic and Ida were at the back of the room…Col without hesitation, nor even checking the seats, handed them over to Mic and said ” Here you go, they’re no good to me”… Mic was chuffed and thanked Col and was excited to find out where they were compared to his seats…and with that, Col and Chris headed off to get ready for the show… but not before our compulsory photos were taken and we decided where to meet post show.
So, off to the auditorium we go.. Frazer and I had excellent seats, right in front of Lee… I checked out the stage as you do and assessed the PA which had plenty of subs stacked in pairs across the front of the stage with top boxes strapped to them…At a guess I think there were about eight stacks… making thirty two 15 inch drivers…and the usual array hanging from the roof.. bring it on.
We’d been sat there for twenty mins or so with a full view of the stage and then it happened… A giant appeared next to me looking at his tickets with his wife… he must have been 6’6″ and 4′ across…and yep…sat right in front of us…. You bastard. There are photos of pre and post their arrival.
So, the next thing… I see Guy backstage to my left coming out and strapping on his Bass and getting ready to hit the first notes of One of These Days.. as he does, I’m thinking oh, that’s not very loud… I could actually hear his amps on stage … not much from the PA…. anyhoo….he appears out in front of everyone to a loud cheer and the rest of the band follow… It’s NICK!!! Right there…just there, in front of me… I was transfixed and off they went ….. Lee was pretty much hidden because of Man Mountain and I found myself for the rest of the first half almost falling out of my seat, leaning to my left to get a full view… Lee’s slide sound was killer… Lean to the right and I get to see everyone else…and back…
You probably know the set list and I won’t do a song by song account however…there were stand out moments I have to mention… While I’m not a huge fan of Gary’s delivery for some songs (like.. the hill’s too steep to clyyeeyyiiime etc.) His delivery on Vegetable man was excellent.. Perfect for the song, with an attitude like he’s telling you ‘It’s what I wear, it’s what you see, It must be me, it’s what I am, Vegetable man!’ with a London accent.. I really enjoyed that.
On the Roundhouse Bluray, things like Obscured By Clouds were a bit different to what we know and love, especially live recordings and I think that I may have had my bias leaning to the latter…however… as soon as Dom started the intro and it was live in front of me, you really got the jist of it… it was big and powerful and I found myself headbanging with a cheesy grin, it sounded great…but still not loud enough… Gary came in early on one of the slide licks and looked over at Lee with an…oops look on his face….great! It’s live! Love it…
Everyone keeps mentioning Gary on lead guitar? He did a great job all night… and I have to say seeing and hearing the show live is nothing like watching the Bluray…it just isn’t…. The excitement of it being live, right now, in front of me…
Other things to mention.. Nick stood up and said hello, and that they were not the Australian David Gilmour or Australian Roger Waters etc. which got a laugh and then said… “now, we have a very sensitive bass player who doesn’t like it when you film or take photographs that you have the little white light on….so please…..it’s ok if you want to take pictures or record it or whatever…that’s fine, but turn the little white light off…thank you “…..
As the show went on, Guy became progressively more and more pissed off with people that either hadn’t turned off their lights or were holding their phones too high above themselves as he was now constantly pointing at people and angrily gesturing to them to put their arms down.. At first I thought…ha! You’re doing a late 70s Roger impersonation… But no…he pointed at what felt like directly at me and I kind of had a jump.. I’m not filming…making me look around… it took me a minute to get back in to the song…then he was off again…pointing and snarling….’put your hands down’ shaking his head and walking back to his spot muttering ….’wtf is wrong with them?’….it was very distracting and he continued throughout the show.
Half time … Great performance but not loud enough…being a sound guy I couldn’t let it go and wandered to FOH… I politely said how I could hear the amps on stage more than the PA…I had actually gone up to the front stage fill to hear if there was any of the half time music coming out, and there was… The chap I spoke to said well, they are loud amps… I said with a smile..but the PA should be louder..I can hear the arrays but it’s empty in front…Ok, he said, I’ll have a chat with my guy…Thanks Mate, no worries… and off I wandered..
