The fantastically-named art gallery Zoltar the Magnificent of Marshal Street, London is presenting the first ever exhibition of photographer Mick Rock's portraits of Syd Barrett.

The photographs of Syd taken between 1969 and 1972 capture the man after his departure from Pink Floyd and "embody the spirit of London long past but not forgotten. Syd Barrett and friend, the photographer Mick Rock, were doubtless ahead of their times and beyond their years" (from announcement). These photographs can also be seen in the book published by Genesis, "Psychedelic Renegades", which we have had a close look at in our reviews section.

This summer Mick travels to Japan for a major retrospective of his work showing at the Tokyo Museum of modern Photography which will go on to tour Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. He then returns to the UK for a series of academic lectures including a forthcoming exhibition of his material at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. The exhibition opens on June 6th and is open every day from 10am to 6pm. It is closed on Sundays.

Vernon Fitch, Floyd author and creator of the Pink Floyd Archives, is publishing a new book on "The Wall". Subtitled "Inside the music, the movie and the stage shows", it is being published by Reynolds and Hearn on September 30th, 2003.

Illustrated with 150 colour photos and unique, never-before-seen artwork by Gerald Scarfe, the project has had full co-operation from the band themselves. Brain Damage have assisted in our own small way, supplying Vernon with copies of information from the recording studio records from the time. Knowing Vernon's eye for detail and accuracy, and the help from the band and Gerald Scarfe, this book should be a real cracker!

As noted earlier this month, the June issue of the UK's long-running Record Collector magazine features a interesting, one-page interview with the ever-entertaining and enlightening Storm Thorgerson, principally about his new book, "Mind Over Matter", an exhaustive history of his work - past, present, and future - with Pink Floyd.

Storm has had the job for many years of designing the majority of their artwork - album covers, promotional materials, etc. This book is superb and deserves to be on all Floyd fans' bookshelves... if you have not yet got it, why not?!

The magazine is available in UK newsagents now, and also includes a review of the Syd Story DVD and the "Remember A Day" film that has finally had a release on DVD (more on that soon), a feature on The Smiths, David Bowie, and a review of Metallica's new album (amongst other things).

XM Live 168 US satellite radio station is rebroadcasting (by popular demand) Echoes - A History Of Pink Floyd parts 1 - 6 on Monday through Saturday this week at 9pm EDT. They are also broadcasting "Pink Floyd 1970" on May 31st at 7pm EDT. Thanks again to Debashish for the heads-up on this.