Cool Nick Mason Interview

Halohailer · #1 04-12-2005, 08:54 PM

I found this it's pretty cool.

What´s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? First, check the bed for occupants: wife, young children et cetera. And acting on that information I decide wheter sex is on the agenda. If not, It´s porridge.

What was the first gig you went to? It was Tommy Steele, in 1956 I think. His appearances on 6.5 Special would have been my first rock'n'roll experience and after that I had to go and see him.

Which song do you wish you´d written? Practically anything by Dylan. I think you´d have to aspire to his range as much as any particular song, though Masters Of War springs to mind - that ability to make a meaningful political statement without being at all pretentious. If you asked me what I wished I´d drummed on, I think it´d be something by Cream...probably NSU.

What´s the best advice you´ve ever received? I think Noel Redding said it best: Get a lawyer, buy a gun. That or, if you make a mistake, always glare at the bass player.

What is your most treasured material possession? Whatever is the racing car of the moment. Which at the moment is a Maserati of the sort Stirling Moss won in at the Nurburgring in 1960.

Who was the last person you slept with? See question one.

What do you think about Bob Dylan? Pivotal. He´s produced good work, behaved erratically and then continued to produce good work, rather than fulfil what people expect, which is to produce good work, behave erriatically, go mad and explode. And I think that´s enormously endearing. Can´t stand his songs though.

When did you last cry and why? I suppose at the birth of my last son, Cary. Happy and relieved.

What characteristics do you think you´ve inherited from your parents? The ability to avoid confrontation. And a love of motor sport, which I think must be genetic rather than environmental.

What is the biggest myth about fame? Well, you´re asking the wrong person, because I´m not famous; I´m a part of a famous enterprise, which is rather different. Most genuinely famous people seem to be driven by the notion that fame will make them feel better, and when it doesn´t they try and plug that gap with more fame. So yes, Pink Floyd are desperately damaged inviduals and we´re just not famous enough yet!

What are you like when you´re drunk? Not like the old days, when we wouldn´t hit the stage unless sensations had been dulled by rum and blacks or Stone´s Ginger Wine. These days I´m a bit louder...and an incredibly good driver.

Who would you have play you in a film? Someone very British. Keneth More, maybe, or Robert Donat.

Pick five words that describe yourself. Wry, reserved, scruffy, absentminded, motivated.

Is there one piece of criticism that sticks in your mind? I do remember one review that Robin Denselow wrote, years and years ago. He said we´d done a rather poor show and I had to agree with him. Everyone else had raved about it for one reason or another, and I was impressed that he´d actually been listening. Another's from last year, the Chicago Sun, a live review I was so incensed by I actually wrote to the journalist. He said we were overweight, which I thought was irrelevant. In fact, I got a most delightful letter back retacting that element of his criticism, so I suppose it was worthwhile. Critics expect even the most vitriolic criticism to be like water off a duck´s back. But it still hurts sometimes.

Do you believe in God? No I don´t, though I quite often wish that I did. I believe in God Dylan.

What is your most unpleasant characteristic? Perhaps the most hurtful, ultimately, is my failure to confront things. But I´m also a terrible tease, and I can produce a number of people willing to testify to how unpleasant that can be. In court if necessary.

What is your greatest fear? Death. I can´t think anything more alarming than that.

What ambitions do you still have to fulfill? I´d like to be rather better at the things I already do. For instance, I would n´t mind being a better drummer. I´ve driven at Le Mans, which was always a great ambition, but I´m never going to be world sports car champion so I´ll be happy just being a better driver.

Are you afraid of failure? Well, I suppose I must be, otherwise one wouldn´t go to such lengths to succeed. One definitely wouldn´t like to be jeered at by one´s peers but you have to risk it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

What do you never leave your home without? The conviction that I´ve left the gas on.

Who is your best male friend and your best female friend? I haven´t really had one "best" male friend since Roger left the band. My best female friend is my wife. I enjoy her company...and if I said anyone else she´d kill me.

