Interview mit Nick Mason über die Early Years Box, Frank Zappa & Bootlegs

Dem Rolling Stone Magazin gab Nick Mason vergangene Woche bei seinem Abstecher nach New York ein Interview zum Thema “Early Years” Box. Auf der Website wurde es inzwischen veröffentlicht: Nick Mason on ‘Early Years,’ Syd Barrett, Inter-Band Tension. Wiederum interessant zu lesen mit vielen weiteren Details über die Geschichte der Band.

Besonders gefreut hat sich Mason über das Filmmaterial, das Pink Floyd gemeinsam mit Frank Zappa zeigt. Mason fragt sich heute noch was Zappa in Amougies getan hat. Denn Zappa selbst trat nicht auf. Vielleicht war er in die Organisation des Festivals involviert.

Speaking of guitar, there’s great footage of you guys with Frank Zappa doing “Interstellar Overdrive” in Belgium in 1969. How did that come about?
Nick Mason: I’m really pleased we finally got our hands on that. It had been floating around for years. The guy who’d got it had been treated pretty badly by everyone because no one would give him permission to use it. The interesting thing is that none of can remember why we were at Amougies? Why was he at Amougies? The Mothers weren’t playing, but I think he was somehow involved as the curator. Roger knew him probably better than any of the rest of us, but we’d hung out with him on our first and second tours. No one can remember who said, “Do you want to jam?”

The interesting thing with Frank was that he’s one of the very few rock & roll intellectuals. I would put Frank Zappa, Roger and Pete Townshend together – people who are a bit more thoughtful. Frank obviously had an extraordinary ability as a musician and composer. He could knock out Joe’s Garage or produce the G.T.O.’s. He had a very broad vision of rock music.

Mason bereut es das die Band sich zu sehr über Bootlegaufnahmen sorgte und deswegen aufhörte bei den Shows neues Material zu spielen.

Nick Mason: Playing live and improvising was one of the great ways of getting where you wanted to go. I look back on the Grateful Dead and think they absolutely got it right when they stopped worrying about bootlegging and just said, “Everyone can bootleg.” It took the value out of any one person’s bootleg. But we became so paranoid, as did everyone about bootlegging, that we wouldn’t play anything live we hadn’t released. It’s a real shame because it’s such a great way of honing it. You develop it on the road.

Interessant auch die Frage ob er David Gilmour auf seiner letzten Tour gesehen hat. Leider hat er kein Konzert gesehen. Solange Roger und David besser als die Australian Pink Floyd sind ist alles gut! Mason darf beruhigt sein!

Nick Mason: No, I was away actually. I would have loved to. It’s very nice because Roger’s out and doing great, and David’s out doing beautifully. So as long as they’re still ahead of the Australian Pink Floyd, that’s good. The worrying thing is when someone went, “Oh, yeah, I saw the Australian Pink Floyd – or the Brit Floyd – they’re so much better than you guys.” [Laughs]