The biggest musical event this week isn't a concert at all, but it's coming to a popcorn pit near you. By the time I'm writing this and you're reading it, Michael Jackson was meant to have performed 27 dates of his This Is It farewell show at the O2 in London, with a further 23 to follow in the spring.

Amir Khan will fight for a proper world title just months after it looked like his journey from idol to contender to obscurity was over.

When a band gets back together after a lengthy hiatus, it's easy to assume that its members have run out of options or ideas and are just trying to recapture past glories. Not so Crowded House. Once the leader Neil Finn asked the bass player Nick Seymour to contribute to what was intended to be another solo album, this most organic of reformations became inevitable.

Spanish game-plan looks odder still; Tell me why I don't like Mondays

Ricky Hatton again brought his brand of phone-box warfare to the MEN Arena in Manchester and for the 36th time in his professional career it proved far too much for his opponent to handle. Last night it was the turn of the Argentinian Carlos Vilches to suffer the same fate as every other fighter who has faced Hatton as the British light-welterweight defended his WBU title by winning every one of the 12 rounds.

You don't have to be an expert judge of fighting flesh to appreciate that Ricky Hatton is on the brink of superstardom. No boxer in Britain generates more raw excitement or raucous support when the bell sounds.

MANCHESTER STORM are believed to have agreed a swap deal with London Knights enabling Rick Brebant to leave the MEN Arena and Ryan Duthie to move north.

MIKE BLAISDELL'S honeymoon period as coach of Sheffield Steelers came to an end with a 6-3 defeat by Ayr Scottish Eagles in the Superleague.

THE SUPERLEAGUE leaders, London Knights, staged their second perfect dress rehearsal on Sunday for next month's Benson and Hedges Cup final.

MANCHESTER STORM'S coach, Kurt Kleinendorst, admits his side face "the last-chance saloon" tonight in a quest for European League glory.

THE MANCHESTER Storm coach, Kurt Kleinendorst, is relishing his side's underdog tag going into tomorrow's opening European Hockey League game with Helsinki.

WHEN MANCHESTER Giants lost to Sheffield Sharks off the final play of the final game last season, Terrell Myers's jump shot cost them the League Championship and took the trophy to Yorkshire.

THE BIRMINGHAM BULLETS coach, Mike Finger, hopes he can force his close friend Nick Nurse out of contention for the Budweiser Championship play-offs, without the Manchester Giants' coach even sitting on the bench for their play-off quarter-final series.