NEWS DIGEST: Monday, November 24

10:00 AM GMT 24/11/2008

Richey Edwards, the Manic Street Preachers' guitarist and lyricist, has been officially declared as presumed dead, 13 years after going missing.

His abandoned car was found near the Severn Bridge on February 17, 1995 and was last seen leaving the Embassy Hotel in London at 7am two weeks earlier on February 1. "This is the parents' choice and the band is happy to go with what the parents decide is best," said Manics' publicist Terri Hall, calling the move "hugely emotional".

A selection of Edwards' unused lyrics are to be used by the band in new songs set for release next year.

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Orange Juice, reunited after decades apart, have been awarded the lifetime achievement gong at the Tartan Clef Awards. The ceremony, which took place at the Old Fruit Market in Glasgow, is held annually to help raise money for music charity Nordoff-Robbins.

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John Lennon has been forgiven by the Vatican for saying that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Lennon made the comment to Evening Standard journalist Maureen Cleave in an interview that took place in 1966.

L'Osservatore Romano, a Vatican newspaper, dismissed the remark as "showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll and had enjoyed unexpected success". The article went on to discuss the band's "unique and strange alchemy of sounds and words".

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Guy Peellaert, the Brussels-born artist, illustrator and photographer best known for his iconic album art and the 1974 book Rock Dreams, has died at the age of 74. The Rolling Stones (It's Only Rock 'n' Roll), David Bowie (Diamond Dogs), Robert Altman (Short Cuts poster) and Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver poster) were just some of the music and movie luminaries that chose to enlist his unique talents.

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and son Orson.

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And finally...Happy Birthday Clem Burke! Blondie's drummer is 53 today. Here they are in their late '70s New York glory days:

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 10:00 AM GMT 24/11/2008

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