Pink Floyd academic, composer, and pianist Gilad Cohen - whom we have mentioned elsewhere on these pages - is to teach a university course on Pink Floyd at New Jersey's Ramapo College. Cohen recently completed his PhD in music at Princeton University, and the course promises to be an interesting look at the band. Here, we catch up with Cohen for more information on the course, and below, you can even download the syllabus to see for yourself just what a Pink Floyd class would consist of!

Brain Damage: Did you approach Ramapo College with the idea for the course or did they ask you to put something together based on your dissertation work?

This is my first year as an Assistant Professor at Ramapo College. I proposed this course in my first month at the job, as I knew Ramapo' music department, with its clear contemporary orientation, would be an ideal environment for such course. The idea met enthusiastic responses from both faculty and students, and the class is already full, more than three months before the semester begins.

BD: How comprehensively are you covering the band's catalog? On the one hand, you have really focused a good amount of your academic work on Gilmour's playing and composition, on the other hand, much of any discussion of Pink Floyd covering its 50 year history emphasizes the Waters era. How will you distribute your focus between the three eras (Barrett, Waters, and Gilmour)?

My research concentrates on Meddle, Wish You Were Here, and Animals, while referring to Barrett's area when looking at the origins of the band's style (specifically their interest and experiments in large forms, e.g. Interstellar Overdrive). I looked at Gilmour's contribution comprehensively during this era, but the albums in the Gilmour-era were not part of my research. Likewise, the course will mostly concentrate on the albums from the 1970s, but other eras will also be explored, including the experimental albums of the 1960s, the three Gilmour-era studio albums, and a few of Waters' solo albums.

Following on from the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Pink Floyd at London's University of Westminster (formerly the Regent Street Polytechnic) (shown to the left), which saw Roger Waters and Nick Mason opening the curtain to reveal to the world the site where they met and later formed the band, calls are now coming for a second plaque to be created and installed.

This time, the impetus for the plaque is coming from the band's true spiritual home - Cambridge. Possibly inspired by the London unveiling (or entirely coincidental), Cambridge News - the local paper - are calling for funding to be made available to "honour Syd and Pink Floyd", paying what they call a belated tribute to the band.

They note that "other cities have not been shy when it comes to honouring their greatest musical sons and daughters, and it is right that the world knows about the links between Cambridge and one of the most famous bands ever. Since Syd Barrett and Co first came on the scene in the 1960s, we have been able to bathe in their reflected glory".

It seems there is already a proposed design, created by Fonz Chamberlain and stone carver Pippa Westoby, so hopefully the local council can come up with the necessary funding to make this a reality. No location in the city is mentioned, although there are obviously a few key locations which could be used - venues that the band played, for instance, or even something at Grantchester Meadows...

This week, Craig Bailey's syndicated radio show Floydian Slip will reaching an important milestone when it broadcasts its 1000th show. Brain Damage spoke to Bailey about the show's successful tenure spanning more than 25 years.

Brain Damage: Craig, anything special planned for the 1000th episode of Floydian Slip?

Well, if I really knew how to do this any better than I'm doing it now, I wouldn't have waited 999 episodes to do it! We do have a couple special things coming up: I'll play some audio from Show #1 from 1989 – kinda like showing your naked baby photos to the world – and we'll have a few people close to the band pop in for some quick "Hellos."

This lunchtime, the 2015 Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas was host to a very special session. The three-day event, which takes place in June, is held in Co. Carlow, Ireland. Those in attendance today were able to enjoy 'Louder Than Words', a discussion between David Gilmour, Polly Samson, and a festival host, about the pair's songwriting partnership.

Brain Damage's Irish correspondent, Martin Kilbride, was on hand to share the event with us all, and his report below reveals some of the topics under discussions, and also brings the news of not just the title of the new album (well, at the moment, anyway) being revealed, but also some of the songs from the album were given their public airings. So, over to Martin, who also shares these exclusive pictures from today's event.

Both David and Polly were very open with their questions and answers and shared quite a bit on the writing process of On an Island and Division Bell. It was, after all, a 'Festival of Writings' so the topic was just that, despite everybody's wish to go off on other tangents.