Bella Todd

The brainchild of producer Simon Emmerson, The Imagined Village is a folk project aimed at reawakening a passion for our country's musical heritage.

Kurt Wagner's voice is less a sound than a sensation - a deep receding throbbing, like wine in the blood or a hangover in the head.

Emma Lee Moss, aka Emmy The Great, is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from London via Japan who played her first gig three years ago this Halloween and has built a passionate following.

The opening line of The Kissaway Trail's breakthrough album is the best introduction you'll get to a band whose greatest strength is their curious mix of fatalism and defiance, misery and joy.

When former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler was asked to produce the third album by Sons & Daughters, he had bold transformations in mind.

"You might want to tuck your trousers into your socks now," said Rennie Sparks. "This song tends to attract spiders. I think it's something to do with the timbre of my voice."

"People often use the word ramshackle about my music," says Johnny Flynn. "It means a lot to me."

Intensely dramatic, violently expressive and full of a rich, dark beauty all its own, the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca has inspired countless artists down the years.

Being a heartthrob was never a part of Tom Conti's consciousness. That said, the Shirley Valentine star can nail the exact moment when he noticed his attractions had waned.

In February 1894, a Frenchman named Martial Bourdin died of horrific injuries when a bomb he was carrying exploded at The Greenwich Observatory. The incident has gone down as Britain's first experience of international terrorism, and Bourdin, who was a member of a known anarchist group, as our first suicide bomber.