Nick Mason talks of Rock Band game phenomenon
Written by Matt   
Tuesday, 08 September 2009

Beatles Rock BandWhilst at London's Abbey Road Studios yesterday recording the Bandaged charity album, Nick Mason was grabbed by BBC reporters to find out his views on not just the recording itself, but also the phenomenon of video games such as Rock Band, what the future might hold for Pink Floyd's extensive catalogue, and his views on Irish broadcasting legend Sir Terry Wogan, who announced his retirement from his long-running BBC Radio 2 breakfast show two hours earlier.

"Everyone knows he's incredibly important to broadcasting," Nick said. "It's even more exciting that he's been replaced by Chris Evans - which seems to have driven people into a frenzy of excitement and fury." In a video report on the BBC 10pm News last night, Nick suggested protesting listeners might storm the BBC with pitchforks!

Nick and former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman were quizzed on the rise of video games such as Guitar Hero, on the eve of the launch of The Beatles: Rock Band game which features 45 re-mastered songs from the Beatles' back catalogue.

Wyman told the BBC: "It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble. It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think is a pity so I'm not really keen on that kind of stuff."

Nick described the games as "interesting new developments", but added, "It irritates me having watched my kids do it - if they spent as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they'd be damn good by now."

However, he mentioned that the band had not ruled out a Pink Floyd edition of one of these types of games, at some point in the future. "I think we'd consider it. I think everyone's looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared. I'm of the old guard who are really sad about that, because I always liked the concept of the album - rather than just cherry-picking tracks - and also the business of the art work that went with it."

He told the BBC that any new material from Pink Floyd was "very unlikely".

"We're all still interested in the catalogue and trying to make the most of it, re-mastering when necessary, and looking at other things that we could do with it. I think we're all still very proud of it - we do talk to each other occasionally."

To read the online articles, visit the BBC website here and here.