Sometimes you can’t beat a gig in an intimate setting – we offer a guide to the best independent venues near you

News that the standalone version of DayZ has sold 3 million copies should not be met with applause. It should be met with disdain

The North East has been chosen to host this year’s BBC 6 Music Festival, with Sleater-Kinney set to play their first UK set in 10 years

With Joaquin Phoenix playing a drug-fueled PI in Inherent Vice, we take a look at the best mary-jane filled stoner comedies on Netflix

Adam Sandler has a new film on the way called The Ridiculous Six, and it stars Vanilla Ice as celebrated writer Mark Twain

To mark the second annual Independent Venue Week, singer-songwriter Frank Turner looks back on a pivotal gig at the Camden Barfly

Adam Curtis uses Afghanistan as the prism for Bitter Lake, his latest rumination on the modern world, and he does more than any brief news report to make sense of the shifting sands of global power

WOW’s intrepid gig photographer Anthony Longstaff was on hand to capture pop superstar Jessie J’s show at Leeds 02 Academy on Sunday

From incompetent hit-men to bone-headed robbers, meet the truly crap criminals who have memorably cocked-up all over our screens