Unattended Luggage

Today Nick Mason released his box set of his three solo albums: Fictitious Sports, and the 'Mason + Renn' albums Profiles, and White of the Eye. I've had this on pre-order since the day it was announced in June, and ordered both the CD and vinyl sets. I had thought to keep the CD set in it's shrink wrap and just open the vinyl, but when it arrived I couldn't resist tearing into it! I'm always a bit torn on the issue of keeping things in shrink - the collector side of me knows it's a good idea, but at the same time I like to enjoy the things I collect. I collect all of this stuff because I love it, not with a mind to sell one day.

I'm already familiar with Nick's solo music, and to be honest have been a bit shocked with many Floyd fans who have admitted they haven't given any of it as a listen before or even knew some of these albums existed. Profiles isn't my cup of tea (it's very 80s!) but the other two albums are very nice listens. I've already got a first pressing of Fictitious Sports on vinyl, and am glad to have the full collection at last.




This is the CD set, each disc is in a cardboard sleeve like a mini LP (minus the inner sleeve) as is typical of Pink Floyd CDs nowadays. It's nicely put together, and the box is exactly the same as the larger vinyl box, but it's a bit disappointing that there's no kind of booklet. There's minimal information about any of the albums beside the track listing, and I think it would of been nice to include a CD booklet giving a little overview of Nick's solo career.





And this is the vinyl box set! It's typical remastering quality LPs on heavyweight vinyl, and as far as I can tell from my original copy of Fictitious Sports, exact replicas of the original sleeves and centre labels. The outside box is nice and sturdy, with a matte finish that feels kind of rubbery (I don't know if there's a proper term for it, but hopefully you know what I mean! 😂) I haven't had a chance to give it a listen yet so can't comment on the sound quality, but I was pleased to see in the liner notes that Nick has had a hand in the remastering himself.




Also my ticket to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets arrived today!

Magazine collection

I was flicking through my magazines the other day and thought they'd make an interesting thing to share as I've been collecting them for years! I didn't even realise how many I had until I piled them all up like this. I usually keep some in a magazine rack, some stacked up behind the magazine rack, some on the book shelf and some underneath the bookshelf, so they're usually all over the place! Some of these date back as far as 2001. I don't collect every magazine with Pink Floyd in it, just ones that catch my eye or have a significant article.


These are some of my oldest copies, the Uncut issues are from 2001 and the Classic Rock magazine from 2002. I wish there was a way I could share more of these magazines other than just the covers, I thought of scanning them in for Tumblr but I don't want to risk ruining the spines.


Mojo - October 2011; Classic Rock - October 2005; Mojo - November 2001


I mostly prefer issues with Syd in them ♥ They're occasionally full of the journalist's speculation, but they're more objective than a lot of the books published about him and I like that they usually include bits with people who actually knew him, as well as the other members of Pink Floyd themselves.


Getting into some of my more recent ones, the Uncut magazine was from last summer I think? The Shindig and Prog were from 2016. I'm posting them in the wrong order, but this Shindig included part 2 of a massive article about Syd, I really recommend getting both issues if you don't have them already.


Music Milestones I got a few years ago but I'm pretty sure it's still sold in WH Smith, it's more like a mook and goes through the bands history album by album. I think I got all three of these magazines in 2016 too, the issue of Prog was to mark the 10th anniversary of Syd's passing.


These were all from 2017, I could barely keep up that year as so many magazines were being released full of their early year stuff as the box set hadn't long been released and Their Mortal Remains was opening. The Mojo '60s was a Pink Floyd special, and the Shindig was Part 1 of the Syd article I mentioned earlier.


Inside the Mojo '60s


This Mojo is from March 2010, and the Pink Floyd guide is another mook, Uncut release a lot of these of various bands. I've had this one a long time, I'm not sure when it was released but I really recommend seeking out a copy! It's full of articles from various different publications throughout the time since the band started, I love reading stuff like this and seeing what they were saying about the band then compared to what we know now. I guess the Drum Heroes is kind of a cheat, although I consider it part of my collection. It's a mook by Rhythm magazine, as you can probably guess all about drummers! It's got a good interview with Nick in it.



This box was sold at WH Smith, I think they sell these kind of things on a lot of various topics. I've also seen an actual book in HMV with this exact same cover, so I don't know if it's the same thing in a slightly different format. Planet Rock was my most recent buy last week, it's got a little article in it with Nick about his Soucerful of Secrets project. And the Mojo magazine was from July 2016 to mark 10 years since Syd's passing.


