An artist's most avid fans are often their worst friends, relishing their pain and suffering from a safe distance.

In which suave synth duo Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson take things in a darker and heavier direction.

Martin Gore said the X Factor boss should be shot for his influence on the music industry

"We're doing the huddle in the Champions League."

Singer David Gray has fallen out with his neighbours over his plans to convert famed north London recording studios into flats.

The production team of Rich Machin and Ian Glover previously recorded with Mark Lanegan as primary vocalist (with cameos from the likes of Mike Patton and Gibby Haynes).

The pop music of the Eighties was bright, bouncy and shiny – and the biweekly magazine Smash Hits displayed the same qualities while providing the perfect handbook for teenagers throughout the British Isles and beyond to follow the latest bands and trends. A mainstay of the much-loved publication throughout the first half of the Eighties, the photographer Eric Watson shot many of its iconic covers, including those featuring Madonna, Madness and Morrissey, and helped define the "heroic" look of many of the acts from the period.

To the younger generation of music fans, "indie" is a genre, a ubiquitous term used to describe artfully scruffy purveyors of white-boy guitar pop. In the late Seventies and Eighties, however, it was an abbreviation of "independent", used to distinguish the small, self-financed, artist-friendly record labels - the type started in garages, garden sheds and behind the counters of record shops - from their corporate counterparts.

The Vintage Festival, the UK’s best new festival, will transform The Royal Festival Hall into a multi-venue vintage playground for London’s most uplifting and stylish party this summer - and The Independent has a pair of tickets for the whole weekend - worth £450 - to give away!

The Uruguayan's match-winning display on Sunday coupled with Carroll's debut means Liverpool are buzzing again

West London three-piece White Lies and their new album, Ritual, disprove the notion that rock is dead, says Gillian Orr

For their third album, Brighton's itchy electronic groove machine opted to record in California with the producer Thom Monahan, best known for his work with folk-rockers like Vetiver and Devendra Banhart.

When photographer Richard Nicholson decided to document some of London's professional darkrooms he had more than 200 to choose from. Four years on, with the project completed, only five remain in business.

He says he hates being labelled a rock photographer and anyway, the English have never valued his artistry. So will his new George Clooney film finally bring Anton Corbijn the credibility he craves?