Manic Street Preachers last week launched new album _Postcards From A Young Man_ at the Hammersmith Working Men's Club. Al Denney explains why they're as relevant now as in his days of teenage fandom. PLUS the Manics have given us a gallery of photographs taken during the day.
In 1999 Warren Ellis watched Nina Simone play live at Meltdown. After the show ended he rushed on stage and carefully rescued her chewing gum in a towel from where she'd stuck it to her piano. His new book, sparked off by this incident, is about the alchemy that produces art, obsessiveness and memory