His musical tastes famously extend from Abba to Wings, “the band The Beatles could have been”. But Alan Partridge’s elevation to the big screen is set to bring a new lease of life to a host of artists unfairly excluded from pop’s hall of fame.

Singer Katherine Jenkins has parted company with her record label but said she is "excited" about her next move.

The ailing high-street music retailer HMV was last night said to be on the verge of a £50m rescue in a move that could save 2,500 jobs.

The Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik will add Coldplay, Blur and Tinie Tempah to his empire after his Warner Music group emerged victorious in a bidding war to take over the historic Parlophone record label.

The restructuring firm Hilco UK said today there is a "viable underlying" business at HMV after it effectively took control of the failed retailer by purchasing its debt, handing a potential lifeline to the group's survival prospects. Hilco, the owner of Denby Pottery, has acquired all the outstanding debt in HMV from its lenders, including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, for nearly £40m but not the business itself.

The administrator to HMV yesterday performed a major U-turn and said the failed retailer's gift cards could be redeemed in stores from tomorrow, as hopes were raised that the chain's 200-plus stores could remain on the high street in the short-term.

Global music and film giants have thrown their weight behind a consortium led by Hilco UK, the restructuring firm that is bidding to rescue the entertainment chain HMV out of administration.

Hollywood producer faces fierce opposition to planned project

Led Zeppelin will not be reuniting any time soon.

Germany helps lift fees at Hays

Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins have done wonders in changing classical music's reputation as stuffy. But will British operatic group Amore succeed in putting the fun back in opera and be the next big opera band?

Widow of Atlantic Records founder gives Oxford £26m for spectacular study centre

Frank Zappa was not only one of the most prolific and idiosyncratic American musicians of the rock era, but also a great discoverer and enabler of other people's talent. In the late 1960s, the guitarist and his then manager, Herb Cohen, set up the Bizarre and Straight labels and issued a raft of records by Alice Cooper, Captain Beefheart and Tim Buckley, three acts who have arguably proved more influential than Zappa himself. This triumvirate rather overshadowed albums by the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, the groupie ensemble The GTOs – Girls Together Outrageously – and "Wild Man" Fischer, a mentally ill performer whom Zappa had met on Los Angeles' notorious Sunset Strip.

The Overtones, a five-part vocal-harmony boy-band, specialise in vintage pop including doo-wop and Motown. They were discovered by a record-label talent scout last year, while decorating an office in Oxford Street where they sang together in their tea break. A few days later they were in the boardroom at Warner Music being offered a demo deal, which led to a five-album recording contract.