British veteran Nathan Robertson feels it is time to make home advantage start counting as the 2012 build-up intensifies.

It's a testament to the X Factor brand that on a rainy Saturday night in March, on a day when half of Wembley's train stations are inaccessible, Wembley Arena is packed to the rafters. Overnight celebrities, who were anonymous less than a year ago, are now playing to more than 10,000 fans whose enthusiasm borders on hyperactivity.

Dave Grohl's Godlike Genius Award from NME shortly before this gig is a definition of debased currency. For the better part of two hours after two years away, he leads Foo Fighters through a show of fearsome stamina and volume. When he says "this could take all night", like Al Jolson you believe him. But as drummer in Nirvana or leader of his own amiable band, Grohl will never surprise you no matter how long he plays. His unasked for, universal acknowledgement as the Nicest Man in Rock isn't itself a creative act.

Ding Junhui was in imperious form as he dispatched Graeme Dott 6-2 yesterday in the first quarter-final of the Masters at Wembley Arena.

Neil Robertson advanced to the quarter-finals of the Masters at Wembley Arena yesterday with a 6-3 win over seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry. Australian Robertson, the reigning Crucible champion, recorded three breaks in the 80s as he kick-started his campaign with a comfortable win. He will face Ronnie O'Sullivan's conqueror Mark Allen in the next round.

Ronnie O'Sullivan suffered a first-round exit at the Masters yesterday as Mark Allen battled to a 6-4 win at Wembley Arena.

Boasting a rich career that started with mod-punkers The Jam more than 30 years ago, Paul Weller struck gold again this year. Delirious reviews welcomed the Modfather back to the UK charts in April with his 10th solo album, Wake Up the Nation, a short, sharp and striking work of fresh experimental hits nominated for the Mercury Prize. It's this new material that dominates Weller's set on the last night of his UK tour at Wembley yet, surprisingly, his performance massively misses the mark.

John Higgins will make his next appearance in front of British snooker fans at December's UK Championship ranked at No 3 in the world.

The ambitious Australian quintet Pendulum have their sights set on becoming the biggest electronic act in the world. It must have been a blow to the kudos then when Neil Diamond beat the dance-rockers' second drum'n'bass-meets-metal album, In Silico, to the No 1 slot in 2008.

Poignant and depressing though David Laws' resignation on Saturday night certainly was, at least it was less a shock than it might have been. The pre-emptive warning came on Saturday afternoon when a former colleague waded into the debate with a contribution headlined: "Opik: No question of Laws resigning". Ah well – we Lembit-watchers thought on seeing this – that's that for the ascetic member for Yeovil. It was Lembit who insisted Charles Kennedy would survive until the moment he resigned; Lembit who then became Mark Oaten's campaign manager (quite an accolade given that he was the only Lib Dem MP to back him); and Lembit, the seer of seers, who then switched allegiance to Simon Hughes. The sadness is that had Lembit only clung on his Montgomeryshire seat on 6 May he'd have been in line to replace Danny Alexander as Scottish Secretary ... and might from there have replicated the Alexander book by swiftly ascending to Cheek Secretary to the Treasury. But now what for the asteroid paranoiac? Lembit, it seems, has been hired by a gambling syndicate to go through the cards in difficult handicaps. His job, as you may have guessed, will be to tip all but one of the field.

It's obvious that 50 Cent is so rich he doesn't have to bother with producing a show that goes beyond the usual pyrotechnics, a generous donation of his clothing to the crowd (including a leather jacket, destined for eBay) and a quality beginning, middle and end. But you wish he would; 50's music might be lyrically dire, but the production is usually enticing. Playing with the arrangements and taking a few more creative risks could have worked in his favour – if only to prove his four albums haven't been in vain.