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

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.

In 2018, admirably urbane Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason finally lost patience. The band has effectively been finished since 1994, and following the death of keyboardist Rick Wright in 2008, Mason was caught between Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the two rutting stags of the group’s legacy. Growing tired of polishing his Porsches, he resolved to dust off the gong and beaters and embark on a bit of active curation. Hence, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, formed with the intention of revisiting the earliest years of the band, before Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here made them a (rather dull) super group; the days of Syd Barrett, half-hour psychedelic freak-outs and ‘happenings’ swathed in dry ice.