Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Shepherds Bush Empire

For a man who boasted that his life was a long one-night stand, David Coverdale has learnt to be, well, sensitive. He has raunched and rolled with the best of them: first with Deep Purple, now with Whitesnake. But he's 46 and, as he tells Andrew G Marshall, he has suffered, grown up and acquired a more realistic approach to life.

Oasis launched their national tour in Exeter on Saturday. Though perhaps launch is too dynamic a word, writes Magnus Mills

"Short and sweet" is how Ian McLagan, fellow member of the Small Faces, remembers his old friend Ronnie Lane, the bass player and singer who co-wrote some of the group's greatest hits.

No,my eyes are not deceiving me. The first of the many occasions those words pass through my head at the Kilburn National is when I spot a cowboy, complete with ten-gallon hat and neckerchief face mask, skilfully abusing the records on the turn-tables in front of him.

Why Pamela Des Barres survived the stars she slept with

The crowd cheered at the mention of the song "Meet Me at the Airport", and Luke Haines was amazed, then sarcastic. "It was a big hit," he mocked. Just three years ago, he might have said those words and meant them. His band, the Auteurs, were frontrunners of British pop, their debut album, New Wave (Hut), beaten to the Mercury Music Prize by a nose - Brett Anderson's nose, as it happened. But since then, the mighty accomplishments of Cast and Northern Uproar have overshadowed them to such an extent that when Haines broke up the band earlier this year, no one noticed. When he formed a new band, Baader Meinhof, no one noticed either. And when he reformed the Auteurs as a support act for Baader Meinhof at Camden's less than over-sized Dingwalls on Wednesday, Oasis's squabbles were in little danger of being knocked off the front page.

Trouser suits are one of the best things to have come out of the Seventies. Today they are pared down, both in silhouette and in detail - no massive flares or embroidered dragons down the leg a la Jimmy Page. Two things tend to worry women about trouser suits, that they will look too masculine, or look too Eighties and career-womany. The tendency is to avoid the first by teaming the suit with an obviously feminine blouse - maybe something frilly - or a sexy bustier; and to avoid the second by dressing the suit down, with plimsoles for example. These are all ghastly and dated ideas. A trouser suit is best kept simple and stylish and worn with a modest shirt, plain or printed, or a plain knit sweater. Footwear should be loafers, strappy heels, or - best of all - stacked heeled ankle boots.

The company sensed that a guitar called the Gibson Polfus may not grasp the public imagination... so the Gibson Les Paul was born

Ozwald Boateng's leap from computer engineering to Savile Row has taken 11 years. Last week, his colourful arrival was made official with the launch of his new shop at 9 Vigo Street (just on the borders of "The Row's" territory, which has always extended beyond the actual street itself).

Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin, perhaps the most successful rock band of all time, was a towering personality whose dedication to Zeppelin helped make them Seventies superstars. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were Zeppelin's front men; behind the scenes Peter Grant was their fearless protector. It was Grant who arranged their deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, then hailed as one of the biggest in industry history. He never interfered with their music, but was a "hands-on" manager who travelled the world with his charges to ensure their financial and physical well-being.

He knows some characters. He's done some things. But Dr John ain't dead yet. By Phil Johnson

Englebert Humperdinck and Jimmy Page are now virtually indistinguishable. Just look at the fly-posters advertising Englebert's current tour, which commences in Edinburgh this week, and tell me I'm not a loony. Suspicion is further heightened by the fact that the coming Page / Plant reunion tour of the UK in no way overlaps with Hump's.

It was intended to be Plant and Page Unplugged. Perhaps even Plant, Page and Paul Jones Unplugged. In the end MTV settled happily for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, mostly plugged-in and playing together at the London Weekend Television studios.