All of us here at Brain Damage offer our very best wishes to Pink Floyd and Saucerful Of Secrets drummer Nick Mason, who celebrates the very special occasion of his birthday today (January 27th). We all hope you are going to have a great day, Nick!

The cornerstone of the band, he had his first drum kit at the tender age of 13. A member of Pink Floyd since the earliest iterations, he is the only one to have appeared on every one of their albums. Thanks to his late father Bill, he has been a "petrol head" from a young boy, and cars have been - and remain - one of his major passions in life. His most recent book, Passion for Speed, is worth checking out, as is the DVD of the same name focusing on his Ferrari Enzo car (with Nick heavily involved). Of course, for those who haven't read it, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd is an absolutely essential read, and available in a variety of editions: hardback, softback (paperback) and an audiobook, which is read by Nick himself...

His love of cars has seen Nick contributing to a number of magazines on motoring issues over the years (including a fascinating monthly column in Octane Magazine), and also became president of the Guild of Motoring Writers. He is a trustee of the Beaulieu National Motor Museum, and a life member and Guardian of the BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club). He has been involved in motor racing since the early 1970s and has entered Le Mans five times.

Musically, of course, the big news over the last few years was the launch of his new band, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets. The four initial, small gigs in May 2018 held in London lead to a very successful and critically acclaimed European tour in September. This was followed, of course, in 2019 with dates in the US, Canada, and more dates in the UK and Europe. 2020 saw the release of the superb London Roundhouse concert film on audio and video formats, and was due to see the band play more shows. Sadly, the pandemic put the halt on any such plans for 2020, and 2021. However, they returned, bigger and better than ever, for extensive tours in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Included in the set was the magnificent Echoes, a highlight of each show.

Many happy returns, Nick, and hopefully see you back on the road at some point!

To be published on April 1st, 2025, is a new book from Jawbone - Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay and the art of Rock Promotion, from Paul Rappaport. 'Rap', as he is often referred to, is a legend of music promotion. He spent thirty-three years at Columbia Records, where he became their senior vice-president of rock promotion, and was instrumental in so many careers.

It promises an insider's account of the golden age of rock, sharing never-before-told tales of his adventures with some of music's most colourful characters, including The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and many more.

"I wrote this book to capture the magical times," explained Rappaport, "so that people wouldn't forget but also to show the many behind-the-scenes folks whose lives were so colourful they brought a warmth and laughter to the world. If you want to know what it felt like to be there, to experience the whole scene first hand, to get the inside track on how it really all went down, these stories are for you. I welcome you to follow me down the rabbit hole to a magical place that will bring you laughter and reveal the inner workings of the music biz that you may have often wondered about."

Of the book, and Rappaport, Nick Mason said: "So, you want to work in the music business? How much do you know about it? The answer is clearly not enough — no one in their right mind could countenance such a career! But if you must, then you need this book. Rapper was there. Not only that, but he remembers most of the detail, which is more than can be said for his subjects, who have a tendency to rewrite history as they would have liked it or justify actions that should have put them in jail. It's about as close as you can get to the action without having that gold Access All Areas pass."

Praise indeed! Preorders can now be made for the book; ordering any item after entering Amazon through our links helps with BD's ongoing running costs as we participate in their affiliate scheme, at no extra cost to yourselves, and we really appreciate it: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy.

Back in 2015, Tim Davies wrote an exclusive piece for our website about his work for Pink Floyd.

The article, which revealed some of the initial ideas under consideration for use on the cover of the Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, also talks about how his adaptation of a photo of a girl sitting on the side of a bath ended up on the One Slip cover.

"I took some oil crayons and paint and scribbled over the figure, almost totally covering the figure, but leaving enough to show a rather impressionistic figure which would be perfect for [Blue Matisse, a French pop-group!!

"Feeling pleased with my work I returned to the studio in Goodge Street, London. I spread the images out and Colin seemed very pleased with the results. We planned to show them to the group and their management in the next few days. The next day when I arrived at the studio all the images were gone. Colin told me that Storm [Thorgerson] had come to the studio with one of the musicians from Pink Floyd, possibly David Gilmour who was around a lot then. They saw the sketches and grabbed them for the singles cover image. Colin had told Storm they were for "Blue Matisse", and Storm had replied "Not any more!" I am really proud to this day that a little piece of my art has made it onto a Pink Floyd record cover."

Fast forward to the end of last year, and one of Tim's original artworks for this project (all created in the same sort of way) was discovered in a charity shop in the UK by Leigh Dorling. He contacted Tim, who replied back and kindly authenticated the piece of art. Leigh reached out to us as he felt we'd be interested in this follow-up to the story from 10 years ago. Thanks Leigh, and a very nice find!

 

Thanks for letting us know, Leigh, and thanks for the pictures of the artwork and the authentication!

We were recently made aware of an ambitious website, 500songs.com - A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. This podcast series, available either via the website itself, or via Spotify, Apple Music, etc., looks to take a deep dive into key pieces of music.

This brings us to episode 157, which takes a good look at See Emily Play. It gives a 74 minute analysis of the song, and the development of Pink Floyd in those early days.

Our thanks to Martin Lawson for letting us know about this interesting episode, which you can hear in full here: