Rock festivals are upon us. And the Fleadh shows how they became an international franchise. By Cole Moreton

That's right, the festival season is here again. But what should you pack for a three-day frenzy in a field? Wellies? Sensible. Cagoule? Well, OK. But what about something stylish to make you stand out in the crowd? Amy Jones slides over the options

Music isn't special when it comes out of a little silver beer mat.

WITHOUT GOING too far out on a critical limb, it's safe to say that this is the album that will win all the awards this year. Painstakingly designed and faultlessly performed, it fulfils all the criteria to attract what music-industry insiders refer to as the five-albums-a-year punters - those consumers who aren't addicted to music like the rest of us, but limit themselves to just a few high-profile purchases each season. It's those punters who keep The Corrs high in the charts week after week, and it's their attentions that an artist has to attract to achieve crossover success - all the more so during such lean times for the industry as these.

Jake Scott, son of Ridley, has just made his first feature film, Plunkett & Macleane. It's MTV meets The Scarlet Pimpernel. But that wasn't the plan.

Thanks to her child-like voice and airy-fairy songs, Anja Garbarek is often compared to Bjork. But her jazz-musician father has been her main influence.

This week, designers sent a fat lad down the catwalk. COLE MORETON - no Jarvis Cocker - spots a cynical stunt

ANYONE OVER 30 should stop reading here. As the year draws to a close and critics rush to catalogue the events, people and anthems of the year, a poll of Radio 1's listeners to find the all-time top 100 has chosen few of the old classics.

MANFRED MANN (real name Manfred Lubowitz), the popular musician and songwriter who found fame and fortune with his eponymous band in the 1960s, is suing the extremely trendy group Massive Attack for alleged plagiarism.

A brief glance back at a fairly uneventful year in pop music

December is marked by several big names going out on arena tours. While some of these (Tom Jones, UB40 and the unnecessary return of Culture Club) are at best nostalgia fests and at worst mere excuses for companies to use their hospitality budgets, Bristol's Massive Attack (right) do offer an alternative. This is the first time that they'll be touring the Mezzanine album, and, while venues of this size are impersonal, their urban sound is rich enough to permeate the entire venue.

More CDs, records and tapes are sold in the month before Christmas than at any other time of the year. Most, of course, are intended as presents - but what to buy? Here, The Independent's team of music critics picks over the best of the year's releases - from rock and pop to classical and opera, via dance, hip hop, reggae, jazz, roots and blues - and offers suggestions for further listening. Just press play ...

A CHART in which the trip-hop band Massive Attack appears at No 39 would usually be about music. But instead the trio from Bristol have been picked by Time magazine as among the "50 most influential" names in the new cyber elite.

THERE WAS finally some good news for Wales yesterday when two of the Principality's biggest bands walked off with the major prizes in the prestige Q Music Awards.