Gilmour and Mason guest with Waters on Wall tour – while drummer admits massive re-release programme is race against time
Pink Floyd
Together again: Floyd in 2005
The surviving members of Pink Floyd staged an unannounced but not unexpected reunion on stage in London last night.
Mainman David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason made guest appearances during former frontman Roger Waters’ The Wall show at the O2 Arena.
Gilmour’s appearance wasn’t announced – during the song Comfortably Numb a spotlight revealed his presence on the elaborate stage set, and the pair duetted on vocals before Waters left his ex-colleague to play a guitar solo.
Relations have thawed between Waters and Gilmour over the years. In 2010 they shared a stage for a charity event at Gilmour’s suggestion, leading to the counter-invitation to appear at a show of his choice on The Wall tour.
Later in the show Waters told the crowd: “Now we know – tonight was the night David gave me the enormous honour of coming out to play Comfortably Numb.
“When we first played this more than 30 years ago I was a grumpy fellow, disaffected with rock and playing live, as David will attest. But all that has changed.”
Mason then joined them on stage and they performed an acoustic version of Outside The Wall, with the drummer accompanying on tambourine.
The band last gathered for 2005′s Live8 charity show, complete with keyboardist Rick Wright who has since died. It’s not thought likely a fully-fledged reunion will take place, especially since Waters is expected to retire at the end of his current live project.
Meanwhile, Mason has admitted the band’s giant re-release programme is a race against time – because they don’t think people will want to buy physical albums for much longer.
Floyd’s entire back-catalogue has been remastered and will be released in phases starting in September. A best-of CD, re-engineered film footage, unheard music and new artwork will be included in the ongoing campaign. Material will be pitched at three separate levels to attract completists, fans and the general-interest market.
Mason says: “There’s a sense we’re coming to the end of the period where people will buy the physical record with all the packaging and so on.
“It’s really important have a last go at that, because if we do end up just downloading everything it would be a shame if there wasn’t on record all that good artwork and the things that went with it.”