It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest songs ever written but I’d be surprised if “Waterloo Sunset” was all that popular a karaoke choice. Those notes are hard to hit, as even Paul Weller discovered when he turned up and duetted with Ray Davies at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night.

Julian Fellowes wants to write a Downton prequel. Why not march forward to the septic Seventies? John Walsh offers his plot suggestions

It was a hard year in the bluegrass world and the loss of icons such as Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson hung over the International Bluegrass Music Awards on Thursday night.

The influence of punk can be seen everywhere, from Primark T-shirts to the font choices of wannabe-hip advertising. But while its sound and style, once a middle finger to society, now runs throughout pop culture, there is one element that has proven particularly galvanising: that do-it-yourself attitude.

Who knew that Grant Shapps, the Tory Minister of State for Housing tipped for promotion in the imminent Cabinet reshuffle, was such an enemy of traditional Conservative family values?

"We consider this the last show of the Relationship of Command tour," keyboardist/guitarist Jim Ward lets us know at the end. "It’s taken us 12 years to finish." Then he adds, of his four band-mates: "I love these dudes more than life itself."

This year’s Reading bill looks over-familiar from top to bottom, faithfully reflecting a rock scene desperately waiting for new heroes.

Russian opposition leader and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was called for questioning yesterday after a police officer accused him of biting his hand while being arrested.

Demonised by the establishment when it burst on to the scene in the late Eighties, the rave subculture that began in Britain's urban backwaters still affects clubbing across the globe, says Chris Mugan

It is wishful thinking. He has yet to create the hunger for change that led to the Arab Spring

Are the kids all right? Not really, to judge by the Traverse's theatre programme. In Simon Stephens' Morning, which concludes with words "There is only terror. There is no hope", the troubled state of today's youth is laid bare in sinister and brutal fashion.

Where are you now and what can you see? In the office of the house I'm renting in Los Angeles. I can see palm trees and all sort of lush foliage. Also, the sparkly water of the hot tub.