A boy wearing skinny jeans is rattling the keys of a synthesiser and a lad with glasses is pounding the skins of a drum. In front of them, a 23-year-old cardigan-clad girl with her hair dyed platinum, raises her arms to the ceiling. The venue is the O2 Academy, the location, Glasgow, and Ellie Goulding is half-way through her sound check. Goulding is belting out the words to her recent single "Starry Eyed" – "Hit me with lightning," she sings, in a quivering, note-perfect voice. Watching from the sidelines are various members of Passion Pit and Little Death, two bands playing on the same bill later that day. One of them breaks into a mocking dance.

Home-grown hip-hop hitmakers N-Dubz have a history of trouble, most lately with 'death-texts' to a radio listener. The north-London trio explain themselves to Charlotte Cripps

Following his split from Heather Mills, Sir Paul McCartney accomplished that celebrity rare feat: coming out of a divorce smelling of roses.

Audacious artistic entrepreneurs, from Peckham to Glasgow, have defied the recession by forming small but perfectly formed businesses on the cutting-edge of creativity

Mamma Mia! The Movie has enjoyed the biggest film opening for a musical in the UK, a picture company said today.

BILL FREDERICKS was one of the many featured vocalists with the Drifters. While he never reached the heights of success of the group's founder member Clyde McPhatter or a later lead vocalist Ben E. King, who both went on to solo careers, Fredericks's presence enabled the Drifters to survive the late Sixties and find a new audience in Britain in the early Seventies. Most famously, Fredericks's rich, smooth baritone propelled the soulful, yearning "Like Sister and Brother" into the British Top Ten in 1972.

The band that taste forgot still has its admirers - and plenty of impersonators.

THE AMERICAN soul diva Gwen Guthrie is best remembered for "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent", one of the biggest dance anthems of the Eighties, which captured the public imagination with its catchphrase: "No romance without finance. You gotta have a J.O.B. if you wanna be with me." Over the course of a varied career, the disco star contributed to dozens of albums as a composer, lead and backing vocalist and was one of the first recording artists to raise money for the fight against Aids.

Rory Gallagher was the People's Guitarist. Unassuming but tenacious, the Irish blues man devoted his life to touring and playing his beloved Fender Strat to adoring audiences. He never stopped working, and could always command a crowd, but resolutely eschewed the trappings of superstardom.

Sir: David Lister's article "No Wonder DJ is flustered as superstar plays hard to get" (10 March) leaves a detrimental impression of Stevie Wonder's behaviour at his performance for Radio 1. Radio 1 had, in fact, invited Stevie Wonder to be interviewed and asked if he would sit at the piano in front of an invited audience. It was agreed to do the interview in this fashion but it was made very clear that he would play only the songs, or parts of songs, that he felt would be appropriate, and that they would be his choice.

THE ROCK star least likely to schmooze pitched up at the Brits this week to receive the Outstanding Contribution to British Music award. The kisses on both cheeks, the fulsome dedications to family and friends - somehow such things were never quite Van Morrison's style. But on Monday, he did it his way, hidden under shades and a big black hat, mumbling a few largely inaudible words of thanks and then performing a ramshackle celebratory duet on 'Gloria' with the now near-toothless Shane MacGowan. Morrison is a year short of his fiftieth birthday and his soulful bark is more popular than it's ever been. In April, Polydor Records will push out A Night in San Francisco, a concert recording made in America last September. It runs for two and a half hours, taking in a spread of the old favourites and four blues covers never recorded by Morrison before: 'Ain't that Loving You Baby', 'Stormy Monday', 'Help Me' and 'Shakin' All Over'. These numbers may or may not be present and / or recognisable in the current live shows - Morrison's wilful unpredictability in this respect rivalling Dylan's - but generous show-length comes as standard. Morrison is at Oxford Apollo, 0865 244544, Fri & Sat. Also at Manchester Apollo, 061-273 3775/9, 4 March; Sheffield City Hall, 0742 735295, 5 March.

THIS is clearly Sheffield's golden age. Not only are both its teams through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but the city also gets to host Sound City '93, which starts next Monday - a week of music-related events taking place across the city, and the follow-up to last year's successful stint in Norwich.

SHEFFIELD Sound City 93 begins on Monday 5 April. As part of a week of musical events taking place across the city, the Independent, in association with Radio 1, the British Phonographic Industry, the Musicians Union and Sheffield City Council, is sponsoring a set of lunchtime talks on pop music and related issues.

Kylie Minogue's Greatest Hits album comes out next week, and her record company are quietly confident. They've done their research. They've been out on the street with the sleeve and the track-listing, asking people what they thought about it. Surprisingly, as well as the predictable tots, there's an audience of 25-35 year old mothers out there, just clamouring for this album. Minogue has recently mentioned her desire for an older audience. The market researchers have been out and found her one.