Jet Set
Pete Tong's name is in the dictionary and in the title of a new film. As he flits between his Radio 1 show, a festival in Brazil and a club in Derby, Caspar Llewellyn Smith pursues him in his hectic schedule and asks: where does a middle-aged international superstar DJ go from here?
Who is the real Frankie Wilde?
'Even as a child, I felt like an alien'
Patti Smith's outlandish 1975 debut, 'Horses' was a landmark album whose stature grows with every passing year. Next month, as curator of the Meltdown festival, she will play it in its entirety on stage for the first time. Here she tells Simon Reynolds about the birth of a record that shaped a generation.
Slash and burn
Charlotte Church was the angelic million-seller who sang for the Pope - and then became a tabloid fixture, famed for her teenage hellraising and celebrity boyfriend. In her most candid interview ever, she tells Barbara Ellen how her critics have got her all wrong, and why she means business in her new incarnation as a pop princess.
Midnight cowboys
The keepers of the flame of country music - men who own horses and get into fights in border towns - take a 2,000-mile train journey to find the soul of the Wild West. Peter Culshaw joins them for poker, songs and discussions about Wittgenstein.
Something for the weekend
Fashions come and go, but some music fans stay true to one love. And when they want to share their passion - for vintage clothes and cars as much as anything else - they congregate at Britain's holiday resorts. Christopher Cottingham meets the rockers, goths and salsa and hardhouse diehards who live for nothing else.
Flash-forward
Amadou and Mariam, 'the blind couple of Mali', are megastars in their homeland. Can they repeat the trick here, asks Kitty Empire.
My part in the Pistols' downfall
Nothing in The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle shocked Sue Steward. As a gofer for the band, she knew all about their phlegm-flecked antics.
Tour de France
Maverick chanteuse Camille on her homeland's multifaceted music, from Gainsbourg to hip hop via the blues-infused les chansons des rues.
The OMM recommended 10
Twisted sisters, crazy frogs
There is a world where Frank Zappa is Yoda and John Denver is Kermit. And it's one that Paul Morley likes more than any MTV show.
Birth of the uncool
The electric violin solos, the gatefold album sleeves with wise words from Eastern mystics, the music you just can't dance to. Novelist William Sutcliffe recalls his misspent youth loving jazz rock and says that even now, he can't repent.
Divas to go
The golden age of R'n'B is over - that much clear. Just don't go blaming the regal figure the much maligned Mariah Carey...
Carry on up the charts
The inclusion of downloads in the official Top 40 is the thin edge of the wedge. Welcome to the future...
Download of the month
'Sow into you' by Roisin Murphy
Clowns of evil go on the rampage
Chris Campion enjoys a night on the Reeperbahn with the princes of Nordic rock'n'roll mayhem whose devotees - the bacchanalian Turbojugend - are even scarier than the metal band themselves.
The 10 most x-rated records
Some were deemed a threat to public morals, others might harm national security. But for whatever bizarre reason, all of them were banned.
Festival guide
OMM's guide to the summer's top festivals.
Nitin Sawhney
Leading British artist Antony Gormley and Nitin Sawhney get lost in deep conversation about quantum physics, getting depressed on the banks of the Ganges - and putting your heart and soul into music and sculpture.
Sally Lindsay
She pulls pints and dodgy blokes in Coronation St. In real life, she's so nostalgic for Madchester that little new music thrills her. Can Peter Paphides tickle her tastebuds?
The line dancer
Nothing matters more to Pauline than linking arms and wearing a stetson, learns Tom Cox. Except the man with the beard and fake rifle.
What I'm listening to
Kwame Kwei-Armah, playwright and actor.