I found cousin Mic, he had gone to check out the seats Col’s tickets offered and they were closer to the front but on the side…He opted as we suggested, to keep his own seats as they were pretty much dead centre and a few rows in front of the mixing desk… He and Ida were both grinning and saying Wow! That end bit (big bass) Ida thought she was going to lift off her seat…. I thought hmmmm….. I hope that’s not an indication we have shitty seats for good sound…
I Soon we were back in our seats ready for the second half and Frazer offered to swap seats with me…thank you mate…yes please. I was already a bit achy from the constant leaning to see past Mountain Man.
Astronomy opened and Boom! It was as if the stage fill speakers had been off….Take that motherfucker…!!
What a difference… Now it was like my home surround sound system x 1000 …and I have a pretty good sound system…it sounded fantastic… This found me singing my head off to every song…it was loud, clear and fantastically punchy… Then it came… I’m getting goosebumps writing this…and it’s two weeks later! Echoes…. When Nick does the first drum roll and the first Bass note is played…my trousers flapped and my chest felt like I’d been kicked…it was fucking glorious… (if only the first half sounded as good) I confess I had tears rolling down my cheeks…it’s Nick Mason playing Echoes just feet in front of me…It was a little overwhelming…
It didn’t stop there either.. every other song they played sounded fantastic… Remember A Day…more tears… I was in heaven. I so much wanted to sing my heart out in Saucerful Of Secrets like the crowd did a few years back in Norway or wherever it was but it wasn’t going to happen tonight… It didn’t matter, it was a great show and Nick was excellent…also…Lee’s guitar tones and playing were both fantastic… I instantly thought, I have to buy myself a Hiwatt/Hitone amp… I used to have a Hiwatt 400 head back in the 90s… but they are now so massively expensive.. oh well…
So the show was over and we made our way to the foyer…I was still reeling from what just happened…the sound was absolutely brilliant in the second half…just what I had always hoped it would be like…and it made think about how unbelievably awesome it would have been to see/hear Raving and Drooling performed and be sat where I was… It was powerful…and a young Nick playing like he used to…my god…
We all met where we said we would, pretty much next to the room where the band would come to.. We were all buzzed by the show…everyone… Col was raving about Echoes as were we all… 16 year old Eva had heard some songs before and she loved the show, both Mic and I got a kick from that… a proud Dad moment for him and a..we have a next generation fan for me…
We discussed the show, this bit, that bit.. Col asked me about why Lee was holding up the guitar in Echoes and I explained about how the sound was found and that Lee was just paying homage to it etc. and then….a gentleman came over and asked…can I see your wrist bands please, folks? Gulp! A little bit of wee nearly came out…
We all stood up and were escorted in to the fairly small function room where there was a counter/bar and staff offering cold drinks..Col and Chris got the famous AFG Banner out and Sharpies to get things signed with etc. I got myself a beer and turned round and Gary was walking right towards me.. At first I didn’t know if I should applaud him and say what a fantastic job he did on Vegetable Man or just hello…and as I opened my mouth he walked right past me like I wasn’t there… oh…fine… ok… He went to talk to some people I think he knew but it was obvious I was putting my hand out to say hello…anyhoo…
I changed position…got settled near Chris who was now getting his phone ready for photos…I gestured to my family, get your phone out…!! Film! Film…!! I turned around and Lee walked in the door heading towards me, I greeted him, we shook hands and introduced ourselves… I thanked him very much for the passes and said what a great show it was and then we just chatted like we were mates in the pub, such a warm, genuine, top bloke..
