Leaders of the richest economies of the world have been quick to bail out the banks. The total of bank bailouts to date is $18 trillion. Yet pledges of aid to developing countries are now under threat as some of these countries slash their aid budgets.

In an open letter in The Times and The Guardian today, high profile personalities (including Peter Gabriel, Sir Roger Moore, Dustin Hoffman, and David Gilmour) and businessmen and women called on G8 leaders not to renege on their promises of aid to developing countries and announced the launch of their fundraising appeal, which, along with ActionAids around the world, aims to raise £54 million over three years.

Click here to read the open letter in full, and visit actionaid.org.uk/nogoingback for more details of the campaign, and to make a donation.

This evening (July 4th) attendees of Jeff Beck's sold out show at London's Royal Albert Hall received a little extra treat for the first of the encores... the appearance of none other than David Gilmour.

With David's guest slot being a closely guarded secret, the audience were shocked when he strolled out, ready to play the first of two songs with Jeff. Some of them knew something was up, when they spotted someone (Phil Taylor) uncovering some additional amps and moving them into position to the side of where Jeff had been performing during the evening. With David picking up the original black Strat, the band continued the instrumental theme which ran the length of the show, playing an extended version of "Jerusalem", William Blake's poem that became a hymn.

Then, giving a much needed bit of interaction with the audience, "Hi Ho Silver Lining", arguably Jeff's best known song and always a crowd favourite - this time, with David singing and taking lead guitar duties! Both songs had the crowd on their feet and eager for more.

Of course, some of you will recall that they appeared together previously at the Royal Albert Hall - back on April 1st 2004, when they both participated in the Teenage Cancer Trust concert...

Update, July 5th: If you want to see and hear some of David's performance, unsurprisingly you can currently catch both songs on YouTube:

• JERUSALEM (version 1)
• JERUSALEM (version 2; better sound but behind David)
• HI HO SILVER LINING (version 1)
• HI HO SILVER LINING (version 2; better sound but behind David)

Under the heading, "My moon-landing jam session", David Gilmour talks at length in today's Guardian (UK) newspaper of Pink Floyd's atmospheric tune "Moonhead", performed live on July 20th 1969 in a BBC TV studio.

In the article (also online), David notes that "there was a panel of scientists on one side of the studio, with us on the other. The programming was a little looser in those days, and if a producer of a late-night programme felt like it, they would do something a bit off the wall. Funnily enough I've never really heard it since, but it is on YouTube [see below]. They were broadcasting the moon landing and they thought that to provide a bit of a break they would show us jamming. It was only about five minutes long. The song was called Moonhead - it's a nice, atmospheric, spacey, 12-bar blues.

"I also remember at the time being in my flat in London, gazing up at the moon, and thinking, "There are actually people standing up there right now." It brought it home to me powerfully, that you could be looking up at the moon and there would be people standing on it".

In the article, printed in a special issue of the newspaper's G2 supplement ('Mission To The Moon: 40 Years On'), he also noted that "it was fantastic to be thinking that we were in there making up a piece of music, while the astronauts were standing on the moon. It doesn't seem conceivable that that would happen on the BBC nowadays".

The Goodwood Festival Of Speed is a must-attend annual celebration of motor racing held in Sussex on an Earl's estate. Gathering cars (and bikes), drivers, and enthusiasts from all over the world, the event celebrates motor racing from the very early days, through to the very latest F1 cars. It is held in the grounds of Lord March's estate, near Chichester, Sussex, in the south of England, and has static displays, demonstration runs, and timed runs, up the hill past Goodwood House.

Nick Mason is a regular each year, having driven a range of classic cars from his and other's collections. At this year's event - being held this weekend (from July 3rd to 5th) - he will be taking the wheel of an Auto Union D-type - an incredibly rare classic, Grand Prix winning racing car from 1939, which should excite many of the petrolheads in the 150,000-strong crowd! Last year, he took another, earlier D-type up the hill [click thumbnail, left], and he remarked that it was "fairly good for an old banger!"