On Friday night, Dark Side Of The Moon - A Photographic Exhibition opened at the Brighton Dome. It's a special celebration of Pink Floyd's first (and quite troubled) attempt at a performance of their best-known album, which took place on January 20th 1972 at the venue.

To start the exhibition in style, photographer Jill Furmanovsky, who took many of the pictures on display, underwent a 30 minute Q&A with an interviewer, taking questions and comments from the audience as well. Some of the attendees were at the original 1972 shows, adding their own thoughts on them. Jill's own story proved quite fascinating, taking pictures at a tender age and falling into professional concert photography almost by chance, by the sound of it.

Choice examples of her pictures of Pink Floyd adorn the various walls in the Founders Room, and the adjacent main bar of the venue - 11 in the bar, and 28 in the Founders Room. Alongside her shots are ones taken by Storm Thorgerson at various points, Tony Collins' wonderful shot of David Gilmour at London's Hyde Park in 1970, Colin Prime's 1967 Ruskin Park group shot, and one of Mick Rock's pictures of Syd outside his Earls Court flat. Particular favourites for me included a pair of 1972 Brighton shots with Roger hammering away at his gong, some of the 1974 backstage/soundcheck shots, and the terrific picture of all the band at the Live 8 rehearsals (a tantalising single glimpse of this historic practice session). The pictures below show Jill during the Q&A, along with some of the opening evening's attendees studying the walls...

The exhibition runs until March 20th, at the Founders Room at the Dome, and is open between 10am - 5pm on Tuesday through to Sunday, each week. Admission is free.

Yesterday morning, with no advance notice save for a throw-away comment at the end of the previous day's show that he might be appearing, Roger Waters turned up for US "shock-jock" Howard Stern's daily radio show on SiriusXM, and spent around an hour talking about a vast range of subjects, and also confirmed the Yankee Stadium show on July 6th. Presale tickets for this go on sale on Monday, with general sale starting one week later.

With Roger in a clearly relaxed and happy mood (and as he said, wired due to the coffee he'd downed far earlier than he normally would!) the interview proved a fascinating affair. You can read a summary of the chat here; Roger talked about everything from his childhood days, learning the guitar, his marriage on Saturday (January 14th) to Laurie (congrats to you both!), through to entensive discussion on his music - both as part of the Floyd, and his solo career. "We were a cracking team when we were younger...from '68 to 'Dark Side of the Moon' we were a tightly-knit group. [Dark Side of the Moon] was the first time we started making any cash." He even mentions the long running saga of The Wall On Broadway, noting that it is now on draft number five but clearly still hopeful that it would happen.

Our thanks to everyone who helped out with information on this interview, which you can hear through this Youtube video:

At Dreweatt's Clifton auction room on January 24th, a collection of rare music photographs is being sold on behalf of Amnesty International.

The pictures all come from the collection of renouned photographer David Redfern, many of which are signed by him. Included in the sale is the famous shot of Mick Jagger wearing that 'white dress' costume at the now legendary 1969 Hyde Park concert, two pictures of the first Pink Floyd line-up (with Syd Barrett) along with one later shot of the band, rare photos of David Bowie and an unusual picture of Count Basie lighting Princess Margaret's cigarette. In total, there are around 30 lots, with estimates ranging from £40-150 each lot.

Colin Richardson from Books for Amnesty Bristol, who knew David back in the 60s, said: "As the bookshop runs entirely on donations, it was particularly exciting to receive such a magnanimous one from David. This is a rare opportunity to buy some very sought after photographs by one of the most important music photographers of our time. We are hopeful that most, if not all, of the lots will sell, as the estimates are a fraction of their true value."

The auction takes place at 10.30am on Tuesday, January 24th at the Apsley Road, Clifton saleroom room. Viewing days are Saturday 21st, Monday 23rd and the morning of the sale. More details at DNFA.com, and the direct link to the catalogue itself is here.

UPDATE: We now know that it is FIVE rare Pink Floyd images up for auction, which you can see below:

The Dominion Post in New Zealand reports that Nick Mason will be the guest of honour at a vintage car rally event at the Manfeild circuit in Feilding, a town near Palmerston North on the North Island of NZ later this month.

His appearance takes place on January 21st, where he will drive a rare 1934 Alfa Romeo GT and a V8 Gulf-GT40 Ford in two races - the Manfeild Pomeroy Event - that form part of the New Zealand International Vintage Car Rally which begins in Whanganui on January 17th.

Manfeild chief executive Heather Verry said the rally was expected to attract more than 30,000 people, and will boost the local economy by around $12 million. More details can be found at vccrally2012.co.nz.