Nick Broomfield is somewhat of an enigma, favouring the participatory approach to documentary filmmaking, thus making a profound mark on his films.

Fresh from 2007’s NME Freshers tour and the MTV2 Gonzo tour, Operator Please is a rabble of pop punk teens hailing from Australia’s Gold Coast.

Although The Pigeon Detective’s look is very much the London indie-boy uniform of scruffy shoes and scruffier hair, their sound is undeniably that of Yorkshire.

With their cowboy swagger and deep-south drawl, you’d be forgiven for thinking Alabama 3 are a straightforward American blues band.

Gravenhurst are back with their new album, The Western Lands. It’s an ambitious album, full of powerful melodies crossed with euphoric lo-fi pop.

Alice McLaughlin writes and sings beautiful, soulful pop, which draws on an extensive range of influences from blues to folk and country.

Acclaimed Australian director, Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne is a haunting thriller based on Raymond Carver’s short story So Much Water So Close To Home.

There’s no denying the buzz around short film at the moment. Music videos are increasingly blurring the line between promo video and art film.

John Pilger has been an author, war correspondent, filmmaker and champion of human rights for over 40 years. He is on a journey to find truth and justice.

Loitering on the back seat of the coolest school bus in pop, Poppy and the Jezebels are heading up the new crop currently making waves in the “underage” scene.

You Say Party! We Say Die! is a five-piece new-wave punk-pop band. Their second album Lose All Time reveals a new depth and musical variety.

The release of Findlay Brown’s debut album, Separated by the Sea, has heralded a renewed appreciation for the traditional craft of song writing.

iLiKETRAiNS attempt to address global issues in their own eccentric style, using the deeds of history to explore problems still facing society.

Thurston Moore is a very busy man. A founding member of Sonic Youth, one of the most engaging bands ever to grace the alternative rock scene.

At one point it was unclear whether Ione Rucquoi would pursue art or music. Art won out: “It was always part of my life but to follow it up seriously was quite strange.”

At only 26 years of age, Stuart Semple is one of the most exciting young British artists around. He fuses 80s influences with an informed view of popular culture.

Enrico David’s latest work marks the evolution of his style, which has grown exponentially as different qualities have come to the foreground in recent years.

In 2007, for the first time ever, the Turner Prize was presented outside London: in Liverpool, to mark the city’s status of European Capital of Culture 2008.

Sophie Woolley is a dynamic force of innovation. As both a writer and a performer, she excels at fashioning believably satiric portraits.

Times are strange for Julian Gough. The London-born, Galway-bred author spent seven years trying to revolutionise the novel with his ambitious Jude.

Kay’s latest work, Darling, published in October 2007, brings together into a vibrant new book many favourite poems from her four Bloodaxe collections.

Caryl Phillips shows no signs of becoming any less prolific. His novel, Foreigners: Three English Lives, is a combination of historical fact, reportage and fiction.

Romuald Hazoumé still resides and works in his native Benin, using the land and the Republic’s history as a source of inspiration for his work

A powerhouse in the world of framing, John Jones is a family-owned organisation that provides bespoke frames of museum quality for the likes of TATE and the V&A.

Musician, artist, father, budding surfer – John Squire wears many hats, but the one creating all the buzz at the moment is his role as celebrated painter.

Keiko Mukaide was born in 1954 in Tokyo, Japan and is an internationally renowned artist who creates both small glass works and large site-specific installations.

Helen Oyeyemi’s first novel, The Icarus Girl, was written while she was studying for her A-levels, and tells the story of a girl growing up between two cultures.

Sandra Newman is back with her new novel Cake, after 2002’s The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done brought her the First Book Award from The Guardian.

After 30 years of writing, recording, and activism, Linton Kwesi Johnson is being honored with the publication of Selected Poems in the Penguin Classics series.

David Mitchell is faithful to fiction to the point where he describes the idea of a clinch with scriptwriting or an embrace with poetry as akin to being adulterous.

Of the initiatives leading the drive for greater representation of British artists of ethnic origin, deciBel, a showcase event in Birmingham, was the most prominent.

With the latest lineup of Martsch, Scott Plouf, Jim Roth, Brett Nelson, and Brett Netson, this is the most experienced group that Built to Spill has ever seen.

New Yorker Jesse Malin released his third solo album Glitter in the Gutter in July 2007. This is an up-tempo, powerful manifesto for survival and defiance.

Ash return with their re-energised fifth and possibly last studio LP Twilight of the Innocents, mixing classic pop lyrics and punk influenced melody.

With a world tour well underway and their latest album receiving critical and popular acclaim, Maximo Park are battling to keep their feet on the ground.

For over forty years, director Ken Loach has been bringing realistic portrayals of modern day social and political situations to our screens.

“People are far more interested in sound now, but they still don’t really know what we do.” Eddy Joseph was part of the team that won a BAFTA for Casino Royale.

In 2007, Film 4 supported British music in their films: This is England, Hallam Foe, Brothers of the Head and Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.

Patience Agbabi — talented writer, performer, lecturer, and now mum to one-and-a-half year-old Solomon, is anything but her namesake.

The public conception of a “circus” today lies somewhere between the extravagant showpieces of Cirque du Soleil, and childhood memories of clowns and tigers.

In Waterlog, seven British artists have interpreted the water-drenched landscape of Norwich, taking their cues from WB Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn.

With an impressive collection of projects behind her, including computer game Get Away: Black Monday, and short film Liar, China Moo-Young shows no indication of slowing down.

Margaret Salmon is an American-born photographer and filmmaker, who set trends in the UK with her exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 2007.

The idea of a caravan gallery is a bit of a dichotomy, yet has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its creators, Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale.

The Wellcome Collection was the first venue of its kind in the UK, providing radical insights into wellbeing and the human condition.

There’s an appealing innocence to both Miller’s paintings and her enthusiasm as she chats from her Aberdeenshire studio across a thin, crackling line.

Scrutinizing the fabric of contemporary culture to reveal the fragility of the notions of society, ethnicity, and identity: this is the essence of Reza Aramesh.

Public art, that which is produced for the passerby and within the public sphere, functions as a starting point for aesthetic discourse and interaction.

While the music world becomes ever more dependant on its sampler and keyboard for kicks, Lisa Lindley-Jones has decided to step away from electro-pop.

Situated on walls, the pavement, telephone poles, windows, billboards, trains, cars, houses – but rarely do we stop and look at it: urban art is ubiquitous.