Two bits of news, both relating to Pink Floyd in Italy.

First, there's an appeal to all of you, wherever you may live, relating to performances by the band in that country. Were you lucky enough to have seen Pink Floyd live in Italy at any time between 1968 and 1994? The Floydseum is after your written memories, live photos or photos of local newspaper articles and memorabilia. If you have any, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to let them know. They note that "the most beautiful photos and the most interesting writings will become part of a future book and possible exhibitions and events related to the publication of the same!"

Before then, though, the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's appearance at the Piper Club in Rome takes place on April 19th, 2018. Planned is a special concert, and an exhibition: "Four great unknowns, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason, with David Gilmour’s weird elegance to fill a little the empty space left by Syd Barrett - whose crazy sheen was well sadly blown up, seize a young standing audience, almost unaware of the event and yet electrically engaged. Orbiting between the resonances and the sonic chiaroscuros drawn by five outstanding musicians, 50 years later on the same stage and supported by 'The Lunatics' crew, the rarefied atmospheres and visions that defined the historic gig at the Piper Club renew themselves in a show made up of powerful and vibrant sounds. Come over lighthearted. Have a nice trip. See you at the gates of dawn, for a psychedelic breakfast!"

The performance is by an Italian band, Eugene and The Pink Floyd Sound, and the exhibition is curated by 'The Lunatics', the band of Italian Floyd collectors. Tickets are now available from PiperClub.it, EventiPiper.it and CiaoTickets.com.

Roger Waters has shared a powerful new video on his Facebook page, performing an excerpt from a poem, entitled Supremacy. Here's Roger's own description of the piece:

"Le Trio Joubran and I have collaborated to perform an excerpt from an epic poem by the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. On the surface it narrates the last speech of The Native American to The White Man, but it speaks also to Darwish's beloved Palestine, and its indigenous people, in fact to all victims of settler colonialism everywhere, always.
Love
R.

Credits:
Music - Trio Joubran; Voice - Roger Waters; Poem - Mahmoud Darwish
Poem Translation - Fady Joudah & Roger Waters; Music Producer - Renaud Letang
Recorded at - Abbey Road Studios & Studio Ferber; Video director - Adnan Joubran
For all informations and inquiries - www.letriojoubran.com."

To celebrate Record Store Day 2018 (Saturday 21st April), Pink Floyd are releasing The Piper At The Gates of Dawn on vinyl, with a new mono 2018 remaster by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Bernie Grundman. Remastered from the original 1967 mono mix, the release is the latest from Pink Floyd Records, which has recently marked global sales of over 1 million vinyl LPs since its launch in June 2016.

The limited-edition Record Store Day release is delivered on premium 12" 180-gram black vinyl, and comes paired with an exclusive poster (540 x 388mm on art paper), as well as a foil blocked outer wallet. This was to differentiate the mono version for buyers; Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis, with Peter Curzon, created this additional packaging in the form of a card envelope which features a psychedelic design, including a gold embossed version of the graphic by Syd Barrett which also features on the reverse of the original mono LP.


The package also includes gold and black labels, gold sticker, and a poster featuring the original photograph (taken by the late Colin Prime in Ruskin Park, South London) that inspired Syd’s graphic.


Written and performed by Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was recorded with producer Norman Smith at Abbey Road Studios, and features songs that remained on the band's live setlist for many years, such as Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive. The songs on the album remain firm favourites with fans to this day.

The release goes on sale via Record Store Day participating stores (in person, not via mail order) on 21st April, and will remain available while stocks last - we understand it is limited to 6000 copies worldwide. So, if you are interested in this release, you will need to set your alarm early that day to join the queue at your local store. For more details, including participating stores, visit either www.recordstoreday.com or www.recordstoreday.co.uk. Inevitably, the album will appear (as early as that morning) on eBay, put on there by people looking to make a quick profit...

Our very best wishes, and many happy returns, to David Gilmour today (March 6th), who is celebrating his 72nd birthday!

Born and raised in Cambridge, David became involved with various bands in the area, principally Jokers Wild who were a popular draw when they played, before joining Pink Floyd in 1968. More recent years have seen David concentrating on his solo career, and helping out chums on their musical projects on an ad hoc basis - such as appearing on stage with Phil Manzanera at the legendary Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, with Amadou & Mariam at the Crisis "hidden" charity show, and the Douglas Adams 60th Birthday concert at London's Hammersmith Apollo amongst other things.

Of course, 2015 saw the return to his own music with the release of Rattle That Lock, his most recent solo studio album, which was accompanied by a tour of Europe, and North and South America. The tour took in some quite unusual and spectacular locations, perhaps the pinnacle being a return to the amphitheatre at Pompeii for a pair of shows, which were filmed for release, shown in cinemas worldwide, then released for home viewing and listening to much acclaim.

It just remains for us to wish David a very happy day! If you want to add your thoughts and wishes, you can do so at our Facebook page...