Clare Wood met George Appleton on Facebook. After their relationship ended, he turned up at her house, smashed the front door, and threatened her with an iron. Clare called the police, but four months later, Appleton strangled her, set her body on fire and then hanged himself.

Frank Zappa was not only one of the most prolific and idiosyncratic American musicians of the rock era, but also a great discoverer and enabler of other people's talent. In the late 1960s, the guitarist and his then manager, Herb Cohen, set up the Bizarre and Straight labels and issued a raft of records by Alice Cooper, Captain Beefheart and Tim Buckley, three acts who have arguably proved more influential than Zappa himself. This triumvirate rather overshadowed albums by the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, the groupie ensemble The GTOs – Girls Together Outrageously – and "Wild Man" Fischer, a mentally ill performer whom Zappa had met on Los Angeles' notorious Sunset Strip.

It’s a big year for the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Not only is it 50 years this summer since Harold Pendleton, founder of the Marquee Club in London, launched the events’ precursor, the National Jazz Festival, but it’s also the 40th anniversary of the Reading site’s initiation. To celebrate four decades of revelry at Richfield Avenue we’ve taken a look back at some of the defining moments of this most beloved of festivals.

Johnny Depp surprised fans at an intimate Alice Cooper gig in London, when he appeared on stage to play guitar with the legend.

Obviously, any rock legend hopes he'll die before he gets old, but there's always the possibility that taking all those substances will have a pickling effect. So post rehab and the comeback album, what's the coolest thing the veteran legend can do? The answer, surprisingly, seems to be radio. Bob Dylan, whose 70th birthday is being celebrated in style on BBC radio next week, delighted his fans by turning DJ for Theme Time Radio Hour. Others from Alice Cooper all the way to Barry Manilow have followed suit. Forget the old accessories of the pop star life, the yachts, the jets, the African orphans. For the music legend, a show of your own is the ultimate must-have and Ronnie Wood has it in spades.

Alice Cooper has blasted Robert Plant for playing "folk music" instead of reforming Led Zeppelin.