After the hugely successful Royal Mail issue of 'Classic Album Covers' in January, Britain's Royal Mail are to make available today (Saturday March 6th - coincidentally enough David Gilmour's birthday as well) a special gummed sheet containing ten of the First Class Division Bell stamps only.

Similar to the Classic Albums Souvenir Sheet, the ten Division Bell stamps are perforated for easy usage, while the sheet itself is die-cut to resemble a vinyl disc emerging from an album sleeve. The sheet design also includes an icon from the Division Bell album art, plus an extract of Polly Samson and David Gilmour's lyrics for 'High Hopes'.

The Stamp Sheet is a limited edition, available now from the Official Pink Floyd Store or from the Royal Mail eBay store.

In addition, Royal Mail has announced that, for the first time ever, they will be authorising merchandise featuring a Royal Mail stamp: a Division Bell Stamp t-shirt and tote bag. Available from the Official Pink Floyd Store and selected Royal Mail outlets, the t-shirt and bag highlight the stamp imagery, while the t-shirt includes a frank mark of "Ely, Cambs" (Cambridgeshire), commemorating the place where the album cover was photographed, along with "March 28, 1994" the date of the album's release.

For those of you in the US and Canada, some excellent news - the long-awaited publication by Chicago Review Press of Glenn Povey's superb book, "Echoes - The Complete History of Pink Floyd". To be published on April 1st, 2010, it is an essential book for all Floyd fans - read our review here. It is a beautifully illustrated (over 500 photographs), absorbing look at the band's collective and individual careers from the very earliest pre-Floyd days of 1962, right up to the recent solo concerts from David Gilmour and Roger Waters.

Save 28% off the recommended retail price by buying from Amazon.com, or save 37% through this link to Amazon Canada.

Our very best wishes to David Gilmour today, who will be celebrating his 64th 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.

Many happy returns, David!

The Flaming Lips have announced plans to take their tribute to Pink Floyd - their version of Dark Side Of The Moon - on the road in the US. They've also announced the release date of the physical version of the album, which is currently available as a download from places like Amazon.com and iTunes.

The album, which includes assistance from the likes of Peaches, Henry Rollins, and Stardeath and the White Dwarfs, will be available on vinyl from April 17th, and on CD from May 4th.

Here are the tour dates, for those of you interested. They start off in Texas next week for a pair of shows before launching into the tour proper in mid April: