As we mentioned back on January 26th, The Idea Generation Gallery (IGG) has announced that an exhibition of Syd Barrett's art and letters will be held in London in spring 2011. There will be associated music, film and talk events. Planning is well underway, and you can register to be kept informed by visiting gallery.ideageneration.co.uk and registering. The organisers hope to announce exact dates by the end of December.

This exhibition of art, photography and letter will be bigger and better than the last "Syd Barrett - The City Wakes" held in Cambridge - not only do the organisers again have the support of Syd's sister, Rosemary, but also they have pledges from several old friends of Syd's and art owners to show previously unseen pieces. They also have pledges to loan two considerable collections of letters.

However, the intention is to mount the most comprehensive display of Syd's work, and also, with the expert input of Will Shutes (assistant editor at "The London Magazine"), to provide some serious art interpretation. There will be twice the gallery space as previously, and will be using more innovative and attractive display techniques as well. This should be a real treat!

They've had some people contact them since our last appeal, but have asked more of you for your help...

Announced this evening is "Barrett", a new book which the publishers describe as "the definite visual companion to the creative work of Roger 'Syd' Barrett". A limited edition, high quality, large-format book, it focuses on the creative life of Syd. It's been authorised by the Syd Barrett Estate and a percentage of the sales from it will go to the Estate.

We've had a special preview of a number of the images to be included, and we are certain that this will be an absolutely essential book for all fans of Syd Barrett and the early Pink Floyd. It's a mesmerizing selection of pictures, not just Syd's artwork and letters (incredible in themselves), but rare photos including live, backstage, and portrait images, and endearing family snapshots – a collection the like of which has not been seen before.

With the Syd Barrett estate benefiting from sales of the book, Floyd fans have every reason to snap this book up!

It will only be available online and through specialist outlets, and is expected to be published in Autumn/Fall 2010, at a projected price of £60. Find out more, and register your interest, at www.BarrettBook.com now.

With the current auction running of a recording session with Jon Carin, renowned producer and musician for the likes of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour, we've had a report from the winner of last year's auction. Our thanks to Mark Owen Nutto [click thumbnail, Mark pictured right] for sharing his experience, which hopefully will inspire other Brain Damage visitors to bid in this year's auction:

"Last year your site posted notice of a charity auction for a recording session with Jon Carin. I just want to let you know that I'm the person who won the auction. Recording with Jon was a blast and it was much more than I expected it to be. Up front, I had a little apprehension, so I'll tell you a few things of my experience that future bidders might find of interest.

For the collectors out there, Pink Floyd's appearance as headliners at the 1990 Knebworth concert is captured on a special Japanese edition, available now.

This set is released by Eagle Records (with a catalogue number of VQCD-10171/2). The CDs are Super High Material CDs (SHM-CD) which are said to give far better performance. The set comes in a box which measures 13 x 19 x 2.8cm. Beside both CDs the box also includes a replica of the ticket (front and back), a scaled-down replica of the programme (48 pages), CD booklet (16 pages) and a Japanese booklet (8 pages). Click the thumbnail to the right to see in more detail.

Unless resident in the country (and we have a few Japanese regulars!) the best way to obtain the set is direct from a retailer in Japan such as Amazon.co.jp or CDJapan who both have this in stock currently. Our thanks to Kees Nijpels for the information, and picture of the set.