'I Drove All Night' is a song with an interesting history. Most people think of it as a Roy Orbison song - and it was originally written for him, in 1987.

However, it was Cyndi Lauper who first had a hit with it, in 1989. Years later, Celine Dion attempted to wrestle the song to death with her super-strength larynx.

Now The Maccabees have rescued the song from the realm of embarrassing cheese with a slowed-down, spooked, XX-style version. It's rather beautiful, I think, and nicely teases out the note of sinister obsession latent in the line: "I woke you from your sleep, to make love to you."

It's been a bad week for musicians looking to hang on to their dignity. At a gig in Liverpool the other night Morrissey quit the stage after just two songs after being hit by a drink hurled from the crowd.

A few days before that, a few moments into a show in Dundee, Calvin Harris was struck by a rogue shoe, causing him to collapse to the floor, clutching his face in agony. In the interests of journalistic record we reprint a photo of the incident, which is not – we repeat not - the slightest bit funny.

Pic courtesy of The Courier

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The other week I went to Malawi, to the Vinspired Lake Of Stars festival (Kenya Airways - good nut selection), where The Maccabees had been invited to play.

You would have read about this already in the mag, of course. Well here's exactly what it looked like, but moving:

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Somewhat ludicrously, it seems Jamie 'Afro' Archer is being positioned as the 'rock' contestant on this year's X Factor – despite the fact that he looks like a cross between Sideshow Bob, the bloke from Toploader, and Toad from 'Mario Kart'.

The Daily Mail are calling him the next Susan Boyle, potentially "another hairy angel in the making". He's a hairy something, alright. The other night he did Primal Scream's 'Rocks' (or 'Get Your Rocks Off', as X Factor producers seem to think it's called):

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Seems like the buzz surrounding Ellie Goulding has really ignited in the past few days.

Radar Editor Jaimie Hodgson interviewed her backstage in Bristol the other night, not long after her debut TV performance had gone out on 'Later... With Jools Holland'. Watch 'Under The Sheets':

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Hats off to photographer Roger Sargent for putting together this enormously affectionate tribute to NME writer Steven Wells, who passed away earlier this year.