The Essex factor: How Olly Murs went from X Factor reject to pop sensation

He might not have won The X Factor, but that's not stopping Olly Murs, as Fiona Sturges discovers
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A pity for Morgana that first impressions last

It’s good to take risks with new comedy talent on TV, says Fiona Sturges, but Channel 4’s latest starlet has badly misfired
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Meet and greet, hug and strip - charge a fortune

If you have the money, you can buy a photo with Justin Bieber, a cuddle with Peter Andre, dinner and a striptease from Princess Superstar. Fiona Sturges asks why acts are selling themselves
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Elton's Heroes: Brandon Flowers

The unlikely idol with the killer tunes. By Fiona Sturges
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Sick and tired of television's trailer trash

Programme-makers are ruining their shows with lengthy spoilers that give far too much away, says Fiona Sturges
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Stay the night: Merchant Hotel, Belfast

The former financial institution oozes luxury, but it needs better soundproofing, says Fiona Sturges
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Quiet please: rock gig etiquette

Talking loudly at a pop concert these days can get you reprimanded – and don't even think of spilling your beer. Fiona Sturges applauds the new etiquette
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Music biopics: For those about to rock, please don't bother

The sensational storylines are already in place, says Fiona Sturges, so why are biopics of music stars so frequently dreadful?
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Carl Barât - The likely lad cleans up

Carl Barât has an album, an autobiography, and a baby on the way. Fiona Sturges hears how he has turned turmoil into triumph
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How Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac went from YouTube to Newsnight

Three years ago they uploaded a £200 video to YouTube. Now Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac are asked to discuss the state of the nation on 'Newsnight'. Not bad for a poet and a computer nerd from Essex, says Fiona Sturges
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Janelle Monáe: Meet the new queen of pop

Obama's got her on his iPod, Prince is a fan and she's about to give Lady Gaga a run for her money in the style stakes. Interview by Fiona Sturges
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Music review: Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band

Getting bums on seats isn't the challenge when you're a hugely successful, silver-haired Hollywood actor living out your teenage dreams. It's keeping them there that's the problem.
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Mark Ronson: 'I didn't make Amy Winehouse's career. She made mine'

He's the world's most fashionable producer and the brains behind the retro-soul that spawned a million imitators. So why, wonders Fiona Sturges, is Mark Ronson so insecure?
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Book review: The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman

Confronting taboos has been Sarah Silverman's stock-in-trade for the past 15 years. Through her stand-up routines, television shows and film appearances, the US comic has tackled subjects such as Aids, the Holocaust, rape and race with eye-watering directness.
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The August cultural vacuum

Unless you're in Edinburgh or at a music festival, August is an artistic desert. In the age of the staycation, that's a disgrace, says Fiona Sturges
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Brighton: Oriental excess in seaside Sussex

The preposterous Pavilion is just one dimension of this intriguing urban resort, says Fiona Sturges
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Picnic concerts: Rock'n'roll and royalty don't mix

The trend for gigs on country estates makes Fiona Sturges nostalgic for the beer-soaked mosh pits of her teens
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Stay the night: Ty Bois, Brittany

Fiona Sturges goes back to nature in a stylishly renovated chalet on the banks of the River Aulne
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Imagine no new artists, just endless re-releases

As revenues crash, record labels are opting to repackage classics by Lennon, Hendrix, and others, rather than invest in new artists. Fiona Sturges wonders where it will all end
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Brian Cox: 'If they pay me a lot of money, I'll do the film, and if they don't, I won't'

Brian Cox is both Hollywood's favourite rent-a-baddie and a titan of the stage. Pretty good for a man who considers himself 'little me from Dundee'. Interview by Fiona Sturges
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Imelda May: Queen of rockabilly takes centre stage

Ahead of her slot at this weekend's Womad festival – and two years after her blistering breakthrough – Imelda May talks to Fiona Sturges about the rocky road to success
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Swearing: When a curse can be a blessing

There's nothing like a spot of precision swearing on TV. It may not be big, says Fiona Sturges, but it can be clever
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Stay the night: Belle Tout Lighthouse, Beachy Head, East Sussex

This former lighthouse, with its £1.4m overhaul, left Fiona Sturges feeling on top of the world
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Where are the women to rock the music industry?

Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Florence Welch have towered over pop music in recent years. So why, asks Fiona Sturges, does the backstage arena remain almost entirely dominated by men?
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The great rock'n'roll swindle

Glastonbury is the worst offender, but many other supposedly family-friendly events are charging sky-high prices. By Fiona Sturges
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Book review: Shadowplayers by James Nice

James Nice's history of Factory Records begins at the end, with the death of its principal founder Tony Wilson from cancer in 2007
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I'm sorry they haven't a clue

The same few hackneyed comedians keep cropping up on TV panel shows. Fiona Sturges doesn't see the funny side
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Music review - Natalie Merchant, Brighton Dome

It's not often that a gig is set in motion by the click of a slide projector but then we have come to expect something more from Natalie Merchant, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter who has long left behind the folk-pop proselytising of her 10,000 Maniacs days and settled into her role as a solo artist of rare maturity and depth
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It's only rock'n'roll but are you prepared to die for it?

