UPDATED STORY: Nick Mason is presenting a set of no less than NINE radio shows on the BBC's World Service, a series of programmes in association with the Open University.

The first of these airs this coming Saturday (April 27th), with Nick telling the story of how sound was first captured, giving birth to a global recording industry. For details of how to tune in to this 53 minute programme, and for the airing time in your region, visit the BBC website.

The following Saturday (May 4th), Nick tells the story of some of electronic music's pioneers, in another 53 minute programme on the World Service. Again, for details, visit the BBC website.

Should you miss the broadcasts, they are being repeated, as well as being available to hear online. For more details, visit this page at the BBC site.

For more information about ALL the shows in this series, all presented by Nick, visit the Open University website.

In the run-up to Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets hitting the stage of the Beacon Theatre in New York City on Thursday/Friday, Nick spoke to the New York Post about the project, in an interesting and wide-ranging discussion.

Nick explained the philosophy behind the project: "You only have to wait for 15 minutes before another version of the greatest hits come 'round, whether it's Brit Floyd or the Australian Floyd or Roger [Waters] or David [Gilmour], and what I didn't want to do is get into a competition of who can do the closest to the original Comfortably Numb. What I wanted to do was something a lot freer than that that was sort of based in how we did do things 50 odd years ago, and that was sort of important that there’d be some freedom in the music rather than slavishly copying every single note that David did.."

"What's really nice about this is from the moment we started last year it was almost sort of going back in time,. It reminded me of all the really good times playing with Pink Floyd, in fact. It wasn't that I ended up playing it in a despondent way. I enjoyed it all the way through. It's sort of turning back the hands of time, really."

In the article, Mason says fans can expect a live Saucerful album, and while he has given up on a full-blown Floyd reunion, the band still remains a working entity in some ways, referring to the Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains which Nick hints at a European city as its next stop, with a longer term view of taking it to America. He also talks about plans for remasters and mentions Animals as ripe for this process as "technically we sort of did it in our own studio and it's not quite up to the standard of an Abbey Road production." He also muses on the likelihood - or not - of a Floyd biopic, and suggests potential actors for key roles.

You can read the entire interview over at the New York Post website.

The new issue of the UK's Uncut Magazine (cover date June 2019) went on sale on Thursday (April 18th), is available now in all good stores, and available online worldwide, and as you can see, has Pink Floyd as its cover stars.

The ten-page article looks at the transitional period of the Floyd - writer Tom Pinnock discovers a band reconfiguring themselves and their creative aesthetic following the departure of Syd Barrett – via a run of bold, experimental records that are considered by many among their best.

It makes for a fascinating read; the story is brought up to date with a piece looking at Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets, who are concluding their US and Canada tour this evening, and are back in the UK next week for a string of shows, before spending much of July performing around Europe.

If you can't find the June 2019 issue of Uncut at your local UK store, order online now. The issue comes with a unique 15-track CD curated for Uncut by The National. Elsewhere in the magazine, you’ll find Scott Walker, Bob Dylan, Primal Scream, JJ Cale, Cate Le Bon, Peter Perrett, Aretha Franklin, Mac DeMarco, Dinosaur Jr, Dylan Carson, Africa Express and much more.

As the North American leg of the 2019 Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets tour heads towards it's conclusion, prior to the string of UK dates at the end of April/start of May (with a number of European dates in July), last night saw the band at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

Much to the surprise of the audience, as the band readied themselves to start Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, a familiar face appeared on stage, as BD contributor, Ken Langford explains: "Roger delayed the start of the song by making maybe a minute's worth of comments. He then proceeded to sing the lyrics for Set The Controls, to bang the gong, to almost leave before the song was over, and then to finish out the song. The mallet for the gong broke at one point, and I said to my companion "Break The Hammer Again." Listen to the recording of 11th March 1973 for the reference.

"He hugged every member of the band, and appeared again on stage for the final bow after Point Me At The Sky. A fantastic treat for all in attendance!"

Nick and his band are back at the Beacon tonight, but we suspect lightning won't strike twice - guest appearances like this are normally very much one-off events. 

Videos and pictures are starting to appear of the appearance, and this article at the Brooklyn Vegan is a great place to start. The following picture is from their Instagram page: