Paul McCartney will perform for the first time ever in Israel next month - more than 40 years after The Beatles were blocked from giving a concert in the country.

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They could be secondary schoolteachers. If you saw them setting up for an afternoon's busking you would probably hold on to your change, assuming a dreary MOR rock band. But looks can be deceiving. The two men before us – the ex-Screaming Trees singer and sometime Queens of the Stone Age contributor Mark Lanegan, and Greg Dulli, formerly of the Afghan Whigs – are low-key legends in the realms of American alt-rock.

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Despite Kate Nash's considerable talents, there does lurk the suspicion that even many of her devotees must be getting fed up with her.

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Sunday evening's Prom brings a key figure back into the frame. Lang Lang may make more noise, and Daniel Barenboim may resonate beyond the confines of the concert hall, but for sheer ubiquitousness no musician can compare with the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

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Fifty years to the day since the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, it was only fitting that this Prom should be for him alone. And for those among us who still insist that a little of his "modal mysticism" goes a long way, the Ninth and last Symphony was there to remind us that the old man went out as he came in – confounding his critics. Indeed, the man once described as "a queer, mad fellow from Chelsea" did his best to live up to the insult.

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Even Londoners may not be aware of the Café in the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square. Not only does it offer good-value food served in unusual surroundings, it also has a gift shop and bookshop and is a charismatic musical venue covering all spectrums. Classical music, varying strands of jazz and even salsa are regular features of its programme.

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Dr Dre's 20-year-old son has died, the rapper's publicist said last night

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The opening of Kings Place on 1 October will bring London its first large, purpose-built concert hall since the Barbican's went up in 1982. It is sunk three storeys down into the once valueless mire between King's Cross station and a spur of the Regent's Canal, an unsubsidised concert hall dreamed of for years by a property developer from Newcastle upon Tyne called Peter Millican, and designed by the British architects behind the Royal Opera House development, Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones.

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It would be a whole lot easier to approve of US funk-rock entourage N.E.R.D if their lead singer and musical guiding light Pharrell Williams wasn't clearly in the midst of such a passionate love affair with himself.

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The annual appearance at the Proms of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain – 150 talented young players, untouched as yet by cynicism or routine – is always a thrill. And their latest, conducted by Antonio Pappano, was no exception, despite the difficulties of the three works they had chosen to play.

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Beth Ditto is sliding on her stomach in the rain, in front of the most sparse festival crowd The Gossip can have seen in years. The grim sky and near-deserted field don't augur well for Creamfields' 10th anniversary. But step inside the nearby Cream tent, and you enter a different world. DJ Hernan Cattaneo stands high above a heaving crowd that rises towards him under swirling lights, and for just a moment, the old promise that dance music would sweep rock aside seems credible again.

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When George Michael walked on to the stage at London's Earls Court, in one of the final dates of his two-year farewell tour, he told fans that they were lucky to see a show that he had practised 103 times. He was right: this was big-budget showmanship at its best.

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For the past half a decade, The Presets, who will be one of the main attractions of this Irish festival, have been partying their way around the world. Their machismo electro, with thumping bass lines and addictive melodies, has had club audiences dancing ever since the release of "Are You The One?" in 2005, which finally made the top 100 in their native Australia in March 2008.

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George Michael told British fans he was pleased to be home when he took to the stage for one of the final shows in his two-year 25 Live Tour. The singer also revealed he planned to release a Christmas single.

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As rain crashed down upon the bedraggled Reading crowd, The Killers took to Saturday night's main stage accompanied by a spectacular light show, their glittering suits offset by an inky, indigo sky.

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Well, she did arrive on stage an hour and a half late. And sure, ticket touts were rumoured to be flogging the £150 tickets at half price to fill the rows of empty seats.

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It's surely going to be a new sensation for Dylan Mills, also known as grime figurehead Dizzee Rascal, to embark on this national tour and not hear the biggest cheer of the night the moment his previously defining track "Fix Up, Look Sharp" is played.

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"It's an amazing line-up – one of the best I've seen this summer," says Fyfe Dangerfield, lead singer of The Guillemots, who will play the Hydro Connect festival on its opening day. "It's definitely the best one we've been included on, and we've been at quite a few festivals already this summer." He admits to being particularly excited by the prospect of seeing Manic Street Preachers perform live.

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There was some surprise when it was learnt that Pierre Boulez, a conductor of immaculate precision, had taken to performing that sometimes rough diamond Leos Janacek. But with his recent readings of Janacek's last opera, From the House of the Dead, having drawn rave reviews, one approached this Prom of his music from 1926 (well into the Czech composer's prodigious old age) with real anticipation.

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