And these are the final three, and the ones that always make me so sad to look at! They're all from 2006, and were the tribute issues to Syd after he died :( I took a photo from each:

Roger, Nick, and upcoming adventures

A few days ago my ticket arrived for one of the Roger Waters shows I'm going to over summer! I'm going to London and Birmingham, and it's the two days before my birthday so it felt like the perfect way to celebrate. I'm not sure why my ticket arrived so early, they don't usually get delivered until a week before but I did get it presale for attending BST Hyde Park last year when I saw The Killers so perhaps that's why. It was actually a really miserable experience last year and led to my first and only ever panic attack, I swore I'd never go back but I have to for Roger! I upgraded my ticket so hopefully I'll have a less claustrophobic time, plus the crowd will probably be a bit older.



These two dates will be my first time seeing Roger live despite being a fan for well over a decade. The draw back of being the only person in my circle (including family!) into older music is that it leaves me with no one to attend things with. I always thought one day I'd meet someone with the same interests as me, but when David Bowie died it was a sharp reminder that these people aren't immortal and waiting around until I met someone to go with was wasting time. Last year I began going to shows alone and I've never looked back! I'm never going to allow myself to miss out on things I want to do ever again.

I am however disappointed that I'm going to have to miss out on seeing Nick Mason performing next month! It was announced today and I was so gutted seeing the dates as I could literally go any other time. Nick is (along with Syd) my favourite band member, and the early years is my favourite period so I'm sure you can imagine how disappointed I am to have to miss this! I really hope demand pushes him to add an extra date or two.

The secret is now revealed... Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets will be playing early Pink Floyd at four intimate live shows across London, next month. The tickets go on sale from 10am today at https://t.co/aP1uA85fbV - #PinkFloyd #NickMasonDrums #SaucerfulOfSecrets pic.twitter.com/5KxXl6ILN6

— Nick Mason (@nickmasondrums) April 17, 2018

I do have a good reason to be missing it though; I'm off to Italy! I'm going to see Their Mortal Remains before it closes in Rome, I'm really excited as I saw it three times in London so it will be interesting to see any changes. I know they've added some things that are specific to the bands history with Italy. I almost didn't get to make it as I had to rearrange my trip to the end of May when I'd originally planned for the middle of the month, and I forgot the exhibition would of ended by then! The very last day of the exhibition is on my first day in Italy, so I've reconfigured my trip. I've changed my flight so I now go to Rome in the early hours of the morning, then I can stash my bags at Roma Termini while I spend the day at the MACRO. Then I'll catch the train to Naples to check into my hotel that night and begin my trip as originally intended. I'm mostly going to Naples so that I can visit Pompeii. There's so much Floyd history in Italy and I'm really looking forward to exploring it all. Also my dad is Italian and he died a long time ago now so I want to get to experience and understand his culture better. Now if only I can wrap my brain around the language basics before I go!

Nick Mason

It was Nick Mason's birthday on Saturday, and as he's one of my favourite members of Pink Floyd I took the opportunity to draw him. I really struggled to find a high quality image I liked, and couldn't in the end. Considering my reference photo looked as though it had been taken with a potato and I had to use my imagination for the finer details, I'm quite pleased with how it came out!

Free to play alone with time

I haven't been drawing an awful lot lately, the negatives of being an art student is having barely any time to draw for yourself. And when I have had time, I've felt more inclined to sew instead. But I have drawn two portraits recently.




I wanted to draw Nick Mason as it was his 73rd birthday yesterday and as he's one of my favourite members of Pink Floyd I wanted draw something to both commemorate it and to have something to post on social media. I've been trying to simplify my portraits lately back like I used to. I've gotten into the habit of only drawing intricately detailed larger scale portraits which has made me feel intimidated to draw just when I feel like as I'm sure you can imagine they take several hours. I drew Nick in about 4 hours which is much better! It's exciting as it means my options for portraits opens up as if I'm drawing more simplified then I don't need massive HQ photographs to draw from. I'm just really excited to draw more throughout 2017 as I don't feel I did even almost enough last year.

Last month in December I also drew Rick Wright. This is one of those intricately detailed drawings I mentioned, I love how they come out but they just take too long! I had planned on doing one for each of Pink Floyd, but I'm not so sure now as I don't want to pressure myself with promises my heart is no longer into.