Well, it's that time of year when would like to take this opportunity to thank you all so much for your support and kindness - the site is done purely for you, and as the current version of the site alone approaches 100 million visitors (with the previous version of the site reaching an additional 21 million visitor), we look forward to continuing to bring you news and information from the Floydian world!

Whatever your plans for Christmas, the Holidays, and the New Year we hope you have a peaceful, happy and healthy time, and here's to 2024! Roger Waters has finished tour his striking This Is Not A Drill, for now at least, and as he mentioned at the Palladium in October, he has written his memoirs. Will we see those next year - and will he release any new material, a live recording from the TINAD tour, or even perform more shows? As we now know, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets head out on the road again after such a superb 2022/2023 tour, with six dates just announced for July 2024, in Italy. Hopefully there will be some gigs elsewhere too! As for David Gilmour, there's just been a number of pictures posted of him in a studio, which bodes well for the potential of something from him. And, as we know from previous years, there's also often the odd surprise here and there as well, so who knows - it could be another busy year!

Talking of Nick Mason - he is hosting another open weekend at his home in Corsham, Wiltshire, to raise vital funds for The Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust and Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Being held on Saturday 8th June & Sunday 9th June, the day offers a fabulous day out for the whole family: gardens to meander through, Nick's outstanding classic and super cars on show, farm animals to visit, live music (NOT Nick playing though!), children's entertainment, face painting, a bouncy castle plus more, a fantastic array of stalls to browse and shop - such as plant stalls, clothing, homeware, local food and wine products, a selection of food stalls from BBQ to Smoked Salmon. Tea, coffee and cakes are available throughout the day. Dogs are allowed but must be kept on leads. Tickets for this can be bought through this link, now. They tend to sell out so we urge you to buy them soon to avoid disappointment.

For those near the Leicester area of England, the UK's National Space Centre (which is located in the city) is hosting the fulldome planetarium show of The Dark Side Of The Moon, on January 20th, 2024. With full 360 degree visuals, and the latest audio remastering being used, it promises to be a great evening. Tickets for the two performances that evening (7pm and 8:30pm) can be bought through this direct link which also gives more information about the event, along with pictures of how it might look.

Finally, there's an item interest which should help you tick away the moments that make up what may otherwise be dull days over the holiday period! It does rely on you having access to Netflix though. The recently released - and excellent - documentary Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) which is available on Blu-ray and DVD, has also just been made available for all subscribers on Netflix through this link.

Some (hopefully) great news for our friends in Italy - an early Christmas present? Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets have just revealed that they are coming to your country for a string of concerts in July 2024!

Details of the dates and venues are below. Tickets for these six shows go on sale TOMORROW (Thursday, December 21st) at 11am local time (10am UK), through TicketOne and we anticipate that they will sell very quickly. One of the venues (Milan) they've performed in before, another - Vicenza - was the scene exactly one year earlier than the newly announced date, when an incoming bad storm caused the last minute cancellation of the open-air gig, just as the band were ready to head on stage. There's also some beautiful looking venues new to the Saucers.

Obviously, should further dates be announced for elsewhere, we'll let you know - so there's NO need to email us asking if they'll be playing in your local town or city, or have any plans to play particular countries. We get asked this an awful lot. If it's not showing below, we have no idea!

We also don't yet know if there will be any changes to the set list, or anything else. Due to the incredible reaction that Echoes received over the last couple of years, it is likely (although not guaranteed, of course) that they will include this during the show. We'll all have to wait and see what they decide to play!

Here are the dates, with the venue for Rome still to be advised:

• 18 July - Teatro Arcimboldi, Milan, Italy - TICKETS
• 19 July - Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy - TICKETS
• 20 July - Sequoie Music Park, Bologna, Italy - TICKETS
• 22 July - Rome, Italy (venue TBA) - TICKETS
• 23 July - Belvedere San Leucio, Caserta, Italy - TICKETS
• 24 July - Teatro al Castello, Roccella Ionica, Italy - TICKETS

In its 25th year, Stagehand, the original live event production workers charity, is running the third of its Christmas fundraisers, #ILoveLive3. This year's campaign recognises the immense challenges faced by the live event production industry and aims to provide crucial support to UK-based touring and festival crews dealing with serious physical or mental ill health.

As ever, the fundraiser includes items from big names in music, from signed set lists to drum skins. Jonathan Higgs, frontman of art rock band Everything Everything, emphasised the crucial role crew members play in touring activities, stating, "Our crew are a vital part of our touring activities; we couldn't do it without them. I'd encourage all live music fans to get involved and give back to the people behind the scenes." Lighting Designer Tom Campbell of MIRRAD, who has worked with an array of high-profile bands, said that "research has found that touring professionals are 5-10 times more likely than the general population to experience mental health challenges, facing industry-specific challenges such as irregular sleep patterns, performance pressures, and demanding travel schedules: all of which contribute to the vulnerability of touring personnel to serious mental health issues."

#ILoveLive3 runs through Crowdfunder with tickets priced at £5 to remain accessible to all music fans. The prize draw is scheduled for Friday, January 5th 2024, when winners will be announced. Entries will close on Friday, December 22nd. The Pink Floyd poster in this prize draw is an original The Wall poster that was designed by cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe for the release of the band's iconic 1979 album of the same name.

Since 1979, the poster has been the personal property of the band's one-time live sound engineer Bryan Grant, who has now kindly donated it to the Stagehand fundraiser. Bryan was the Managing Director of the legendary company, Britannia Row Productions, the live sound rental business which was founded by Pink Floyd.

You can buy your entry tickets for the next three days, through this direct link at Crowdfunder.co.uk. Good luck!

The incredible musician, songwriter and record producer Phil Manzanera has now announced his memoir, Revolucion to Roxy. The book features over 100 black & white, and colour, photographs looking at his times and adventures with not only Roxy Music but Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, Heroes del Silencio, and much more. There's apparently a lot to interest Floyd fans in the book, with a chapter devoted to 'The Gilmour Years'.

Manzanera met Gilmour when Phil was still at Dulwich College. Phil's brother Eugen was at Cambridge University and met David at gigs. Much later, Manzanera co-produced Gilmour's 2006 album On an Island, and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. Manzanera also co-wrote One Slip from 1987's A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, played on the Rattle That Lock album, and helped bring together the pieces of music which eventually became Pink Floyd's final album, The Endless River, which he was also co-producer for.

Phil: "I've written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who have followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century. We all have different memories of the same events, and these stories are my stories. It's a memoir that spans my 50's childhood in Cuba, Hawaii and Venezuela, when everything seemed in the brightest technicolor, to grey but very cool '60's London and the start of a music career that continues to enrich my life, some 50 years later. Roxy Music is an important part of the story and I will be forever thankful to the doors it opened for me to a global world of music and musical collaborations. But I hope you'll find my family history every bit as fascinating as my music adventures, I'm proud to be related to a Colombian pirate, a spy and and an Italian opera musician."

The book is available in a variety of editions; there's a signed special limited edition book in a clamshell case with a 10 track CD including five unreleased tracks, a Bug Eyes sleep mask, and a Gibson Guitars Firebird V11 guitar badge. This can be ordered from AwayWithMedia.com for delivery in January 2024. Alternatively, you can buy a more standard hardback, paperback, or Amazon Kindle eBook, through the following links - these are all published in March. All purchases made at Amazon after using one of our links make a small but vital contribution toward the site running costs, at no extra cost to yourself, and we really appreciate it! This is because we participate in the Amazon Affiliate program.