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

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.

When Annie [lennox] and I meet up now, we no longer talk about the old days [with the Eurythmics]. We've been through so much, what are we going to say? "Remember that crazy time in Oklahoma?" We've both had kids, and now there are all these other experiences to talk about.

When special effects can't lift the spirit

Forget writing a No 1 hit – composing Ghost: The Musical is the toughest gig in town, says Eurythmics star Dave Stewart

Mick Jagger makes his Urdu singing debut on a new album by a "global supergroup" also featuring the soundtrack composer A R Rahman and Jamaican reggae singer Damian Marley.

Pop's 56-year-old Diva sings less and less these days, but she's eager to take to the stage for a rash of feminist activities this week. Susie Mesure meets Annie Lennox

Theatre, ballet and opera are embracing some unexpected talents

In The Red

TV stylist says he spends Sundays planning his outfits for the week ahead

‘He had to lie down with his head onmyknee, being stroked, before he could go on stage’

The Old Vic's artistic director, Kevin Spacey, sneaked into a star-studded musical tribute to Annie Lennox at London's Guildhall to surprise the Eurythmics singer straight after his nightly turn in Inherit the Wind.

Bumblebees and Beatle widows, two species on the brink

It's not easy being in a rock'n'roll band," Dee Dee Ramone said in End of the Century: the story of the Ramones (2003), the warts-and-all documentary about the punk group's two-decade career. Gary Kurfirst, their longstanding manager, was one of the people who made things that little bit easier for the notoriously moody quartet whose contribution to popular music was finally recognised when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.