Backstage at the Los Angeles Sports Arena recently, Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright were winding down after the first of five sell-out shows, part of a year-long worldwide tour to promote their latest million-selling album, the ironically titled ”A Momentary Lapse of Reason.”
”It`s a bit of deja vu,” said Gilmour, referring to the time Pink Floyd spent in L.A. rehearsing and performing the legendary ”The Wall” around 1979. ”Nothing much has changed.` ”
Of course, this special English understatement masks all sorts of changes. Floyd, perhaps the ultimate FM-radio group (”Dark Side of the Moon” is still on the Billboard album chart nearly 15 years after its release), will be touring throughout 1988 without co-founder, and some would say alter ego, Roger Waters.
After the band`s last (and by Floyd standards relatively unsuccessful)
”The Final Cut” album, singer, bassist and songwriter Waters departed amidst a flurry of allegations and accusations. Since then, the feud between Waters and the rest of the group has escalated, each party claiming true inheritance of the magical Floyd mantle.
But on this night, and every other of this `comeback` tour, which has included a stop last September in Chicago and a possible return here next summer, the fans certainly aren`t arguing as Gilmour, Mason and Wright (plus five additional musicians) turn in aurally and visually spectacular versions of such Floyd classics as ”Comfortably Numb,” ”Wecome to the Machine” and ”Us and Them.”
A few days later, comfortably ensconsed in the Four Seasons hotel, drummer Nick Mason discusses the life and times of Floyd, and the trials and tribulations of being, ”a geriatric rocker.”
”It was a good show, wasn`t it,” says the 42-year-old musician, who, like Gilmour and Wright, looks more like a well-fed and prosperous banker than a rock `n` roll hero.
”I think we`re all relieved at how well the tour`s going,” he confesses. ”We knew when we started rehearsals in Toronto that we had an unusual show, and that all the new, high-tech equipment we wanted to use worked well. But at the same time, there was a slight sense of trepidation, because, although we`d already sold the tickets (the first American leg already has racked up some 2 million in attendance), and in that sense the tour`s a success, there`s nothing more disappointing than playing to audiences who think you`re just a bunch of charlatans who shouldn`t be up on stage at our age and without Roger.”
At his own mention of Roger Waters, the quiet-spoken Mason winces slightly, but he seems more than happy to discuss the long-running feud that is getting plenty of exposure thanks to both parties` simultaneous tours:
While Mason, Gilmour and Wright are on the road with their version of all the old Floyd hits, Waters is also touring with his latest solo album, ”Radio K.A.O.S.,” and performing his versions of ”Money,” ”Welcome to the Machine” and ”Another Brick in the Wall.”
”Yes, it is a bit confusing,” admits Mason. ”Basically, the situation between Roger and the band had been getting more and more tense and difficult, and it all came to a head after we finished `The Final Cut` in 1983. Roger decided he wanted to go solo, and that the band was really over if he left.” ”Not so,” claims guitarist Gilmour. ”We never assumed Pink Floyd was defunct. Just because Roger wanted to leave didn`t mean that Pink Floyd couldn`t ever work again.”
It appears that the ensuing argument over who actually owned the name
`Pink Floyd` quickly changed the verbal sparring and mutual dissatisfactions into a full-blown legal war.
”I don`t think they (Mason, Gilmour and Wright) should be called Pink Floyd,” Waters has stated. ”There is the legal issue, which is the only thing that can be resolved in court, and that is, who owns the piece of property called Pink Floyd?”
”The other issue is completely separate, the whole issue about what is or isn`t a rock group,” the singer then added. ”What is the Beatles? Are Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr the Beatles? My view now is that they`re not.” Naturally, the remaining members disagree strongly, particularly since their tour and album have been so lovingly embraced by the public (in contrast, Waters` tour and record have fared far less successfully).
”There`s no doubt that we did have the boost of being `Pink Floyd,`
” comments Mason. ”I was also surprised in a way at how many people didn`t really know who Roger was, even though he`d promoted himself strongly since
`The Wall.`
”But even more than our shows, I think our album is a vindication,” he continues. ”A record is a much better gauge, and `A Momentary Lapse of Reason` has done so much better than our last one, `The Final Cut,` because of word-of-mouth. What you expect to see if a band is getting worse and worse is their record sales tapering off, whereas fans might be fooled by a name and a tour. So the success of the album is an enormous vindication for us.”
