Just opened yesterday is The Birth of Rhythm and Blues, an exhibition at the Stables Gallery in Twickenham, south-west of London, England, celebrating the fantastic musical heritage of Eel Pie Island. It features rock giants like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Pink Floyd via photographs, artwork, music and other memorabilia from the Island's heyday.

Curated by Michelle Whitby, a long-term resident of the island and author of the book 'Eel Pie Island', along with Twickenham's contemporary Eel Pie Club and local arts and education charity Aurora Metro, it runs until September 29th, 2013. It brings together physical remnants of the times along with accounts of the musicians and club-goers, from the vitality of the late 50s Jazz era, to the explosive energy of the R & B and Rock 'n' Roll packed 60s. The exhibition traces the story of how 'Eelpiland' came into being, the history of the hotel and the dance hall, and the political and social significance of Arthur Chisnall's music club for young people.

Many of the exhibits have never been shown in public to date, with many former musicians and club-goers coming forward with memorabilia from 'Eelpiland Passports' and gig listing cards to articles and photographs. As yet, we don't know the extent of the Pink Floyd materials on show but hope to discover this soon. It is free entry, and open from Tuesday to Saturday between 1pm to 5.30pm, and on Sundays and Bank Holidays between 2pm to 5.30pm. More information and directions to the venue here. Our thanks to Jason Pyke for the info.

On the official Roger Waters Facebook page, an open letter has just been posted by Roger, responding to criticisms over - in particular - the use of the Star of David on the pig at the recent Wall concert in Werchter, Belgium. We've had a lot of emails and comments about this, so for Roger's viewpoint, here's his letter in full:

There has been some comment on the Internet about the Wall Show in Belgium to which I feel I should respond.

One Alon Onfus Asif, an Israeli living in Belgium, came to The Wall show in Belgium last week and being an observant sort of chap Alon noticed a Star of David on the Pig that is destroyed by the audience at the end of the show. Then Alon dutifully videoed our Pig on his phone, posted this video, and alerted Israeli Daily, Yediot Ahronot. This story was duly picked up by the ever watchful Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the entirely predictable resulting rant is attached here:

www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/24/massive-pig-balloon-at-roger-waters-concert-features-star-of-david-video.

Often I can ignore these attacks but Rabbi Cooper’s accusations, are so wild and bigoted they demand a response.

An interesting interview with Pink Floyd from March 4th, 1972 has surfaced, with the band interviewed on INA - the French audiovisual archives (much like the Library of Congress), which stores many clips such as this, which form part of the French media history. Their website has made the interview available to view amongst its extensive online archives. There are translations of the band's answers which are spoken over them, but it's worth a watch not least to see Richard Wright playing Roger Waters' bass guitar, with a cheeky grin, and the band in the studio during the Obscured By Clouds sessions...

As we told you back on July 8th, Gerald Scarfe's exhibition of more than 100 large-format drawings and watercolours opened at the beautiful Kampa Museum in Prague on July 24th 2013 and will run there until October 13th 2013.

Our friend Vlado Marcinek was there for the press conference the day prior to opening (July 23rd) and the fan meeting on the opening day itself, and to the right, and below, exclusively shares his pictures with you. Now, over to Vlado for his report:

First of all, I don't have to say this but I will. Gerald is a true genius, a very kind and friendly person, a true professional and true gentleman. Having spoken to him, he is clearly just that gentleman you know from various of interviews on the internet, on DVDs, and on Youtube (such as the exclusive videos produced for Brain Damage).

During the press conference he explained how he began to draw, who inspired him and told us that The Wall mainly is the reason why he's here in Prague. I asked him about his latest collaboration with Roger on his new The Wall tour and he explained to me the story of how he met him in 1971, how they've become friends and how Roger brought those cassettes with The Wall demo to his house. He also mentioned he meets Roger, David, Nick regularly and they're all friends.

When the press conference was over, he did a TV interview and then kindly took us all through his exhibition and made comments on each of his drawing! So not even I saw the whole exhibition before it's official open, but Gerald himself took me through it! Can you imagine anything more spectacular than a tour with the man himself? :)

The exhibition is all very interesting and inspiring. He told several very interesting stories during both events I didn't know, such as the one when he was portraiting The Beatles and Ringo asked him to draw his picture on one of his actual walls in his house!

He also told us about an American soldier fighting in the Gulf, who wrote to him explaining that his drawings helped him to get through hard times and he had his whole arm tattooed with Gerald's images. He also send him the medal he got, but Gerald sent it back saying he couldn't keep it as he didn't deserve it, as he was not a hero...