Off the record: David Smyth

WHY LONDON IS CAPITAL OF POP

Although the adjacent blue plaques on Brook Street suggest otherwise, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel weren't actually next-door neighbours. Still, London's ability to spawn and nurture wildly differing musical forms in close proximity to each other remains phenomenal, as a forthcoming VH1 documentary attests.

The Nation's Favourite Music City, to be broadcast on 26 May, sees Blur's urbane bassist Alex James making the ironclad case for the capital over the likes of Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newport.

"No matter where you're from, if you work in oil you have to go to Dubai, if you want to make films you've got to live in Hollywood, and if you want to be in a rock 'n' roll band you're going to have to spend time in London," he tells me between takes in Oxford Street's punk mecca the 100 Club. "Music is about 'Now', and nowhere is 'Now' more prevalent than in London. It's always been where all the big stuff is happening."

He certainly has plenty of big names to back him up. The past 40 years have seen the classic rock of The Who, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, the experimental showmanship of David Bowie, the savage punk of The Clash and the Sex Pistols, world renowned superstar DJs such as Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling.

Other music that has risen from the capital's diverse sprawl has included the edgy garage of So Solid Crew and Dizzee Rascal, and the celebratory Britpop of Suede and James's own band.

James arrived in London as a 19-year-old, like many aspiring musicians, and met the other future Blur members at Goldsmiths College. They were at the epicentre of Britpop in the mid-Nineties - a time when it seemed that everyone drinking in Blur's favourite Camden pub, the Good Mixer, had a record deal. The band lived close to each other at first, but after their success they "sort of Balkanised - we all had our own little kingdoms". James chose Soho and became a fixture of its social scene, rolling in and out of the Groucho Club with Damien Hirst and Keith Allen.

Now an Oxfordshire sheep farmer ("That's what happens when you get married") he remains passionate about London's musical magic, and particularly its vibrant live scene. He is dismayed about the imminent loss of the Astoria venue. "That's a tragedy. It's the perfect place to go and see a band, a proper, sticky, loud rock venue." With kids and sheep to raise, his own priorities have changed, but he maintains that there's only one place to be if you want to succeed in music. Even outsiders like Hendrix and the Beatles had to come here to be at their best, and Sheffield's saviours Arctic Monkeys are also spending plenty of time down south now they've made it.

"It's the only world class city in the country. If you want to sell a million records, you have to be here. You'd be stupid not to."

PRINCE TAKES ON STREISAND AT 02 ARENA

So which is going to be the more special event at the O2 arena? Seven nights of Prince in August at £31.21 a ticket, or two evenings with Barbra Streisand in July for anything up to 500 quid a pop?

Perhaps Prince, who will be also play another 14 nights at smaller venues in London, is devaluing his premier status by making himself so accessible to the masses, while Streisand retains eminence as the diva she is by making catching a glimpse of her virtually impossible.

Before last night's set at Koko, which must take his 2007 London tally to an immensely generous 22 shows, Prince last played in the capital in 2002; Streisand hasn't appeared here since 1994.

Then again, Prince seems to be far beyond needing such reassurance about his superstar status. His album sales may have diminished, but still virtually no one trumps him as a performer. Quite simply, he loves being on stage, whether in an arena or a tiny jazz club.

Streisand, who claimed stage fright for 27 years of avoiding live singing, may need all that cash as danger money. Though her fans may feel more privileged as they sit in their exclusive seats with empty wallets, I know in whose company I'd rather spend an evening.

AN EARLY LISTEN TO...
The Twang
Love It When I Feel Like This (B-Unique)

Already getting a fearsome amount of buzz from the music press, Brummie louts The Twang are Nuts magazine come to life. Their scuzzy tales of heavy nights out, half-rapped, half-sung in a strong regional accent, will divide the nation when their debut album is released on 4 June. The Happy Mondays and The Streets are the obvious touchstones on the baggy beats and drug-related war stories of The Neighbour and Wide Awake, but bizarrely, the chiming guitar is also a ringer for the Edge's echoing work on Eighties U2 albums. The gleefully dumb moment when Push the Ghosts morphs into the novelty hip hop of Push It by Salt-N-Pepa makes it clear that this is the going to be the soundtrack to a thousand drunken nights out this summer.

NEW ON THE NET
The supposed March release date came and went without a peep, and we're still more likely to see a leprechaun on a unicorn than hear the first original Guns N' Roses album in 16 years. However, a new leak of Chinese Democracy's title track proves that Axl Rose hasn't been playing snooker all this time. With a colossal lead riff and Rose roaring rather than screeching, it sounds completely finished and surprisingly decent. It's at http://cache.idolator.com/assets/resources/mp3/chinesedemocracy.mp3.

Definitely on sale in download stores on Monday, and set to be a major hit, is the dance act Freeform Five's latest version of their track No More Conversations. Powered by a buzzing bassline from remixer Mylo, its irrepressible catchiness will be unavoidable in the coming weeks.

Finally, for the penniless, Fightstar release their first new song in a year on Monday, entitled 99. It's downloadable for free at www.fightstar99.com. For a band who insist they are worlds away from their singer's old group, Busted, it's a pretty toothless affair, but the teenagers who caught them at the recent Give It a Name festival might just muster enough excitement to point their mice in its direction.