The Arctic Monkeys, the most talked-about new rock act in Britain today, walked off with a hat-trick of honors Thursday at the NME music awards.
The Sheffield-based foursome -- unknown a year ago -- beat rival guitar acts Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Oasis for the title of best British band in the eyes and ears of readers of the NME music weekly.
It also scooped up honors for best new band and for best track -- the debut single I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor -- at the awards ceremony in Hammersmith Palais, west London.
"I suppose we're supp-osed to display some gratitude and that," a distinctly underwhelmed Monkeys frontman Alex Turner said.
"We're grateful because it is voted for by the people, but in all honesty who else was going to win best British band?" he asked, alluding to the hype now surrounding the group.
Kaiser Chiefs -- deemed Britain's best group, best rock act and best live act at the Brit awards last week -- made do with best album for Employment, while Franz Ferdinand was best live band.
The Strokes were best international band and US rapper Kanye West best solo artist.
Grammy winner Sheryl Crow had surgery for breast cancer and postponed a US tour scheduled to start next month, the singer announced on her Web site on Friday.
Crow's Web site said she underwent successful surgery on Wednesday and described the procedure as "minimally invasive." Doctors said her prognosis was excellent and she would have radiation treatments as a precaution.
Rock stars Bono and Bob Geldof are among 191 nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize -- the second longest list in the prize's 105-year history.
Nominations for the US$1.3 million award -- considered by many to be one of the world's top accolades -- trickled in from all corners of the globe, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute Geir Lundestad said on Friday.
An expert in the work of abstract artist Jackson Pollock said 32 previously unknown paintings appear to be authentic, taking issue with a recent computer analysis suggesting they are fakes. "If evidence does turn out to indicate that Pollock did not paint these works after all, I would be inclined to judge them the most amazing fakes in modern art history," Ellen Landau, a professor of art history at the Cleveland Museum of Art/Case Western University, told a conference on Thursday in Boston.
US author James Frey, who admitted last month he made up much of his best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces, has been dropped by his publisher, Riverhead Books, Frey's representative said on Thursday. Frey's unmasking and public confession to Oprah Winfrey, the daytime television host whose endorsement catapulted the drug-rehab memoir to the top of the bestsellers list, has rocked the US publishing industry, stirring debate about the nature of memoirs and the importance of accuracy.
Rap-rocker Kid Rock has convinced a federal judge in Detroit to block a California company from selling or promoting a video showing him and former Creed singer Scott Stapp having sex with four women after a Miami concert. The temporary restraining order issued on Tuesday by US District Court Judge John Feikens bars World Wide Red Light District, which released the Paris Hilton sex tape, from selling the video or using Kid Rock's likeness in its promotions.
British comedian Ricky Gervais' previously free podcast is going commercial.
A New Jersey-based company announced Tuesday it will begin selling subscriptions to The Ricky Gervais Show next week.
Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the team behind the BBC's acclaimed comedy series The Office, launched the podcast in December.
Podcasts are audio recordings that are posted online: most are free.
The Ricky Gervais Show averaged more than 250,000 downloads in its first month when it was available for free, making it one of the most popular entries in the fledgling platform's brief history.
The 30-minute show contains much scatological humor. It features the pair interviewing Karl Pilkington, a producer at their old radio show, about topics such as the cognitive abilities of chimp-anzees and the existence of vampires and ghosts.
-- agencies
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