Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has left the band following a contract row and will no longer perform at a long-awaited reunion gig or tour.

For those who didn’t know, James Morrison is no longer that boy with a guitar and a nice line in ballads. He’s a man now and, judging by his demeanour on stage last night, a fun performer who can’t help but have a good time.

Jazz often conjures up images of late-night sounds in dark basement clubs – but a guitar-playing Lichfield café owner could change all that.

It’s been 29 years since electronic music pioneer Howard Jones burst on to the scene with the jaunty New Song in 1983. Now he’s back on tour to play his first two albums in their entirety. Ian Harvey finds out more.

Following the success of the Live from the Met presentations and Summer at Glyndebourne in 2011, Wolverhampton’s Light House cinema will show Puccini’s Il Trittico as the first screening of its Music on Screen season. Watch the video trailer.

Following a year of highly successful high profile concerts in 2011, John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest have announced their most extensive series of UK dates in some years with a British tour taking place in October 2012.

The long-established Midlands event The Big Session Festival is coming to a new home at Catton Park, South Derbyshire. The event’s organisers are delighted to present a wealth of Midlands talent alongside nationally acclaimed acts.

Canoldir Male Choir has organised a free workshop in Birmingham for male singers, experienced or otherwise, who may wish to sample the joys and benefits of singing.

Soul revivalists Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings bring their Motown-infulenced sounds to Birmingham’s HMV Institute next month.

What superb timing – a concert celebrating a heroic struggle against the deep freeze of the Antarctic was staged just before the most severe weather of the winter hit the West Midlands.

It’s hard to know how to categorise Awolnation. They span so many sub-genres that the only befitting description is ‘eclectic’.

They don’t mind the comparisons with U2. After all, in the past couple of years, Snow Patrol spent about 40 dates on the road with the world’s biggest band.