By Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON (Reuters) – Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason would be open to the idea of a reunion gig but he doesn’t see any appetite for one among his feuding, now elderly bandmates, he said on Tuesday.
The legendary English rock group last appeared on stage together nearly two decades ago, at the Live 8 charity concert at Hyde Park, London, in 2005.
But the long-running quarrel between the other two surviving band members, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, has only intensified in recent years, becoming one of rock music’s most bitter feuds.
Keyboardist Richard Wright died in 2008 and original frontman Syd Barrett, who left the band much earlier due to his declining mental health, passed away in 2006.
Asked if he would be open to a reunion, Mason told Reuters: “Oh yeah. I would. But I don’t think you’ll find very much support from Roger and David for working together.”
Mason said hadn’t discussed the possibility with either Waters, 80, or Gilmour, 78.
Waters left the band in 1985 following personal and creative differences and was embroiled in a legal battle over the use of the Pink Floyd name. His spat with Gilmour has only worsened since and the pair clashed last year on social media and even over the Russia-Ukraine war.
Waters was the creative force behind the band’s best known albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. Gilmour’s vocals and legendary guitar solos helped define the distinctive Pink Floyd sound.
“It’s more likely that I might do shows, like Roger came on stage in New York a couple of years ago,” Mason said, referring to a New York gig with his own ensemble in 2022 when Waters joined him on stage in a surprise appearance.
“And that was great to do, and who knows? But I really, really don’t think there’s an appetite (for a reunion),” he added.
Mason, 80, was speaking on the sidelines of an event at Battersea Power Station in London marking the release of a new version of 1977’s Animals, which features the power station and a floating inflatable pig on its famous album cover.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
