Nick Mason 'embarrassed' by early Pink Floyd outfits

Nick Mason says he cringes when looking back at the outfits he wore during Pink Floyd’s early years.

The former Floyd drummer says he feels a mixture of “nostalgia” and “enormous embarrassment” when he watches footage from their forthcoming collection – the Early Years 1965-1972 box set.

He tells Canoe: “Someone asked me what my reaction to watching some of this stuff is. It’s partly nostalgia – but there’s also enormous embarrassment.

“We were scampering about in our shiny clothes — it’s quite bizarre, now that we’re rather elderly grandees of the industry. I do have this sort of fascination with the clothes I had at the time. And it’s also nice to see the full range of moustaches and beards that I carried.

“But it was fun, and I think that’s quite nice, perhaps, to celebrate that.”

Mason also admits that finding good quality footage from Pink Floyd’s early days was the “biggest problem” with their box set.

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He adds: “We weren’t important enough to have a lot of news footage. The Beatles, although it was early days, had quite a lot of great movie footage. We didn’t.

“What we tended to have was us going to Japan, buying Super 8 cameras and filming each other. Which was pretty weak filmmaking, I can tell you. And contains, of course, no sound whatsoever.

“Although, by looking at it, it looks as though we believed if you shout loudly enough it will imprint itself on the film. We always seem to be talking to the camera hopelessly.”

Pink Floyd’s Early Years 1965-1972 box set launches on November 11. Pre-order it on their website.

Their lost song Vegetable Man, featuring late singer Syd Barrett, was recently streamed from the collection.

Pink Floyd are the cover stars of the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine, which is out now in print and via TeamRock+.

Pink Floyd The Early Years Cre/Ation tracklist

CD 1

1. Arnold Layne
2. See Emily Play
3. Matilda Mother
4. Jugband Blues
5. Paintbox
6. Flaming† (BBC Session, 25 Sept 1967)
7. In The Beechwoods
8. Point Me At The Sky
9. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
10. Embryo
11. Ummagumma Radio Ad
12. Grantchester Meadows
13. Cymbaline† (BBC Session, 12 May 1969)
14. Interstellar Overdrive† (Live, Paradiso, Amsterdam, Aug 1969)
15. Green Is The Colour† (BBC Session, 12 May 1969)
16. Careful With That Axe, Eugene† (BBC Session, 12 May 1969)

CD 2

1. On The Highway†
2. Auto Scene Version 2
3. The Riot Scene
4. Looking At Map
5. Take Off
6. Embryo (BBC Session, 16 July 1970)
7. Atom Heart Mother (Live Montreux, 21 Nov 1970)
8. Nothing Part 14
9. Childhood’s End
10. Free Four
11. Stay

Q&A: Nick Mason