With Christmas Day less than a week away, we know that many of you may be doing better things than surfing your favourite websites (although what those things could be, who knows?!) Rest assured that a normal Brain Damage service will be running throughout the festive period, if you fancy a break from the family and the compulsory overeating!

In the meantime, Matt and all the rest of the Brain Damage team, wish you the compliments of the season, and hope that you have a great 2004! There's going to be plenty going on - so keep checking Brain Damage for all the latest news and other good stuff! Cheers, salut, prost, bottom's up!

A new book was published in Italy, in October this year. Called "Il desiderio dei Pink Floyd" (The Wish Of Pink Floyd), it is written by Stefano Bonagura, an Italian journalist, and is one of a series of books in the publishers "The Story Of Songs" series.

Running at a fairly slender eighty pages, here's the synopsis of what sounds quite an interesting book: "Wish You Were Here is the song for Syd Barrett. Melancholic and solemn, it tells of a lost friend, of the general feeling of absence, of the memory for a leader absent, and of the difficulties of a band that tries to follow up one of the most important albums in rock history - The Dark Side Of The Moon."

Our thanks to Michele Camerin for alerting us to this new book, particularly suited to our many Italian friends who visit this site.

The London-based Evening Standard newspaper reported yesterday that the long-awaited redevelopment of Battersea Power Station. As mentioned previously on these news pages, developer Parkview International bought the power station, immortalized on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album, over ten years ago. Contracts have finally been signed for a £750 million redevelopment. The 38 acre site is scheduled to be completed in 2008 and will include two five-star hotels with more than 1,000 rooms and conference facilities, a theatre/auditorium with up to 4,000 seats, office space and 710 flats.

The massive listed power station itself will be converted into an "entertainment, events, commercial and cultural focus for London", said Parkview owner Victor Hwang.

Further to the addition in the last fews day to this site of the two new French interviews with Storm, we've had the latest update on his condition and recovery. You will be pleased as we were to hear that he is "making steady progress and is in good spirits. These things take time... he's having a steady stream of visitors to keep him on his toes!"

Many of you have emailed us for information and updates, so we hope that this helps ease your concerns. As ever, Storm, our best wishes!