Pink Floyd's Nick Mason made honorary citizen of Pompei
He received the honour in Pompei on Monday
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has been made an honorary citizen of the Italian city of Pompei.
Pink Floyd, of course, have very close links to Pompei having filmed their fabled concert film ‘Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii’ over four days at the Pompeii amphitheatre in October 1971
David Gilmour returned to perform two concerts at the amphitheatre in July 2016 as part of The Rattle That Lock Tour, and the shows were later immortalised with the 2017 live album and concert film ‘Live at Pompeii.’
More than 50 years on from Pink Floyd’s concert film, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets performed a concert at the Teatro Grande in the ruins of Pompeii last night (24th July).
Prior to the concert, Nick Mason accepted his honorary citizenship of Pompei in a special ceremony. ‘Pompei’ is the current Italian city in the same location as the ancient ruined city of ‘Pompeii’.
Nick Mason said: “I am overwhelmed by being here and having such a great honour given to me. What I really need to say initially is thank you, not only from myself, but the other people who made this happen. Of course, that’s Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Richard Wright.
“I’m sorry that I can’t bring the rest of the band with me. I can’t even bring my moustache. We have been linked to Pompeii for 50 years now. If you told me 50 years ago that I’d be back here I would have thought that was impossible. I should have returned 30 years ago”.
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets’ European tour concludes at Gardone Riviera in Italy tomorrow night (26th July).
Mason’s former Pink Floyd band mate Roger Waters has just announced that he will perform his Pink Floyd remake, ‘The Dark Side of the Moon Redux’, live in concert at the London Palladium on Sunday 8th October.
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