Almost forty years since EMI launched Pink Floyd with Arnold Layne as "The Projected Sound of 1967", a limited release this Christmas commemorates the life of the late Syd Barrett, with a pair of live renditions of the song recorded on David Gilmour's tour this year.

The recordings were made at London's Royal Albert Hall - one with David Bowie guesting on vocals (and doing a fabulous job!), and the other with Richard Wright very ably performing the lead. Completing the package will be an acoustic performance of Syd's Dark Globe, again from David's 2006 dates.

www.DavidGilmour.com have said that they will be previewing all the tracks on their website next month; the tracks will be downloadable from Christmas Day (December 25th), and physical copies should be in stores from Boxing Day (December 26th). Online retailers should also have the single available to preorder soon - as soon as we have those details, we'll let you know.

If you are after the vinyl version, these will be available (for a limited time), on 7" vinyl in Europe, and on 10" vinyl in North America. Both versions of Arnold Layne are planned to be included on the 'Live at The Royal Albert Hall' DVD due out early next year, although Dark Globe isn't planned to be on that at the moment, David's site notes.

We recently brought you the news that a special "expanded" edition of David's On An Island was coming out. The album, which was originally released on March 6th (his 60th birthday) will now be partnered with a bonus DVD. This will feature the guitarist's complete April 2006 AOL Sessions in New York, presenting all six tracks: "On An Island," "This Heaven," "Smile," "Take A Breath," "High Hopes," and "Comfortably Numb."

The DVD also includes from the Abbey Road Session in August 2006, Syd Barrett's "Astronomy Domine" as a taster of the Channel 4 special being shown at the start of 2007 (yes, the show has moved slightly from the last date advised of December 3rd). And, as a taster for David's live concert DVD, due out early next year, is "Take A Breath" from London's Royal Albert Hall.

The release of this limited edition has moved slightly and will be on sale in Europe on Monday, November 27th, and the following day, November 28th, for the rest of the world.

David's website have clarified the presentation of this edition. They said: "the packaging will be different from the original album release. In Europe, it will be contained inside the front cover in the original 'book' case, but with a dark red spine cloth instead of the regular black one. There will be silver foil block lettering on the back stating that it is a limited edition. That's the EMI version.

"The SonyBMG version (for the rest of the world) will have the DVD housed in a cardboard wallet, featuring one of Polly's tour photographs. This will be shrink-wrapped to the original 'book' style CD." The picture on the wallet is shown to the left and is a striking portrait of David.

They also clarify that the sound is PCM Stereo, not 5.1 Surround Sound, and that the release of this bonus DVD "has no impact upon the release of David's forthcoming concert DVD, which documents the 'On An Island' tour. That's still to come and will be available next year."

This can be ordered, with a discount, through the following special links, for delivery upon release: Amazon US/International, Canada, UK/Europe, France, or Germany. Any item bought through these links at Amazon (not just Floyd items) helps with the running costs of the site, and we really appreciate it.

Alternatively, David's site will have a limited number of the bonus DVDs on their own that you'll be purchase from them. More details on there soon.

Finally, we know that many of you are keen guitarists, be it in the privacy of your own home, or playing in a band. We know a number of you will be delighted to hear that Fender are to finally release the David Gilmour signature Stratocaster guitar.

This month's "Guitarist" magazine gave the news as an exclusive, saying that the Fender Custom Shop's Mike Eldred revealed the news when they spoke to him recently. "Todd Krause and I are going to spend a day spec'ing out David's black Strat with his tech Phil Taylor, so we can do a signature guitar. It's not a Tribute guitar (like Blackie). We want to do that, as they're designed to pay homage to iconic artists. But first we're going to do the black Strat as a Custom Shop signature."

In terms of launch dates, Eldred concedes that January 2008 is "realistic". There is no word on pricing at this point.

"Guitarist" note that 'the Pink Floyd legend bought his famed black Strat new in 1970. It's his most-used and most-modified guitar. From what Gilmour has said about the Strat, it's neck has been replaced a few times - originally with a 1966 rosewood fingerboard and latterly with a '57 reissue maple 'board - and, of course, the original white pickguard was replaced with a black one. The vibrato arm has been shortened, and the pickups are now believed to be stock Fender single-coils.'

"Everyone at Fender is a huge David Gilmour fan," said Eldred. "He's awesome, a great guitar player."

Our thanks to Jamesy Murray for the info about this desirable instrument.