Revolutions, like wars, are often sparked by the most innocuous of events. Tony Teasdale reveals how acid house changed the world.

What does it mean to be ‘indie’ nowadays? Our resident subculture expert mourns the music that was swept up by the mainstream.

It’s our biggest-ever giveaway, and your chance to see some of the world’s best acts play live. No amount of rain can dampen our enthusiasm: enter now and you could win a pair of tickets to one of the SEVEN best festivals of 2008. We’ve got tickets for events throughout the summer and across the UK. So just pick your line-up…

There has been a frisson of discontent since the news that Paulo Nutini will be united with shoe manufacturer Puma, thanks to a new division of Warner Music International responsible for identifying and promoting corporate tie-ins with artists. Obviously, this is part of the recording industry’s latest attempt to stop its arse falling out. And it promises to provide hilarious viewing for anyone who wishes to witness the sweet, sweet justice of an industry who over-charged the public for decades now reduced to scrabbling around in the dirt for loose change.

When Arena was born in 1986, it was to the eclectic sounds of Michael Jackson, Run DMC and Meat Loaf. When Arena Online was born in 2006, it was to the eclectic sounds of The Killers, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Amy Winehouse and – regrettably – James Blunt. Times change, and so must we.

One broadsheet was this morning calling it ‘prole porn’ – the Shannon Matthews case has offered a unique opportunity for the middle classes to reassure themselves that the reason the underclass is worse off than them is because, well, they are worse than them.

I don’t consider myself to be a grumpy person, or particularly intolerant. Things just seem to piss me off. Like people who wear excessive amounts of pink, text slang (LMAO), and birds (of the feathered kind). They have no purpose other than to shit on your head and make you look like a tit. But the thing that has pissed me off most recently is Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton is a tool.