New bands should take top billing at the big festivals, says Emily Mackay

“I’m tremendously proud of this album,” Rumer demurely claims about her impending new record, Boys Don’t Cry.

Lady Gaga's provocative lyrics and costumes have angered Christian groups in South Korea and the Philippines and Islamists in Indonesia, where the show may be banned.

Vince Power's Music Festivals group yesterday warned that economic woes are hitting sales at its Hop Farm Music Festival in Kent and its Benicassim event in Spain.

This New Zealander's second album is a rattling, twanging, guitar-thumping celebration of the inebriated underdog as tragicomic hero.

A couple of years ago, I arranged to meet a friend at Vauxhall Tube station. I was there a few minutes early. In the ticket hall, there was a pleasant and familiar sound. Surprisingly, London Underground seemed to have decided to play Beethoven's Seventh Symphony over the tannoys.

For Heroes, Willie Nelson both delves into the past, with songs from country music's Forties prehistory, and the present day, with covers of material by Tom Waits, Pearl Jam and Coldplay.

Whether you want a beach holiday, a bustling city break or a desert adventure, the unique destination of the Sultanate of Oman can provide it all

Nicolas Sarkozy was a victim of the financial crisis – and his own craving for power

There's a simplicity about these previously unreleased demos that's utterly beguiling, the spare settings allowing the sweeter side of George Harrison's character to shine unencumbered by studio blandishments.

A woman London Underground passenger has admitted hurling racist abuse at fellow passengers after a video of her appeared on the internet.

Jeb Loy Nichols's work has secured critical acclaim but not commercial success, a frustrating equation reflected in his frequent switches of label.

The tenor saxophonist Andrew Love played on some of the most enduring soul records to come out of Memphis in the 1960s.

Britain's FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce has poured cold water on calls by the Olympics minister for a Team GB football side to play in all future Games.