Perhaps he felt that he’d be hard-pressed to top Amused to Death. Better to go out after your best work rather than follow the path of Gilmour and the gang, dwindling away with so-so releases.
If it’s the album version of his 2000 tour, it’s got a lot of stuff on it… The Wall, Dark Side (fucking awesome rendition of Crazy Diamond), Final Cut, and a good chunk of his solo work, like Pros & Cons and Amused to Death.
Well, my understanding is that the feud was primarily between Roger and David. Nick Mason always had a reputation of being easy-going and relaxed… Rick Wright, of course, was the whiny bitch of the group.
Waters was almost single-handedly responsible for ousting Wright when the latter’s coke habit left him semi-vegitative. Ironically, when Waters first suggested sacking Wright in the early “Wall” days, Gilmour reportedly suggested they toss Mason too. As it was, “The Final Cut” had precious little of either Wright or Mason on it, and though Gilmour had more of a presence, he was allowed to contribute little more to the album than the sundry other session musicians brought in to perform on what was essentially Waters’ first solo album.
It is also my understanding that Mason couldn’t really cut it anymore when Gilmour “reunited” Floyd for those last few albums, and that he was brought on board just to give the whole thing more legitimacy.
Maybe on Momentary Lapse of Reason - that was mostly a Gilmour solo album - but he definitely pulled his weight on Division Bell (including writing credits) and he was excellent both on the Pulse tour and when he later toured with Waters.
