Jay-Z finally took to the stage last night to fulfil his headline slot at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival. The gig was one of the most talked about of the year before it even happened, with many people feeling that Jay-Z and hip-hop weren’t right for a traditionally indie music festival.

I wrote a long piece last weekend looking at the controversy surrounding Jay-Z’s booking as the Saturday night headline act, and asking what the reasons behind the hate were.

In the end, although some festival-goers did shun the performance, many loved it, the response Jay-Z got was fantastic, and he silenced his critics with a majestic show.

The BBC showed the whole set live, and so I was fortunate to be able to watch it from start to finish. The video embedded below shows Jay-Z’s explosive entrance on to the stage after being introduced by Zane Lowe.

Jay-Z first flipped the proverbial finger towards Noel Gallagher, one of the high-profile people who made their opinion about his place at the festival know, by doing a cover of Oasis hit Wonderwall, before launching in to his songs, starting with 99 Problems.

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Amy Winehouse managed to show up for two gigs in two days, and put on incredible performances at both the Nelson Mandela Birthday bash in London on Friday, and the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday. However, she put a black mark on her record by punching fan while performing Rehab, the last song of her set at Glastonbury.

Wiehouse’ performance was a huge success, with a crowd estimated to be around 80,000 turning out to watch her show. Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis suggested that this was the biggest crowd ever to watch an artist perform on the Pyramid Stage.

Everything was going fantastically well until during Rehab, Winehouse decided to leave the stage to go and mingle in amongst the front rows of the crowd. That is when the following happened, an incident which ensured her the Sunday newspaper headlines yet again.

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Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday concert, held to pay tribute to the freedom fighter and former President of South Africa, as well as to draw attention to raise funding for and awareness of the 46664 Campaign, Mandela’s HIV and Aids charity.

The concert included appearances from the cream of the crop of British music talent. This included Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Queen, Simple Minds and Annie Lennox. Other stars from the world of entertainment introduced the acts on stage, including Will Smith, Quincy Jones and Lewis Hamilton.

The concert was held 20 years after a similar concert was held in 1988 to celebrate Mandela’s 70th birthday, and to call for his release from prison which he was being held because of his anti-apartheid views. While the main emotion on show back then was frustration and anger, this time around saw happiness and optimism shine through.

Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990 and went on to become South Africa’s first black President. He now spends his days promoting awareness of the huge HIV and Aids problem around the world in developing countries, and Africa in particular.

The concert had a hard time competing with the first day of the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, but 46,664 people turned up to show their support for the cause, and to see some brilliant musical performances. The 46664 is an important number due to it being Mandela’s prisoner number while in jail.

The biggest performance at the gig came from Amy Winehouse, who was released from hospital, where she is receiving treatment for the early stages of lung disease emphysema, just for the concert.

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The 2008 Glastonbury Festival is finally upon us, with the first set of headliners set to take to the stage tonight. While the whole nature of the festival has been brought in to question over the past few months, Michael Eavis is convinced the festival has a future, and that this year’s controversial line-up is a winner.

Glastonbury used to be a very free and easy festival where almost anything was allowed. This included people just turning up and gatecrashing. The music was also very firmly grounded in the hippy/indie genre, with mainstream acts left for other more poppy festivals to mop up.

But the last few years has seen a number of big changes occurring. First and foremost, the nature of the festival was changed, with high ticket prices, more security to keep out the unwanted elements, and a severe system for ensuring only proper ticket-holders made it on to the site.

The first noticeable effect of this was of less atmosphere reported at the festival over the past few years. If only the middle-classed wealthier gig-goers can afford to make the journey to Glastonbury, then the atmosphere is clearly going to change, and not necessarily for the better.

Then we had the line-up altered significantly to include a much more diverse range of tastes, including, shock horror, hip-hop. When Jay-Z was named as a headline act for this year’s festival, there was an outcry which continues to this day, the first day of Glastonbury 2008.

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The Verve were once one of the biggest bands in Britain, and one which found themselves revered around the world for their soulful take on indie rock. But it all came to a rather abrupt and bitter end when the band split in 1999 due to musical differences, and not being able to stand the sight of each other.

But now they are back. In July of last year, The Verve announced they were getting back together, with all four original members signing up together for a world tour and a new album. We’ve had the tour, and now the comeback album has been revealed in all its glory.

Although some websites are claiming the album will be called Four and others claiming it will be called Fourth, the official and correct title is going to be Forth. It is definitely a play on words though with the name referring not only to the band going forth, but also this being the fourth album and the four band members being united again.

