Bob Dylan has confirmed a run of UK dates, including three nights at London's Royal Albert Hall. Dylan and his band will play: Glasgow Clyde Auditorum - November 18, 19, 20 Blackpool Opera House - November 22, 23, 24 Royal Albert Hall - November 26, 27, 28 Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 14 at 9am GMT. They are available online from bobdylan.com.

The Replacements have announced three shows - their first dates in 22 years. The band have confirmed headlining slots at three Riot Fests in Toronto (August 24 - 25), Chicago (September 13 - 15), and Denver (September 21 - 22). Last year, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson reunited to record a four-song EP, Songs For Slim, to raise money for former Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap, who had suffered a stroke.

Eric Clapton has been forced to cancel two European shows at short notice, citing back problems. Clapton was due to play Vienna today (June 11) and Stuttgart tomorrow (June 12). A statement on Clapton's website reads: "Unfortunately Eric Clapton has had to cancel his concerts in Vienna, Austria and Stuttgart, Germany on his current tour due to severe back pain. "He is currently with specialists who will be able to better determine the course of treatment.

Björk has announced a one-off gig at London's Alexandra Palace on September 3. This will be the first time the Icelandic singer has brought her long-running Biophilia Tour to the British capital and a post on her official site branded it "an emotionally significant show for Björk herself, who called the city home in her youth".

Elvis Costello has teamed up with Mumford & Songs to cover Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost Of Tom Joad". Scroll down to watch the video. The cover was recorded for agit8, an "urgent call to action against extreme poverty" launched by Bono's One Campaign in advance of the G8 Summit in Belfast, Northern Ireland next week. Springsteen's original "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" was the title track to his 11th studio album, which came out in 1995.

Beck has announced details of two solo UK shows set to take place in July. The singer will perform dates in Cambridge and London on July 6 and 7 respectively, following his Song Reader performance at the Barbican on July 4. The line-up for the Barbican show will include Beck himself, alongside Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

The Beatles' 1968 song "Octopus's Garden", written by Ringo Starr, is set to be turned into a children's book. Starr has given publishing house Simon & Schuster permission to turn the song into a picture book, with illustrations by Ben Cort, who is currently behind the kids series Alien's Love Underpants, reports The Guardian.

One of our longer playlists this week and, I think, the one with more embedded music than I’ve ever posted before: you can listen to 12 out of 25 entries here, if I’ve counted right…

Lou Reed was back in the news last week and for reasons other than his recent life-saving liver transplant. It turned out that some boorish actor, a self-styled hell-raiser, Rhys Ifans, by name, had thrown a bit of a strop during a newspaper interview and so one of the Saturday broadsheets, presumably stuck for anything else to fill its pages, canvassed some notable journalists about their most difficult celebrity interview.