We recently told you about some new music from respected guitarist Chester Kamen. Amongst many other artists, Chester has toured with Roger Waters, joining his band in 2002 and playing on subsequent tours, and with David Gilmour on his 2016 Rattle That Lock tour. He first played with David back in 1985 during the Live Aid show - David and Chester were both part of Bryan Ferry's band for that show (as was Jon Carin).

Chester has, like many musicians, kept himself busy whilst lockdowns and restrictions due to Covid-19 have called a halt to many things - in particular, live performance. In October, he shared his recently finished new piece of music called Take This, that runs for over 23 minutes. Chester told us that Take This is the first side of an album he is currently working on - following, or inspired by, the old Floyd blueprint of one long piece and several songs on the flip side. Last month saw the first couple of songs on the second side of the album: Brand New Day and Swimming.

Chester has now uploaded the next track on the album to YouTube. It's called I'd Love To Turn You, which is an upbeat, guitar driven song, almost late period Beatles-esque, and once again it features Felix Howard (Roy Harper's son) on bass and backing vocals and Chuck Sabo on drums. We'll update you as he progresses with the rest of the album, as we know from feedback we've had that a good number of you are enjoying the songs revealed so far!

All of us here at Brain Damage offer our very best wishes to Pink Floyd and Saucerful Of Secrets drummer Nick Mason, who celebrates the very special occasion of his birthday today (January 27th). We all hope you are going to have a great day, Nick!

The cornerstone of both bands, 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 DVD of the same name focusing on his Ferrari Enzo car (with Nick heavily involved). Of course, for those who haven't read it, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd is an absolutely essential read, and available in a variety of editions: hardback, softback (paperback) and an audiobook, which is read by Nick himself...

Nick has contributed to a number of magazines on motoring issues over the years (including a fascinating monthly column in Octane Magazine), and also 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.

Musically, of course, the big news fairly recently was the launch of his new band, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets. The four initial, small gigs in May 2018 held in London lead to a very successful and critically acclaimed European tour in September. The tour continued in 2019 with dates in the US, Canada, and more dates in the UK and Europe. 2020 was due to see more UK and European shows until Coronavirus managed to ruin everyone's plans, but thankfully it didn't stop the release (albeit delayed, due to manufacturing facilities and warehouses locked down initially) of the London Roundhouse concert filmed in 2019. This release proved as spectacular as we all suspected it would!

Many happy returns, Nick, and hopefully see you on the road once the dreaded virus is in retreat!

This afternoon, Roger Waters has released a new version of The Gunner's Dream on his social media channels. The song was a stand-out track on Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut (the last Floyd studio album to include Roger), and he has performed it live in recent years on occasion (the last time being in Guadalajara, Mexico, on December 5th 2018).

In the accompanying post with the video, Roger talks about watching a 2013 documentary last night about Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved The World'; it was Petrov who prevented nuclear war in 1983. This new recording of The Gunner's Dream is principally focused on Roger and his piano, but at appropriate points the rest of his current touring band join in too. Here it is:

With the start of the new year, and the dreadful 2020 now thankfully just a memory, thoughts are now turning to what the future may bring, particularly on a Pink Floyd related front.

Whilst things generally are still very much up in the air, January is always a good time for - either serious or completely outlandish - speculation and pondering on things which might happen across the coming year.

Covid-19 put paid to concert plans last year of course. We were looking forward to shows that had been announced by Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets, and Roger Waters with his This Is Not A Drill tour, which was to be "in the round" rather than the normal end stage presentation. Both tours were naturally postponed. Some places have tentatively resumed shows but most haven't yet. Will it take significant inroads into vaccinations, and infection rates/hospitalisations significantly reduced, before concerts will properly resume? Standing gigs would seem particularly unlikely for a while.

One thing that seemed clear last year was that once initial lockdown issues had been dealt with (for example, pressing plants and warehouses closed) and new working methods worked out, there was a buoyant release market for artists across the musical spectrum. Whilst a lot of the material was retrospective, with deluxe editions and suchlike, there was also a lot of new material released as well, some of which had been inventively recorded during lockdown. The normal, annual Record Store Day turned into three, pretty full events, with an additional raft of releases on Black Friday, and with National Album Day also taken into account, it was a busy time on the music front.

So, it's time for you to look into your crystal balls - what do you think or hope 2021 will bring us, in particular on the Floyd-related front? It would be interesting if you have other thoughts too. Record Store Day has been announced for June 12th, and there's normally some tasty things released that day. Will there be a Floyd-related release this year? When do you think gigs will resume? Drop us a line (at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and let us know what your views are!