Forth is due out in the UK on August 18th, and in the US a day later. It will be the band’s first new album since Urban Hymns was released in 1997, an album which made them a household name in many different countries and gave us such classics as Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Drugs Don’t Work and Lucky Man.

The album contains ten tracks including the first single Love Is Noise which you can hear on the band’s MySpace page, and Valium Skies which the band have debuted at recent live shows.

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Amy Winehouse’ father Mitch claimed on Sunday that the Rehab singer had been diagnosed with emphysema. Now, just 2 days later, her US spokesperson Tracey Miller has denied the claim, and played down the dire state of her health.

Mitch gave an interview with a Sunday newspaper in which he divulged many details over the state of Amy’s health and what treatment she had been receiving since being hospitalised a week ago.

He claimed she had been diagnosed with emphysema, and only had 70% lung capacity.

Now, Tracey Miller, Winehouse’ US representative, has denied the diagnosis. In an interview with The Associated Press she stated that rather than being told she has full-blown emphysema, she is merely showing early sign if the disease which normally affects people over 45 who have smoked all their life.

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When Jay-Z was announced as a headliner for this year’s Glastonbury festival, it caused no end of controversy, and consternation amongst regular Glasto-goers who weren’t happy with the booking. In the run-up to this weekend’s festival, Jay-Z has now come out and had his say on the whole thing.

Unsurprisingly, Jay-Z things the controversy is “ridiculous” and has been left wondering what all the fuss is about. And I have to say I agree with him, and I’m left wondering what the real reasons behind the anti-Jay-Z lobbying actually are.

It was announced way back in February that Jay-Z would be amongst the headliners for the festival, with Kings of Leon and The Verve later added. The announcement immediately caused uproar, with many Glastonbury veterans dismissing the decision as a terrible one.

Most of the criticism revolved around the idea that Jay-Z just wasn’t a very good fit for what is traditionally a rock and indie festival. There were others who clearly just didn’t like the idea of a more mainstream artist, and an American to boot, headlining the very alternative British festival.

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher even added his weight to the controversy by describing Jay-Z as “wrong” for Glasto.

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Amy Winehouse has Emphysema, at least according to her dad Mitch. The only good thing about this latest news is that it means she hasn’t got tuberculosis.

Winehouse was rushed to hospital last Monday, and has been in there ever since having all the tests and scans she could possibly have. It was reported at the end of the week that she could indeed be suffering from killer infection TB, but that speculation has now proved to be unfounded.

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I’m a big fan of the Sex Pistols, a fact you need to keep in mind while reading the following rant. The thing is, I’m a fan of them in their original guise, in the late 1970s, when the UK needed someone to come along and mix things up a little.

That is exactly what the Sex Pistols did back in the late seventies when they were at the forefront of the British punk movement, a movement which changed the music scene in the country, and possibly even the attitudes of a whole generation of people.

Back then, punk offered an alternative for the youth of the day to the corrupt and inept government and powers that be. In a time when the UK was probably at its lowest ebb since the Second World War, bands such as the Sex Pistols informed everyone that you didn’t have to sit by and be a bystander. You could actually do something about it all, and more than anything, have your say.

Fast forward thirty years and I have just had the misfortune of watching the Sex Pistols performance at last weekend’s Isle Of Wight Festival on television. And it has made me sadly come to the conclusion that it is time for Johnny Rotten and all to hang up their instruments and retire.

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Amy Winehouse was rushed to hospital on Monday after collapsing at home with suspected exhaustion. She has remained in hospital ever since and is still undergoing various scans and tests. However, reports are emerging that she could possibly be suffering from tuberculosis.

When she was taken to hospital on Monday by her doting father Mitch on Monday, it at first seemed to be as a precaution, but five days later, and things are not looking too good.

The Sun newspaper today reported that doctors suspect tuberculosis, a bacterial infection which is prevalent in developing countries and potentially deadly. She is said by sources to be suffering from a range of symptoms in line with suffering from the disease.

A close pal is reported to have said:

“Amy is in a bad way. Doctors are still struggling to control her heartbeat but the chest condition has been really worrying them.”

“She’d been suffering horrible coughing fits and hurling up blood for a while but refused to be examined. Doctors now believe it is tuberculosis and are doing more tests to be certain.”

As well as a raging chest infection, Amy has suffered severe weight loss, a lack of appetite, and an irregular heartbeat. Doctors obviously have the added burden of trying to wean her off hard drugs at the same time as treating her.

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