Nick Mason is to be awarded the accolade of Prog God, honouring more than 50 years' service to the world of progressive music, at the 2019 Progressive Music Awards. He'll receive the award at a star-studded ceremony on September 12th at London's Underglobe Theatre. Previous recipients of the title include Steve Howe, Carl Palmer, Jon Anderson and Peter Gabriel.

Nick told Prog magazine, who are behind the award ceremony: "I'm all in favour of recognition for drummers – particularly when it's me – so I'm really delighted to be recognised as Prog God. It's hard to believe that it was over 50 years ago that the music we know as prog rock was born, and it's still being celebrated, played and developed in the 21st century. Long may it continue!"

Last year, he announced his new live project, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets, who have been nominated in the Event Of The Year category of the awards, the winner of which will be revealed on the night. At the time, he told Prog: "I'd been ruminating on playing again rather than just talking about the old days, which I've done rather a lot of. It seemed like a good idea and it sounded as though we could actually find enough people committed to doing it. I think once we actually got some instruments and played together, I thought, 'Oh yeah, this is fun and it could work!'"

Nick has previously confirmed he has no plans to head to the studio with any of the material. "[These songs have] been recorded perfectly well by Pink Floyd some years ago. I think the fun of it is to try to be true to the music but actually not slavishly copy every detail of it. What I like is the idea of playing live and I'm really enjoying [revisiting the old material]. There are enough tribute bands to cover most of it, but this is very much a labour of love for me."

The full list of winners from the Progressive Music Awards 2019 will be printed in Prog's special souvenir issue, which goes on sale from October 25th - more details of that, and the results of the award ceremony, when we have them. On the night, you can follow what is happening via the Prog website.

Due for release tomorrow (August 16th) is Ballywonderland, a 15-track tribute to/best of Henry McCullough album. Available on CD, vinyl and digital download, the album includes an all-star cast of musicians on one of the tracks.

McCullough, the highly respected Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter, passed away in 2016, following a lengthy career that included being a key member of Joe Cocker's band, Spooky Tooth, and Wings. McCullough's spoken words "I don't know; I was really drunk at the time" can be heard on Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, as he was in Abbey Road Studios at the time the Floyd were recording the verbal responses to the questions they had on cards - this answer of Henry's was the reply to being asked "When was last time you thumped someone? Why did you do it?"

Co-written by Henry himself alongside Don Mescall, the song 'Live Long Rock 'N' Roll' was put together by a group of musicians that includes Nick Mason, Paul McCartney, Procol Harum's Gary Brooker, legendary guitarist Albert Lee, and more.

You can order the album now; please use these direct links to help support the running of Brain Damage: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy.

Our thanks to Rob Brown for his help with this information.

In the new August issue of the Spanish music magazine "This Is Rock", and coinciding with the exhibition in Madrid of The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains, an interview has been undertaken by Aubrey 'Po' Powell. Po, of course, is the curator of this exhibition and founding member together with Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, the creative agency that made almost all Pink Floyd's covers, in addition to other classic bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Alan Parsons Project, and so on. They also discuss what they consider to be the best images of Hypnosis for Pink Floyd.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album "The Division Bell" the cover of this issue of "This Is Rock" is one of the alternative shots for the cover and kindly provided by Peter Curzon, from StormStudios. The magazine argues that in the later Pink Floyd albums "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and "The Division Bell" the leader of this version of the band was David Gilmour, so in this issue of "This Is Rock" tribute is paid to him in a section entitled "Essential: The Legacy of David Gilmour."

Our thanks to Jose Abellan for the information above. The magazine is now available from all Spanish magazine outlets, or online from Area66.es which is the official store for the magazine.

Many of you will be aware of "The Black Strat: A History Of David Gilmour's Black Fender Stratocaster", the superb book written by Phil Taylor, David's long-term guitar technician, studio manager, production director and much more. It takes a careful and detailed look at one of rock's most iconic instruments, very ably written by the only man to know Pink Floyd's equipment better than the band. Rather than a dry, technical manual, suited only to those who already know guitars inside and out, it is a rewarding and accessible book that Pink Floyd fans the world over will thoroughly enjoy, packed with truly rare pictures that you won't have seen before.

Unfortunately, it has been unavailable for a while - unless, of course, you spent some serious money on a copy on the second hand market, where they are on sale for some interesting (and eye watering) amounts.

So, we have great news for you! The fully revised fourth edition is now available to order exclusively from Amazon UK. A few copies appeared in the gift shop of the V&A museum when the Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains was on there, but this handful of books quickly went. The news that it is available again will be music to many ears, as it really is a great book fully deserving of a space on your Floydian bookshelf!

Now expanded to 256 pages, the fourth edition brings the story pretty much up to date, including the brace of incredible Pompeii concerts performed by David, and the V&A staging of the Floyd exhibition. The only thing missing is its sale at the recent auction at Christie's New York, in aid of ClientEarth, the environmental charity, when the guitar passed into new hands, hopefully to create more music in the future.

The book contains plenty of new information as well as many more unpublished photographs, recently come to light, that further chart the Black Strat's illustrious history. Amending and elaborating on the previous editions, it is an incredible labour of love to document every aspect of this instrument, yet never get too technical for the more casual enthusiast, or Floyd fan who doesn't play guitar.

You can order the book now through this direct link to Amazon UK, where it is exclusively available. They will ship books worldwide so if outside Purchasing things after entering Amazon through our links really helps with site running costs, and we really appreciate it!