Nick Mason: "I think the problem is Roger doesn’t really respect David"

Pink Floyd will never die, your opinion will.

 

You don't think Jimmy Page would get back together with Robert Plant in a second if Robert wanted to? I don't think the two situations are the same at all.

 

This. Page might actually dust off his Les Paul instead of telling us a bunch of drivel that will never come to fruition.

 

I don't know if Page actually would do it now.

He was definitely eager to do it after 02 but more recently he's seemed pretty resigned to the fact that it's not going to happen. And also somewhat fed up with RP.

 

Maybe so, but he's not staying away because his big ego is telling him he's better without Robert.

 

And Nick is having a great time, more so than almost any other time in his career. And good for him!

 

Just like the elderly men arguing in this thread.

 

If you have been in a band you'd understand this.

I played in a band with 3 of my best friends at the time, I was the thread that brought them together as they didn't know each other outside of the band, only through me. After 5 years and a lot of disagreements, not pulling their weight, taking this piss, stealing money and not paying it back, refusing to play certain songs etc. etc. you split up, and although you stay friends, you don't ever want to go through that again. We had no success whatsoever, so I can only imagine with success comes its own set of pitfalls.

We split in 1993. No matter how many times I've been asked by others to play in bands with them, I've always declined. I still feel exhausted by the whole experience and never went back to it. That was over 25 years ago now, and my feelings have not changed. I never want to do anything like that again.

I would imagine Floyd went through things a thousand times more intense that I did. I can't blame them for not wanted to re-group. Roger and Dave are doing fine on their own. They might turn up and play a few hits at a special gig from time to time, and its all a bit of fun, but then returning to their normal operating parameters is natural to them.

Of course, when I said a thousand times more intense, obviously declaring your band a "spent force creatively" and moving on (he was right), the others realising they wanted to continue and make some money under the name, to which you enter into years of legal disputes, doesn't help matters and puts a line in the sand from which its hard to smooth away.

TLR - Its not all about egos, but many factors

 

You nailed it. Most people don't understand how difficult band relationships can be - you'd think that the promise of great music and maybe even a little money might motivate people to be more cooperative, but it often doesn't. I've been in many bands where I was always thinking, "Why the hell does he always have to act like that? Doesn't he know we're all in this together?" There's always one, sometimes more than one.

 

Especially if all the members are rich enough to have F-U money. If you are already a megalomaniac-maniac, the need to compromise goes away completely when you are so wealthy that anytime someone asks you to do something you don’t want to do you can tell them F-U.

 

Musically the best effort the Floyd family has put forth in years...

 

As many musicians have said, asking bands to reunite can be like asking someone “why don’t you get back together with your ex-wife? You guys were great together.” Sometimes only the two people involved really understand why it doesn’t work, and why it just isn’t worth it.

 

Having just received what appear to be threats to sic a hit man on me from a former musical associate, the Pink Floyd drama seems like small potatoes

Spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon at the police station filing a report. Upside - still alive.

 

Yeah money brings out the worst in people, especially when in a group, no two people have the same opinion. It starts with a pound, goes on to ££ and the £££. I spent about£1k of my own money on the band and never wanted anything back for it.

When one member ****s off with £70 of gig takings and won't pay it back...

Can you imagine this when you are earning £millions?

 

I see them as more like Jagger/Richards. The only difference is that Mick and Keith together always understood the earning potential of a Stones project versus the solo projects. That is apart from Mick's Momentary Lapse of Reason in the 1980's. Hey, look what I did there.....

 

That said, it can be a little harder to understand why people who seemed to split mainly over creative differences don’t play together once their band has passed into legacy status and nobody expects new music from them. I think of Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, who could have been raking in the bucks on tour with Supertramp for the past 15-20 years without ever seeing each other outside of the gigs. Was their rift really so bad they can’t do that? But I don’t know enough about them as people. In the case of Roger Waters, his difficult personality is legendary enough that it’s obvious why Gilmour doesn’t want to be around him.

 

Yup. Been there myself. Spot on.

 

Damn, what prompted that? Did you give credit him on the album liner?

 

The problem is that this petty old drama is meaningless and completely irrelevant in 2018. PF is history....enjoy the memories.

 

The threat mentioned dissatisfaction with both credits and $ though I followed the contract in both regards.

 

When I listen to the music the various incarnations of Pink Floyd including that preceded with ‘The’ the version I like the best is when Waters was involved and the band made truly ground breaking records and pushing the boundaries of what a band could do with stage props and light shows. As it turned out that period lasted about 8 years. The idea that these two talented blokes could ever rekindle that magic and make new important music seems pretty difficult to imagine, so for me, them getting back together would simply be a disappointment artistically and tarnish their reputation as writers and/or musicians.

Sometimes you just have to be thankful for what they managed to achieve back in the ‘70s and move on.

This is not unique to Pink Floyd. I’d say the same about Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes and many others that I care even less about.

The above is just my opinion based on my preference for a period the band operated in. Others will certainly disagree.

 

During one of the "Saucerful" gigs earlier this year, Nick Mason pretended he was reading out a text from David. I can't recall the exact words but the latter part is certainly correct. "[I have a message from David wishing me luck... break a leg]... preferably Roger's..."

Sadly, both Roger and David have said of each other in recent years (last 4 yrs) that they are not friends. Given the musical/lyrical direction of their most recent respective albums, it's hard to see how either of them could work with the other or, as others have suggested, would want to. Musically, they have moved a long way apart and neither of them needs the aggravation of working with the other in the context of new material - it would be absolutely no fun at all.

Funnily enough, like a lot of Floyd fans, I spent years really really wanting another album. Then along came 2014's "The Endless River". Following Live 8 (2005), David Gilmour stated it went a long way to convincing him that Floyd wasn't something he really wanted to do very much of. I felt exactly the same way following TER - it rather convinced me the idea of more Floyd had very much fallen into the category of "...be careful what you wish for..." . Sometimes, bands / acts just reach the end.

FWIW, the observations by @englishbob (#58 & #64) pretty much cover it and I completely get that some "life events" are forever exhausting, even to think about them (not just in the music industry).

So, when exactly ARE Rog and Dave getting back together??

Edit: rewording to (try to) make more sense.

 

Since you're in New Jersey, I think the mention of retaining a hit man could be a credible threat.

 

Amen. Similar situation here, the better the band got the more the individual members (not all) wanted control. I can't imagine it on a Pink Floyd scale. It amazes me they were together as long as they were, making great music pretty much the entire time.

 

Stick with being the lukewarm water, Nick.