TICKET SCAN TO GO HERE

Capacity: 2,000

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Nieuwstad 1, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium. MAP

Website: www.stadsschouwburg-antwerpen.be

COMMENTS

When Nick Mason made comments in Italy about heading out to small venues, to play early Pink Floyd songs, few took the remarks seriously. As unlikely as it seemed, Nick was entirely truthful and in the initial announcement a set of four shows in London were announced for his new band. Due to the critical success of those shows, held in small venues in Camden and Putney, a full European tour has been announced with this date one part of this.

Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets brings together some familiar names, all great musicians: joining Nick are Gary Kemp and Lee Harris on guitars, Guy Pratt on bass, and Dom Beken on keyboards. Kemp is best known for his work with Spandau Ballet, Harris as having played guitar with The Blockheads (Ian Dury's band), Pratt needs no introduction, and Beken is principally known for his work with The Orb, and Transit Kings (with Pratt). The band will be playing early Pink Floyd songs.

This is a unique opportunity to experience Pink Floyd's celebrated and significant early body of work played live including songs from albums 'The Piper At The Gates of Dawn' and 'A Saucerful Of Secrets'.

The regular sale of tickets started on FRIDAY, MAY 25th at 9am (UK time), via Teleticketservice.com. 

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

And so the tour arrives in Antwerp - and as you'll see from the reviews submitted, and shown below, an enthusiastically received show.

For this latest show on the tour, during his initial thanks and welcome to the audience, and an aside revealing how the band all voted to remain in Europe during the Brexit referendum, Nick said "As I hope you all know, we are not the People's Republic of Roger Waters, or indeed the Italian David Gilmour; that's really finished me on geography! We're very pleased to be here; thank you for coming. I hope that you enjoy yourselves out there as much as we've been doing so up here."

Certainly that sense of fun and enjoyment comes across so clearly in the performances. Definitely a show to catch if you can!

The band now travel to Luxembourg for Sunday's show there, the first Floyd related concert ever to be held in the country.

We'd love to know from those attending how they felt the concert went. How was the show for you, if you were one of the fortunate ones to attend? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Nick Spekkels

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Jan Van Roy

Below some words regarding the SOS gig in Antwerp.

What can I say? If I had to write a review or give an impression of what I just saw and heard earlier tonight and Twitter would have been the only medium available to me, it would read something like this:

"#Nickmasonsostour @antwerpstadsschouwburg FANTASTIC! No, let's rephrase that; FAN'F'NTASTIC"

This, however, is not Twitter, so luckily enough I have room for more..

I won't go over go the setlist because that's already well documented.

But this show?

No, no.

The word "show" is not accurate..

Like Nick himself said after the third song: "This is not 'The People's Republic of Roger Waters', this is not the 'Italian David Gilmour'"! This, ladies and gentleman, is Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets tour.

And this is not a 'show', it's a PERFORMANCE!

You want keywords? How about indeed FANTASTIC, AUTHENTIC, AMAZING.

Hell, I can keep this up for the longest time writing about it in superlatives, but they would all sell the things I just saw and heard short. I guess the main keyword to this, is the word "FRESH"!

Because that is exactly what this is: after 4 main Roger tours since the year 2000 and 2 or 3 (much more modest) David Gilmour tours in that now 18 year time era, finally, Nick has stood up.

And he delivers!

It's great that both Roger and Dave have entertained us and have given us the joy of playing all our favourite classic Floyd songs, added with some of their own great solo work, over and over again in indeed great shows, but now Nick has taken the opportunity to do something that should have been done a long time ago already: bringing it all back to the basics!

I am sure that if and when you are taking the time to read these words, this means you proudly call yourself a true Pink Floyd fan and that you are familiar with the entire back catalogue of the band, beginning with "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" and beyond from there on.

I am also sure that, unless you are 60 - 70+ in age, with the exception of songs like "Astronomy Domine", "One Of These Days" , and "Set The Controls", you have never heard most of the songs prior to the Dark Side Of The Moon album being performed live.

And even if you have, even if you are old enough to say that you are part of history and have witnessed the Floyd in those early years live, then still I dare to claim that you have never heard these songs being performed live in the way that Nick and his band are performing them today in 2018!

I myself, like most of you, do know these early songs. I know how they sound like and I know how they go. But like most of you, I only know how they sound like from the original recordings, regardless if it's on vinyl or on CD.

In my own personal case, hours on end in the privacy of my teenage bedroom, most of the time with headphones on. And in my later grown up years I have not truly forgotten them, but never revisited them. All these years, they have been in dormant, in my subconscious.

And then, almost out of nowhere, they get played, alive and kicking!

To describe how it sounds and feels like to hear them today, being performed live through a 2018 PA system, I would like to paraphrase some words from Roger's Pro's and Con's of Hitchhiking album.

I am sure you know the line: "...like I always said, I prefer your lips red, not what the Good Lord made, but what he intended..." In that spirit, I would dare to say that what Nick is doing on this is tour, is playing these songs not how the Good Floyd made them, but how they intended!

What I saw and heard tonight, was a band with no ego's, no bombardment of visual extravaganzas, no political messages, no outrage, no conscience digging, no opinion forming and so on.

What I did see and hear was just music, fun, relaxation, wonderment, a trip without any herbal or chemical induced alternation of reality. I myself have quit using weed 3 years ago, yet tonight, I felt high as a kite just by sitting back and relax in the soft seats of the Antwerp Stadsschouwburg venue..

And that's another keyword: RELAX!

I have seen many Floyd (orientated) shows during the last 18 years and there is nothing bad that I can say about any of them. I always left them feeling happy. (Well, maybe except the last time when I was in the front row of the Us + Them Tour last May and Roger refused to shake my hand during his walk through the crowd at the end of Comfortably Numb, but that's another story..)

But in all honesty, never, ever before have I left a Floyd show feeling happy AND totally relaxed the way I did tonight!

And that's not just me, that's what I picked up hearing from comments from people behind and in front of me upon leaving the venue after the show.

And another great thing: this was the first time ever that I have seen a Pink Floyd gig (or any show for that matter!) without an intermission! No break in between; so no rush to the bar and toilets, no hassle finding your seat again while the 2nd set has already begun, no moments to "get in the atmosphere again".

My hat is totally off to Nick and his band and I would really like to thank them all for a fantastic trip down to memory lane and for reminding me why I fell in love with a band called Pink Floyd in the first place.

Shine on forever!

To round it up: If you are living somewhere in Europe or the UK and are still in doubt if you should go see this show (excuse me, PERFORMANCE!) then, unless you have a self-loathing personality, buy your ticket right now if still available and go enjoy this experience while you can!

And if you are not living in Europe or the UK, you have, the way I see it, two options:

Option 1: Check for flights to any of the remaining dates and venues, book that flight (after you scored your ticket) and travel there. If you don't do this, you might regret it for the rest of your life!

Option 2: If you are religious, pray to all inhabitants of Heaven and Hell, burn candles and hope that Nick will decide to bring this tour to your part of the globe in the near future.

If you are not religious, do the same but skip the praying.

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover Nick's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!