As far as most of us were concerned, Babyshambles were dead, and we could have been forgiven for thinking so. It’d been six years since ‘Shotter’s Nation’, bassist Drew McConnell had shattered his spine in three places, and Pete Doherty was busy making French films and selling tin cups and union jacks from a pop-up shop in Camden. So, their return, with the Stephen Street-produced ‘Sequel To The Prequel’, was greeted with with a mixture of delight and anxiety. The album’s early moments do little

According to The Cramatics, �stars that shine the brightest are the stars that slowly die�. I have no idea if this is true or not - I�m not Stephen Hawking - but I do know that lots of interesting things are formed in the centre of dying stars, things like... gold. Incidentally, 'Like Gold' is the name of the Cramatics new track (did you see what I did there? I�m here all week), and it�s worth a listen if you get the chance. 'Like Gold' is not a song about gold at all, it's about

It�s Halloween weekend in Cardiff city centre, and Jessie J is fitting right in. Swathed in dazzling white bandages with her trademark black bob, Jessie is channelling Cleopatra, post mummification. She stands with her feet too far apart and tells us in her gobby Essex accent about a recent trip to Poundland where she blew thirty-eight quid on mint Viscount biscuits, which she charmingly mispronounces as �Viss � counts�. She then tells us an anecdote about a pair of leggings and a bitchy

�Please welcome to the stage, Gary Barlow and...Cheryl!� And so the newly surname-less Cheryl pranced onto the Jubilee stage like the most beautiful deer in the entire world, opened her mouth, and then Twitter exploded. The jubilee taught us many things. Standing for five hours on a boat in the rain when you�re three hundred years old will probably result in a short stay in hospital. Grace Jones likes to Hula-Hoop. And Cheryl Cole, Tweedy, whatever � can�t sing. She�s rebran

The seven year old boy sat next to me is hugging the chair in front of him, staring at the stage with eyes like saucers. The crowd is a strange mix of excited children, fluffy-haired fledgling indie boys and what seems like several thousand twelve year old girls wearing bunny ears. They turn the dark arena into a carpet of brightly lit mobile phone screens, poised for the moment that McFly finally bound onto the stage like four toddlers in the grip of a sugar rush. Mcfly are hardly audible b

�Olly Olly Olly, Oi, Oi, Oi!� And there you have it - the union of X Factor runner up Olly Murs and the capital city of Wales, summed up in a lairy chant. It�s a freezing evening in Cardiff and Olly is set to perform the first night of his tour at the Motorpoint Arena. The place is buzzing with obsessional teenage girls with their home-made banners and plastic glasses of coke, waiting excitedly for a dose of radio-friendly reggae-pop. Before the show starts, music videos are play

What do Bob Hoskins, Darren Hayes and The Samaritans all have in common? Well, they all seem to have this crazy notion that talking to your loved ones is a good idea. Considering Darren�s four year silence, this seems a bit rich, but he�s finally regained his power of the verbals with new single �Talk Talk Talk� taken from upcoming album �Secret Codes and Battleships�. Upon hearing the name �Darren Hayes�, my first instinct is to imagine an aesthetically flawless Ken Dol

�So, we were driving to some gig in the arse end of nowhere. We were hopelessly lost and I tried to call the promoter but ended up calling Joss Stone by mistake...� Here�s a list of mistakes. Marrying Tom Cruise Reading, or even thinking about reading, �Fifty Shades of Gray� The Millennium Dome. They�re mistakes. Calling your childhood friend Joss Stone - by mistake - is not a mistake. Because without it, we wouldn�t have the absolute joy that is 'Desperatio

Step-dads, eh? If they�re not hogging the remote control and sleeping with your mum, they�re rocking out on a ukulele whilst you�re trying to sing about lost love. Cardiff-based indie band Toy Horses don�t seem to mind. Consisting of Tom Williams and his step-son Adam Franklin, Toy Horses are an inter-generational musical wonder. They�ve earned themselves a loyal fanbase with their perky, melodic sound, and have even garnered a few celebrity admirers. �Clever fucking guy� Mr St

my Pomeranian or the French military leader? 1. Is small enough to fit into a standard English recycling bin 2. Afraid of cats, and was found one night ‘swinging furiously at a kitten.’ 8. Once dangerously swarmed by hundreds of rabbits