Just a little bit of advance notice for you: we've been advised that Friday evening (December 13th, around 11:59pm GMT) our website hosts are doing a major server move to upgraded premises. There is expected to be a short period, possibly in the region of four hours, when Brain Damage will be unavailable. They promise though things WILL be back to normal after that period, and the site should be running in a more secure, resilient location.

Apologies for any inconvenience this might cause. Hopefully the outage will be minimal!

In 1989, following the Armenian earthquake, the biggest names in rock (including David Gilmour) united to re-record Smoke On The Water under the banner of Rock Aid Armenia. As part of the record promotion, Rock Aid Armenia and the BBC did a live broadcast to the USSR. Millions of people tuned in to hear Ian Gillan, David Gilmour and Bruce Dickinson being interviewed about their role in the Rock Aid Armenia project.

The footage of that BBC broadcast was thought to be long lost, but has recently turned up, and can be seen here:

According to the BBC, over 20 million people tuned in from the USSR. As you'll, the footage includes David explaining why he hadn't asked Ian Gillan to join Pink Floyd "we couldn't afford him", and is asked why Roger Waters left Pink Floyd...

The original 1989 Rock Aid Armenia version of Smoke on the Water was remixed in 2010 and released via iTunes and CD/DVD. The aim was to raise funds to build the music school that had not been properly rebuilt after the 1989 earthquake (it was 25 years ago this month that the quake took place).

Jon Dee, the organiser, told us this weekend that he was "glad to say that a few months ago we finally finished the fundraising and building works and opened the new music school in Gyumri in the earthquake zone - it's big enough to teach 200 kids. The new school looks great (we built it totally from scratch). And every cent that we raised went straight to the school rebuilding programme - not a cent was spent on admin.

"Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi also helped us with the fundraising - they visited the temporary school with me that we knocked down and replaced. Ian also turned up to open the school with me, the President of Armenia and Ara Tadevosyan (my charity partner in Armenia who co-organised the rebuilding with me)."

The promo video and the 2010 remix are still available on iTunes and all money raised from the downloads of this will go towards the new school to pay for instruments and any ongoing repairs. Please visit RockAidArmenia.com for much more about this worthy project, including studio outtakes and photos.

Le Mur a Des Oreilles (The Wall has ears; conversation for Palestine) have just posted a new, exclusive interview with Roger Waters, talking about his music, the political role of artists and his activism for justice around the world, including in Palestine.

The transcript of the interview can be read through this link (it's a PDF file so will need an appropriate reader - most will be fine but if you need something to read the file, visit adobe.com). You can also hear it on demand, below:

In October, we told you about the screening of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii in Montreal, in its newly restored version, along with the bonus of the world premiere of some newly discovered additional interview footage with the band, presented as the 60 minute "Le festin des huîtres" (Chit Chat with Oysters).

"Chit Chat with Oysters is the opposite of Live at Pompeii," summarised director Adrian Maben to the La Presse newspaper. "I shot these pictures with a camera light, just as if it is a family film. We see how the group worked. There are a lot of great, and trivial, conversations. On food. About friendship. On how to avoid conflict in a group. We find a group with a lot of humour. This is the hidden face of Pink Floyd."

On the official website, Adrian talks about the new footage: "In December 1971, Pink Floyd met at the small Europa Sonore studio in Paris to work on the multi track mix of “Live in Pompeii” previously recorded by Charles B. Raucher. Sound effects were added to the original tapes. David Gilmour and Richard Wright overdubbed their voices for Echoes, part I and II. Roger Waters and Nick Mason remained in the control room. In the middle of the day, the roadie Chris Adamson was sent to buy a few dozen oysters and beers at the nearby Brasserie Lorraine. During an improvised lunch the four members of the band answered questions about their music and the schemes they had devised to avoid infighting. They poked fun at the director and at themselves. Their hilarious, off-the-cuff, chit chat was unique because in those days the Floyd rarely talked about themselves to the media. This 16mm black and white film is an authentic portrait of the group as they were a few months before the release of the first version of Live at Pompeii. It’s a miracle that the recently rediscovered rushes are still undamaged. They have never been seen before with the exception of a ten minute sequence previously used for The Director’s Cut. The images were restored and edited with the help and support of the Cinémathèque française."

If you are in or near Paris, France, this weekend, there's a special opportunity to see Chit Chat with Oysters tomorrow. You need to head for the Cinémathèque française on Sunday (December 8th) for the screening at 7pm. Adrian himself will be presenting the footage, and more details of the event, the venue, and ticket purchasing can be found at www.cinematheque.fr.