Peter Dubens' Oakley Capital is among the private equity firms and trade players considering a bid for the live music business of HMV, the troubled entertainment retailer.

Few groups have the musical courage of The Roots. Philadelphia's favourite hip-hop sons approach a genre overrun with blandness and imitation, with the intelligence and precision of a mathematician, combined with an alchemist's passion for experimentation. What other group, regardless of genre, would not only employ a full-time sousaphone player but start their show with a solo from him? It's hard to imagine anyone else having the nerve, much less the talent, to make it work.

Like the Beach Boys, with whom they have often toured and occasionally recorded, Chicago make some of the sunniest, beaming smile-happiest music ever. They also both exemplify what the US music industry can do to its brightest sparks as commercial considerations take over and suck the life out of a group.

"We love you, Lou!" shouts a crazed audience member. "You know, by now, I love you too," croaks The Velvet Underground legend, who is notoriously uncompromising when it comes to testing what fans are willing to accept as entertainment. Having endured the unlistenable electronic clamour of Metal Machine Music and the crashing downer of Berlin, none of the audience are expecting a full-blown radio-friendly hits showdown tonight.

Dubbed "the ugliest tour in showbiz" by Dara O Briain and a gathering for "geeks" and the "disenfranchised" by host Robin Ince, Uncaged Monkeys lets loose a live version of Radio 4's comic look at science, The Infinite Monkey Cage and follows on from Ince's similar science-minded live shows Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People.

When this show was announced in February, it looked like New York hip-hop was making a stand against today's questionable customisation of the genre or someone had worked out a way to neatly cash in on the legendary reputations of two groups and an MC who've each carved a credible niche in music history. Rakim, for instance, has been every rapper's favourite rapper for the last 25 years, responsible for inspiring lyricists to move beyond pre-school wordplay in favour of more complex rhyme schemes and metaphors. Tonight, he's a respectful warm-up performer, cooly reeling off classics like "Paid in Full" and "Don't Sweat the Technique" with just the help of a DJ. It feels a little rushed and if he'd had 20 more minutes, he might have converted some of the youngsters in the crowd who couldn't help but look on at the 43-year-old obliviously.

A rich velvety voice on an empty stage fills the Apollo and is greeted with instant applause. "The Closest Thing to Crazy" opens the show, a tender track that the singer wraps her distinct vocals around.

Standing in a sweltering, packed Hammersmith Apollo, it's hard not to reflect on the bizarre career trajectory of R Kelly.

Just hours after Doug Stanhope left the stage of the Hammersmith Apollo, completing what could be considered a breakthrough gig, the man he tonight described as his only ever "hero", Charlie Sheen, was to play the first date of his ludicrously titled tour, My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Death Is Not an Option, at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Sheen's evening would turn out to be a disaster, Stanhope's had ended a triumph.

Peter Gabriel's typically ambitious and playful notion of swapping cover versions with admired peers resulted in Scratch My Back, his 2010 album of stately interpretations of Radiohead, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire and others. Tonight's show with the New Blood Orchestra applies the same reflective approach to Gabriel's own songbook. They show consistent conscience, expressed in a voice of gravelly, intellectual English soul.

There's good reason for the extra spring in the step of Micky Flanagan's signature Cockney walk this evening. After nearly 15 years in comedy, and jobs before that which have included fish-packer and dishwasher, the Bethnal Green-bred 46-year-old was strutting out on to the stage of a venue that seats over 3,500 people and is synonymous with career ascendancy.

Throw a bit of California into a mixing bowl with Alice in Wonderland, add a splash of Vegas and the result is a show to satisfy the sweetest tooth.