On The Left - Musician Billy Bragg is to curate his own stage at this summer's Glastonbury Festival, organisers have announced. Bragg will book the bill for the Leftfield tent, which returns this year after being axed in 2009. Bragg said his role would be "a bit of everything - curator, MC, performer, guitar roadie [and] juggler." The stage will aim to bring a political dimension to the event, described as "the original activist festival" by the Barking-born veteran. Glastonbury, said Bragg, "has always had that political edge since its rebirth in the 1980s as a gathering for dissidents and dancers".
Singing Nuns - Decca Records wants to record an album of plainsong and chant in time for the Pope's UK visit in September. The idea for the album was inspired by an old recording of singing nuns rediscovered during an office move. Nuns and religious orders are being asked to contact Decca with examples of their singing within a month. Decca general manager Mark Wilkinson told the BBC, "This is a genuine appeal to find what you could call a 'sister act' for the 21st Century."
March Past... - Philips demonstrates a revolutionary digital playback system - the compact disc (March, 1980); Mike Oldfield wins the Grammy for Best Instrumental for Tubular Bells (1975); The Beatles make their first appearance at Liverpool's Cavern Club (1961); British bandleader Johnny Dankworth refuses to go to South Africa because of the country's colour-bar policy. He backs Father Trevor Huddlestone's call for entertainers to boycott South Africa (1955).
(Jim Evans)
