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Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason Wants To Open A Rock Museum

Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press

Nick Mason has stepped forward to support the idea a former Hampstead police station be converted into a rock museum.

The building was initially purchased by the UK Department of Education to be converted into a primary school.

However, since this proposal’s rejection, the space has long stood empty.

We have Keats House and Fenton House,” the Pink Floyd drummer shares of his former home town to the New Journal. “There are already some things to do but, in a way, the more the merrier. It would be good to have something a little more contemporary rather than Georgian.”

The idea itself comes from longtime Pink Floyd photographer Jill Furmanovsky.

The industry veteran of 40 years runs Rock Archive, a photography collective that exhibits a number of popular music’s iconic images.

Furmanovsky has been lobbying for the local authorities to support the project.

She believes the building could be made into a center for art exhibitions.

Furthermore, it could also be used as a space to educate and promote young artists.

With Jill’s idea it is about recognizing the past but also the opportunity for young bands to earn a living,” Nick Mason states. “I think there was a golden age when it was much easier for bands to make a living. It is really tough now. People think music tends to mean you can have a Rolls-Royce but there are a lot of people out there who would just like to make a living.

The Pink Floyd drummer is not unfamiliar with the museum business.

In 2017 he oversaw Pink Floyd’s Their Mortal Remains exhibit at London’s Victoria Albert Museum.

Mason also revealed that while he had occasionally had former brushes with the Hampstead police in his youth, he bears no ill will towards them.

I was stopped [for speeding] but never charged,” he shared. “It was never that much excitement – I was never arrested.”

Mason and his backing outfit Saucerful of Secrets are currently on touring hiatus due to the international outbreak coronavirus pandemic.

They will resume touring in 2021.

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