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Nick Mason: Waters will be ‘charmingly disapproving’ about album


Nick Mason believes Roger Waters will be "charmingly disapproving" about the new Pink Floyd album.

The 70-year-old drummer has reconvened with guitarist-and-singer David Gilmour to make group’s first new LP for 20 years, ‘The Endless River’.

Mason is sure his ex-bandmate Roger Waters – who left the prog rock band in 1985 – will be unimpressed by the album, in the nicest possible way.

Speaking about his possible reaction, the musician quipped: "I think Roger will be charmingly disapproving."

Mason insists he and Gilmour never considered inviting Waters to play on ‘The Endless River’ because most of the music was originally recorded with late keyboard player Rick Wright for 1994 release ‘The Division Bell’, which the bassist didn’t play on.

It has been claimed that Waters was a domineering force over the band, but Mason insists he is still his good friend, despite their issues over the years.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, he said: "To be fair, I occasionally make cracks about Roger being like Stalin. But in reality, it’s a joke. Roger is one of my oldest, dearest friends. I would have loved to have had him playing on this album.

"It would have been great but this was all about ‘The Division Bell’ and all about Rick. I don’t think Rick would have found it easy to come back to that (working with Roger). So it was never really an option now."

‘The Endless River’ – which comes out today (07.11.14) in some countries and on November 10 in the UK – has become the most pre-ordered album on Amazon.co.uk and Mason admits he does still feel a lot of pride about the achievement, even though he has enjoyed success for decades.

He said: "Part of me wants to say, ‘I’m old enough to have grown out of all that nonsense.’ But once you get to 60, and you’re still not tired of showing off, it means it’s never going away. I do worry about what people will think of it and I don’t want my kids to be embarrassed by having to deal with a father who is out there selling some old tat."