As some of you may be well aware The Mercury Music prize nominations have been announced and a typically bland and uninspiring selection it is too. Ladytron woz robbed, I tell yas. Interesting to see Maxinquaye collaborator Martina Topley-Bird among the nominations for her debut solo album - when I rang up Midland Box Office to see if there were any tickets left for her gig this Thursday at the miniscule-capacity Little Civic the bloke couldn't quite suppress the laughter in his voice when he replied there were 'loads'...

Meanwhile, for those interested (and judging on some recent search requests, there's surprisingly quite a lot of you) here are Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman's topless paparazzi pictures in full.