Our friends in Denmark have a special opportunity for an unusual, and entertaining, evening. Thomas Ulrik Larsen, a Danish musician, songwriter, teacher and music journalist, is currently touring the country, and armed with his laptop, a show full of photos, video snippets, sound clips, background history, anecdotes and musical analysis he takes audiences on a two hour trip through Dark Side Of The Moon - 40 years old this year.

He tells us that "It's going down really well. I did an 11 show leg before Christmas and I have just begun a new leg of 12 shows finishing in March. There will also be a 'Lost Towns Leg' in the autumn with about 5 shows."

We thought we'd catch up with Thomas to find out more...

How did the lecture tour come about?
I was invited in for a Floyd talk on Danish national TV when Roger Waters performed The Wall in Copenhagen in 2011. It was fun, but the TV medium requires 30 years of history to be compressed into two insightful minutes of speech. A challenge, but also a bit frustrating. I realized that I liked discussing the Floyd – and I felt it was still an important cultural matter. But I longed for more space than the brief TV interview could offer.

Six months later I was asked to fill in on short notice for a local Floyd historian at a library lecture. The event broke the library’s attendance record by 300%, so I figured I was onto something...

In November, Nick Mason popped into a London studio to do a quick bit of drumming for Sonic Reality.

The clip below shows Dave Kerzner of Sonic Reality with Nick, and also Alan Parsons. Dave's "Squids Travels" blog gives more details, but in a nutshell, it sounds like they are producing drum samples. "We recorded Nick in England with Alan Parsons as our engineer and me producing the session. Alan originally recorded Dark Side of the Moon with Floyd and he and Nick haven't worked together like that since the mid-70s. So everyone was totally psyched (no one more psyched than I though). It's pretty incredible and I'm so grateful to Nick, to Alan, to Guy Pratt and all the people who helped make this possible including Tony Smith, Nick's manager who also happens to manage Phil Collins and Genesis!" Our thanks to Pulse and Spirit for tipping us off about this little bit of activity...

A week ago, on Monday, 14 January, we brought you the news that Analogue Productions, who were responsible for the superb SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, will be issuing a double LP and SACD of Roger Waters' 1992 epic Amused to Death, first released on vinyl in 1992 in a very limited double LP edition.

Analogue Productions have sent out a mailer about it, but have also been in touch with us. They told us that "it will be done in the highest quality possible with a team of Doug Sax and James Guthrie and using the original analog master tapes with vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings". One of the things uppermost in most minds is when we might see the releases. "We do not have an exact release date. At this point, six to 12 months from now is a good guess, though we're hoping it will be closer to six months". For the time being, they have gone for a provisional release date of 15 October, 2013.

The mailer notes that the double LP will be on 200-gram vinyl, and that the SACD will be a stereo hybrid (so, will play on non-SACD capable standard CD players). The Q Sound virtual surround sound will be preserved in its 3D glory for these new editions of what we consider one of Roger's best works. As soon as we have more information on this eagerly anticipated release we will let you know.

As our review from August 2011 notes, Bobby Hassall's "Backstage" is a Pink Floyd book with a difference. From the faux "backstage pass" front cover, the memorabilia-strewn back cover, and the staging schematics just inside the cover, it is a fascinating look at life on the road as he follows Pink Floyd's 1989 Another Lapse tour, Knebworth 1990, and, now in this new edition, the 1994 Division Bell tour in Europe. Initial attempts to jump fences and dodge security to see the shows ended with Hassall being "adopted" by the stage crew and even ending up working with them!

From the outset, Hassall's book draws you in and absorbs. Clearly written by a fan, for fans, the style is conversational and first person in perspective. As each situation presents itself, and the author manages to make each "blag" further into the live show, you feel his sense of astonishment and thrill at his achievements. Part diary, part scrapbook, and part narrative, Hassall brings the reader into each situation and the various elements (including his numerous backstage/operational pictures) all come together well. In addition, Hassall includes some interesting technical drawings and details gleaned from key members of the road crew - such as the lighting rig details, and the make-up of the whole Venice staging operation - that flesh out the book nicely.

The original version of the book found favour with David, Richard and Nick, as Hassall found when he approached the Floyd's then-manager, the late Steve O'Rourke. Whilst orders for the physical paper edition are still being taken directly through the publishers, www.mindheadpublishing.co.uk, an eBook version has now been created for the Amazon Kindle format - and (certainly on the UK store) it can be bought for a bargain price of just £1.92 in the UK, and similarly ridiculous bargain prices elsewhere! Click here to buy from Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon Japan, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, and Amazon Spain. Kindle books can be read on most Apple devices, along with Android devices, via the official (and free) Kindle apps that are available in the respective app stores.