Who would you most like to meet? This is one of those Destert Island Discs sorts of questions, do you pick your actual 10 favourite records or the ones that make you look good? It´s the same here: there´s no point in me saying Noel Edmonds, because even if I did want to meet him it wouldn´t endear me to the readership, Still, I´m enormously grateful to have met Ayrton Senna, and a couple of figures from the past I wouldn´t mind having dinner with would be Groucho Marx and Stravinsky, whose journals are hilarious.

What music would you have played at your funeral? I wouldn´t like any music at all. I´d like the funeral to be cancelled on the grounds that I was, in fact, OK. But if I was to be sadistic, it would be the whole of Inna- Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly.

When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? I don´t like what I see but I´ve learned to live with it. I´d like to see a proper pop star staring back at me, and I don´t.

Do you have anything to declare? That I´m non-resident for tax purposes! That I´ve told the truth, the whole truth and something like the truth...So help me Bob.

Dark Guitarist · #2 04-12-2005, 10:07 PM

That's a great find. When was the interview done?

Halohailer · #3 04-12-2005, 10:51 PM

Here's another one...

David Letterman's interview with Nick Mason about his new book "AT THE LIMIT"
October 1st 1998

DAVID LETTERMAN: Please welcome Nick Mason. Welcome to the show. Have we met before? Were you on the old show at NBC? Or is this your first time?
NICK MASON: Sadly, no. I, this is my first time.

DL: Well, good to have you here. Tell, tell us about, ah, ah, Pink Floyd. Are they together, are they not together, are they touring, are they recording, are they not, are they, are they not together and recording, are they not together and touring?
NM: Which, which one would you like me to answer first?

DL: Well, what is the current status of the group?
NM: We're, we're still together, but we're not working very hard at the moment.

DL: And, and when you *do* work, what is it, it's like you go out, you do a tour, and you make a *billion* dollars?
NM: Well, we certainly hope so, yeah, It's, it's a curious (? Sounds like logistance)

DL: How long, how long have, has the group been together? How long have you been the drummer? From the beginning?
NM: I've been the drummer from the beginning.

DL: My God! It's amazing, considering when you guys started, that any of you are still alive, isn't it? I mean . . .
NM: (Laughs)

DL: When you think about it, you know what I mean?
NM: Possibly, yep.

DL: Coz you guys started when, you know, it was really something else going on besides music, you know?
NM: (Laughs) Absolutely.

DL: Now, tell us about your, ah, I learned something today about you I didn't know, your father, your father was a, ah, a race driver, is that right? A club racer, kinda' thing?
NM: A club racer, he made films about, still does indeed, about, ah, motor sport. He used to race himself, and of course that's where I got the bug from. Coz I was taken to watch.

DL: When you wer a kid. What age were you when you went to your first race?
NM: Probably, six or seven.

DL: It makes, ah, it makes quite a vivid impression, doesn't it? Your first race, that first experience.
NM: It certainlt does, yeah.

DL: Because it's a combination of the sound, ah, the sight, certainly.
NM: Mmm-Hrm

DL: And the smell. The smell of a race car is wonderful. Absolutely glorius.
NM: Fantastic. I mean, it's one of the things in the book that we, ah, actually talked about doing was a scratch'n'sniff . . .

DL: Yeah.
NM: . . . piece to it, but, ah, that was, that was too difficult.

DL: Yeah. They smell different that Rental Cars.
NM: (Laughs) Yes.

DL: Don't go to Hertz expecting the same thing. That's a whole different sensation. Ah, the book is a collection of, ah, what exactly? What did, how did you have to qualify as a car to get in this book?
NM: Ah, basically you had to be owned by me.

DL: (Laughs)
NM: That was the criteria.

DL: All thse cars are in your possession?
NM: Absolutely.

DL: Oh, my goodness! Good Heavens!
NM: You could look at it as a sort of sales catalogue.

DL: And when you started collecting automobiles, what was the first aquisition?
NM: Ah, I think the first car I got was a, a 1927 Austin 7.

DL: I have no idea what that is.
NM: Okay, tiny - it's the English equivilant of a Model T Ford.

