In the US and Canada, a second Record Store Day is being celebrated this year, taking place on "Black Friday", November 29th, with a further Pink Floyd vinyl rarity on offer, to go alongside the See Emily Play pink vinyl single released in limited quantities earlier this year during the same promotion.

Many of you will recall that in April, 2010, Sony issued a special 2CD edition of the Zabriskie Point movie soundtrack (a reprint of a 1997 Rhino release that proved very hard to find), which included not just the three Pink Floyd tracks that were on the original vinyl release ("Heartbeat, Pigmeat", "Crumbling Land" and "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up"), but augmented it with a further four tracks, outtakes from the recording sessions. These were "Country Song", "Unknown Song", "Love Scene version 6", and "Love Scene version 4". Certainly worth hearing these additional tracks, which give a flavour of the material recorded during the whole sessions.

This expanded edition is being made available as a 2LP expanded edition for our North American friends in limited numbers on November 29th, purely from participating stores. For those unfamiliar with Record Store Day, it is to encourage people to head to physical outlets for limited edition singles, albums and CDs, offering releases that are unavailable elsewhere. For the full list of participating stores, click here. Having experienced RSD earlier this year, our recommendation is to head for your chosen store(s) very early in the day, and be prepared to stand in line.

For those unable to make it along to a store on the day to try for a copy of this, most if not all RSD releases very quickly arrive on eBay. You can also still get the 2CD set through Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, or Amazon France.

A feast of Floyd is on its way from the UK's BBC Four television channel, straddling next Friday, November 1st, and Saturday, November 2nd.

Whilst none of the shows are new, they are all very much worth watching if you've not seen them, and worth RE-watching if you have! As a non-commercial station, there are no adverts punctuating the shows, which is always a good thing. Here's the schedule in full, all UK times:

• FRI, Nov 1st:
  9pm: Pink Floyd: The Making of Wish You Were Here
  10pm: Pink Floyd: A Delicate Sound of Thunder. New York's Nassau Coliseum in 1989
  11:35pm: A Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005. A collection of great video clips
  This programme runs until 0:35am.
• SAT, Nov 2nd:
  0:35am: Prog at the BBC. Performances from Yes, Genesis, ELP, etc..
  1:35am: Pink Floyd: The Making of Wish You Were Here
  2:35am: A Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005
  This programme runs until 3:35am

So, a couple of chances to catch the Making of WYWH and the Miscellany compilation. BBC Four is available in the UK via Freeview, digital cable and satellite, and certain parts of Europe have sufficiently strong reception to receive their programming too.

Many happy returns to Jon Carin, who today celebrates his birthday (Monday, October 21st).

The talented multi-instrumentalist has been a key part of the Pink Floyd operation since 1985, and more recently toured with David Gilmour on his On An Island tour, and Roger Waters on his Dark Side Of The Moon tour which was followed, of course, by The Wall Live. This saw Jon as a key member of Roger's band for the mammoth tour, which saw the show thrill audiences in North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, with Jon playing keyboards, guitar and more during the show. With the tour now concluded, having performed well in excess of 200 shows, we're sure Jon is enjoying his well-earned rest from the shows and the travel.

For those who might have missed it, or want another chance to read it, check out our extensive and exclusive interview with Jon from August 2007. It's full of fascinating insights into his life and work with various top musicians, including (of course) David, Roger, and Pink Floyd!

Have a great day, Jon!

Many of you will recall Danish musician/rock nerd Thomas Ulrik Larsen touring Denmark at the start of the year, armed with his laptop, and a show full of photos, video snippets, sound clips, background history, anecdotes and musical analysis taking audiences on a two hour trip through Dark Side Of The Moon. The lectures proved really popular, as feedback we received testified.

"Last winter The Dark Side of The Moon was my topic, and I did 25 shows in Denmark. This autumn there will be more Dark Side lectures, but I'm also covering The Wall and even The Final Cut. There's a lot of interest from fans spanning three generations. Those who really want to get to the core of the matter, and for whom a tribute band show doesn't really tell the whole story."

Thomas covers the origin and history of the albums, musical analysis, interpretation, background stuff, and historical and sociological contexts. Thomas lectures at libraries, music venues, cinemas and at special gigs arranged in cooperation with Danish media. August and early September saw him lecturing three times on Dark Side, The Wall and The Final Cut respectively and the rest of the year is already planned:

October 24th: Sofiehøj Friskole (Sofiehoej Private School - The Wall)
October 30th: Lyngby Bibliotek (Lyngby Library – The Dark Side of The Moon)
November 4th.: Greve Bibliotek (Greve Library – The Dark Side of The Moon)
November 5th: Kolding Bibliotekerne (Kolding Library – The Dark Side of The Moon)
November 6th: Tobaksgården, Assens (Music venue - The Dark Side of The Moon)
November 7th: Aksen, Asnæs Bibliotek (Asnaes Library – The Dark Side of The Moon)
November 10th: Biografen i Stege (Stege Movie Theatre - The Wall)
November 12th: Pressen, Politikens Hus (hosted by Danish newspaper Politiken - The Wall)
November 21st: Horsens Bibliotek (Horsens Library – The Dark Side of The Moon)
December 22nd: Wiums Musik Salon (The Final Cut)

Thomas's new album under his alias Lysår (Light Year in Danish) is out now. It is called “Frontfigur på orlov” (Front Man on Leave), and it is available on iTunes.