Is it a problem that the Alabama Shakes' 'raw' and 'natural' soul-rock is nothing of the sort? Only until they start playing ...

If you're going to quit your day job as drummer in the world's premier folk-rock band, you'd better have something special up your sleeve.

Tributes pour in for Bert Weedon, the British musician whose tutorials inspired a generation

In the mid-1960s, the emergence of the powerful Marshall amplifiers enabled musicians to turn up the volume – and effectively transformed pop music into rock.

The strictures of the Unplugged format don't impact too much upon Florence & the Machine, thanks to their semi-acoustic roots, so when she opens this MTV performance with "Only If for a Night", the piano, harp and drums are more like familiar old hands than brave new departure.

The rock world has promised to "crank it up to 11" to mark the death of Jim Marshall, the "Father of Loud", whose groundbreaking amplifiers gave the gift of extreme volume to generations of guitar heroes.

Having gained overdue reward in the Champion Hurdle last month, one of the most respected veterans on the circuit has now been given the chance to complete his fulfilment in the John Smith's Grand National itself. If Noel Fehily happens to win on State Of Play at Aintree on Saturday week, however, it would be no less a triumph of patience for the owners and trainer of his mount.

Cancellation of music festival leaves owner struggling to pay for essential repair work

Toby Leighton-Pope, 35, is vice president of music for Live Nation. He's been promoting Hard Rock Calling since it began seven years ago

“Give us a smile,” jokes a heckler in the audience. He didn’t have a chance in hell. The 48-year-old grunge warrior simply trudged on with “One Way Street”, growling “I drink so much sour whiskey/ I can hardly see”. Mark Lanegan doesn’t do light, frivolity or whimsy. He deals in cataloguing the murkier alleyways of the human soul: death, drunkenness, sordidness (“Those feral girls will suit me more than/ Gloss from drugstore magazines,” he snarls tonight on “Sleep with Me”), substance abuse and the apocalypse (“The end could be soon, we'd better rent a room/ So you can love me,” he reasons on “Wedding Dress”).

The American rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose was an influential, highly-rated player whose crunchy riffs, fluid licks and mesmerising solos lit up FM radio during the 1970s. Briefly a member of the Edgar Winter Group, he appeared on They Only Come Out At Night, the 1972 album which contained the barnstorming, chart-topping instrumental "Frankenstein" and the equally infectious "Free Ride", two tracks that have become staples of classic rock stations and the video game Rock Band 3.

The sleeve of Sweet Sour – a 3D Rorschach blot of bones and blood – is far stranger and more disorienting than anything within.

City manager angry at barbs from striker who is now 'not in my plans for the next three months'