Drums - Picasso

I've always wondered what he could do with a pair of sticks.

Further to your obituary of Jackie Leven (17 November), when I was writing a book about the British on holiday, and wanted to include a chapter on cruising, a mutual friend put me in touch with the singer-songwriter, who in his droll Scottish manner told me about his experience as the "entertainment" on a two-week cruise of the Norwegian fjords in 2002.

Four years ago, Plan B aka Ben Drew was a mouthy hoodie-clad rapper from east London whose acclaimed debut album offered such odes to the street as the inspired "Mama (Loves a Crackhead)".

They called themselves "The Clan" and "The Summit". The press termed them the "Rat Pack", after the group of roistering friends who had attached themselves to Humphrey Bogart a decade earlier. Bogart and his coterie, which included Frank Sinatra, were never photographed at play. Their successors – Frank Sinatra again, but this time with Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jnr and Dean Martin – were, in private snaps never intended to be published. The images have now been recovered from a cardboard box of negatives found in a photographic agent's office.

There would surely have been water in those ol' blue eyes if Frank Sinatra were still alive today to witness the shuttering of his once-beloved casino, Cal Neva Lodge, for lack of folk at the gambling tables.

The singer and actress Kathryn Grayson was a resident soprano at MGM from 1940 until the early Fifties, her films including the acclaimed versions of Show Boat and Kiss Me, Kate. She was particularly favoured by producer Joe Pasternak, who had moved from Universal, where he had brilliantly handled the career of Deanna Durbin. Grayson's operatic background and training appealed to the producer, who liked to mix classics with popular songs in his musicals.

Setzer is the Jedwardhairedsinger-guitarist whonot only spearheaded therockabilly revival of theearly 1980s with the StrayCats but also had a majorhand in the big-band jivemovement of the late1990s with his GrammywinningTheDirty Boogie.Nowadays, Setzer switchesbetween Rat Pack croonerand rockabilly rebel, oftenin the space of one line.Simultaneously smoothand raw, one minute it'screpe-soled jitterbug, thenext it's Vegas razzledazzle,and beneath thehorn section's glitzy blarethere always beats abadass heart.

As history is celebrated on the streets of Berlin today, behind the scenes, another, though more discreet, chapter in European history may also be penned in that same city.