DL: Mmm-Hrm. And, ah, oh, and you have, you have a Model T, don't Ôya?
NM: I certainly do. It's probably the most dangerous car in the collection. I mean, most of these cars are, ah, racing cars.

DL: Yeah.
NM: And capable of 200 plus.

DL: This is pretty exciting, when I read this i couldn't believe it, but it's true. Is it absolutely true?
NM: It is true.

DL: Tell the people the heritage of this car.
NM: Well, this car has a terrific history, and its previous owners were apparantly Laurel and Hardy, and an English Clown called Coco. And it's one of those extraordinary things where, actually everything on the car goes wrong, and is *meant* to.

DL: Right.
NM: So, ah, it's rather unusual, you take it in for a service and you complain if the doors *don't* fall off.

DL: So, the doors all fall off, the radiator explodes . . .
NM: The radiator, yeah

DL: . . . It drives its self . . .
NM: It drives its self, the back falls down, and the passenger seat goes ten foot up in the air. Which is, quite alarming.

DL: (Laughs)
NM: But it's unspeakably dangerous, and in fact, the guys who operate it have the most terrible wounds to show.

DL: I would think so.
NM: Becuase, what happens is you fall out the back, and the car then carries on going and goes round, and if you set it up wrongly, it runs you over.

DL: (Laughs) Well, that's no good. [Pointing to the car on the front cover of the book] And, ah, this is, is this the car that I saw you, I watched some video tape of you racing today, at ah, it looked like Silverstone, is this, was this the car you were in?
NM: That's right, the GTI.

DL: This car is worth, I dunno, 3 to 5 million dollars, something like that?
NM: Um, yeah, we hope so, I mean, it sorta' goes up and down a bit.

DL: So, so what is a middle-aged guy doin' in this car racing in the rain [possibly reign] in Silverstone, in a 3 to 5 million dollar car?
NM: It's a bit of a worry, isn't it?

DL: Yes, it it a little bit of a worry!
NM: Maybe all those things that went on in the sixties just kep sort of circling around in my head.

DL: Yeah! "It seems like a good idea, let's try it!"
NM: (Laughs)

DL: Have you ever busted up one of these things?
NM: Fortunately, no.

DL: Is that right? So you must be a pretty good driver, or, at least, been fairly lucky so far.
NM: Good, lucky or slow.

DL: (laughs) It's the slow guys that get run over, though, isn't it?
NM: Yes, that's right.

DL: If you're out in front, nobody bothers you. Well, it's a beautiful book, and a beautiful collection, you're a lucky man to have these, ah, to call your own.
NM: Yeah.

DL: Thankyou very much for being here.
NM: Thankyou very much.

DL: Nick Mason, Ladies and Gentlemen.

BTW the first one was in August 1995

Halohailer · #4 04-12-2005, 10:56 PM

Also if you guys want I can get a bunch of Interviews with the different band members and I can post them.
If you like the idea reply.

Dark Guitarist · #5 04-14-2005, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halohailer

Also if you guys want I can get a bunch of Interviews with the different band members and I can post them.
If you like the idea reply.

ABSOLUTELY!

GTMASTER · #6 04-14-2005, 10:01 PM

definitely@!!!

Halohailer · #7 04-25-2005, 04:27 PM

Well ok!!!

BTW I'm grounded from my home computer I'm on the school computer so you wont see me as much sry.

DarkSideOfTheSp · #8 10-19-2005, 10:50 PM

"These days I´m a bit louder...and an incredibly good driver."

That is gold.

Teslarocker · #9 11-09-2005, 03:58 PM

Nice interviews. Nick seems to have a good sense of humor about things

Lily · #10 11-09-2005, 04:29 PM

"That or, if you make a mistake, always glare at the bass player."

Botley · #11 12-03-2005, 02:11 PM

Another good one that just came out.

Teslarocker · #12 01-03-2006, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botley

Another good one that just came out.

That was a good interview too. Now I'm intrigued by Nicks book. It sounds like it might be an entertaining read

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