The story of this amazing and exciting musical project started when Lee Harris (who once played with Ian Dury & The Blockheads) attended a David Gilmour gig in 2015, and one year later another one, in an ancient amphitheatre. These two experiences inspired him to make Pink Floyd music from the Pompeii era,

Nick Mason

also in an ancient amphitheatre. Lee and his good friend Guy Pratt (who performed with famous bands and artist like Roxy Music, David Bowie, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Tears For Fears, Tom Jones and of course Pink Floyd) approached Nick Mason for this idea. Nick reacted positively and in 2018 Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets was founded, also featuring the additional members Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet) on vocals and guitar and Dom Beken (keyboards, synthesizers, organ, piano, programming, harmonica and backing vocal), a BAFTA nominated composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who creates music for video games, film and TV, commercial releases and remixes. The band started to rehearse and did extensive research on the 1967-1972 live and bootleg Pink Floyd material, blended with fresh musical ideas, not just covering the music, and then the band went on tour, very successfully. A few years ago a good friend of mine visited the legendary German Loreley festival, he was blown away by the Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets gig. From that moment I was determined to watch this awesome Pink Floyd pre-DSOTM musical project, and early this year I succeeded and got a ticket for this Set The Controls tour, in the wonderful TivoliVredenburg venue, the Ronda Hall.

The unofficial support-act this evening was the second half of the European Championship game The Netherlands versus Roemania, shown on two huge screens, left and right from the stage, and what a joy, a 3-0 victory! But back to the music, from the very first moment Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets delighted the grateful crowd with awesome and compelling renditions of the 1967-1972 compositions, wow, what a great tribute! The band not only sounded mighty close to the early Pink Floyd but also delivered an extra dimension in almost every song, with inspired personal contributions by the band members, and excellent interplay (more lush and dynamic than the original line-up), embellished with a wonderful lightshow and mind blowing liquid slide projections, trademark psychedelia! And nearly all my favourite tracks were on the setlist, except Interstellar Overdrive.

Projection Syd Barrett on screen

Special songs were the Syd Barrett tribute Remember Me (with recorded vocals from Syd Barrett and harmonica by Dom Beken), When You're In (spacy Minimoog synthesizer improvisations),
Fearless (powerful and extended version, of course with You Never Walk Alone) and the whimsy, typical Barrett song The Scarecrow, performed by a Pink Floyd member for the first time since 1968, and topped with a soaring Farfisa organ solo.

As a huge fan of the Syd Barrett era I was very pleased with the versions of Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Astronomy Domine (the exciting opener of the evening, both visually as musically) and Lucifer Sam, this night to me these songs sounded more compelling and powerful than in those days!

But the absolute highlights were the classic Pink Floyd tracks from the album Meddle and the movie Pink Floyd At Pompeii, from Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun (Nick Mason in the spotlights with propulsive drum work) and One Of These Days (great work on the steel guitar) to A Saucerful Of Secrets (mind-blowing vocal contribution by Gary Kemp) and of course the dynamic epic Echoes (a lot of goose bumps moments), this is the pivotal psychedelic Pink Floyd sound that many fans are most pleased with, and the mesmerized crowd showed very often its appreciation, from clapping and shouting to loud primal screams, haha.

I have seen the 70-77 Genesis tribute band The Musical Box many times, this awesome band succeeds in capturing the spirit of the early Genesis in a magical way, especially for those who have never seen the Peter Gabriel era. Nick Mason with his Saucerful Of Secrets band succeeds to capture the spirit of 1967-1972 Pink Floyd, but with an extra dimension, created by Nick who inspires his band members to add own flavours, on stage Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets even rises to the occasion, also this memorable night, wow, thanks for this mind-blowing trip to the unique world of early Pink Floyd!

Erik Neuteboom, pictures by Bert Treep (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)