Alex Turner made a defiant speech in support of rock'n'roll at last night's Brit Awards [February 19], where Arctic Monkeys becoming the first band to claim a Brits-double of British Group and British Album for a third time. Collecting British Group, Alex Turner said: "There's that 15 quid we put on One Direction to win down the drain." He declined to make a list of thank-yous, saying: "They need to hear their names read out as much as you need to hear another list of names of people you don't know."

David Bowie urged Scotland to "stay with us" and not vote for independence in his acceptance speech at last night's Brit Awards (February 19). The ceremony took place at London's O2 Arena earlier this evening, with Bowie winning Best International Male. However, the singer was not at the venue to pick up his award, and instead sent supermodel Kate Moss to pick up the prize on his behalf and read out his acceptance speech.

IKEA have announced plans to discontinue their Expedit shelving range. The range has proved immensely popular with record collectors, as it's dimensions make it perfect for storing records.

Don Henley has covered Jackson Browne's "These Days" for a forthcoming 2-CD album, Looking Into You: A Tribute To Jackson Browne. The album features versions of Browne’s songs by artists including Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt and JD Souther. “It is astounding to think that Jackson wrote ‘These Days’ when he was only 16 years old,” Henley said. “But then, he was always a step ahead of the rest of us. I’ve learned a lot from him, over the years, and am honored to be part of this album.”

The Mod scamps best work, finally given due respect...

The Flaming Lips and Wild Beasts have been announced as headliners for this year's End Of The Road Festival. The festival, which takes place on August 29 - 31 at Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset, will also feature sets from Richard Thompson, Mark Kozelek, John Grant, Tinariwen, White Denim and Yo La Tengo.

For a while this week, it looked like I might be able to post a playlist entirely consisting of new entries, at least until I got dragged back into playing the Ryley Walker. But hey, look at all this, not least the clip of Shirley Collins’ first live performance in 30 years, which just showed up.

The reunited Afghan Whigs have released a video ahead of their first new album in 16 years. Scroll down to watch the video for the track "Algiers". It's taken from Do To The Beast, the band's first album since their last album, 1965, which was released in 1998. Do To The Beast will be released on Sub Pop on April 14. Do To The Beast features core members Greg Dulli and bassist John Curley, but it is the first Whigs album that doesn't feature the band's original lead guitarist Rick McCollum.

Jonny Greenwood has accused modern guitar bands of playing their "grandparents instruments".

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is set to play an eight hour long gig based on author Hermann Hesse's 1922 novel, Siddhartha.