The album Nick Mason called “quite difficult”
While Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason now regularly tours with his band Saucerful of Secrets, the group allows him to revisit materials from the Syd Barrett era of his former outfit, and the emphasis is on the songs rather than himself. However, Mason prefers to be in the background rather than the limelight but did release one solo album in 1981.
At the time of going solo, Pink Floyd were in a precarious position following the making of The Wall in 1979, and the inter-band relationships had become fractured to an unsustainable degree. Before work began on their next project, which became The Final Cut and was released in 1983, the members splintered off into different directions, with Mason releasing Fictitious Sports in 1981.
In addition to Mason creating his debut solo offering, keyboardist Richard Wright had previously released Wet Dream in 1978, and David Gilmour had offered up an eponymous album, shared in the same year as Wright’s debut.
The solo records were part of Pink Floyd’s deal with Harvest and Columbia Records, allowing the rest of the band to spread their wings outside the group’s confinements. For his record, Mason teamed up with American singer-songwriter Carly Bley for the collaborative affair, and the drummer primarily saw the record as a chance to test himself as an artist.
Fictitious Sports was recorded in Los Angeles and New York, a decision made mainly for tax purposes rather than a desire to work with local musicians. Mason explained to Rolling Stone in 2019: “Contractually, the record company had agreed that we could all make solo albums. Secondly, we were on tax exile from England. It made much better sense – I’ve only just remembered this now – to do it then [in America] rather than wait until we were back home.”
It was an album of convenience rather than burning desire, and Mason didn’t even have enough songs to make a whole record before bringing Bley on board, and in his mind, the album belonged to her rather than him.
Mason recalled: “I heard Carla’s songs and thought, ‘This is a God-given opportunity. Let’s just do the Carla thing.’ People were confused by the idea that this was a solo album, which it wasn’t at all. It was an opportunity for me to use what should have been a solo album to make a Carla Bley album.”
The duo went into the creative process with an open mind, and the result was a left-field reimagining of progressive rock, with vocals delivered by Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt. While he didn’t intend to make a challenging album that required the listener’s full attention, making the catalogue of Pink Floyd sound accessible in comparison.
Mason added of the record: “It was slightly off-the-wall music – and quite difficult. A lot of the music is relatively sophisticated for a four-on-the-floor rock drummer. I saw it as something that was good for me as well as enjoyable – a bit like going to the gym.”
While Fictitious Sports didn’t sell millions of copies like The Wall or The Dark Side of the Moon, the process made Mason a more technically astute musician, which was always his prerogative rather than superstardom.