Singer-songwriter Lesley Duncan sadly passed away on Friday, March 12th, after a long illness; she was 66. One of England's top session vocalists, and a songwriter in her own right, Lesley Duncan sang on recordings by Elton John, the Dave Clark 5, the Alan Parsons Project, Michael Chapman, Joyce Everson and the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Pink Floyd fans will know her best for Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" on which she performed backing vocals.

Her own songs have been covered by many artists, including Elton, Olivia-Newton John and Long John Baldry. Her debut single was in 1963, but she had to wait six years before she found success when Elton John included her tune, "Love Song", on his album, Tumbleweed Connection. The popularity of that track secured her a recording contract with CBS Columbia, which lasted some years. She continued to perform and work on new material until fairly recently with her husband (and keyboard player) Jimmy Horowitz.

We've been busy behind the scenes this weekend working with our good friends at 3B Web Design on some new features for this site, to enable more interactivity and to make it even easier for you to keep up to date with everything that's happening in the world of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.

We've added a Brain Damage Fan Page on Facebook, which we'd love for you all to join (go to Facebook.com/BrainDamageUK), and there you can obviously discuss all the latest happenings in the Floyd world. You can also follow us at twitter.com/BrainDamageUK, and we've also set up a Brain Damage Channel at Youtube which we'll be adding interesting stuff to as time goes on. You've no doubt spotted the new toolbar at the bottom of the page (it supports most browsers) that gives you a host of new features, some of which we are experimenting with to see what works well. You can even have a live chat (with video, if you wish!) with other fans via the toolbar!

We'd love to get your feedback on these new features, which you'll be able to do via the Facebook page, or via Twitter, or through the other route which is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The High Court in London this afternoon saw Pink Floyd win their court battle with record company EMI, which started last year and resulted in this week's hearing.

The band's current record deal, dating from 1999, stipulates that individual songs must not be sold without the band's permission. This is to keep the integrity of their albums, many of which were designed to be listened to in their entirety. EMI's view was that this didn't apply to online sales through digital music services like iTunes but the band - and the judge - disagreed.

In court, Chancellor Sir Andrew Morritt pointed out that the contract contained a clause to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums", and that EMI "were not entitled to exploit recording by online distribution or by any other means other than the original album, without the consent of Pink Floyd".

EMI has been ordered to pay £40,000 ($60,000) costs. Coincidentally enough, there is also speculation in today's press that Pink Floyd, Queen and Paul McCartney could be considering moving record labels due to the difficulties that EMI has recently found itself in.

As we mentioned back in April 2009, Pink Floyd have been in dispute with EMI over online royalties and the marketing of their music. They have now launched a High Court action against EMI to try and resolve the issue, and to seek a ruling on whether the label can sell individual tracks from the original albums.

Robert Howe QC, appearing for the group, said they wanted to "know where they stand as a matter of contract", arguing that a contractual clause "expressly prohibited" 'unbundling' - the selling of tracks, either physically or online, 'other than in their original configuration'. EMI was said to argue that this prohibition "applies only to the physical product and doesn't apply online".

But, Mr Howe argued, "that makes no commercial sense" and contradicted the conditions in the band's agreement with EMI from 1999.

A ruling from Sir Andrew Morritt, Chancellor of the High Court, is due to be made on Thursday, March 11th.

"I guess we try to do a performance to echo that given by the musicians, but often in a remote place which then needs to be recorded/photographed or nobody would bloody see it!" - Storm Thorgerson.

April 2nd 2010 sees the opening of a month long exhibition at Idea Generation Gallery in London which sounds fascinating. "Storm Thorgerson: Right But Wrong - The Extended Album Art of StormStudios and Hipgnosis" looks at some of the events, exstallations, sculptures, images, drawings, and ideas behind Storm Thorgerson's 42+ year career as one of the pioneers of original commercial design. This retrospective is not only an exhibition of Storm's most celebrated covers for the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but also offers a unique insight into the otherworldly and incongruous work Storm is carrying out today.

Alongside some of the most iconic images from his seminal career, the exhibition will include previously unseen sculptures, sketches and writings from Storm. Right But Wrong will provide an in-depth account of the artist and the processes behind some of his most acclaimed works. Especially for Idea Generation Gallery, Storm will present a number of brand new site-specific installations, including ambitious reinterpretations of a few of his most renowned pieces, and a programme of special events including live body painting, workshops and a psychoanalytic investigation of Storm's motives. Crikey!

The exhibition runs until May 2nd 2010. The gallery is at 11 Chance Street, London E2, and is open from Monday to Friday, 10am - 6pm, and at the weekend between 12pm - 5pm. More details at www.IdeaGeneration.co.uk.

As most of you will be painfully aware, around a week ago, Chile was struck by one of the most powerful earthquakes in history: 8.8 in Richter scale, 500 times more powerful than the one in Haití.

Around 2 million people have been affected in different ways and hundreds are dead or missing. The Chileans are still shocked, however, as César Jiménez tells us, they "have found comfort in the overwhelming reaction from many people around the world, including several musicians, like Roger Waters.

"Chilean newspapers have published this afternoon a letter he [Roger] sent to one of the DJs of Radio Futuro, a station based in Santiago. If you have a way of tell him how grateful we are for this, please do it."

Here's the letter in full, first in Spanish as it originally appeared, and then an approximate translation into English: