Against all the odds U2 have scored a Number One hit with their latest slice of middle-age snooze rock 'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own'.

Well at least the Americans have finally seen some sense and are going to add digital downloads to their music charts.

At a time when every man and his dog are talking about the ridiculous state of the UK singles chart it seems Billboard have decided to do the only thing which can give some much needed legitimacy to the whole affair.

Hurrah, for the future of British music!

The Brits are back to stun our senses, confound expectations and prove incontrovertibly that experimentation, creativity and risk are still alive and well among our proud pop standard bearers…

Oh, sorry hecklerspray must have been briefly transported to a strange parallel universe by downing one too many extra strength Lemsips.

No, in the real world welcome

Shocking bit of cultural lagging, this. Having soared through the suicide of guitarist Jimmi Lawrence to create orchestral rock masterpiece The Lost Riots,Chichester’s finest Hope Of The States have failed to gather a single – that’s right, a single – nomination for the upcoming NME awards. This from a publication that called the album ‘expansive, cinematic and full of majesty.’

So

What sounds like a combination of The Human League, M83, The Magnetic Fields, Orange Juice and Kevin Shields, mixed by Daft Punk and with overdubs by Interpol and, erm, produced by the artistprobablyknownas Prince?

Cut Copy does, that's what...

If you are a long-term music/vinyl afficionado you need to stop what you are doing and immediately visit knockoff*project, which has painstakingly collated hundreds of original album covers alongside hundreds of rip-offs.

It is widely known, for example, that the Clash borrowed a fron cover from Elvis, but so too did Tiny Tim, Hasil Adkins and one Tony Blair, among others.

So too we see the look and feel

REM's Micheal Stipe has shocked an unshockable world with revelations that he had a 'bisexual awakening' on an Easter Sunday, aged 13, in a bath, with two gingers. We're not making this up...

Gwen Stefani's new album is "shite", according to New Order's Peter Hook.

The bearded Mancunian (aka Greatest Living Bassist) and Barney were invited by Oxfam-styled Stefani to guest on her new album.

Having taken up the offer to record with her (Barney did some backing vocals and Hooky was unleashed in the usual way) everything went quiet, even after the album was released... with