'I wanted to be in musicals'

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Album: Bright Moments, Natives (Luaka Bop)

Kelly Pratt, who to all intents and purposes is Bright Moments, has in the past supplied horn parts to Arcade Fire, Beirut and LCD Soundsystem.

Album: Scent of Soil, Scent of Soil (Hubro)

They should have stuck a scratch'n'sniff card of rich Norwegian earth in with this intensely bucolic album fronted by composers Tore Brunborg on reeds and Rhodes, and vocalist Kirsti Huke.

Frank Turner, Wembley Arena

Frank Turner is a former hardcore Punkster who fronted band Million Dead in the early noughties. But his much gentler, quintessentially English folk-influenced solo material has earned him enough fans to sell-out a 12,000-capacity Wembley Arena.

Rosie Millard: Viewers want to see talent, not crying

We're having too bad a time for misery on a Saturday night
The top 40 album releases reveals that the tastes of the British public are nothing if not eclectic

Well, it is jubilee year... Queen's 'Greatest Hits' is Britain's best-selling album of past half-century

Kings of camp rock join Beatles with two entries in Top 40 – but the Stones are nowhere to be seen

Album: Jim Moray, Skulk (Niag)

Moray – with his bleeps and beats approach to trad folk – has never been afraid to attract attention.

Four police officers suspended in Northern Ireland over 'sectarian texts'

Four police officers in Northern Ireland have been suspended from duty after the discovery of racist and sectarian text messages.

Versace shows a clean pair of heels on catwalk and in the boardroom

After dark times following the murder of founder Gianni, the fashion firm has turned the corner and is back in profit

Sting at Hammersmith Apollo, London

“Sometimes I'm scared of being Ozzy Osbourne. But it could have been worse. I could have been Sting.”

Oscars Trending: New Zealand's second most popular folk singer makes it big

Two things that we've never met anyone who dislikes – The Muppets and the Flight of the Conchords. As such, it was almost inevitable that Conchord Bret McKenzie's writing of songs for the recent Muppets movie was guaranteed to bring a smile to the faces of most right-thinking fans of puppets and well-pitched parody songs.

Album: Field Music, Plumb (Memphis Industries)

There's an awful lot of music crammed into Plumb's 35 minutes, but it's rarely organised into the most attractive shapes – and on the few occasions it is, they alter course within seconds and head off in some less appealing direction.

Album: Mark Lanegan Band, Blues Funeral (4AD)

Not a blues album, but an album borrowing heavily from the bank of blues tonality: minor keys, draggy tempos, undecorated structures, an implicit sense of what it is to be enslaved.

Bob Weston: Early '70s guitarist with Fleetwood Mac

Originally a British blues boom band led by Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, Fleetwood Mac were at something of a crossroads by September 1972. The founder-member and drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – the rhythm section the group was named after – had added McVie's wife, the keyboard-player and singer Christine McVie, formerly of Chicken Shack, and Bob Welch, an American vocalist and guitarist, but felt they needed a pedigree soloist able to recreate the contrasting guitar styles of his predecessors, particularly the slide playing of Spencer, for concert engagements.

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Frocks, canine accolade and Hitler's return
Robert Fisk: The going price of getting away with murder... would $33m be enough?

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Robert Fisk: The long view
Principled Skinner rises above the fray

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Patrick Cockburn: I fear this terrible massacre will be the beginning of a long civil war in Syria

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I fear this terrible massacre will be the beginning of a long civil war in Syria
Hardeep Singh Kohli: For me, it is all about 'Gregory's Girl', a record of first love

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For me, it is all about 'Gregory's Girl', a record of first love
Christian Louboutin: 'I don't think comfort equals happiness'

Christian Louboutin interview

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Happy birthday, Hotel Babylon!

Happy birthday, Hotel Babylon!

Hollywood's home to the A-list celebrates 100 years of discreet luxury