Just a bit of advance notice for you - particularly those in the UK and Europe, although with the BBC website those further afield may be able to tune in... On Tuesday (September 20th) at 10pm UK, BBC Radio 2 are airing a special, hour-long show called Pink Floyd Live at the BBC.

Hosted by Simon Mayo, the programme will feature music from the original sessions the band did for the radio station. Using the cleaned up master recordings contained within the forthcoming Pink Floyd: The Early Years 1965-1972 box set, it should provide a great preview of the box set which has everything residing in the BBC's vaults.

BBC Radio 2 can be heard in the UK on FM and DAB radio, digital cable, satellite and Freeview, and in selected countries across Europe. It can also be heard via the BBC website live or by using the iPlayer service on demand.

The detailed announcement at the end of July of Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972, the 27-disc box set, and the 2CD highlights package, The Early Years - Cre/ation, had the sort of reaction that we were expecting. Just published on the Floyd's social media channels is a new "unboxing" video, which shows off to great effect some of the great looking contents, along with a suitably interesting soundtrack!

The extensive track listing of the box set, which can be seen in full here, has had many of you poring over the fine detail of what has been unearthed, and included. It is not just the Floyd's vaults which have been plundered for goodies; the box set includes every last bit of band performance that the BBC still have in their vaults, and much work over the course of the last few years has also been undertaken getting hold of video and film from multiple sources around the world. As with any such material, plenty of expertise was required getting everything in a suitable condition for release. Some of the material will be familiar to some of you, but the box set should provide things in better quality than ever seen or heard before.

We've had quite a number of emails and other enquiries about the release, but the main question concerns the video material. This has been inspired by the big differences in price between retailers. There is one international edition of the set/contents, and have had it confirmed that the Blu-ray discs are not region locked, and there is no region coding on the DVDs, which are in NTSC format. The video material will therefore work in machines across the world, which is hopefully good news for many of you, and therefore we suggest you place your order from the cheapest retailer.

Without further ado, here's the video showing the contents, from the band's Facebook page...

ORDERING INFORMATION:
Did the above get you salivating? If so, you can now place your orders for the box set and/or the 2CD highlights collection through these direct links:

It is REALLY worth checking the other Amazon stores, rather than just your local one, as pricing varies hugely; they will ship internationally (international sales might be subject to import duty). Amazon also offer their preorder price guarantee - if the price they offer an item for drops at any point between when you place your order, and the release date, they will automatically charge you the lowest price. Buying through our links will give a small but vital contribution toward all the costs in running this site, and is much appreciated.

Finally, a reminder that the official PF store has started releasing some special products relating to the box set - t-shirts and mugs, for example - and the range of their wares on offer can be seen through this link.

Back in May, we told you about the quite exceptional sounding pair of concert weekends coming up next month, called the Desert Trip festival being held in October at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California (the site of the annual Coachella Festival). The Desert Trip event features a stellar line-up over three days of October 7-9th, and 14-16th (line-up identical both weekends):

• Friday: The Rolling Stones - Bob Dylan and his Band
• Saturday: Paul McCartney - Neil Young and Promise of the Real
• Sunday: Roger Waters - The Who

The initial, major release of tickets for both weekends sold out pretty much instantly, despite the high cost of some of the more premium offerings. The good news for those of you who would still like to go, is that more tickets are being released for sale on Saturday. Tickets, priced at $399 to $1,600 per three-day pass and $199 for single-day admission, sold out in just three hours for both weekends after going on sale on May 9th. Daily attendance will be 75,000, including reserved seat and general admission.

At 1pm PDT on Saturday, Desert Trip will release a limited number of additional reserved seats and general admission passes for both weekends of the festival. Ticket prices for general admission 3-day passes, plus shuttle, are $424 each. Ticket prices for reserved seating 3-day passes range from $699to $1599 each. The new allotment of tickets will be available only online through deserttrip.com. Hotel, ticket and shuttle travel packages are available through valleymusictravel.com.

We hope that there will be filming of these shows to make them available at some point for all of us who will be missing out on a great event, but as yet, have no information on anything like this happening. Should this change, we will let you all know via these pages (we've already had a number of people ask if there will be a DVD/Blu-ray release, or a TV broadcast).

Next weekend, September 17th and 18th, a two-day exhibition celebrating founder member of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, takes place in Italy.

Staged by the Floyd webzine Us And Them, Syd Barrett: Unforgettable Diamond is being held at Teatro Comunale, Viale della Repubblica, in Alessandria. Their exhibition will remember the life and work of Barrett and will tell his story with the words of his friends, along with the thoughts of those for whom Barrett made an impression through his music or art.

Included during the event will be an exhibition of records and memorabilia, video shows and live performances. Doors open to the exhibition at 3:30pm on the first day, and at 5pm the concert performances start, with Lodovico Ellena (ex-Effervescent Elephants) and La Forma Delle Nuvole (with Dario Antonetti founder of The Vegetable Man Project) playing a selection of Syd’s songs.

The second day sees the doors to the exhibition open at 10am; at 5pm a symposium dedicated to Syd begins, with Luciano Cassulo, Giulia Di Nardo-Spies, Stefano Girolami (member of the Lunatics – Pink Floyd Collectors Club), Nino Gatti (another Lunatic, presenting his book "Syd Barrett – Alle Soglie Dell'Alba").