The US book tour for Nick Mason's "Inside Out - A Personal History Of Pink Floyd" is currently occurring - an exhaustive round of interviews and book signings! We have some information from Nick's visit to Seattle, Washington, yesterday.

Before the evening's event at the Pacific Science Center, which featured a signing session preceded by a chat with local DJ Gary Crowe, Nick went into the KZOK radio studios for a live, hour-long conversation with Crowe.

During the radio interview, Crowe asked Nick about the sound effects in Dark Side of the Moon, cover bands and the stage show of The Wall. Nick said he wasn't involved too much with the various sound effects in DSOTM; Alan Parsons was the one who put them together. Even though Alan had access to the EMI sound effects library, he chose to record most of the sound effects on his own. As far as Nick's own sound effects recording, he said that he did enjoy gathering sounds for The Final Cut. He particularly liked getting the sound of Tornado jets taking flight.

Also mentioned in the interview was whether the band knew they had something special when they were making Dark Side of the Moon. Nick said that they felt more comfortable with the material because they had played/rehearsed some of the songs while touring. They didn't really know it would be as successful as it has become but they knew they had a good album.

One other thing mentioned in the interview was the issue of cover bands. According to the DJ, the Australian Pink Floyd show is the only band officially approved by Pink Floyd. However, Nick said that is untrue, because no band has been endorsed by Pink Floyd. Nick finds it unnerving when cover bands reproduce Pink Floyd live note-for-note. He noted that it was especially funny to hear his own mistakes reproduced! Nick said he prefers bands like the Scissor Sisters, who put their own twist on PF material.

Finally, Crowe kept talking about how elaborate the staging was on The Wall tour. Nick was asked if he was involved, because of his architectural past, in the set design. Nick said the whole band gave input but it was really arranged by the stage designer, Mark Fisher. As for the show itself, Crowe was amazed at how precise the timing was during the performance with all of the props (puppets, crashing airplanes and a 20-foot wall being erected and knocked down). Nick mentioned they had some liberty with the timing because a song could be stretched another measure or two to get the stage timing to fit right.

Our thanks to Scott Hall for this report on the interview!

Turning now to the evening event, Kym Miller has kindly filed this report for us, and sent over the picture of the somewhat amusing conditions that were posted at the event. Thanks Kym!

The event was scheduled for 7:30pm, but did not start until 7:50pm. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the booksellers ran out of "Inside Out"s to sell! Those who didn't manage to get a copy, were given a raincheck to receive their books in the mail, and asked to have Nick sign their admittance tickets instead.

The laser show began with "Run Like Hell" from "Pulse", then went right into an interview with Nick being quizzed by Crowe on a small platform stage. Nick was asked the usual questions, and to me, Nick looked rather bored and tired. With Nick having been on the host DJ's morning show, that might explain his tiredness. The interview was about 45 minutes long, and Nick took about five or six questions from the audience, most of which I, being a fervent Floyd fan, thought were pretty stupid. Although...

Perhaps the best question from the audience was if there were plans to release more SACDs of the back catalog. Nick said yes, and in fact was meeting with James Guthrie in a week to discuss the upcoming "Pulse" DVD and to discuss further SACD plans.

Nick also mentioned that the "Pulse" DVD's delay is due to mix issues and that the band can't agree on what extra "stuff" to put on the DVD!

Then the book signing started in the next room while the laser show resumed with rather surprising (to me) choices for songs - "Sheep", "Astronomy Domine", "Fearless", "Summer '68", "Bike", "Wish You Were Here"... there were more songs, but I had left in the middle of "WYWH".

When it was my turn to get my book signed by Nick, I mentioned I was from Hawaii and that I was glad he managed to spend some time there (see page 294 of the book). He smiled. I also asked to shake his hand, to which he graciously obliged.

Our thanks again to Scott and Kym for their reports!

BOOK SIGNINGS
With regard to Nick's book signing appearances, these are already providing to be incredibly popular - so if you intend seeing him on one of the following dates, please be early! Here's the current list of where to catch Nick State-side:

TONIGHT - 7pm
JBL Theater (seating 190), EMP
Seattle Center (next to the Space Needle)

April 14th - 7pm
Booksmith offsite event: All Saints Church
1350 Waller, San Francisco, CA
Nick will be in conversation with Joel Selvin

April 16th - 2pm
Virgin Megastore,
8000 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

April 19th - 7pm
Barnes & Noble,
Union Square/33 East 17th Street, New York City, NY
Nick will be introduced by Steve Riggio

April 20th - 6pm
Book Ends,
232 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ

Please confirm times with the stores before setting out, as they are subject to last minute change. And if you are attending any of these, please get in contact - thanks!