All of a sudden the room felt full, there were about thirty people in there.. I think it was Barry the security guy that DG had with him at the Albert Hall wandering about casually…. A tall bloke in a denim jacket that I didn’t recognise and then Guy appeared.. I’ve met Guy before and I shook hands and said hello… I said…you looked a bit grumpy up there at times mate, “it happens all the time…if they wanna watch it on a screen, go and watch fucking YouTube”… So by this time groups of people were chatting…I’m buzzing…Lee was great…no rush to go anywhere or not chat with me…then all of a sudden… There he was… as Gary said on stage… an original pioneer of rock music… Nick Mason stood a few feet from me…I said to Lee, ‘I’d love to meet him, Lee’… He said sure…and we walked casually over and Lee introduced me to Nick… I said as we shook hands.. “Hi Nick, I’m Lee,the original founder of TAPFS….Please don’t hit me”… There was laughter and a great photo of that moment was taken.. Nick was a delight. Relaxed, not fussed about anything…I was expecting them all to be…right, let’s get this out of the way and off for drinks.. But it wasn’t like that at all.. I got to hang with my hero for at least 20 mins…it may have been more.. It was a living dream… Nick said it was the best Echoes they’ve done yet… I asked why, he said “it was more relaxed, it wasn’t rushed and the audience were really great” That makes a huge difference when there’s a good audience. Some other people came over to meet Nick and at this point I realised I didn’t have anything to get an autograph with…But Col did…ah, good man…can I borrow that sharpie please? As I turned around to go back to Nick, Dom walked in and right up to where I was standing… A glass of white wine in one hand and a bottle in the other…Happy Birthday! I said.. We shook hands and I told him how fantastic it all sounded out the front…the bottom end on his keyboards was massive…
It was around this point that Col and Chris had the banner in their hands and wanted to get the band together for a photo.. I managed to be standing at the end of the line with Chris who then stood back to take photos…my family were about doing the same as you can see from mine… There I am, the whole band and Col… It was lovely.. Everyone was in good spirits and jovial… After the photos were taken people just carried on chatting… I went back over to where Nick was and he was sipping a glass of red wine..the tall chap in the denim jacket asked Nick, do you still have the place in London? Wer’e playing the Albert hall soon, we should catch up for dinner… The next day Col messaged me to say…do you know who that was?? It’s Rick Fenn from 10cc.! I didn’t recognise him at all… I guess they have all aged a fair bit.
Now it was time for me to ask Nick if he would mind signing my bag… which he happily did, I got my family over and Nick had his photo taken with each of them individually and signed all our goodies, what a true gentleman.
Dom was just about to leave the room and I asked him of he’d mind signing too…again, what a lovely bloke, I asked him what the plans were for his birthday night out and he said “we’re heading off to a hotel and some good whisky” I wished him a happy birthday again and he left the room… Lee also obliged signing things for us all and i thanked him again for making it happen.. Guy gave Col a hug goodbye and they all went on their way…
I was floating and needed another beer…I sat down looking around the room and realised we were the only ones left in there… I was in a daze…
Col and I had another hug, I said goodbye to him and his son Chris and best of luck for the upcoming operation (Col can tell you about that) and we all headed off out of the building.
As we were heading to the carpark…i was overcome with emotion…it just hit me what had just happened… Yes, they are just people.. and all of them are lovely… But I just met Nick Mason…and not in passing… I got to hang out, sipping a beer, chatting… He asked me if I was still playing etc. I actually cried a bit… I was lagging behind so no one saw me.. but It was like meeting a Beatle.. A Floydian.. I’ll never forget that evening.
Thanks to my mate Steve Mac for telling Lee in the first place I was going and to Lee for actually caring to pass on his details for me to get in touch. The show is just fantastic and topped off with meeting Nick and the rest of the band afterwards… What a night.
If you have any chance to go to the show..don’t hesitate… I would have gone again the next night if there was a second show. I’m very much hoping they film this leg of the tour.
Lee Smith 2023
Photos by Lee Smith, Mic Smith and Frazer Sutton
Capacity 4,000
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre is a convention centre in Brisbane, Australia. It is located in South Brisbane and occupies most of the block formed by Grey Street, Melbourne Street, Merivale Street, and Glenelg Street. The centre is owned by South Bank Corporation and managed by ASM Global.
Review with thanks to Lee Smith, founder of the world-renowned Australian Pink Floyd.
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