Graeme Thomson

A joy – mostly: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, at Usher Hall, reviewed

If you close your eyes, it could be 1971 all over again

Every four or five songs, Mason makes a wry speech in the manner of a retired solicitor at the local Rotary Club, then he sits back down and bashes along to some often deeply strange sounds. Credit: Alan Rennie / Alamy Live News 
issue 14 May 2022

Drummers are patient chaps, in the main. Think of Ringo in Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles docuseries, Get Back. Lolling around peaceably for days on end as Lennon and McCartney bash about, looking for clues. Drummers twiddle their thumbs behind their kit while the musos fret over chords and key changes, waiting for the moment when they will be called upon to hit skins with sticks and make a song worth hearing.

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