Thursday 18th March

Mumford and Sons will play at this year’s Glastonbury, Michael Eavis has confirmed.

The London-based folk band are a favourite of the festival organiser and will feature on the Park Stage at the event, which takes place between June 25-27th.

When asked what music he is currently listening to, Eavis told Glastonbury FM radio: “A band called Mumford and Sons, you might get fed up with it eventually but I’m still enjoying it.

“They will be playing up in the Park this year, so that’ll be good.”

U2, Muse and Stevie Wonder are headlining the Pyramid Stage at this year’s festival, which will be marking its 40th anniversary.

Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack will join Ash on their forthcoming tour of the UK.

The band are looking to bolster their live sound and Lissack fit the bill, according to frontman Tim Wheeler.

He told BBC 6Music: “I was at home at Christmas and reading about Bloc Party being on hiatus and I knew Russell had been playing our songs before.

“So I thought, this will be interesting. I thought I’d give it a shot and give him a call and he was up for it.”

Lissack will return the three-piece to a four-piece, as they were when guitarist Charlotte Hatherly was a member between the years 1998 and 2006, and Wheeler says it will allow them to bring back some rarely-heard favourites.

“We’ll be playing a bunch of old stuff,” he added.

“There’s some old stuff that we haven’t done for years because it really relies on two guitarists so it’s going to be fun bringing that back into the set.”

Ash’s A-Z series, which sees the band release one song digitally every fortnight, is currently on the letter L: ‘Dionysian Urge’. It will be followed by ‘War With Me’.

Finally, Jack White has revealed that he has recorded a song with Jay-Z.

The White Strips frontman is keeping tight-lipped on when the public will be able to hear it.

He told GQ: “We did a song together a few weeks ago. It was incredible. I played him something that I’ve been kicking around for a while and he immediately came out with words for it. It’s unbelievable sounding.”

White has two other bands – The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs – and in 2008 collaborated with Alicia Keyes on the theme tune for Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’.