For her Honest Jons debut, Martina Topley Bird revisits songs from her previous two albums, Quixotic and The Blue God, a particularly welcome move in the latter case, where her character seemed to be lost amongst the Danger Mouse productions.

The administrators to Fabric have sold the iconic London nightclub to a new company recently set up by one of its former investors, in a deal that secures 100 jobs.

Michael Ballack has claimed the decision to release him was made by Roman Abramovich.

A takeover battle at Arsenal could be on the cards after it emerged that a Nigerian billionaire industrialist is considering acquiring a 16 per cent stake in the Premier League football club.

Gianfranco Zola has expressed his "disappointment" at being sacked as manager of West Ham and fired a parting shot at co-owner David Sullivan.

Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack has confirmed talks will soon take place over his future with the London club, but he has not ruled out moving to another Premier League outfit.

Indie kids are singing in the rain

Sheffield Wednesday chairman Lee Strafford has stoked the fires ahead of his side's Coca-Cola Championship survival showdown against Crystal Palace by suggesting the London club should already have been relegated after going into administration.

Brad Weber, one of the two drummers anchoring the live performances of Caribou, the long-time moniker of Dan Snaith, all-round clever clogs and sonic wizard, is a hypnotic performer. For the duration of this hour-long show in south London, Weber is plunked at the front of the stage, pushing the band's two guitarists to the back. He fronts the evening alongside Snaith, who flits between microkorg and drumkit, and you can see why – it's hard to keep your eyes off what he's doing. It is he, and not Snaith, who conducts proceedings, holding his arm aloft or using his entire body as a metronome. You get the feeling he's really pushing it, producing a more physical, visceral, tribal sound than the laid-back, psychedelic electronica of Caribou's recorded work.

It could have been a scene out of the novels of Anthony Trollope or John Galsworthy: the massed ranks of a venerable science organisation, the Royal Institution, gathered to vote on a resolution to restore a high-profile woman who had been dropped as its director over budgetary overruns.