Regulars to the Brain Damage Facebook page will have seen three teaser videos this week, all relating to a new release coming from the Decca record label, on February 5th, 2016.

Marking over 40 years of Pink Floyd's seminal album Wish You Were Here, Decca are releasing the first ever symphonic reworking of the classic record. The release has an interesting musician line-up, featuring Alice Cooper, Rick Wakeman, the London Orion Orchestra and Stephen McElroy and Dave Fowler from Australian Pink Floyd. Cooper takes on vocal duties on classic tracks such as 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Welcome to the Machine,' with Rick Wakeman on keyboards. Wish You Were Here Symphonic was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the same studios where Pink Floyd recorded the original album.

Wish You Were Here Symphonic will be performed live in London and Birmingham in February (details: livenation.co.uk/artist/symphonic-pink-floyd-tickets), with Frank Dunnery, guitarist from 80s rock band It Bites and long-time collaborator with Robert Plant, playing guitar. More dates are also set to be announced, with international dates and festival appearances on the horizon.

You can pre-order the album through these direct links, to the iTunes store, or Google Play, or if you prefer your music more physical than a download, you can order through these direct links too: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy.

Finally, here's a taster of the album:

Shortly before Christmas, a rectangular black box arrived in the mail. Pictures can speak volumes, especially in this case. Consider this object a prelude to the much anticipated ‘Super Deluxe Edition’ of The Wall from Roger Waters, due early this year. You will be able to read much more about what is expected here on Brain Damage, as we intend to cover this release in detail.

We know that many of you have decided not to purchase, or not been in a position to place your own order for this very special, but very expensive item, limited to just 3,000 copies, so hopefully our coverage of it will give you an insight into the contents…at present, there are no plans to release any of the items within the SDE that are unique to this release, separately.

Arriving whilst we were dealing with our site being hacked, was the good news that the excellent cover of David Gilmour's most recent album Rattle That Lock, released in September, won the Best Art Vinyl 2015 award.

Rattle That Lock took first place, beating Drenge's Undertow which came second, and Tame Impala's Currents was third. Chosen from 50 records nominated by a panel of highly respected music design experts and previous Best Art Vinyl Award winners, the covers demonstrate a complete range of creative disciplines, including traditional fine art, photography, sculpture and computer graphics.

The concept and production for David's cover was created by The Creative Corporation, art directed by Dave Stansbie in collaboration with Aubrey 'Po' Powell from the legendary Hipgnosis design studio.

David Gilmour said: "I am thrilled that the artwork to Rattle That Lock has received the ArtVinyl award. I'd like to offer my congratulations and thanks to Dave Stansbie and the team at The Creative Corporation for the brilliant work that they have done for me. It's a thrill to see vinyl making a comeback and the return of the opportunities that the larger format offers. Thanks again".

Best Art Vinyl founder Andrew Heeps explained, "This is the first year such an established artist's record has won Best Art Vinyl, but notably the design team have historically been responsible for so many iconic sleeve designs and their talent and creativity to match the musicians' wishes clearly shone through. It's interesting that two of the top three are conceptual compositions, using photography as the core of the design and all three use digital design skills to great effect, showing that designers are using all tools available to them throughout the creative process. We believe this is a unique art prize that really taps into popular culture, as the created artwork is used to not just sell the product but to enhance the listeners' overall experience."

Our congratulations to all involved in the creation of the cover image.

The world awoke this morning to the extremely sad news about David Bowie's passing. He had been ill for some time but lived to see the release of his final album, a farewell known as Blackstar.

His contribution to the arts, and in particular, music since the late 1960s, was immeasurable, and he will be sorely missed. Nick Mason paid his own tributes to Bowie on the UK's Channel 4 news this evening, noting his personal favourite song as Space Oddity.

With a career running in parallel to Pink Floyd, there were some influences in both directions, and of course Bowie covered See Emily Play on his 1973 album Pin Ups. More recently, in 2006, he made a surprise return to the stage in a guest appearance during one of David Gilmour's Royal Albert Hall concerts, performing Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb - as the picture here (kindly sent in by Nick Spekkels) shows.

The iconic nature of Bowie was typified by the Royal Albert Hall staff pouring into the arena as Bowie hit the stage that night, all seemingly in awe of him, and determined not to miss such a rare appearance. Bowie's performance that night was rightly included in the DVD release of Remember That Night.