Chart-topper Jake Bugg visits Club Academy as part of his final lap of basement venues

The kiwi synth-popper played tracks from her sophomore LP at Academy 2

Alabama’s finest exports shook the Academy to its foundations at their biggest Manchester show to date

Columbia Records; 1992

One Direction’s ‘extremist’ fans, medieval tweets and Taylor Swift’s boyfriends

Ellie Riley reviews Blue/Orange at the Manchester Opera House

Toby Parker and Lucy Johnson are ‘blissfully roused’ from their slumbers by Rubin-Mayhew’s sleeping beauties

10 things you should know about Toulouse-Lautrec

The best of theatre for the week ahead.

Grace Williams visits the newly redeveloped Ancient Worlds galleries at the Manchester Museum

Lisa Quirke reminds us that reading is not just a means to a numerically valuated end

Author Paulo Coelho’s blog shoots straight to the heart of your internet life

Aidan Gregory charts his top war literature picks

Dan J gives a penny for Daniel Bortz’s thoughts on sampling, Sankeys and music of all sorts

As it turns twenty, we look back at the incendiary debut from the Californian funk-metallers

Dan Jones weighs up the pros and cons of free downloading

DIIV mark their first visit to Manchester with a spellbinding set at the Deaf Institute

The Portico Library serves up a slice of secret Manchester, and a good slice of cake too

10 things you should know about Vincent Van Gogh

O2 Apollo Manchester Saturday 10th November 2012 34/10