Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason saves Foote’s music store

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has invested in the London music shop where he bought his first drum-kit.

Mason stepped in and bought the store when he heard it was going to go out of business. Foote's sales director Rob Foote will run the store. "At the eleventh hour, our business loan was turned down by our bank," Rob told mi-pro-co.uk. "It was a major blow to our plans, but Nick came to our rescue. Without him, and our collective of generous investors, Foote's would be no more."

He had purchased his first ever kit from the store in 1958 for £7.50. That started his music career that went on to create history with Pink Floyd but before that Nick started a band called The Hotrods with a few mates.

In his book 'Inside Out' Nick explained, "The fact that none of us knew how to play was only a minor set back, since we didn't have any instruments. Consequently allocating who played what was something of a lottery. My only link with drumming was that Wayne Minnow, a journalist friend of my parents, had once bought me a pair of wire brushes. After the failure of my early piano and violin lessons, this seemed a perfectly legitimate reason to become a drummer".

Foote's at 41 Store Street, London was founded by Charles Ernest Foote in 1920 and is run my musicians today.

Footes boasts "the largest selection of drums, percussion, woodwind brass and string instruments in Central London".

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