Within seven minutes of BBC1 picking up live coverage, Chris Rock gets in the first "C’mon motherfuckers". This shortly after David Gray and Damien Rice have murdered "Que Sera Sera", Snow Patrol have yelled, "Looking forward to Spinal Tap? We are!" and Geri Halliwell has walked onstage to say, "Isn‘t it great my band are back together?" While the eight concerts around the world constitute an immense, well-intended event, the Wembley show is a thoroughly surreal mish-mash of deafening hard rock, weightless aerobic pop and celebs spouting platitudes.

Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce will now talk at the Curzon

DAMIEN RICE Irish troubadour Rice distinguished himself from the weedy, confessional singer-songwriter pack early on with his debut album from 2002, ‘O’, working strings, gnarled blues and sexual frankness into his contemporary folk mix.

He's the star of a future Uncut, Audience With feature

See the video to 'O Superman' here too

The Reid brothers follow-up last month's Meltdown triumph

The jazz singer has died, aged 80

The jazz and blues legend passed away this morning aged 80

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH Brooklyn five piece Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are one of a bunch of north American bands – The Shins, Modest Mouse, and Broken Social Scene among them – revising what is meant by indie pop...

To be honest, the success of Rilo Kiley has been pretty bewildering to me up 'til now. Much as I liked Jenny Lewis' country solo album, "Rabbit Fur Coat", I never grasped the appeal of her band. For all her likeable LA snarkiness, their music always sounded like a grey jangle; as if the American mainstream had embraced, what, The Sundays maybe, as the future of music. Quite strange, but in quite a dull way.