There’s only two months left to wait until Oasis fans can get their hands on the new album, Dig Out Your Soul, due out on October 6th. A week before that, the first single from the album, The Shock Of The Lightning, will be released.

Oasis albums are a very mixed bag: some being must-owns full of classic indie tracks that any band would be proud to have written; others being pretty dire, repetitive and uninspired. You can usually tell which camp their new album is going to fall in to by the quality of the first single from that album.

Luckily for us, a snatch of that first single is previewed in an official trailer video for the album. The clip of The Shock Of The Lightning is right at the end, between 2:24 and 2:46, but the whole video is worth watching as it recounts all of the big hits through their career. Click ‘Read More’ to watch the embedded video…

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These days, the use of the F word (no, not Gordon Ramsay’s show, although he’s a good example) on television is as common as anything, with movies and programmes regularly being littered with them. But in the 1970s, things were slightly different, and swear words weren’t something you ever heard on the goggle box.

Which is why the Sex Pistols appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today programme in 1976 caused such controversy. Between them, the band used the words sod, bastard, fucker, and shit in the space of a couple of minutes. And this was even before the legendary punk rockers had released début album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

Now, the clip of the sweary encounter between the rebellious band and the conservative host has been named as the most requested TV clip ever, in a poll conducted by Freemantle Media which counted requests from TV companies to use clips.

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I reported last night how Amy Winehouse had been rushed to hospital in a blanket after falling ill again. At the time, I guessed it was either going to be due to the crack habit, or something to do with her recently being diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. But apparently, I was wrong.

She has now been released from University College Hospital in London, and is thought to be back at home in Camden. Her spokesman Chris Goodman (who must be one of the busiest publicists in the world right now) issued a statement about what the problem was.

“Amy Winehouse suffered a reaction to medication at home and was taken to hospital. She had a bit of a scare yesterday because of a reaction to treatment. She was kept in overnight purely for observation.”

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Amy Winehouse has been rushed to hospital again, and I’m getting a distinct feeling of deja vu. The only question we need to ask this time around: Is it the crack or the emphysema?

According to BBC News, an ambulance was called to the 24-year-old singer’s Camden home at 8.40pm. A young woman was then taken to University College Hospital in London. Police were also present, both outside her home, and on the journey to the hospital (as seen in the picture above).

Winehouse, or the as-yet unnamed woman assumed to be her, was said to be wheeled out in a wheelchair while wrapped in a blanket. Her father Mitch Winehouse was present, and witnessed her being given oxygen.

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Although I’m proud to be British, I’m also aware of the UK’s history as an empire builder, which wasn’t the glorious time in our past that many would have you believe. Basically, we went around invading countries, and claiming them for ourselves. Kind of like the USA is doing now.

In light of that, the Union Jack flag became synonymous with nationalism, and holding extremely right-wing political views. Which is why when Alan McGee, former boss of Creation Records, most famous for signing Oasis, spotted a Union Jack flag on the wall of Oasis’ rehearsal space, he thought they were fascists.

McGee ended up signing Oasis after seeing them play in his native Glasgow, but even before that, he saw them rehearsing in Manchester, where he took an instant dislike to them.

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It must be Sunday today, and the reason I know that is because there’s another round of Amy Winehouse stories in the press. It’s like a weekly habit now for the newspapers to report the latest rumours, talk to her friends and family, and generally report on the state of her health and well-being. What’s worse is that Sunday is a complete non-day for music news, so I always feel compelled to also write about Winehouse.

This weekend has seen a report in the Daily Star Sunday claiming Winehouse has been offered £1 million to perform one gig for playboy prince Azim of Brunei. While that is an absolute fortune to us, Azim is worth an absolute fortune, being as he is, the son of the Sultan Of Brunei, who has a personal fortune of £25 billion.

The newspaper claims Amy will agree to do the gig, even though it would break her vow to stop touring in September to have a well-deserved break, and to concentrate on finishing up her next album.

A friend suggests that Winehouse would hand the fee straight to husband Blake Fielder-Civil, currently imprisoned on a 27-month prison sentence, to give him a fresh start upon release.

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The members of the Rolling Stones may all be in their sixties, but they are still one of the most commercially-viable bands around at the moment. Which makes their defection from EMI to Universal a big blow to the former, and a massive boost to the latter.

The Rolling Stones have become the third big British act to leave EMI in the last year, following fellow sixties artist Paul McCartney, and alternative indie rockers Radiohead out of the door. The Rolling Stones have moved to the Universal Music Group, the biggest record label in the world, and have signed a deal covering three new albums, and the worldwide rights for the band’s back catalogue from 1971 onwards.

Radiohead were first to jump ship from EMI after the company was taken over by Terra Firma. They blamed a lack of direction, and knowledge of the music industry, particularly from their new boss, Guy Hands. There was also the fact that EMI refused to meet their contract demands. The band first released In Rainbows on the Internet, before signing a deal with indie label XL Recordings to release the album physically on CD and vinyl.

Then came Paul McCartney, who left EMI after 45 years, to join Hear Music, a new record label owned by American coffee shop chain Starbucks. He accused EMI and its executives of becoming boring, and claimed that working for the record label was like being on a mind-numbing treadmill.

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Glastonbury 2008 was a bit of a mixed bag - with poor ticket sales meaning there were still places for the festival available on the day it started, but some outstanding performances from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Editors, and The Verve ultimately saving the day. The weather was also okay after an initial downpour.

Then there was the highly controversial set by Jay-Z, not controversial for anything he said or did on stage, but because it was Jay-Z… at Glastonbury. Some people didn’t like the fact that a rapper was given headlining status at a traditionally indie and folk venue.

Now it’s all over, and the festival’s organisers, headed by Michael and Emily Eavis, are already planning for Glastonbury 2009. They have attempted to address the ticketing problem by releasing the bulk of the tickets early - this October to be precise.

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Amy Winehouse is the latest celebrity to be immortalised in wax at Madame Tussauds in London. While she wasn’t present to see herself uncovered in public for the first time, her parents Mitch and Janis were.

They were so taken with the model, they expressed an interest in taking it home to replace the real Amy, beset by drink, drugs, relationship, and health problems in recent months.

The model is an incredible likeness, and it was all done without Winehouse modelling live for the recreation even once. Instead, the artists worked from pictures of her, complete with heavy make-up, and beehive hairdo. Let’s be honest, the modellers would have had a wealth of photos to work from, as not a day goes by when Amy isn’t in the newspapers.

However, from the pictures of the waxwork in The Mirror, there seems to be a distinct lack of scabs, scars, spots, and blemishes… and there’s not a trace of white stuff coming from her nose.

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The Mercury Music Prize, sponsored by Nationwide, is the annual award given to the best album by a British or Irish artist released in the previous 12 months. The ceremony isn’t until later in the year, but a short-list is first released, with the name of the 12 artists, and their albums, on it which the judges think are the best of British.

Having said that, the Mercury Music Prize has a history of choosing albums by up and coming artists, rather than necessarily widely known artists, and certainly not the best-selling ones. Which means there are always some huge surprises in the short-list, and more often than not, in the eventual winner chosen as well.

Last year saw Klaxons named as winners, for their début album Myths Of The Near Future. They beat the Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, and Amy Winehouse along the way, although Winehouse’ performance at the awards ceremony probably invoked more press coverage than the Klaxons themselves.

This year’s short-list has now been published, and the usual surprises are present, as well as there being many names missing that were expected to appear.

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