Those interested in submitting bids to be UK City of Culture 2017 are being asked to register with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by the end of February, with the end of April as the deadline for completed bids. A shortlist selected by an Independent Advisory Panel will be announced in June.
Feelgood Factor - Wilko Johnson has spoken of the strange "euphoria" he has experienced since being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The former Dr Feelgood guitarist said the news made him feel "vividly alive" - and lifted the bouts of depression he had previously experienced. But Johnson told Radio 4's Front Row programme he would cancel his planned farewell gigs if he began to feel sick. Johnson is due to play four dates in France at the beginning of February, followed by three successive nights at the Greystones pub in Sheffield.
Folk Heroes - Singers Billy Bragg and Roy Harper are to be honoured with lifetime achievement accolades at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards later this month. Bragg will receive the Roots Award in recognition of his 30-year career as a socially-conscious singer-songwriter. Harper, a folk rocker who started out in the 1960s and has influenced a generation of alternative acoustic musicians, will also be recognised. The ceremony takes place at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall on 30 January.
Tinnitus Awareness - Coldplay have agreed to contribute a remix of one of their tracks to a charity album aimed at raising awareness of tinnitus. DJ Eddy Temple-Morris, who dreamt up the project, said he planned to put together an album "where every single person involved has tinnitus". Coldplay singer Chris Martin suffers from the condition - a constant buzzing in the ear, often caused by loud music. Other bands involved in the project include Black Eyed Peas and Embrace.
Most Requested - The London 2012 Opening Ceremony was the most requested programme last year on the iPlayer, the BBC has revealed. Danny Boyle's spectacular Olympic curtain-raiser topped iPlayer viewing in 2012 with 3.3m requests, in a year that saw record numbers achieved by the BBC's on-demand service. Top Gear was the second most popular programme with 2.8m requests.
Funding Cuts - Soho Theatre and English National Ballet will be among those groups set to lose funding from Westminster City Council following a proposal to phase out all of its arts budget by 2014/15. A report to the local authority's budget and performance task group lays out plans to cut the council's annual £350,000 spend on arts organisations by removing £150,000 in 2013/14 and a further £200,000 in 2014/15. Melvyn Caplan, Westminster City Council's cabinet member for finance and customer services, said, "We don't take these decisions lightly, but we are facing unprecedented cuts to our budgets and having to make tough spending decisions within all our areas of service. The total level of savings is £100 million over a four-year period."
(Jim Evans)
