Don’t expect more Endless River-style explorations of Pink Floyd leftovers from previous albums. Nick Mason says 1994’s Division Bell was the exception in producing so much additional unused material.
“In previous eras, we were very specific,” Nick Mason tells Sound Opinion. “Once we were in the studios, we tended to know what we were doing — so there weren’t very many discards. If we had a piece, we probably had a place for it.”
The principal reason for this wealth of content from the Division Bell era is because the project had originally been conceived as a double album — only to be halved when a touring deadline loomed. Those extra songs were then added upon in order to complete The Endless River, released last year as Richard Wright’s swansong with Pink Floyd.
“It would be great now to have a vast quantity of excess fat, and be able to find all of those hidden gems,” Nick Mason says, laughing. “Divison Bell was unusual in that respect, in that we had actually spent quite a bit of time — and had quite creative results out of it.”
That likely spells the end of Pink Floyd, not just as a studio band but also as a blockbuster touring outfit. Pink Floyd notably sat home in the wake of The Endless River.
“It would be nice if we could do it,” Mason says of the prospect of concert appearances, “but I absolutely accept that it’s difficult from so many points of view. Apart from [late-period Floyd leader] David [Gilmour] not wishing to go out on the road again, and wanting to get on with being David Gilmour for a while, there are other issues, as well. The fact that Rick is no longer with us would mean we couldn’t actually play it in the way it was intended and made — with Rick improvising.”
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