At a public lecture at Birmingham City University on Wednesday, December 11th, BAFTA award-winning film director Ian Emes, will reveal how some of the biggest names in rock and pop – including Pink Floyd – became his muse. In his talk, Ian will revisit the heady period of the 1970s, which was when he first heard a friend play a Pink Floyd record that then inspired him to create a short film – a project that would transform his life.

'Shooting the Moon' is the title of Ian's talk. He will be speaking at CityTalks, a FREE series of public forums, and it takes place on Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, at the University's Parkside Building (part of the City Centre Campus). To register for this free talk visit bcucitytalks.eventbrite.co.uk.

Following the lecture there will be an opportunity to view Ian's 'Time' exhibition. Ian was the first student to study animation at the School of Art, now part of Birmingham City University and within a year of graduating became part of the band's entourage and directed their first animated concert film for The Dark Side of the Moon album (1974), which included the legendary Time sequence. "It was the 1970s. A revolutionary period when anything seemed possible if you had a passion for what you did," said Emes, who went on to work with Paul and Linda McCartney, Mike Oldfield and Duran Duran.

"I hope this lecture and my exhibition will inspire another generation of artists to remain loyal to their passions - and to free themselves from the information overload we have in the modern world. Ian added: “My lecture will be a reflection on the making of the animated film for ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, the experiments and discoveries that sprang from the process and how they are applied to new projects.”

The exhibition runs until Friday, January 17th.

The Broadway version of "The Wall", which has been in development for quite some time now, seems to be getting closer to being realised. Written in part with "Billy Elliot" playwright Lee Hall, Roger's theatrical take on the piece seems to be progressing now that the concert tour of the album has concluded.

Back in June 2012, Boston.com followed up on things to see what the situation was then. Roger: "I did meet [Lee] the last time we were in New York and we had a great dinner together, and he came to the London shows and he's still very enthusiastic and so am I, so I'm sure it's something that will happen, and I think the success of [the North American] arena and ballpark shows can only help the momentum of making something for Broadway." Earlier that year, in January, he told US radio presenter Howard Stern that the book for the production was then on draft number five, and expressed his keenness that it would happen one day.

On NPR.org this week, there's a piece about Roger's use of religious symbolism in his Wall concerts, but at the conclusion of the report, there's a small but significant update. They note that "the Broadway musical version... begins workshops in January". We suspect then that the script is getting closer to a final working version, so for those eager to see just how The Wall will work in this context, with the changes (including humour) that Roger has promised, it might not be quite so long to wait now... Our thanks to Phil Beckett for his help with this story.

The Sound Gallery in High Wycombe, a town to the west of London, is celebrating 40 years of The Dark Side of the Moon in a set of three Linn Playback nights at one the UK's finest audio stores. Over the three nights, the lucky ticket holders (which are available for free!) get to enjoy the whole album on a Linn Exakt music system worth £50,000.

Each night will be highly 'dark side themed' and will bring like minded people together to hear one of the world's greatest selling albums of all time. All the attendees will also get a chance to walk away some great prizes, including three copies of the new 180gram pressing of the album signed and inscribed by the "mad for f**king years" roadie Chris Adamson!

Each of these three prize copies contains a full colour photo of Chris signing the album (as exclusively seen below) as provinance (not that we can see the lucky winners wanting to sell this on), a rare black and white photo of the Pink Floyd football team and a Rock-it cargo sticker.

A limited number of free tickets are available via email request from The Sound Gallery's web site; the nights in question are Monday December 9th, Tuesday December 10th and Wednesday December 11th. The Sound Gallery can be found at 65 Castle Street in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

Just published is the latest issue (number 23 - cover date November 2013) of the Pink Floyd fanzine "Heyou" run by our friends over at the Italian website of the same name.

The 52-page dual language magazine (in Italian and English), which is published every six months or so, catches up with Floyd news from July 2013 through to the cover month. Curiously though, the news is given in reverse order, with the latest first!

There are two major features in this issue. First, there's a large and nicely illustrated feature on the late Storm Thorgerson, followed by a very detailed look at the huge Wall exhibition run by the people behind the Floydseum which took place in Padua, Italy throughout July.

Elsewhere in its pages, there's an extensive look at the band's activities in 1973, and a look at the recent discovery of how and where Eric Fletcher Waters, Roger's father, died during the war. There's also an interview with The Lunatics, the team of devoted Floyd collectors who  published Pink Floyd: Storie e Segreti (Histories and Secrets) a year ago. Questions are asked of their favourite items, the whole world of the Floyd collector, which "side" they fall on (Waters or Gilmour) and what the future holds for them and the book.

More details of the Heyou fanzine can be found at www.heyou.it/fsubscrbd.htm, where you can get individual copies, and subscription enquiries (four issues costing 30 euros within Europe, and 40 euros outside Europe) should go to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - make sure you mention Brain Damage when you write!