Starring: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum

David Mamet, the "anti-liberal" US playwright who this week accused the British literary establishment of entrenched anti-Semitism, has become embroiled in a fresh row over his controversial new film about the jailed music producer Phil Spector.

In 1964 three unrelated Americans, Scott Engel, John Maus and Gary Leeds became the Walker Brothers, and once settled in London had No 1 hits with "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore". Their slow, cavernous, heavily orchestrated recordings were highly distinctive and Scott and John's voices merged together well. In 1965-66, Walkermania was not far behind Beatlemania.

Gladys Horton was the lead singer with the Marvelettes, who topped the American charts with "Please Mr Postman" in December 1961. It was a key record for boosting morale during the Vietnam War. Although not a British hit, the record has become so familiar that it has obscured much of their later, equally fine work.

Last week I mentioned my Christmas party. This, I should say, is most uncharacteristic – both mentioning it and throwing it. Mentioning it, because there's always a risk that no one will arrive, rendering it a hopeless flop. If that happens, I'll be forced to lie here in these very pages in order not to appear a total social disaster to you. Throwing it because, well, partly for the same reasons. But also because parties take time. Time, money, and energy – three things that I don't possess in abundance.

Back on the cusp of the 1970s, a young Elton John was making his American debut at Los Angeles' legendary Troubadour club, where he was thrilled to meet his idol Leon Russell, the saturnine pianist then on the verge of establishing his own solo career after a decade as a sought-after session man.

Fans had assumed their Live 8 collaboration was their last hurrah, but Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Roger Waters have put their differences aside to perform on stage for charity once more.

For me, my pets are my records – when I can find them that is. I have spent a good deal of my life sifting through rows and rows of old LPs, boxes of secondhand singles and racks of rare CDs in search of those records that continue to elude me. Even though Amazon and iTunes have made it easier to source deleted and difficult-to-find records, there is still little to rival the involuntary yelp you give out when you stumble across something on your list while idly looking through a record store.