As a founder and constant member of Pink Floyd throughout the entirety of their career since 1965, drummer Nick Mason ranks as one of Britain's most enduringly successful musicians, having enjoyed sales of over 250 million records worldwide with the band. He also developed a parallel career outside of Pink Floyd, creating soundtrack music with Rick Fenn, recording several albums with Michael Mantler, collaborating with Robert Wyatt and embarking on his own solo album and tours.
The son of a documentary film-maker, he was born in Birmingham but grew up in London, going on to study architecture at polytechnic school in 1963, at which point he met Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Bob Klose, forming the band Sigma 6. This evolved into Screaming Abdabs before a meeting with Syd Barrett led to the formation of the groundbreaking progressive rock outfit Pink Floyd.
The next few decades saw Pink Floyd become one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time, with hit albums 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' (1967), 'Ummagumma' (1969), 'Atom Heart Mother' (1970), 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (1973), 'Wish You Were Here' (1975), 'The Wall' (1979) and 'The Final Cut' (1983), during which time Mason established himself as an inventive drummer with a deceptively gentle style strongly influenced by jazz, as well as an occasional songwriter, composing the Pink Floyd songs 'Time' and 'Echoes'. During the 1970s he also moved into production, working with fellow progressive rockers Robert Wyatt, Gong and Steve Hillage.
In 1981 he released his first solo album, 'Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports' which was essentially a jazz-rock record, was largely written and co-produced with keyboard player Carla Bley and featured Robert Wyatt on most of the vocal cuts. It also heavily featured Chris Spedding on guitar, Michael Mantler on trumpet and additional vocals from Karen Kraft. He followed in 1985 with 'Profiles', a predominantly instrumental duo album of self-written material with guitarist Rick Fenn of 10CC, though it did feature Maggie Reilly and Dave Gilmour singing on the track 'Lie for a Lie'. Mason and Fenn also collaborated on soundtrack music for the 1986 British thriller movie 'White of the Eye'.
Legal disputes following Roger Waters' departure in the mid-1980s resulted in Pink Floyd essentially disappearing from the public eye, but Mason did join Waters on one of his solo tours. Mason himself returned in 2018 with his own touring band Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, featuring Guy Pratt on bass, Lee Harris and Gary Kemp on guitar and Dom Beken on keyboards, performing tracks from Pink Floyd's vintage years between 1967 and 1972.
