Back in July, we told you about the new Bryan Ferry studio album, "Olympia", which is to be released on October 25th, and includes musical contributions from the likes of Nile Rodgers, Groove Armada, Scissor Sisters, Flea, Jonny Greenwood, and David Gilmour. It also sees Bryan reunited on record with members of Roxy Music, including Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy Mackay, for the first time since "For Your Pleasure" in 1973.

Named after the area of London where his studio is situated, "Olympia" comes in four different editions, as detailed below (along with ordering details). To get a great taste of the album, you can hear "Song To The Siren" online now, through this site, and after you've given it a listen (and it's a great track - Gilmour's guitar to the fore, alongside that classic Roxy sound), check out this "Making Of Olympia" video, which has just been released, and shows the musicians (including David) in the studio recording "Siren":

A fascinating video has now appeared, showing the before, during and after of the School of Rock students performing in Roger Waters' "The Wall" concert on October 10th at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. Twenty students from the School of Rock's Ashburn, Silver Spring and Vienna locations performed the Children's Chorus from "Another Brick In The Wall."

It's a great "behind-the-scenes" look at the children's incredible experience that night!

Also on YouTube are three of their rehearsals for the show, including the first and final rehearsals.

This week, on October 11th, special "booklet editions" of Syd Barrett's 'The Madcap Laughs', 'Opel', and 'Barrett' have been released.

'Barrett' and 'Madcap' both now have "correct" front and back artwork, as per the original vinyl releases (albeit each with expanded tracklistings - the new editions have, respectively, seven and six bonus tracks each). This of course sees the removal of the original plain EMI back, for an interesting shot from the original cover sessions. 'Opel' has revised rear art, and again six bonus tracks compared to the original CD.

The disc labels now have Harvest logos, ditching the bland EMI labels of the originals, and within the booklets themselves, the artwork has better printing, and the narrative on Syd's career which appeared in the 1993 reissues has been factually corrected, and expanded on where necessary. The masters used for the 2010 editions are the same acclaimed masters done for the 1993 editions.

The albums get US releases on November 9th, 2010. You can order any or all of these now from the Syd Barrett stores at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Canada, France or Germany.

Just a quick reminder for you that Sir Alan Parker, the director of Pink Floyd's The Wall, the 1982 film starring Bob Geldof and based on the group's classic album, will make a rare special appearance at The Space event, held in Brighton, England, this coming Monday (October 18th) at 7:30pm.

Sir Alan Parker is one of Britain’s most successful filmmakers. In a career spanning forty years, he has worked with some of the movie world’s most respected actors, such as Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Nicolas Cage and Gene Hackman. Parker’s notable successes include Fame, The Commitments, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Birdy. Music has been a key theme throughout much of his work, and he has collaborated with Pink Floyd (The Wall), legendary producer Giorgio Moroder (Midnight Express), Madonna and Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita). As an active figure within the British film industry, Parker was a co-founder of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and the UK Film Council, and he is a former Chairman of the British Film Institute.

The event is being held at Brighton's Komedia venue, in the heart of the city and just five minutes walk from the main railway station. Tickets are now on sale through this link. The Space is a monthly music, film and arts event, which features a line-up of highly successful special guest interviewees from the creative industries. Previous guests include Guy Pratt, Glastonbury Festival’s Michael Eavis, EMI A&R boss Nick Gatfield and Jeff Wayne, among many others.