While the remaining members of Floyd are predictably more than happy with the commercial outcome of the power struggle, they also seem far from certain about their current legal entanglements. ”Frankly, it`s all gone a bit quiet recently and I`m not exactly sure what`s happening,” says Mason.
”We`re not really arguing over the name so much as this legal question over whether the companies we own are a partnership, in which case Roger is entitled to say, `Right, it`s all over and has to be dissolved,` or whether in fact it`s constituted on a more company basis, which we believe it is.
”As far as we`re all concerned, the whole argument started when Roger actually wrote to the record company announcing he was leaving, and there is provision in our contracts for someone to leave.” Mason pauses and sighs.
”So I think it`s more about spite than reality, and I also don`t think it was necessarily directed at Dave and myself, I think it was directed at Steve O`Rourke, our manager.”
Contrary to several reports and the obvious bitterness that exists between the two camps, Waters and the band, ”are talking to each other, though not recently,” says the drummer.
”Actually, I think the whole thing is very sad and a very disappointing outcome to be 40 and still be behaving like 12-year-olds. I don`t take any pleasure in it at all, and Roger was a very good friend of mine, for a long, long time. But it`s real life, and you get pushed into situations where you have to fight back.
”The ironic thing is that I`m still a great admirer of Roger and his work, and I`d have loved to sneak in and see his show,” adds Mason. ”In fact, the only reason we didn`t all go when we were both in Toronto at the same time was that all the arguments had begun to surface in the press and it would have turned into a zoo.”
All the current airing of dirty laundry and attached publicity has proved to be fairly disconcerting for a band that has assiduously avoided the media and the usual trappings of rock stardom for some 20 years. ”Like I said, we don`t enjoy all the sudden attention-it`s a bit like being examined under a microscope,” explains Mason. ”I think all of us would rather just get on with our jobs of playing music, and leave the scandal to other, more colorful characters.”
But while the players have, for the most part, successfully pursued a cultish anonymity throughout their long careers, they have also paid a price- particularly in the case of Roger Waters. ”I think the whole anonymity thing has backfired on him, though it`s also true for the rest of us,” admits Mason.
”In one sense, it`s been a very good way of running a band for 20 years- I mean, I need to be mobbed on the street like I need a car accident every day,” Mason says with a laugh. ”But then there are always situations where it would be nice to be recognized and get that celebrity status that only comes with constant self-promotion.”
There`s no doubt that, even without Waters, Pink Floyd on tour looks and sounds as Floydian as ever. There`s the giant pig from the ”Animals” tour, and a crashing hospital bed, a state-of-the art sound-and-lighting system (the latter incorporating computer-controlled Varilights and Telescans), film clips from ”The Wall” era, and a stunning pyrotechnic climax that, in Los Angeles, had the fire marshal demanding that it be cut for safety reasons (it wasn`t). In short, it`s one of the more spectacular live rock shows ever mounted-and one of the most expensive. Small wondar then, that after their first American tour and subsequent visits to Australia, Japan and the Far East, the group brings the extravaganza back for a stadium tour in 1988. (A summer booking at Soldier Field in Chicago looks probable.)
”We really went out of our way to come up with a show and spectacle that we`d like to see ourselves,” explains Mason. ”It`s also based on the usual Pink Floyd parameters that the musicians are not always the center of attention. So in that respect, we have an enormous advantage over many other groups who`re constantly required to promote themselves and their
personalities. That`s what people then pay to see, and then they have to go the TV screen route. Well, I think that`s fine for sports, but not for rock
`n` roll shows.”
With the band as big and influential than ever, do Pink Floyd see a time when they might call it quits? ”Not so long as we all still enjoy playing and touring,” says Mason. ”And the age thing doesn`t worry us. If I had to do strange gymnastics and wear very, very tight trousers, I would be
embarrassed,” he says, laughing. ”Not to mention singing in much higher keys.
”But today, it`s quite acceptable to keep performing. Look at Chuck Berry or B.B. King. As long as you don`t make a fool of yourself, it`s fine. So with respect to the Floyd, it`s really open-ended. There was a big turning point when Roger left. But we didn`t end then, and this is certainly not a farewell tour. We`ve got a lot of big plans in store for the future.”
