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For those who are disappointed not to have scored a ticket to see the Rolling Stones in 2012, then there is some slight consolation.

A couple of weeks ago, I read an interview with Scott Litt about working on “Tempest”, in which he mentioned how Dylan’s voice now reminded him, positively, of Louis Armstrong. Dylan, Litt suggested, should have a go at “Hello Dolly” sometime (The full piece is stuck behind the paywall at http://www.newyorker.com/, unfortunately).

Did you see that terrific BBC4 Squeeze documentary, Take Me I’m Yours, on Friday night? I was more than a little taken aback by the currently be-whiskered Glenn Tilbrook, but I’m sure there’s a plausible explanation for wanting to look like that and otherwise the programme was a timely reminder of the many great songs he and Chris Difford have written over the years. It also put me in mind of an eventful few days I spent with the band in 1980, when they were rather unhappily touring Australia, where I caught up with them in inhospitable Brisbane before we headed for the sunny beaches of Surfer’s Paradise. Here’s a piece I wrote for my old Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before column in Uncut.

James Bond at 50 seems in pretty good shape.

Roscoe Beck and others remember touring with the singer-songwriter

Stoker arrives with some heavy expectations. It is the English language debut of South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, the architect of the nerve-shredding Oldboy.

Neil Young is not, at a guess, an artist who suffers much from writer’s block. In the past few years, many of his albums have felt like spontaneous dispatches from an over-productive mind.

Neil Young has hinted that he may reunite Buffalo Springfield. The singer believes he has unfinished business with the mid-'60s band he formed with Stephen Stills, and may reform the group for a new record. They previously reunited for a brief tour in 2011. Speaking to The Guardian, Young said: "Two of the guys are no longer with us, so it's difficult, but we're yet to do something that …you never know."

John Lydon: "It was done more or less instantly"

Boxing Day, 1967, and The Beatles’ new film, something called Magical Mystery Tour, is about to be shown for the first time, broadcast by the BBC, fans looking forward to what surely will be a highlight of the Christmas television schedules, a welcome respite to those of a certain age from the usual seasonal fare of old movies and light entertainment, all that stuff that they usually show to keep the old folks happy over the holidays.