Nick Mason

It's easy now to look back on the past and try and sort of give it some shape and form, but at the time you're in a total state of confusion, muddling about because you're trying to be in this band, and be successful, make it work, and things aren't working out and you really don't understand why. You can't believe someone's de...deliberately trying to screw it up, yet the other half of you's saying, 'this man's crazy, he's trying to destroy me'... destroy ME, I mean, it gets very personal. You get very worked up in a state of extreme rage. Obviously, there were some incredible moments of clarity where you realize things are NOT right, like the wonderful American Tour, which will live forever. Syd detuning his guitar all the way through one number, striking a string and detuning the guitar, which is...very modern (laughs) but, um... very difficult for a band to follow or play with, and uh, other, I mean, other occasions when he'd more or less just cease playing and stand there leaving us to muddle along as best we could. At times like that you think, what we need is someone else, or at least some help.

I'm not someone who likes being out of control in any way. Not many people would like the sensation of being on a runaway bus with a drunk at the wheel. You're quite cross at the same time as being frightened. Then, after Syd, Dave was the difference between light and dark. He was absolutely into form and shape and he introduced that into the wilder numbers we'd created. We became far less difficult to enjoy, I think. And that made it more fun to play because you want to entertain, get some rapport going rather than antagonize. To annoy the audience beyond all reason is not my idea of a good night out.

I think Syd was a major talent as a songwriter and maybe could have been as a musician, I mean, he did stop. He has not done anything for the last ten years. And consequently, people who don't perhaps entirely achieve all their potential become even more legendary.

You must never underestimate how unpopular we were around the rest of England. They hated it. They would throw things, pour beer over us. And we were terrible, though we didn't quite know it. Promoters were always coming up to us and saying, 'I don't know why you boys won't do proper songs'. Looking back on it, I can't think why we persevered.

Syd went mad on that first American tour in the autumn of 1967. He didn't know where he was most of the time. I remember he detuned his guitar onstage in Venice, LA, and he just stood there rattling the strings which was a bit weird, even for us.