The new series of the ever-fascinating Rockonteurs podcast by Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt launches today. Each episode has them chatting with a different personality within the music industry, and this week, they have an absorbing interview with David Gilmour, aboard Astoria, his houseboat studio, asking him about the background to the new album, Luck and Strange.

In a first for their podcast, apart from the normal audio download on whatever podcast platform you prefer, they are also sharing a video version of the whole interview:

On the day that Luck and Strange, David Gilmour's superb new album, is released, David and his new band are giving us an extra treat - a look at how rehearsals are going for their tour which begins on September 27th in Rome, Italy.

As you'll see below, if you read this before 5pm UK time on Friday, that's when the live stream starts. What will they play? How much will they allow us to see of the current rehearsals? All will be answered this afternoon when the stream begins!

The combined wishes of all of us on the Brain Damage team, along no doubt with many of you reading this, go to Roger Waters, who celebrates the very special occasion of his 81st birthday today!

Roger was born in Great Bookham, Surrey, in 1943, moving to Cambridge when he was two years old. It was there that he met, and became childhood friends with, a number of key people in the story of Pink Floyd.

Of course, Roger has been extremely busy over recent years, having successfully taken Dark Side Of The Moon on tour in 2006, through to 2008. On completing that, he immediately started work on a new version of The Wall - which finally opened in September 2010. That tour was spectacularly successful, wrapping up in Paris for show number 217 in September 2013. Recordings of that tour turned into the film, shown in cinemas and released on DVD/Blu-ray and as part of a mammoth Super Deluxe Edition.

More recently, he performed his highly acclaimed Us + Them world tour, which was filmed and was shown in cinemas worldwide, with the home release of it on Blu-ray, 2CD, 3LP vinyl and DVD that followed. He also released his latest full solo album, Is This The Life We Really Want? as well as overseeing the release of the late Nick Sedgwick's book about the band, and in particular, the 1974 tour of The Dark Side of the Moon.

2022 saw him back on tour for This Is Not A Drill, originally due to start in 2020 but delayed due to Covid-19, with the stage presentation being "in the round". The powerful presentations, with the unique staging which sees Roger wandering around, addressing attendees on all sides of the arenas, thrilled audiences in many countries with more shows in 2023. One of the shows, in Prague, was broadcast live in cinemas and it would be great if that got a release too.

There's also been the release of the six-song album, The Lockdown Sessions, which gathered together new versions of Mother, Two Suns In The Sunset, Vera, The Gunner's Dream, The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range, and Comfortably Numb 2022. This was followed with Roger's Redux version of The Dark Side Of The Moon, and he presented that in a pair of shows at the legendary London Palladium. At those shows, he narrated extracts from his memoir, which should be published at some point hopefully soon, and also performed a longer version of The Bar which we hear is the subject of his next album.

We hope you have a great day, Roger. Many happy returns!

As we're now in the final quarter of 2024, it's that time of year again...now available to buy is the Official Pink Floyd 2025 Calendar! As with this year's edition, it covers sixteen months, running from September 2024, through to December 2025.

It's a perennial Floyd fan favourite - particularly as a gift at Christmas time. An item which has been produced for many years now, and designed for use hanging on walls, the standardised format is roughly the same size as a vinyl album - roughly 12" (or 30cm) square, with the calendar opening up to have a double page spread per month.

The calendar this year is a celebration of the band's 1975 release, Wish You Were Here - which of course will be celebrating its 50th anniversary - via various images, record sleeves, and suchlike.

The images here show all twelve images (September 2024 to January 2025 seems to be accompanied by the classic album cover shot), along with the front cover.

The calendar each year is often squirrelled away as a collectable for the years to come, and earlier examples are now quite sought after.

ORDERING INFO:
As we participate in their affiliate programme, ordering any item after entering Amazon through our links helps with BD's ongoing running costs, and we really appreciate it. You can order the calendar from Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. You can also order from HMV.com.

In a recent interview with multi-instrumentalist and music producer Rick Beato, Alan Parsons talks at length and in fascinating detail of his work, with an early focus on working with The Beatles, then Pink Floyd, where he was heavily involved with the production of The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Running for almost an hour, it's an interesting watch:

During the summer, Frameless, a 30,000 square-foot venue in the heart of London, hosted Brainstorms: A Great Gig In The Sky. The show blended music and art with the latest neuroscience and technology, in an exploration of how our minds respond to music.

The immersive experience came from Brainstorms, a joint venture between San Francisco-based creative studio Pollen Music Group and Richard Wright Music Limited, bringing to life the results of the Brainstorms research project that took place last autumn.

Driven by a mutual admiration for the beautiful and haunting simplicity of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright’s songwriting, the Brainstorms team themed the experience around the concept behind the iconic Pink Floyd track The Great Gig in the Sky. Visitors travelled through the four main Frameless galleries which each featured stunning sky-themed creative visualisations of the human brain's response to music, from mesmerising cloud formations and mystical auroras to starling murmurations and an eclipse. The whole experience was designed to communicate how people respond to music, while enhancing the listening experience by enveloping individuals inside the songs like never before.

Gala Wright, curator and Artistic director at Brainstorms and daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, said, "The visual representation of brain data provides an accessible and intuitive way to see how a piece of music can be a deeply personal yet also powerfully shared experience. Questioning how this is true for my father's compositions is a key motivation for me bringing this concept to life with Pollen. The added benefit of bringing awareness to his musicality through the Brainstorms project serves to augment his legacy."

To create the visuals for the centrepiece experience, 125 individuals had their brain activity recorded while listening in unparalleled clarity and depth through immersive sound Dolby Atmos to Pink Floyd's The Great Gig in the Sky from The Dark Side of the Moon. The instrumental track, which was the creation of Richard Wright, features Clare Torry’s voice as an instrument in place of lyrics so was deemed a perfect piece for the largest data collection of its kind. The EEG readings of brain activity, which was showcased within the experience, were captured at Dolby by the neuroscience experts within the Pollen Music Group team and reflect the participant’s excitement, interest, relaxation and stress felt whilst listening to the track.

Now, Pollen Music Group are aiming to bring this groundbreaking venture to the US and is seeking partnerships with immersive venues and networking organizations interested in evolving the show for its US debut.

"We're proud to have successfully executed a high-level concept from inception to delivery that was enormously well-received at one of the most prestigious immersive venues in the world," said Richard Warp, Chief Technology Officer at Pollen. "We're excited to partner with visionary venues in the US who can help us realize the full potential of this unique experience."

US-based immersive experience venues interested in hosting Brainstorms in their location can reach out to Pollen directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Once a suitable venue has been arranged, we will update you with dates, tickets and so on, so those in the US can also experience this event.