As Ian Curtis is remembered 30 years after his death, Fiona Sturges looks at the myth of the tortured artist and asks why fans reserve their reverence for the stars who suffer
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Circolombia: Urban, Freerange, Brighton

Circolombia are a youth troupe from Cali in Colombia who met at the Circo para Todos ("Circus for All") school, a collective set up by the British ex-circus performer Felicity Simpson in order to get adolescents from deprived backgrounds off the streets.
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Sarah Blasko - The star from down under

Sarah Blasko, the daughter of missionaries, has three top-selling albums in Australia but has struggled to be heard in the UK. Her latest album has changed that. She talks to Fiona Sturges
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Theatre review - Electric Hotel, Brighton

In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, a helpless James Stewart glimpses the goings-on in the opposite apartment block, his relentless curtain-twitching leading him to conclude that a murder has been committed
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Theatre review - I, Malvolio, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton

A man stands in a horned headdress and sagging, stained undergarments. His shoulders droop, his limbs hang as if dragged downwards by invisible weights and his face is clouded with defeat. "I am not mad," he murmurs, and sets about making the case for his defence.
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Ronson, Winehouse and that special chemistry

Artists from Amy Winehouse via David Bowie to U2 have had musical masterminds in the control room. Fiona Sturges looks at their influence
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Theatre review - Before I Sleep. Old Co-op Building, Brighton

There's a sign at the end of Dreamthinkspeak's new work, a promenade piece in a defunct department store, which implores the departing audience not to tell others about the contents of the show lest they give too much away.
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24-hour room service: The Colonnade Hotel, Boston, US

With its Seventies concrete façade, you could mistake it for a car park. But look again, because The Colonnade fancies itself as one of the smartest hotels in Boston
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American drama: Hit the road, Jack

They outclass their British counterparts, but some American drama series are starting to lose their lustre, says Fiona Sturges
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Out of Africa: David LaChapelle's strange visions of a continent

David LaChapelle made his name with mash-ups of trashy glitz, Old Masters and portraits of Angelina Jolie, Courtney Love and Madonna. But on the eve of his first seriously political show in the UK, he tells Fiona Sturges that he has put commercialism behind him
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Albums for children

Moulding a three-year-old's musical taste is utterly impossible, says Fiona Sturges
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Book review: Popcorn, by Garry Mulholland

It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to see why film directors find rock bands so compelling. Their stories invariably take in the crucial components of drama – rebellion, egotism, money, sex, drugs and, in the more extreme cases, death.
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Rufus Wainwright: 'Our family is a battered ship...'

Back with an album, a tour and an opera, the Canadian singer reveals how a series of births and deaths forced him to grow up
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A singer after a fashion

Karen Elson is the latest model to try her hand at making a pop album. Fiona Sturges looks at the successes and, more commonly, the failures of models-turned-would-be rock stars
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'I was told my career would collapse if I came out,' says Ricky Martin

His declaration has exposed pop's attitudes to homosexuality, says Fiona Sturges
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Traveller's Guide To The South Downs

Britain's 15th National Park comes into being this month, stretching from the woods of eastern Hampshire to the Seven Sisters cliffs in East Sussex. Fiona Sturges reports
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Music review - Grizzly Bear, Corn Exchange, Brighton

A Grizzly Bear gig is a civilised affair. The band thank us warmly for our support, pause to admire the venue's grand interior, and pay touching tribute to the city in which they find themselves ("Way to go, Brighton!")
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Who needs record labels?

The majors tried to justify their existence this week. But they need to smarten up their act to stay in business, says Fiona Sturges
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Caroline Quentin: 'I'm canny, but not very bright'

Caroline Quentin doesn't often get recognised these days. Occasionally, a cab driver might ask, "where have I seen you before?", or she'll get talking to a woman, in the loos of a restaurant, who will recall, with great conviction, that she was at their sister's wedding.
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Omid Djalili: 'I'm cast as the Arab scumbag'

The comedian and actor has a new film in which he plays a Muslim taxi-driver who discovers he's a Jew. But, generally, he says...
The Big Interview by Fiona Sturges
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Friends: Can't get used to losing you

Channel 4 is ending its repeats of Friends. Fiona Sturges misses them already
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Stay the night: Oxenford Gatehouse, Elstead, Surrey

The Landmark Trust's latest restoration is a model of its kind, but, says Fiona Sturges don't expect luxury
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How to quit while you're ahead: Lily's the sly, retiring type

She zoomed from obscurity to ubiquity, and now she's off. Or so she says. Lily Allen leaves them wanting more. By Fiona Sturges
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Gary Hume 'Now my sculptures stand up'

The one-time YBA, and Brit-art contemporary of Emin and Hirst, has made a major breakthrough in a crucial area of his work... Interview by Fiona Sturges
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Music review - Owl City, Komedia, Brighton

The story of Owl City is the stuff that indie dreams are made of: a pathologically shy boy from Hicksville, Minnesota, makes music in his parents' basement to pass the time during a bout of insomnia
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Glee - My big fat teenage crush

Sure, it's derivative and cliched in places. But it is also wickedly funny, unexpectedly moving and subtle. Fiona Sturges explains why she is an unabashed fan of 'Glee'.
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Why owning a label isn't all RocknRolla

Guy Ritchie's foray into the music industry may be an ill-advised move. Others have tried and failed, writes Fiona Sturges
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Mother of a comeback

Danielle Spencer took six years off to concentrate on her children. Now she has teamed up with up with Tony Visconti, who produced Bolan and Bowie. Fiona Sturges meets them
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Long live the King

Next week, Elvis Presley would have celebrated his 75th birthday. Fiona Sturges talks to the fans, artists and entrepreneurs keeping a legend alive
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