"He seems tense, suspended. He treads through time and space very gingerly. Thin and pale, with eyes still shocked by it all, he looks like a poet of old. The wasted, ephemeral beauty of a Keats." So wrote Mick Rock of Pink Floyd's founder member, Syd Barrett, in Rolling Stone magazine. The year was 1971 and it would prove to be Syd Barrett's last ever photo shoot, which recently appeared in Mick's "Psychedelic Renegades" book (first as a deluxe limited edition by Genesis Publications, then as a standard edition from Plexus).

As part of Genesis' 35th anniversary celebrations, Mick has hand-selected three portraits from that legendary last session to be reproduced as large-format, hand-signed and numbered, limited edition art prints [click thumbnail to the left] available now exclusively to Genesis subscribers, sales of which will benefit the Syd Barrett Fund.

Along with many around the world, our thoughts are with the family and friends of Richard Wright today, on the anniversary of his extremely sad passing...

October 1st, 2009, sees the publication in France of new book "Pink Floyd Magiciens, alchimistes et milliardaires" [which translates as "Magicians, Alchemists and Billionaires"; click thumbnail to the left to see cover] by author Jean-Michel Oullion. Oullion is a respected music biographer, having written histories of Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen and Moby, and is a self-confessed big fan of Pink Floyd.

The book, written in French, is said to give a full retrospective of the Pink Floyd saga, detailed analysis of all the band's albums and solo excusions, and looks at many of the key personnel who have been instrumental in their story. It also covers some of the trivia relating to the band, such as the asteroid named after them, and the circumstance of the band being banned for life from London's Royal Albert Hall after letting off a cannon during "A Saucerful of Secrets".

More information on this title as we get it; in the meantime, it can be preordered from Amazon France and Amazon Canada. Our thanks to Ddondestan for the info.

Whilst at London's Abbey Road Studios yesterday recording the Bandaged charity album, Nick Mason was grabbed by BBC reporters to find out his views on not just the recording itself, but also the phenomenon of video games such as Rock Band, what the future might hold for Pink Floyd's extensive catalogue, and his views on Irish broadcasting legend Sir Terry Wogan, who announced his retirement from his long-running BBC Radio 2 breakfast show two hours earlier.

"Everyone knows he's incredibly important to broadcasting," Nick said. "It's even more exciting that he's been replaced by Chris Evans - which seems to have driven people into a frenzy of excitement and fury." In a video report on the BBC 10pm News last night, Nick suggested protesting listeners might storm the BBC with pitchforks!