 Mason's grandfather was the understudy and stand-in for the actor and comedian, George Formby, and his cousin, Barry Mason, is the popular songwriter who wrote the massive hit, “Delilah,” for Tom Jones.Although he was tempted to follow the family tradition, Mason accepted paternal advice and was swiftly appointed as a trainee stockbroker in the Manchester Stock Exchange where he worked as a financial researcher into securities and investments.However, after demonstrating considerable promise for the profession, Mason tired of the pretensions of the financial marketplace with its tedious culture of profits and its boring spread-sheet analysis of the world, and he yearned for a return to his cultural roots in the arts and letters.