In its 25th year, Stagehand, the original live event production workers charity, is running the third of its Christmas fundraisers, #ILoveLive3. This year's campaign recognises the immense challenges faced by the live event production industry and aims to provide crucial support to UK-based touring and festival crews dealing with serious physical or mental ill health.

As ever, the fundraiser includes items from big names in music, from signed set lists to drum skins. Jonathan Higgs, frontman of art rock band Everything Everything, emphasised the crucial role crew members play in touring activities, stating, "Our crew are a vital part of our touring activities; we couldn't do it without them. I'd encourage all live music fans to get involved and give back to the people behind the scenes." Lighting Designer Tom Campbell of MIRRAD, who has worked with an array of high-profile bands, said that "research has found that touring professionals are 5-10 times more likely than the general population to experience mental health challenges, facing industry-specific challenges such as irregular sleep patterns, performance pressures, and demanding travel schedules: all of which contribute to the vulnerability of touring personnel to serious mental health issues."

#ILoveLive3 runs through Crowdfunder with tickets priced at £5 to remain accessible to all music fans. The prize draw is scheduled for Friday, January 5th 2024, when winners will be announced. Entries will close on Friday, December 22nd. The Pink Floyd poster in this prize draw is an original The Wall poster that was designed by cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe for the release of the band's iconic 1979 album of the same name.

Since 1979, the poster has been the personal property of the band's one-time live sound engineer Bryan Grant, who has now kindly donated it to the Stagehand fundraiser. Bryan was the Managing Director of the legendary company, Britannia Row Productions, the live sound rental business which was founded by Pink Floyd.

You can buy your entry tickets for the next three days, through this direct link at Crowdfunder.co.uk. Good luck!

The incredible musician, songwriter and record producer Phil Manzanera has now announced his memoir, Revolucion to Roxy. The book features over 100 black & white, and colour, photographs looking at his times and adventures with not only Roxy Music but Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, Heroes del Silencio, and much more. There's apparently a lot to interest Floyd fans in the book, with a chapter devoted to 'The Gilmour Years'.

Manzanera met Gilmour when Phil was still at Dulwich College. Phil's brother Eugen was at Cambridge University and met David at gigs. Much later, Manzanera co-produced Gilmour's 2006 album On an Island, and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. Manzanera also co-wrote One Slip from 1987's A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, played on the Rattle That Lock album, and helped bring together the pieces of music which eventually became Pink Floyd's final album, The Endless River, which he was also co-producer for.

Phil: "I've written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who have followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century. We all have different memories of the same events, and these stories are my stories. It's a memoir that spans my 50's childhood in Cuba, Hawaii and Venezuela, when everything seemed in the brightest technicolor, to grey but very cool '60's London and the start of a music career that continues to enrich my life, some 50 years later. Roxy Music is an important part of the story and I will be forever thankful to the doors it opened for me to a global world of music and musical collaborations. But I hope you'll find my family history every bit as fascinating as my music adventures, I'm proud to be related to a Colombian pirate, a spy and and an Italian opera musician."

The book is available in a variety of editions; there's a signed special limited edition book in a clamshell case with a 10 track CD including five unreleased tracks, a Bug Eyes sleep mask, and a Gibson Guitars Firebird V11 guitar badge. This can be ordered from AwayWithMedia.com for delivery in January 2024. Alternatively, you can buy a more standard hardback, paperback, or Amazon Kindle eBook, through the following links - these are all published in March. All purchases made at Amazon after using one of our links make a small but vital contribution toward the site running costs, at no extra cost to yourself, and we really appreciate it! This is because we participate in the Amazon Affiliate program.

Over the last couple of years, and in what could be almost seen as a bit of a Christmas present to the fans, Pink Floyd have quietly released a number of 1973 live recordings on the various streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and also the band's official YouTube channel. The quality is rather variable - by the very nature of the unofficial, audience recordings - but the shows give a fascinating look at the concerts performed at the time of release of The Dark Side Of The Moon.

The 1973 recordings released are listed with dates and venues as per the original bootlegs, and show as:
- March 6th: Kiel Opera House, St Louis
- March 7th: Chicago International Amphitheatre
- March 8th: University of Cincinnati
- March 10th: Kent State University
- March 11th: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
- March 14th: Boston Music Hall
- March 17th: Radio City Music Hall, New York
- May 18th: Earls Court, London
- May 19th: Earls Court, London
- June 17th: Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs
- June 18th: Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City
- June 20th: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia
- June 28th: Sportatorium Hollywood Florida
- October 12th: Olympiahalle Munich
- October 13th: Vienna Stadthalle
- November 4th: Rainbow Theatre (Early Show)
- November 4th: Rainbow Theatre (Late Show)

As with the batches released the last couple of years focused on 1971 and 1972, these are not expected to be around for long, and won't be released physically on CD or LP, so make the most of them over the holiday and new year period before they disappear! Our thanks to those who emailed to let us know about these.

Well, that's it - for now, at least. Roger Waters has now completed his 2022/2023 This Is Not A Drill tour, with his show in Quito, Ecuador, with the South American dates concluding the 56 shows this year, which joined the 43 last year.

The majority of the dates were performed "in the round", which Roger and his band in the centre of auditoriums, with Roger occasionally visiting the different "arms" of the stage structure during the show. For the final, stadium shows, a more conventional staging was employed due to the nature of the venues.

To answer those who HAVEN'T yet emailed us to ask, there aren't any dates currently confirmed for 2024, or any other confirmed activity for Roger. There has been talk about him recording another album, and for those who went to, or heard about, the London Palladium shows in October (which presented his Redux version of The Dark Side Of The Moon) he has been writing his memoirs. He read out three sections on the first night, covering life in Cambridge, Syd Barrett, and a friendly duck... There are no details of when the book will appear but obviously we will let you know once we have details. We're also waiting to hear if there will be a live album/video from the tour released at some point. Again, once we have the confirmed information, we'll let you know.

If any of you went to ANY of the shows over the last two years, and would like to share your views on them, please get in touch. We'd love to include your contributions!