A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a very rare Syd Barrett painting that was coming up for auction.

The painting, titled Orange Dahlias In A Vase, 1961 and signed R. Barrett (Roger being Syd's real first name), which was in the possession of childhood friend Phil Harden, had no problems finding a buyer on May 27th. The Cambridge based Cheffins auction house, who sold the contents of Syd Barrett's home in St Margaret's Square, Cambridge, where he had lived since 1981, after his death in 2006, were running the auction for this incredible piece.

The artwork was created by Barrett when he was just 15 years of age, and was a mix of watercolours and pastels. The auction house explained the provenance: "In 1957, Barrett began his secondary education at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, which aimed to emulate the public-school model. As a student, Barrett was emphatically average and, to most of his teachers, remarkable only in his inability to follow the rules. To Gerald Arthur Clement Harden, the school's art teacher between 1938 and 1971, however, Barrett was a conspicuous and prodigious talent and one of the very few pupils permitted to use Harden's oil paints.

"Painted when Barrett was just 15 years old, the present lot was gifted to Harden by the artist shortly before he left the school and began studying art at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. Although generally perceived as an unmotivated student by most of his tutors, Harden’s support encouraged Barrett to pursue further study in painting and ignited in him a passion for art that would continue to burn until his death in 2006."

There were nine later Barrett artworks sold in the previous Cheffins auction, raising £121,000 to fund local art training. The estimated selling price for this newly revealed artwork was between £3,000 - £5,000 plus buyer's fees.

As we suspected this was a VERY conservative figure. The final hammer price was a lot higher: £22,000, plus a "buyers premium" payable to the auction house of 29.4%, giving a total paid by (we understand) an Italian of what we work out to be around £28,468, plus the cost of getting it back to Italy.

However good an album is, one tends to expect a healthy showing in the charts around the time of release, and then, a gradual drop (or in some cases, a sudden plummet!) down the charts and often out, not to bother the chart again. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule...

Pink Floyd's 1973 opus, The Dark Side Of The Moon, is well known for many reasons, not least for the amount of time it has spent on the album charts in regions around the world. This week though, it has proved itself still capable of springing a surprise! In the Official UK Charts, and specifically in the Rock and Metal Album Chart, it has returned to the top spot!

More than that, it has been joined by four other Floyd releases in the top spots. Here's where the five Pink Floyd albums can be found in this week's Top 30 chart:

#1 - The Dark Side Of The Moon
#5 - Wish You Were Here
#17 - Delicate Sound Of Thunder
#23 - The Wall
#26 - Animals

Quite an impressive showing, especially as four of the five albums in the Top 30 are from the 1970s! We suspect that the success of the Delicate Sound Of Thunder reissue has resulted in fans seeking out older, studio albums to fill essential gaps in their record collections.

As with others with enforced time on their hands, Harry Waters (son of Roger, of course) who most of you will know from things like touring in Roger's band for some fifteen years, has been keeping himself busy.

For those who aren't aware of his own work, Harry has been much in demand both for performing with other musicians (including David Gilmour, Eddie Vedder, Nick Cave and Marianne Faithfull) but for his TV, film and advertisement music. He also has a band with Larry John McNally who a number of you will have seen touring with Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets - indeed, the video below (their latest song, Pompadour) includes some shots of them playing during that tour, with the Saucers staging behind them!

We know that a number of you are keen to explore the work of musicians who have been involved with the members of Pink Floyd (as shown with the feedback for Jon Carin's and Chester Kamen's music when these are released), and with the variety of music that you can find at HarryWaters.com, we're sure you'll have fun exploring it!

The Cambridge based Cheffins auction house, who sold the contents of Syd Barrett's home in St Margaret's Square, Cambridge, where he had lived since 1981, after his death in 2006, is auctioning a very rare artwork by him at the end of this month.

The painting, titled Orange Dahlias In A Vase, 1961 and signed R.Barrett, is currently in the possession of childhood friend Phil Harden, and will be sold off on May 27th. The artwork was created by Barrett when he was just 15 years of age, and was a mix of watercolours and pastels.

There were nine later artworks sold in the previous Cheffins auction, raising £121,000 to fund local art training. The estimated selling price for this newly revealed artwork is between £3,000 - £5,000 plus buyer's fees. We suspect though that this is a VERY conservative figure and expect the final hammer price to be a lot higher.

The auction house explains the provenance: "In 1957, Barrett began his secondary education at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, which aimed to emulate the public-school model. As a student, Barrett was emphatically average and, to most of his teachers, remarkable only in his inability to follow the rules. To Gerald Arthur Clement Harden, the school’s art teacher between 1938 and 1971, however, Barrett was a conspicuous and prodigious talent and one of the very few pupils permitted to use Harden's oil paints.

"Painted when Barrett was just 15 years old, the present lot was gifted to Harden by the artist shortly before he left the school and began studying art at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. Although generally perceived as an unmotivated student by most of his tutors, Harden’s support encouraged Barrett to pursue further study in painting and ignited in him a passion for art that would continue to burn until his death in 2006."

To see the painting in more detail, and for more details of the auction, including how to bid, visit Cheffins.co.uk.