With the Northern Hemisphere ski season just beginning in a number of countries, a new, officially licensed set of skis - which have gone on sale today - will bring the Dark Side to all that white stuff on the slopes!

IcelanticSkis have created their Limited Edition Icelantic X Pink Floyd Nomad 105 collaboration - and the skis look great. Icelantic note that the skis "feature George Hardie and British design group Hipgnosis' original sketches on the tails, and the now iconic prism/colour beam image on the tips of Icelantic's top-selling freeride tool, the Nomad 105. Our Design Director has re-imagined the beams to reflect off the edges of the skis and cascade toward each other, creating a relationship between concept and final artwork."

As you'll see from the video below, the skis are handmade (in Denver, Colorado, USA) and come with a three year warranty. They come in five lengths and can be ordered now. However, as they are a limited edition, if you DO want to snap up a pair, we suggest you don't leave it too long!

Pink Floyd book author and friend of Brain Damage, Ian Priston, also collaborates on a podcast - Fingal's Cave - that has a focus on more in-depth subjects related to the band.

He has just published an extensive and exclusive interview with Rosemary Breen, Syd Barrett's sister - the person who knew Syd/Roger the best. It's a fascinating glimpse into Barrett, and you can watch it in full here:

Happy Halloween to you all! Regulars to Brain Damage over the years will know that our friend Joe Ringus is a hugely talented pumpkin artist, and each year crafts a Pink Floyd themed pumpkin for Halloween (which is celebrated by many, principally this evening, but in a number of places it covers a number of days).

Those regulars will no doubt be as keen as we have been to see if Joe would be continuing the tradition this year, and if so, what design would be picked. The great news is that Joe has been hard at work yet again, and has done a lovely job yet again! We're delighted to share his incredible carving with you.

Thanks Joe - we think you've done another superb job! It's a great tradition and we know many of our visitors love to see them.

If there are any other pumpkin artists out there who have created Floyd designs, we'd love to see them.

Just announced is the worldwide release - housed in a 7" gatefold sleeve - of a special edition of Atom Heart Mother, originally sold only in Japan in August 2021. This is a very interesting package celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's pair of concerts at Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, Hakone, Japan - the band's first in that country. This special edition will be available from December 8th, 2023.

The background to the release is this: an original 16mm film of Atom Heart Mother from the 1971 Hakone Aphrodite shows was recently discovered in a fan's garage. A long time was spent digitizing, restoring and remastering, and to mark the 50th anniversary of the '71 Hakone Aphrodite event, a special edition (a two disc set of a CD and Blu-ray) of the Atom Heart Mother album was released in Japan. Now, finally, this enhanced video will be released outside of Japan.

The Blu-ray disc contains the restored footage of Atom Heart Mother, showing the band on stage performing the song, and travelling around Japan, together with some additional bonus footage of Pink Floyd's crew, setting up the show, dealing with issues, etc., which hasn't been seen before.

The pack comes with a 60-page photo book with never-seen-before photos, a reproduction programme, venue map flyer, Osaka show poster and Hakone Aphrodite ticket reprint which all looks great!

ORDERING INFO:
A very nicely put together package - and orders are now possible through a number of retailers. Ordering any item after entering Amazon through our links helps with BD's ongoing running costs as we participate in their affiliate programme, at no extra cost to yourselves, and we really appreciate it: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy. You can also order through HMV.com.

If you want to see a quick comparison of a short part of the footage, comparing the newly restored film with what many of us will have been familiar with for many years, here's something that Sony Music Japan put together in 2021:

Last night, Roger Waters started the latest (and currently final) leg of his This Is Not A Drill tour, with a show at the Arena BRB Mane Garrincha, Brasilia, Brazil.

The previous show of the tour - in Manchester, England, in June - was the final outing of the "in the round" staging, so the crowd were keen to see how the show would alter for these stadium shows. There's now a much more traditional screen on stage - albeit pretty huge - along with some other bits and pieces to keep the fans entertained.

If you want to know more about the new show - and see a video of the start of the second half of the show, which explains why Roger looks the way he does in the picture to the right - please visit the Brasilia, Brazil show page for more information on the setlist and events as we get to hear them, or click on the thumbnail.

Roger, the band, and crew now travel to Rio de Janeiro for the next show on the tour schedule... If you are going to any of these concerts, please get in touch!

Warren Dosanjh, a school friend of Syd Barrett, and the manager of the early Barrett band Those Without, is selling some of his framed and glazed posters and other ephemera through the Cambridge based auction house Cheffins. Cheffins Auctions were the people who sold Barrett's possessions after his death, on behalf of his family, so it is no real surprise they are being used again.

The auction is being held this Thursday, October 26th, under the sale title Art and Design October 2023. You can view the details of each of the lots, on page 50-51 of Cheffins catalogue for this auction, which can be viewed through this link or by clicking the thumbnail of the auction pages below:

Most of the items are from exhibitions to do with Syd, held after his death. The first is a City Wakes poster (from the Syd celebration in Cambridge) signed by Storm Thorgerson and Rosemary Breen (Syd's sister), together with assorted ephemera relating to the exhibition, a facsimile poster of the BBC Cambridgeshire and Anglia Ruskin University invitation to the unveiling of a Blue Plaque in memory of Syd; a Royal Mail Syd Barrett first day cover, numbered 658 of 3000; a copy of Melody Maker from August 1967 featuring Syd on the cover and other Syd related ephemera.

There's a VIP invitation poster for 'Syd Barrett: A Celebration' at the Cambridge Corn Exchange from October 2016 , featuring an unveiling of public commemorative art followed by a celebratory concert and music from Men on the Border together with the Sandviken Symphony Orchestra and lights by Peter Wynne-Willson, interpreting the music of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, at the venue where Barrett performed his last ever concert in 1972.

There's a Royal Mail limited edition, numbered giclée print of the Wish You Were Here stamp, and a poster from the Their Mortal Remains exhibition in Rome, Italy.

The most unusual lot though is from a gig at the Cambridge Corn Exchange that Syd played in with a support band, The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band. This comes with a live recording CD of the band which had Syd on guitar, and a CD of Hawkwind on the same evening. Potentially this is the only remaining example of this poster in existence. We suspect the estimate of £500-1000 will be shown to be very pessimistic...