'I love the simplicity of John Cale's playing'

This 23-year-old Kiwi came to prominence soundtracking the advert for the latest iPod, and is just as sleek a product: a Brylcreemed dandy who jazzes up old-school rock'n'roll pastiche with scratches, samples and hip-hop breakbeats.

Rather than do the easy thing and lend her famously languid tones to a set of Christmas standards, former Everything But the Girl singer Thorn has come up with a selection of 10 cover versions (and two self-penned originals), many only tangentially Christmassy, from tasteful, cheese-free sources.

At its best, the music of former Sussex schoolfriends Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire is a swirling and seductive stew of early Jefferson Airplane and the Indigo Girls.

Usually, when a team player strikes out on a solo project, it's a fair bet that the project, volitionally or not, will reveal more of the player's inner workings, allow a glimpse of their soul or spirit.

Inspired by a surge in interest in taxidermy, Genevieve Roberts learns to stuff a mouse called Derek... to wear as a brooch

Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, barbecue – who needs them? Not Gillian Orr, who went off-piste in search of new acts to get excited about at the biggest and best music festival in America

Rap superstar Jay-Z is to headline BBC Radio 1's Olympic celebration, the Hackney Weekend 2012

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She is forging a stage career away from the catwalk – and she's not alone. Harriet Walker looks at the other supermodels who've diversified

Drums - John Bonham
For the fact that he was such a musical badass, inventive, intense and our drummer, Matt, will have a real problem with me if I pick another drummer that's not Bonham.