Between The Lines Tammara Webber

Marking the triumphant return of live music to London's West End, Andrew Lloyd Webber has brought together an 81-piece orchestra to record Symphonic Suites - an album featuring three newly-orchestrated suites from his award-winning musicals Evita, Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard. This recording is the first live performance to take place at the newly refurbished Theatre Royal Drury Lane, following his LW Theatres' 2-year, œ60m total restoration.

A labour of love that will be a true godsend for longtime Groovies and newcomers alike, Between the Lines: The complete Jordan/Wilson Songbook '71-'81compiles, for the first time ever, all the original songs written by Groovies Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson in the classic second version of the band. The Groovies gave themselves a major reboot in 1971 when a then 18-year-old Chris Wilson replaced Roy Loney as the band’s frontman and Cyril Jordan’s writing partner. This was the formation of the group that made that journey to England at the behest of UA – helping set the scene for punk – and which, with a couple of line-up changes along the way, ended up signing to Sire Records and making three brilliant albums – Shake Some Action, Now, and Jumpin’ In The Night – before eventually running out of steam following Wilson’s departure in 1981. It’s the incarnation that headlined over the Ramones in London on July 4 1976 in London, but which then had to settle for being a massive influence on the nascent form of both power pop and all manner of ’60s influenced groups after the dictates of a post-punk world decided that their glorious rock’n’roll was not going to be the next big thing.

Mike Stern does what he does very, very well. He has carved out a unique niche for himself among modern fusion guitarists, a vision that combines funk and R&B bass/drum grooves with skittish melodies often involving extended chord fragments. Stern's lead voice is one of the most distinctive in the genre as well, as his chorused and sometimes distorted tone is always prominently displayed.