Ache

A lot of festival activity this weekend, and Uncut's legions have reported back from T In The Park, Live Earth and Cornbury over at our Festivals Blog. Every time I switched on Live Earth, I managed to catch something worse and worse: Paolo Nutini singing "What A Wonderful World" with what sounded like most of his internal organs rattling around the back of his throat; James Blunt joylessly dying on his arse; Madonna cavorting with the prize dicks of Gogol Bordello in the manner of a geography teacher after her annual joint at Glastonbury.

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

The riff-heavy return of alt.rock's angsty messiah

Robert Plant denies that the band will tour

I’ve mentioned here previously the time in 1979 I went to see Lou Reed at what was then still known as the Hammersmith Odeon when he reacted testily to requests from the crowd to play their favourite numbers by announcing that he would under no circumstances be playing anything else that night apart from his new album, The Bells, so there would, he repeated emphatically, no “Heroin”, “Sweet Jane”, “Walk On The Wild Side” or any of the other numbers so many people had obviously come to hear him perform.

Cult classic road movie on DVD for the first time

The brothers Reid take part in Jarvis' Meltdown

"She's not to blame!" sings one of Joss Stone's backing singers. Possibly she's exonerating her lead singer from the inclement weather, that's now reached torrential proportions. Looking at the waterlogged state of the fields round here, I suspect that it might not be the Mersey alone that you'll need a ferry to cross later this evening.

Have been for the final wander round the immense space that Glastonbury covers, the sound of Shirley Bassey as she performs on the main stage floats across the air...

Closing day of Glastonbury is well underway, and the rain has been set at 'fine trickle' since about 2am. Today will see Dame Shirley Bassey do her big numbers on the Pyramid Stage - on a Sunday billing that also includes Manic Street Preachers, Kaiser Chiefs and The Who, who are straight on to the site from headlining Knowsley Hall up in Liverpool last night.