A great video on FranceTV's website covers not just the February 2012 performance of Atom Heart Mother at the Théâtre du Chatelet, but also includes extensive additional material interviewing Ron Geesin about the creation and background to the original recording. You can either view it at FranceTV's website, or simply cast your eyes below...

Our thanks to Jérôme Constant for letting us know about this fascinating video.

Ron Geesin's 'The Flaming Cow: The Making of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother' has been getting very positive feedback from all aspects of the Floyd community. As we've noted before, the book gives Ron's own perspective on the project, and it really is a fantastic read! From Nick Mason's amusing foreword, through the story of how Ron got to know the various members of the Floyd, to co-composing and recording the piece variously known as Epic and The Amazing Pudding, before settling on the title we all know and love, the book reveals all with a great wit and honesty, along with masses of previously unseen photos from the recording sessions.

New online bookstore Wordery.com is offering readers a chance to get their hands on some exclusive photographs from the book The Flaming Cow, including a couple of Pink Floyd in action, and a couple of Ron working in the studio with the Floyd, signed by Ron himself. All you have to do is answer three questions relating to the album, and we were pleased to see that they weren't too simple! Head over to wordery.com/pink_floyd_competition for more information. The competition ends midday (UK) on November 18th 2013.

Other than from the Wordery website, you can also order the book from the various Amazon stores across the world: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Espana and Amazon Italy. For those who prefer the convenience of reading on their Apple iThings, the eBook version is now available to purchase and download from the iTunes Bookstore, at a newly-reduced price - so no better time to snap it up! There are enhancements and extras over the print edition - principally, you can see Ron answering questions submitted by Brain Damage visitors about Atom Heart Mother, in a fascinating two-part video Q&A session, which was conducted by me in Ron's own studio...

Auditioning for Auntie is the unusual title for an upcoming show on the UK's BBC Radio 4, that sounds like an interesting one for Pink Floyd fans.

By way of explanation, "Auntie" (or Auntie Beeb) is an affectionate name used for the British Broadcasting Corporation. The half-hour show, which airs this coming Monday, October 21st, at 4pm UK time, has presenter Pete Paphides delving into the BBC auditions process for aspiring bands in the 1950s and 60s such as the Rolling Stones, Elton John, The Who and Pink Floyd.

Throughout this era, any artist hoping to achieve wider national recognition would try and secure national radio exposure. To do this, they would have to meet the exacting standards of a small but powerful board of assessors within the BBC. Producers and sound engineers of the time remember the sessions and we hear musicians recalling their audition process - including Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator, Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention and Alvin Stardust.

The BBC notes that, "among the artists the BBC wasn't initially convinced about were the Rolling Stones, while the errant behaviour of other groups recording BBC sessions - Pink Floyd, for example - threatened their relationship with the Corporation."

BBC Radio 4 can be heard within the UK, and in many parts of Europe, via FM radio, DAB digital radio, digital cable/satellite TV/Freeview and other similar services, and online. You should also be able to listen to the show once aired via this link and also via the BBC's iPlayer service.

Our thanks to Stuart Barstow for the tip-off about this upcoming programme.

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the screening of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii in Montreal, in its newly restored version. We've just found that there has been a little more to this than we were initially aware of!

Yesterday evening saw the world premiere of some newly discovered additional interview footage with the band, which will be screened again on Monday afternoon (October 14th), at 1pm at the Excentris Fellini, 3536 boulevard St-Laurent in Montreal. Tickets for the showing in two day's time of the 60 minute Le festin des huîtres (Chit Chat with Oysters) can be booked through Nouveaucinema.ca.

"Chit Chat with Oysters is the opposite of Live at Pompeii," summarised director Adrian Maben to the La Presse newspaper. "I shot these pictures with a camera light, just as if it is a family film. We see how the group worked. There are a lot of great, and trivial, conversations. On food. About friendship. On how to avoid conflict in a group. We find a group with a lot of humour. This is the hidden face of Pink Floyd."

On the official website, Adrian talks about the new footage: "In December 1971, Pink Floyd met at the small Europa Sonore studio in Paris to work on the multi track mix of “Live in Pompeii” previously recorded by Charles B. Raucher. Sound effects were added to the original tapes. David Gilmour and Richard Wright overdubbed their voices for Echoes, part I and II. Roger Waters and Nick Mason remained in the control room. In the middle of the day, the roadie Chris Adamson was sent to buy a few dozen oysters and beers at the nearby Brasserie Lorraine. During an improvised lunch the four members of the band answered questions about their music and the schemes they had devised to avoid infighting. They poked fun at the director and at themselves. Their hilarious, off-the-cuff, chit chat was unique because in those days the Floyd rarely talked about themselves to the media. This 16mm black and white film is an authentic portrait of the group as they were a few months before the release of the first version of Live at Pompeii. It’s a miracle that the recently rediscovered rushes are still undamaged. They have never been seen before with the exception of a ten minute sequence previously used for The Director’s Cut. The images were restored and edited with the help and support of the Cinémathèque française."

Our thanks to those who wrote in about this, and in particular to Christophe Ducournau, John McHugh, and Frederic Dufour. If we hear of future screenings, or other opportunities to see this footage, we will of course let you know...