So, Schubert. He's inescapable, or at least he is on Radio 3. If you're not an admirer but a regular listener, you'll either have to decamp to Classic FM or seek refuge in silence which is, of course, unthinkable. I can't claim to be an authority on the composer since my knowledge of classical music can pretty much be summed up in Music for Babies, a CD that someone who didn't know me too well gave me when I was pregnant after it was claimed that exposure to classical music would increase my child's IQ. (To what extent it succeeded isn't clear). Pretty much all I know about Schubert is that he's the greatest songwriter since The Beatles. Hang on, that doesn't sound right....

Who knew Barack Obama could be a one-man stimulus package for a beleaguered music industry? When the US President belted out a couple of lines of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a fundraiser last month, sales of the track soared by almost 500 per cent. Now the blues classic "Sweet Home Chicago" can expect a boost after Obama confirmed his singing chops with an impromptu performance at the White House.

Exactly 50 years ago, Decca's Dick Rowe turned down the Fab Four, so heading an unenviable club of talent-spotters who passed up their biggest chance. But is it all an urban myth? A new book suggests so

Stone pulls out of PM's Davos tea party saying he's fed up of being used as a political football

New Year Honours: The Arts

On the rock front, a number of the year's music titles will please children of the Sixties. George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Abrams, £26.99) is a lavish volume, tying in with Martin Scorsese's documentary, that every Beatle fan will covet. With many of Harrison's own photos, it reflects his wide-ranging interests. As his widow writes, "everything was important to him but nothing really mattered".

Previously unpublished images from a 1970 studio photo shoot by Peter Webb are going on show after being lost in an attic for 40 years. Matilda Battersby talks to the photographer

Ronnie Wood’s night at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards was better than he realised.

The new Kings of Leon documentary is both strange and true. But, says Simon Hardeman, the best rock movies, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan, often play fast and loose with the facts

Designer Todd Lynn has dressed U2 and Marilyn Manson, but he's branching out with a show next week at Ascot. He tells Harriet Walker why he's having a flutter on some new customers

Impossible to dislike, bare bones piano and double bass duo by the unrelated Greens.

When Primal Scream played their iconic 1991 Screamadelica album in its entirety last November, they probably weren't expecting to be announcing two more London dates. But such was the success of the one-off homage the band paid to their groundbreaking album to accompany its re-release 20 years later, that they took the show on a full UK tour this month.

Ian Stewart rarely allowed in the public eye. Now, belatedly, tribute is to be paid, says John Walsh