Our very best wishes, and many happy returns, to David Gilmour today, who will be celebrating his 66th birthday!

Born and raised in Cambridge, David became involved with various bands in the area, principally Jokers Wild who were a popular draw when they played, before joining Pink Floyd in 1968. More recent years have seen David concentrating on his solo career, and helping out chums on their musical projects on an ad hoc basis - most recently, appearing on stage with Phil Manzanera at the legendary Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, with Amadou & Mariam at the Crisis "hidden" charity show, and with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall.

With it being now an incredible six years (time flies!) since the release of his last solo album, On An Island, many people's thoughts are on whether we might see a follow up to that. A little while back, Polly Samson revealed that one of the things she will be working on are some lyrics for David, so we're hopeful that one day that might result in some more new music from him.

In the meantime, as a gift from him (isn't it normally the other way around on birthdays?) David has put his track 'A Pocketful Of Stones' from On An Island available to download (or stream) free from his website for 48 hours. Go to DavidGilmour.com to get this (if indeed you don't already have it).

Bullets and Daffodils, a touring version of Dean Johnson's Wilfred Owen musical, opens this week in the UK. Liverpool icon and satirist John Gorman has written and directed this new version, and amongst the other contributors to the production is David Gilmour. David has granted permission for one of his solo recordings to be used as part of the show’s score.

Dean said, "Mr Gilmour wanted to do everything he could do to help and sanctioned the track There's No Way Out Of Here gratis and waivering the licence and publishing fees, so it was in every sense a donation."

Commenting on what drew him to the project, Mr Gorman said, "Wilfred Owen died a week before the end of the First World War: the war to end all wars. Owen's poems demonstrate the gruesome awfulness that happened to these men through no fault of their own. Dean brings to the foreground the message that the war is not a good thing, which I'm behind 100%."

A special preview of Bullets And Daffodils takes place at Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton on 8 March, and the flyer to the right gives details of where and when you can catch it elsewhere in the UK.

UPDATE: The producers have kindly sent over a video showing the section of the musical which includes David's track:

Just published is the latest issue (number 20) of the Pink Floyd fanzine "Heyou" run by our friends over at the Italian website of the same name.

The 52-page dual language magazine (in Italian and English), which is published every six months or so, catches up with Floyd news from September through to January; they also continue their look at the Why Pink Floyd release programme, including their own review of The Wall's Immersion set. There's an extensive look at the band's activities in 1971, which makes up the lion's share of the magazine.

Elsewhere in its pages, author Bobby Hassall is interviewed concerning his revised and reissued book, "Pink Floyd: Backstage", reviewed here on Brain Damage.

More details can be found at www.heyou.it/fsubscrbd.htm, where you can get individual copies, and subscription enquiries (four issues costing 30 euros within Europe, and 40 euros outside Europe) should go to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - make sure you mention Brain Damage when you write!

A new book, in French, has been published by Sceren looking at the story of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. Written by Philippe Gonin (a guitarist, teacher at the University of Bourgogne, specialist in the history of modern music, and member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music), it is aimed at French music students; Atom Heart Mother is now one of the pieces of music to study on the French A-level syllabus.

From the synopsis, the aim of the book is to "highlight the creative process that led partly to the first performances in early 1970, through to completion of the album, released in October of the same year. It puts it into perspective with the work of Floyd in the 1960s.

"The study of the work is based both on the score of Geesin and on a purely auditory level. We strive to reveal how, in this hybrid work, which nevertheless proved ultimately successful, the merger took place between scholarly and popular music. Using traditional analytical methods and use of research, we highlight some key elements to an overall understanding of this unique work in the course of the group.

"Richly illustrated, the book provides in part unpublished photographs of the Atom Heart Mother recording sessions at Abbey Road. The preface is written by Ron Geesin." With Geesin's contributions, and the rare pictures of the Floyd (supplied by Nick Mason), it certainly sounds an interesting study.

The book can be ordered direct from the publishers, Sceren.com, who ship worldwide. Our thanks to Olivier Bugaud for the info.