Home city of Liverpool sets aside an entire day for Beatlemania

Trent Reznor giving away first new SONG since Year Zero

This year's festival Jury is headed by Sean Penn

SADLERS WELLS AND RSC BRING PERFORMANCE TO LATITUDE FESTIVAL -- Heaps of additions to rub shoulders with Sigur Ros, Interpol and Franz Ferdinand -- See who's confirmed for the Literary, Comedy and Music & Film Arenas here.

Heaps of additions to rub shoulders with Interpol and Franz Ferdinand

A busy day for new records yesterday, notable I guess for the arrival on a secure internet stream of the new, Eno-produced Coldplay album, plus a bunch of new tracks from Primal Scream, one of which is weirdly reminiscent of Pulp. In perhaps less headline-grabbing news, Black Taj are a couple of guys from Polvo (you can hear the awesome jam, “Fresh Air Traverse”, here), and the Wild Beasts album is lovely.

Madonna's Hard Candy also features in Uncut's release round-up

Moody return of the Sonny & Cher of Grunge

Back to bubblegum basics for the Material Girl

Mark E Smith, and another new line-up