We are pleased to be able to bring you the first review of Roger Waters' long-awaited opera, Ca Ira, having been fully absorbed into the piece over the last three weeks or so. The former Pink Floyd frontman (who recently appeared with them again at the Live 8 concert) has enlisted the mighty vocal talents of Bryn Terfel, Paul Groves and Ying Huang to help tell the story of the French Revolution.

Further to the news at the start of the month (August 1st), concerning the publication of the only official Live 8 book, we have now had official confirmation of the US and Canadian editions of the book.

Published by Century Books, it will be hitting the stores in those countries on September 27th, and again, a reasonable percentage of the proceeds go to the charity behind the event. The European edition is already out, arriving less than a month after the concerts themselves.

Further to our previous news story concerning HiWatt's claims on the equipment that David Gilmour apparently used at Live 8, we were contacted by Phil Taylor last night.

Phil, who has worked with Pink Floyd for 30 years and is David Gilmour's right hand man, has amongst his other jobs, responsibility for the day-to-day running of Astoria, David's studio houseboat which resides on the River Thames.

Interest continues to grow over a forthcoming album playing tribute to Pink Floyd's The Wall. Amongst the artists on "Back Against the Wall" are Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, the Doors' Robby Krieger, Yes' Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire and Steve Howe. The full list of participants can be found on our May 30th news story.