Pink Floyd drummer plays early classics with band at Oakland’s Fox Theater

OAKLAND — Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason brings his Saucerful of Secrets band to the Fox Theater in Oakland Friday, exploring the beloved psychedelic rock group’s early catalog.

One of the most popular British rock quartets to emerge during the ’60s, Pink Floyd rose from cult status to headlining stadiums after the massive success of their progressive-rock landmark 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, but the band had already been together for nearly a decade at that point. The roots of the band date back to 1963 when Mason began playing music with fellow London Polytechnic architecture student Roger Waters (initially a guitarist) in bands that had a variety of line-ups and names, at one point including future Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright on rhythm guitar.

The group would become more firmly established after the addition of Syd Barrett, a childhood friend of Waters who in 1965 became the lead singer and guitarist of what would eventually become known as the Pink Floyd Sound — later shortened to the Pink Floyd and then simply Pink Floyd. The band started out playing R&B covers that they would frequently extend with lengthy solos and improvisation, but over time added original tunes penned by Barrett and Waters (who had switched to playing bass). 

By 1966, the band began to build a growing fan base with its experimental and exploratory music and the accompanying light show they started using. An extended residency at the UFO Club further established Floyd as one of the flag bearers for the rising psychedelic scene in London. The quartet’s line-up solidified with the return of Richard Wright on keyboards before the band signed to EMI and recorded their debut single “Arnold Layne.” The tune stirred some controversy with its reference to cross dressing leading it to be banned by some radio station, but it still hit the UK charts. The follow-up single “See Emily Play” sold even better.  

However by the time the band’s first album — the stunning, fractured psychedelic pop tour de force Piper at the Gates of Dawn — was released in the summer of 1967, Barrett had begun to unravel mentally due to his regular consumption of LSD. One of the most famous acid casualties of the psychedelic era, Barrett would never fulfill the promise of the brilliant songwriting displayed in Floyd’s early work. The band was forced to cut its first tour of the United States short due to the singer’s erratic behavior and deteriorating condition, though they did manage awkward appearances on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and Pat Boone’s television show before returning home.

While he would make minimal contributions to the band’s sophomore effort A Saucerful of Secrets — Pink Floyd initially considered the idea of keeping Barrett on as a songwriting member while relieving him of his live performance duties after the addition of David Gilmour — the group would eventually cut ties with him after Barrett’s struggles continued. The band members shifted their focus towards the extended experimentation of tracks like “Interstellar Overdrive” and the second album’s four-part title track. 

Waters would emerge as the band’s principle lyricist and songwriter after Barrett’s departure, but the initial period featured some of Pink Floyd most experimental music. Between their extensive film work — they created music for director Barbet Schroder’s first movie More in 1969, soundtracked the literally explosive conclusion of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point and 1972’s Obscured By Clouds for Schroeder’s film La Valle — and their own proper albums including the hybrid live album/studio experiment double LP Ummagumma and the heavily orchestrated Atom Heart Mother that featured the band working with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin and a 16-voice choir, the band became a regular presence on the UK charts and established a cult following in the U.S.

Meddle in 1971 would serve as a bridge to the more concept-driven albums mapped out under the stewardship of Waters that elevated the band to global superstars starting with The Dark Side of the Moon, but it also announced Gilmour’s emergence as a singular stylist on the guitar and as the band’s main lead singer. The album also provided the bulk of the music performed in the band’s perennial midnight movie documentary favorite Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii that featured the band performing live in an empty Roman amphitheatre (including a mesmerizing take of the epic side-length tune “Echoes” that closed Meddle) along with in-studio sessions for the then in-progress Dark Side.  

Floyd’s story after the explosive chart and FM radio dominance of Dark Side and their rise to filling stadiums and further platinum sales with Wish You Were Here and The Wall is well documented, as is the growing animosity between band members that would eventually lead to one of the most famously acrimonious break-ups this side of the Beatles in the early ’80s when the bassist declared the band was over and assumed it wouldn’t continue without his songwriting. A long legal battle ensued, finally ending with an agreement that allowed Gilmour and Mason to continue releasing music as Pink Floyd. 

Waters would have a fairly lucrative solo career, continuing with his ambitious album concepts and theatrical stage presentations, but that success was dwarfed by the sales and concert receipts that the reconstituted version of Floyd reaped with its 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason and later, more artistically successful effort Division Bell. The band would reunite one time for a celebrated short set in 2005 for Bob Geldof’s Live 8 benefit concert in London’s Hyde Park, just a year before Barrett’s death and three years before Wright passed away from cancer in 2008. Other than a variety of reissue projects and the mostly instrumental 2014 swan song The Endless River, Pink Floyd has essentially come to an end.

However, Floyd fans still have options to experience the music live with Waters continuing to celebrate the Floyd catalog with spectacular (if sometimes heavy handed) multi-media concerts such as his most recent “This Is Not a Drill Tour.” Eager to revisit some of the band’s early history and return to the road, in 2018 Mason assembled his Saucerful of Secrets group with Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, Ian Dury and the Blockheads guitarist Lee Harris, keyboardist Dom Beken and latter-era Floyd bassist Guy Pratt. After getting the blessings of Waters and Gilmour, Mason and company embarked on an ecstatically received tour of the UK and Europe, followed by a U.S. jaunt in 2019. The group had been scheduled to return to the States for another tour in 2020 after the release of the live recording and DVD of a concert at London’s Roundhouse, but the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. At last able to travel the U.S. following multiple postponements, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets brings this celebration of Pink Floyd from the Syd Barrett era through Meddle back to the Bay Area for this show at the Fox Theater in Oakland Friday as part of its “Echoes Tour.” 

Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets  
Friday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m. $55-$145
Fox Theater