In an event now in its third year, Nick Mason last weekend opened his gardens to the public, with the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, and Youth Action Wiltshire, becoming some £15,000 better off.

More than 2,500 people took the opportunity to have a stroll around Nick's grounds, paying £5 each entrance fee. BD regular Ian McKenzie was amongst those present, and kindly sent over his thoughts on the day, along with some pictures of the event. Staffed by volunteers, the event was well-run, with decent free parking within walking distance. The house itself - Middlewick House in Corsham, Wiltshire - was out of bounds, but the public could walk around almost everywhere else.

Many of Nick's cars, and his helicopter, were on display. In total, there were six different garden areas plus a couple of paddocks with horses, two riding arenas, a football pitch, a tennis court and a woodland area. Sculptor Hamish Mackie had also supplied some of his pieces for people to enjoy.

Also in his garden were a number of stalls selling food, produce, arts and crafts, etc., and attendees got to see his pigs too!

Jennie Shaw, director of the Bobby Van Trust, said "I certainly would say that the Middlewick Open Gardens weekend is one of the most memorable events I organise for the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust and that sharing the event this year with the Youth Action Wiltshire Team and the young carers made it particularly special. It takes a lot of volunteers to make the event a success it is and I will always remain grateful to them. One of the many highlights for me was watching Nick tapping his foot when the Corsham Wind band played an excellent medley of Pink Floyd songs."

She added: "Nick and Annette Mason are extraordinarily generous in welcoming visitors to their home, and by giving us all the opportunity to view some of Nick's high performance cars and classic cars whilst raising vital funds for two very special local charities."

Tickets for the September 29th Roger Waters The Wall concert film screenings, at selected cinemas worldwide, are now on sale and selling fast. The screening is followed by a Q&A session - called The Simple Facts - with Roger and Nick Mason, talking about Pink Floyd's history and any other questions selected from those submitted by fans recently, specifically for this event. The Q&A will be broadcast to all participating cinemas, and will form part of the three-hour event.

The film though isn't a straight concert performance. The official line is this: "Based on the groundbreaking concept album, Roger Waters The Wall could be called a concept film: it's a state-of-the-art show that dazzles the senses, combined with an intensely personal road trip that deals with the loss Roger has felt throughout his life due to war."

Worth visiting is the official site for Roger Waters The Wall which has a mapping feature based on your location, showing which local cinemas are due to take part, linking direct to either the ticket purchase page for that venue, or for their homepage if they are yet to list this particular event - although most if not all participating cinemas should have this up on their sites as a bookable event. Click the thumbnail to the left to see what this mapping feature looks like. As it is a special screening, we anticipate most, if not all, venues will be charging a higher amount than for normal films they show.

In the US, it is also worth checking fandango.com who started selling tickets the night before any other outlets had details of screenings in that country.

In the meantime, here is the full, theatrical trailer for the screenings:

Back in June, we advised that Taken By Storm, the superb, indepth film about Thorgerson's life and work as told through his own reflection, his personal archive of never-before seen photographs and films, through ex-partner of Hipgnosis Aubrey Powell, and through first hand narratives from some of the most important musicians of our time, would finally will see a DVD and VOD release later this year.

Roddy Bogawa, the man behind the film, premiered it on the opening night of 2011’s prestigeous SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, USA, in front of Storm himself, and has refined the film since then. The following year it was shown in New Year (our review and thoughts on the film here), and more recently there was a screening at London's Olympus-Rockarchive Image Space Gallery, hosted by Rupert Truman. Roddy explained that "it's really a film about Storm's creative processes from the Hipgnosis days until now and his relationships/friendships with all the musicians and bands he's worked with through his four decades of making album art. There are interviews with David Gilmour and Nick Mason, as well as Robert Plant, Peter Gabriel, Graham Gouldman, Alan Parsons [and others], as well as Storm's many collaborators, assistants, etc. including photographers Tony May and Rupert Truman, Jill Furmanovsky, and artists Damien Hirst and Sir Peter Blake. The film goes beyond talking about Storm's relationships and creative processes in visualizing music; it is also about how technology has changed our lives, especially the digital realm in music and also the disappearance of vinyl and other physical objects".

He noted that it explores numerous covers and their creation and there's a lot of material from Storm's archives that has never been seen before. The official, full trailer for the film has now been released and can be seen below. There are plans for a theatrical release and screenings with planned events along with the aforementioned DVD and VOD releases. Information on the release will be here on Brain Damage, as well as on the takenbystormfilm.info website, and their Facebook page too.

The power of a classic: despite being 42 years old this year, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon shows no sign of waning or losing popularity. The album, according to the US information and sales tracking company Nielsen Music, is one of the 10 best-selling vinyl album for the first half of 2015. The album is at the number seven spot of the 2015 Nielsen Music US Mid-Year Report's Top LP Vinyl Albums list, selling 22,600 copies this year so far.

Their report notes that vinyl record sales have increased by 38% from last year, and comprise around 9% of all physical album sales. The Dark Side of the Moon, being a sonic feast, needs to be heard on a decent quality slab of vinyl, so repeat purchases, replacing scratched and crackly copies, have aided sales - although the band are continuing to pick up new fans, and TDSOTM is a great, and commonly selected, starting point for those wishing to explore their catalogue.

To date, the album is believed to have sold in excess of 45 million copies, and is one of the biggest selling albums of all time, along with albums such as Michael Jackson's Thriller, AC/DC's Back in Black, and Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell.