It seems that there's a Roger Waters fan amongst the organisers at the Fisht Olympic Stadium, the scene of some events at the upcoming 2014/XXII Olympic Winter Games, in Sochi, Russia.

Our friend Pete Newman is working there, and told us that - during the preparations to get the stadium ready - very frequently he has heard the Berlin 1990 version of Comfortably Numb blasting out of the speakers within the stadium. Presumably this is to test the sound ready for the Opening Ceremony, which takes place on Friday, and also for the various events to be held there. Nice to know though that the organisers know the sort of music to play!

Our thanks to Pete, and now of course, we wonder if any Pink Floyd related items will feature in the Olympic ceremonies, as they did of course in the 2012 London Olympics (including Nick Mason playing the drums in the closing ceremony). In terms of suitable tunes, maybe Terminal Frost to suit the conditions there?

Following the arrival of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour and Roger Waters onto Spotify, with the Floyd catalogue unlocked once one million people had streamed the track Wish You Were Here (it took a lot less time than many expected!) a further piece of the Floyd jigsaw has fallen into place.

The catalogue of Syd Barrett has now arrived on the music streaming platform, to begin a year that will mark the 40th anniversary of the release of double album Syd Barrett, which paired the artist's two hugely influential solo studio albums.

The catalogue now available on Spotify features Barrett's two studio albums, The Madcap Laughs (1970) and Barrett (1970), the rarities album Opel (1988), a 1970 John Peel Session and the 2010 An Introduction To Syd Barrett, which compiles Barrett material, solo and with Pink Floyd.

For more information on the platform, which includes a free (ad-supported) version as well as premium version, visit Spotify.com.

All of us at Brain Damage offer our heartiest best wishes to Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who celebrates the very special occasion of his 70th birthday today, January 27th.

The cornerstone of the band, he had his first drum kit at the tender age of 13. A member of Pink Floyd since the earliest iterations, he is the only one to have appeared on every one of their albums. Thanks to his late father Bill, he has been a "petrol head" from a young boy, and cars have been - and remain - one of his major passions in life. His most recent book, Passion for Speed, is worth checking out, as is the first of a series of DVDs focusing on his cars (with Nick heavily involved). Hopefully more of these DVDs are in the works!

Nick has contributed to a number of magazines on motoring issues over the years (including a fascinating monthly column in Octane Magazine), and four years ago became president of the Guild of Motoring Writers. He is a trustee of the Beaulieu National Motor Museum, and a life member and Guardian of the BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club). He has been involved in motor racing since the early 1970s and has entered Le Mans five times.

Nick - keeping himself busy as ever - has recently been going through some newly discovered unseen footage of the band. He said the black and white clips show himself backstage with band members David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Syd Barrett at some gigs in the late-60s. "There are some unseen bits and pieces. We have got a bit of backstage black and white footage – 8mm film – that we took ourselves."

Many happy returns, Nick - hope you have a great day!

David Gilmour is the latest contributor to A Postcard for Palestine, a campaign which aims to "educate non-involved people into an awareness of the criminal occupation of Palestine by Israel with the collusion of Europe and the USA. A campaign for peace and justice."

This has been seen to be quite a divisive campaign for a number of people, as has been made clear by various reactions to some of the comments made over the last few years by Roger Waters. Going from past experience, we therefore won't enter into any email correspondence over the rights and wrongs of posting information about the campaign - we're simply pointing out David's contribution as we would any other public activities involving the different members of the Floyd.

David's contribution was submitted to them on January 6th, 2014. The organisers are inviting "voluntary submissions of designs on a postcard format, either portrait or landscape. The design could be a drawing, a painting, a photograph, a collage, a print, a poem, a song or any other medium of your choice." The contributions are then used to spread awareness of their campaign. 

For more information on their campaign, and to see other sumbissions made, visit www.apostcardforpalestine.com.