This afternoon, Pink Floyd's Facebook page and their website have confirmed the news that broke over the weekend of the forthcoming new album.

They state: "Pink Floyd can confirm that they are releasing a new album The Endless River in October 2014. It is an album of mainly ambient and instrumental music based on the 1993/4 Division Bell sessions which feature David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. The album is produced by David Gilmour with Phil Manzanera, Youth and recording engineer Andy Jackson. Work is still in progress, but more details to come at the end of the Summer".

Naturally we will endeavour to bring you all the confirmed news about this as quickly as we can. The worldwide response to this has been phenomenal and it is bound to be the highlight of many fans' year. As soon as further details, including pre-ordering links, are available we will let you know.

Today marks the eighth anniversary of Syd Barrett's sad passing away. We're sure that we will all be marking the day with our memories and thoughts of Syd, in our own special way.

Roger Keith Barrett was born in Glisson Road, Cambridge, on January 6th, 1946. From an early age, he displayed a musical and artistic nature, and played the ukelele, banjo and piano - indeed, he won a prize for a piano duet at the tender age of seven. He then took up the guitar. As he built on his guitar skills, his exploration of music in all its forms took him to the Riverside Jazz Club, where legend has it that the drummer - one Sid Barrett - nicknamed the young Roger "Syd", a name which stuck.

With his growing prowess, he played in various bands in Cambridge and London - bands such as Geoff Mott and The Mottoes, Those Without, The Hollerin' Blues, The Spectrum Five, Leonard's Lodgers, and then, in 1965, The Pink Floyd were formed. The Floyd toured extensively between 1965 - 1967, in a punishing schedule which saw them even play more than one country some evenings! The band's first album, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, was also recorded during this period, as were Syd's contributions to the second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets.

He left the band at the start of 1968, and pursued a solo career. Two main albums came out of this fragile period - The Madcap Laughs, and Barrett (both 1970). Other solo albums were to follow, taken from various sessions recorded between 1969 - 1971.

Roger Barrett retired from the public eye, choosing to live out the remainder of his life in his mother's house, even after her death in 1991. He contented himself with painting, and reportedly wrote a book about the history of art, for his own amusement (with no intention of publishing).

He will continue to live on in the hearts of his friends, family, and his many fans across the world.

To celebrate the creative life of one of England's greatest, Rocket 88 are giving a madcap 50% discount on their much celebrated book 'Barrett: The Definitive Visual Companion To The Life Of Syd Barrett' which as you'll see from our review, we thought was an absolutely essential purchase for any fan of early Pink Floyd and in particular, Syd himself.

The offer starts now but don't hesitate as the window is only open for 72 hours. The Signature Edition is on sale at £150 and the Classic Edition is just £35.

So grab the book that critics have described as "...a sensation. The most amazing coffee table book in years" and "beautifully packaged, eruditely written and full of insight, Barrett feels like the ultimate work of art", "the printing, binding and full colour reproduction are sumptuous and immaculate, and the whole presentation subscribes to the concept of the book as a work of art in itself. Plainly Barrett is an essential object for the Syd obsessive."

To take advantage of this offer visit: www.barrettbook.com/madcap.

Tweeted on Polly Samson's Twitter feed is the rather unexpected but incredibly welcome news of a new Pink Floyd album. She revealed that it is called "The Endless River" and is based on sessions recorded in 1994 - which were for The Division Bell.

She also notes that it "is Rick Wright's swansong and very beautiful". The singer Durga McBroom-Hudson also expands on this, by stating the recent picture of David Gilmour in the studio with her (Durga), along with Sarah Brown and Louise Clare Marshall was not in actual fact from the recording sessions of David's new work, but from the sessions working on completing The Endless River (although this is not confirmed).

There were a number of comments from people concerning the lack of any outtakes in The Division Bell 20th anniversary boxset (particularly as the existence of some instrumental recordings - commonly known as The Big Spliff - has been known for many years and has moved into the stuff of legend and the odd dodgy download). Clearly, it seems, plans had been afoot for a standalone release for some time, which should please those who are only after these recordings so they don't have to buy a full box set just for this CD. Needless to say, this should prove incredibly popular and we expect demand to be very high.

More details, including ordering details and more, to come as soon as we have them.

UPDATE, 6th July: In today's The Sun on Sunday UK newspaper, under the tagline of 'Pigs Fly Again', is a report on the new album. Whilst none of their information is confirmed, and seems to come from an unnamed "source close to the project", there are some interesting updates. Included in the report they note that David and Nick have been working on this in the studio over the past six months, and that the material (sitting in a vault in London's Abbey Road Studios) has "been a joy for [them] to rediscover". They also make the point that Roger Waters is not involved in the project - a question we've had from a number of you. A spokesman for the band also stresses that there will be no accompanying live tour, although these last two points won't come as a surprise to many of you.