Thursday night, Roger Waters was a surprise guest on stage joining G.E. Smith on stage at The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagasnett, NY, for G.E.'s belated 60th. Accompanying them were Abe Fogle on drums and Jeff Kazee on piano. The performance was captured here:

As reported over at ContactMusic, Nick Mason has been talking about his performance as part of the Olympics Closing Ceremony, and in particular responding to some of the criticism levelled either at Ed Sheeran's decent performance of Wish You Were Here, or at Ed's fans who were new to the song and thought it might have been one of his new songs. [The nice picture to the right is from Ed's Twitter page]

Nick emailed Ed thus, and suggested Ed shared it: "Hi Ed, Really great experience, many thanks for a great performance. And a great day out!

"Following a bit of post show stuff with some of the PF fans getting outraged at people not realising the song was not your new release, I just wanted to go on record to suggest they chill on this.

"As far as I'm concerned what you did was a really great version of the song, and its one of the nicest tributes to have any artist choose to play another's work, particularly an artist whose a great song writer in his own right. Personally I really enjoy re-interpretations of other peoples work, be it Joe Cocker (Little Help...) Jimmy Hendrix (All along the Watchtowers...) or Dub side of the Moon, Eric Pridz or the Scissor Sisters....

"Sooner or later people will work out the origin of the song, and who knows, maybe check out our catalogue, just as hopefully our fans might check out yours. Music doesn't have to be entirely partisan – Or if it does, no one bothered to tell me..."

The Royal Automobile Club is hosting the world's oldest motoring event, the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, on Sunday 4 November 2012. One of those who has taken part in many London to Brighton Veteran Car Runs is club member Nick Mason – fitting in the Car Runs between his Pink Floyd duties. Mason has taken part every year since 1985 and only failed to finish on two occasions. This November he will once again be on the start line in London with the 5-litre Panhard of 1901 vintage owned by his company Ten Tenths Limited.

He said: "My passion for cars and motor racing predates any involvement with music. My father, a director for Shell's documentary film unit, used to take me in his 4 1/2 litre Bentley to the vintage car events he was competing in, and some of my happiest childhood memories include the smell of leather, hot oil and blended racing fuels, accompanying the ticking sound of hot metal."

Mason bought the Panhard to take part in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run following advice from American car enthusiast, Joel Finn. "Big-engined cars from this era are not that common, and the great thing about the Panhard's 5-litre engine is that the car can tackle a steep hill even when loaded to the gunwales with friends, family and mechanics."

After 18 London to Brighton Veteran Car Runs in his 1901 Panhard et Levassor Roi-des-Belges, many of which have been covered here on Brain Damage, Nick Mason has a down-to-earth view of the event. "I suspect I was, like most people, guilty of assuming the run was mainly an excuse for dressing up, but experience has taught me that considerable skill is required to keep these brutes going in a straight line, let alone coaxing the gearbox into surrendering another gear. Entering Madeira Drive in Brighton gives you as great a sense of satisfaction as a chequered flag. It's just a shame that the most important event for veteran cars is held in November. The Panhard's picnic hampers seem rather extraneous on a bitterly cold morning when the wind chill factor makes you extremely glad you're wearing those funny goggles and half a hundredweight of animal pelts."

One hundred and sixteen years since it was first held, this year's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run will feature a maximum entry of 550 pre-1905 vehicles making their way from Hyde Park in London to Madeira Drive, Brighton. The event is part of a weekend Celebration of Motoring that includes the Future Car Challenge (for low energy use vehicles) and the Regent Street Motor Show (celebrating the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries of motoring).

The Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games was titled 'A Symphony of British Music', to celebrate the fact that music has been one of Britain's strongest cultural exports over the last 50 years. Costing £20 million to stage, the artists were paid a token £1 to appear, for contractual purposes. As a side note, the spectacular Opening Ceremony costing £27 million. For the upcoming Paralympics, the ceremonies will cost a combined total of £34 million.

With a cast of 4,100 performers, including 3,880 adult volunteers and 380 schoolchildren from the six London Olympic boroughs, and an estimated worldwide TV audience of one billion people, the production design was by a familiar name: Mark Fisher, responsible for Pink Floyd and Roger Waters stage design over the years, most recently for Roger's The Wall Live tour (using similar technology and design that he created for Pink Floyd's 1980/81 outing for The Wall).

The evening gave a whirlwind tour through some of the highlights of British music, and - as you'll see to the right, and below - as part of the second section of music (once the Parade Of Athletes had taken place), Nick Mason helped bring a Floydian touch to proceedings, drumming on a performance of Wish You Were Here...something that the singer had (in a departure from normal protocol) leaked in advance.