Odell’s soft croon regularly apes Chris Martin

By any critical measure, the NME’s annual tour package of four thrusting young acts broadcasting their sound to the nation has once again chosen well from a pool of artists who are unheard-of, just-rising or deserving of a step-up now their careers are well the way.

There's a fine line between "effortless" and "lazy", and A$AP Rocky walks it with nonchalant ease.

Chart stars Florence and The Machine were almost late for a live radio gig - after their drummer got locked in the loo.

Richfield Avenue, Reading / Bramham Park, Leeds

The day after she split with her long-term boyfriend, Adele went into the studio to write a ballad. Her biographer Caroline Sanderson explains what happened next

1. Manchester Piccadilly

Someone clever once remarked that all actors sit on a scale between Gary Oldman and Jack Nicholson. At one extreme is Oldman, who so absorbs his characters that you can barely recognise him. At the other, the character is subsumed by the id of Jackness.

If Elvis was rock'n'roll's id, then Buddy Holly was its ego, his more cerebral tinkerings with pop's structures opening up avenues that enabled the medium to flourish in myriad different ways.

A year ago, Ellie Goulding was supporting Florence and The Machine at one of last year's Little Noise Sessions benefit concerts in aid of Mencap. On Saturday, she was headlining the last of this year's Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel.

Three times a hit in the Nineties and endlessly remixed before landing in the hands of Florence + the Machine, "You've Got the Love" dates back to 1986, when it was titled "You Got the Love".

The sickly-sweet official snaps of proud Prime Ministerial dad David Cameron and his newborn, Florence Rose Endellion, adorned a number of newspapers' front pages yesterday. Yet mother and baby were discharged from the Royal Cornwall Hospital on Friday lunchtime, and driven away quickly in black-windowed people carriers – much to the consternation of the assembled hacks and paps, who'd been hanging around since Tuesday to capture the first sighting of Flo Cam.

Chart stars Florence And The Machine lead the field for music awards bash the Mojo Honours this year after being shortlisted for four gongs, it was announced today.