Venue:
Bristol Beacon (“venue with a less problematic name” – N. Mason)
Date: 17/06/2024
Well, who’da thunk it? Here I was, perched at the very back of the newly revamped ‘Bristol Beacon’ main hall, so high up in The Gods that Mme Foxy claimed incipient vertigo symptoms as we took our seats, staring out over a sea of gathering pates belonging to chaps who, like myself, had most likely paid £1.99 for a Starline copy (with no hideous pink imposed upon the artwork) of the mighty ‘Relics’ sampler.
A mere 53 years after handing over my pocket money and retreating into the Floydian soundscape with my dad’s big headphones clamped on, I was watching a band put together by the original drummer, a sprightly, jolly, humble and generous octogenarian, having an obvious ball belting out a terrific selection of songs from the early albums – we got a splendid scattering of tracks from LPs right up until Obscured By Clouds.
If you’ve read this far you’ll almost certainly already know about the existence of this time-travelling show, and all I can do here is to report the fact that their Bristol gig this Monday was a complete triumph, the years flying away for most of the largely large blokes in attendance. One chap a few rows in front of us was almost certainly in a refreshed mood, and kept yelling ‘We love you Nick’ at random intervals between songs. All good fun, all brilliantly played, perfect sound and just a huge delight to witness. Get there on this tour if you can, you will be glad you did.
Here’s the setlist; it’s a real collection of antiques and curios:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nick-masons-saucerful-of-secrets/2024/bristol-beacon-bristol-england-7ba8e650.html
The audience:
Judging from the bizarre contrast between the length of the queue (non-existent) for the ladies, and the enormous trail of bladderful blokes waiting to take a pee at the interval, I’d say it was about 95% male.
It made me think..
When I was a nipper, head banging to The Nile Song, my mum & dad opined that classical music was the superior art form because you could hear the same work performed by different orchestras and hear something new each time. Nick Mason’s bunch provide the perfect rejoiner to this assertion – familiar material delivered with unique interpretative twists that add new to old with ease.
Those early Floyd albums are just so incredible. Never tire of listening to any of them. I’d love to see this show but the chances of them fetching up here are as remote as it is here. Saw the Syd Floyd once, the Meddle era once. What always amazed me is how vast and genuinely cosmic the sound was, and it was just four blokes and some very primitive (by today’s standards) electronics. My favouritest Britband, by some way.
Know you’re a Cov lad or have Cov links, HP.
Were you at the Lanch Arts Festival gig by any chance?
Saw NM’s SOS at Dublin Exhibition Centre on what was their first post-COVID gig. Absolutely magnificent show
I’m trying to imagine the towering, sneering postmodern intellect of HP in a Cuhvuhntroiiii accent… and suddenly all the fear and awe washes away…
@Colin_H
That’s more of a Brummie accent than a Cov one.
Hopefully Steve T will be along shortly to put you right
To be fair, I’ve no idea what anyone from Coventry sounds like – you’re saying they dowwwn’t orrrl sowwwnd loike Noddoi Howwldah in Cuhvuhntroii?
Watch out for those essiy-to-shatter walls, young Colin…
The thing is, like the guttural, clipped and vaguely mid-Atlantic Van The M and the late slightly camp, adenoidal Alex Higgins, NOBODY IN N.I. ever sounded like the hectoring, permanently-platform-declamatory-unless-quasi-comedically-whistling-through-teeth-while-chortling-in-sinister-manner Ian Paisley.
They are all extreme, singular outliers in ‘Ulster speak’.
The Cov accent is like “refined Brummie”, which is like saying the batter around the Mars Bar is a fraction less thick. Thanks to Pavlovian shock therapy and extensive throat surgery, I have little trace of it today.
Jaygee – yes, I was at the Lanch Arts Festival gig. I had comps for all the events that year, as my pal’s mum (MILF alert) was on the committee.
My twin grandkids occasionally talk refined Brummie thanks to their Cov dad.
My kids speak unrefined brummie, at will, despite being brought up in the sunny uplands of Solihull.
There’s posh for you!
Dave Pegg (an unashamed Broomoiii, albeit with a tempered twang these days) referred recently to Noddy Holder (Wolverhampton) as ‘a posh Brummie’. I though W’hampton was *even grittier* than Brum. Not so?
There’s Birmingham and there’s Brum. Peggy’s from Acocks Green, which used to be quite rough. Tame now.
Nah – people from Coventry don’t have west Midland accents – in fact most have them haven’t managed the skill of being able to speak (our two learned friends excepted)
This is true. Communication between Coventrians is mostly gestural: after a preliminary arse-sniffing, they circle each other warily before engaging in a complex series of nods, winks, grimaces, and crude hand signals. During this process, a decision is reached to either fight, shag, get another pint in, or ankle round to The Parson’s Nose for a hot pork batch.
Famous Coventrians include:
Frank Ifield [citation needed]
Don Fardon
Interestingly, away from the mic, both these artistes reverted to their natural ur-language.
Ah, the Parson’s Nose pork batches – Food of the gods
Philip Larkin
Vince Hill
Sir Frank Whittle
Hazel O’Connor
Chief Constable Nick Adderley (served on HMS Coventry during the Falklands – well so he says)
They toured down here last year. In Melbourne it was gen adm , standing. I just couldn’t be arsed standing all night for IMO music not particularly suited to standing.
I regret not seeing them but jeez you’d think they’d take a bit more care in their venue selections.
They played the Enmore in Sydney, a theatre many years older than the creaky audience members. So we all got to sit down. And the queue for the Gents was as described in the OP.
And they were great – I think I might have reviewed them here. Astonished to hear Atom Heart Mother FFS, no choir or brass but sounded wonderful. And NMis such a lovely droll, witty gentleman.
Good venue for them. Could have named about 3 mid sized seated venues in Melbourne that would have been excellent. But no …..
Apologies for the missing d.
Seeing them for the third time on Wednesday, and really looking forward to it.