David Gilmour's Blog have just announced David's 2015 European Tour, offering presale tickets for their readership. The pre-sale is open now, although we suspect that tickets will be selling quickly!

They have revealed a total of eight shows across Europe in September, as below. The general sale of tickets starts on Friday morning, and more details of that will follow, but the DG Blog have arranged for a limited number of tickets for each venue/date to be on sale early. The shows are as follows:

• Saturday 12th September 2015: Arena Pula, Croatia
• Monday 14th September 2015: Arena di Verona, Italy
• Tuesday 15th September 2015: Le Mulina Teatro, Florence, Italy
• Thursday 17th September 2015: Théâtre Antique d'Orange, Orange, France
• Saturday 19th September 2015: König-Pilsener-Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
• Wednesday 23rd September 2015: Royal Albert Hall, London, England
• Thursday 24th September 2015: Royal Albert Hall, London, England
• Friday 25th September 2015: Royal Albert Hall, London, England

Full details of ticket prices and box office phone numbers for each venue can be found at the Blog. Alternatively, click the above links for the presales. For the Royal Albert Hall, you need to quote 19005 either over the phone, or online. Ticket restrictions, and booking fees, will apply. They also note that "there are no other dates planned at this time. Further details, concerning personnel and such like, will follow as and when they become available, so please sit tight."

We are in the process of setting up the normal dedicated pages here on Brain Damage for each and every show, initially holding all the pertinent information on the event and the venue, giving ticketing details, addresses, maps and more, and then later, reviews and pictures of each show. These should be live imminently so keep checking back!

Just relaunched electronically via iTunes and Spotify are eleven of Pete Townshend's solo albums, and special remastered CD editions are in the works for release later this year and into 2016.

Townshend has often taken time out of his work with his colleagues in The Who to hone and release solo material, and the deal with UMC/Universal Music covers the following albums: 1972's Who Came First, 1977's Rough Mix, 1980's Empty Glass, 1982's All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, 1983's Scoop, 1985's White City, 1986's Deep End Live, 1987's Another Scoop, 1989's Iron Man: The Musical, 1993's Psychoderelict and 1994's Scoop 3.

For those wondering on the Pink Floyd connection, look no further than the album White City, which features a guest appearance by David Gilmour. The pair got together after bumping into each other whilst David was recording his second solo album, About Face. The White City album toured the year after release, with the band known as Pete Townshend's Deep End. David was part of that live band, so the Deep End Live album also includes his guitar work. There was also a video released of Deep End Live so we hope this is included within the CD edition. On his website, Townshend said: "The reissue programme is still in the planning stages, so what bonus material will be included and what other formats these will be available in are still to be decided."

The releases tie in with The Who's 50th anniversary celebrations, which were slightly dented when the band were forced to postpone two of their London O2 Arena shows in December after frontman Roger Daltrey was ordered to rest his voice. The rescheduled shows now take place next month, and the band will also be playing at the British Summer Time festival at London's Hyde Park on June 26th.

The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) have today revealed the results of their analysis of sales for 2014, and Pink Floyd have made the number seven spot.

The chart aims to accurately capture the popularity of artists across streaming channels, alongside digital and physical album and singles sales.

Taylor Swift was named as the Global Recording Artist of 2014, receiving the annual award honouring the most popular recording artist across music downloads, streaming and physical format sales worldwide. Swift was followed by One Direction and Ed Sheeran.

The top 10 global recording artists 2014 were:

1. Taylor Swift
2. One Direction
3. Ed Sheeran
4. Coldplay
5. AC/DC
6. Michael Jackson
7. Pink Floyd
8. Sam Smith
9. Katy Perry
10. Beyoncé

The independently verified chart includes sales of albums – across digital, CD and vinyl formats; singles, both downloaded and physical; on-demand audio streams and music videos. The chart includes all the music of each artist featured, not just one track or album. It uses track and album equivalents to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams.

Some news from Switzerland, courtesy of Thomas Griesser, reinforces the return to popularity of vinyl, along with the strength of Pink Floyd's enduring classic, The Dark Side Of The Moon, and their recent release, The Endless River.

Swiss Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag asked Musik Hug, a Swiss retailer which sells musical instruments as well as back catalogue and latest release albums, which were the top five selling vinyl albums in 2014?

Here are the results:

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
2. Pink Floyd - The Endless River (2014)
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (1999)
4. Nas - Illmatic (1994)
5. Parov Stelar - The Art Of Sampling (2013)

The strong sales of The Dark Side Of The Moon, some 42 years after release, point to a new generation of fans buying it on vinyl for the first time - along with, of course, those replacing worn out copies!