Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s (non-Cobain affiliated) movie feels like Jackass via Back to the Future. They talk about how the supreme silliness was stressful to film, and how times have changed since their ‘tasteless’ 2007 web series

If there is ever a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for fictional bands, the likes of Spın̈al Tap and the Rutles will be guaranteed a place. Less certain is the fate of the duo created by Toronto college friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol in Nirvana the Band the Show, a 2007-08 mockumentary web series that was later picked up for two seasons by Vice TV. Johnson and McCarrol play incorrigible no-hopers Nirvana the Band, nothing whatsoever to do with Kurt Cobain’s grunge pioneers, who pin everything on securing a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli club. Undaunted by a total lack of songs, they pull off one cockamamie stunt after another, many filmed among unwitting members of the public, to promote their as-yet-nonexistent show.

From smashing a display case in the Royal Ontario Museum and being pursued by security guards to jumping on to the tracks of the Toronto subway, they are willing to do anything – except simply ask the venue for a gig. Then again, common sense isn’t their strong suit. Receiving a cease-and-desist letter pertaining to their name, they are incredulous: “There’s already a band called the Band?”

Whether it’s a surprisingly roomy bag, cargo pants or a don’t-try-too-hard jacket, we’ve rounded up the festival wear for men and women that’s worthy of an encore

• The new rules of concert dressing

You never really know what you’re going to get when it comes to festivals. Veterans know to be prepared for anything, come rain or shine. So, planning your clothing choices is as important as planning your lineup for the day. Nothing kills the vibe like wearing flip-flops or white trainers when the ground resembles more of a swamp than a field.

There is a certain freedom that comes with festival dressing, too. Everyone is there for the same reason – to listen to music and have a good time. If you’re looking to experiment with something different, festivals are the place to do it.

Narrator Rory Kinnear fully inhabits Klaus Kinski’s fury in this depiction of the irascible actor’s ill-fated performance in Berlin

In 1971, the German actor Klaus Kinski performed a theatrical monologue called Jesus Christ Saviour at the Deutschlandhalle arena in Berlin, but things didn’t quite go to plan. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Kinski was irascible, egomaniacal and prone to violent temper tantrums.

The film director Werner Herzog famously worked with Kinski on movies including Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo and later filmed a documentary about the actor’s unhinged antics called My Best Fiend. The antipathy went both ways: in his memoir, Kinski fantasised about Herzog dying of the plague or being eaten alive by ants.

After being dropped by her label, the vocalist became a courier to make ends meet. Now she’s back – with millions of fans of her pheromone-rich songwriting

Kwn has never been one to turn her nose up at a job. She has worked night shifts at Sainsbury’s and chopped vegetables with her dad, the head chef at the Ivy in London. But her first day as an Amazon delivery driver in 2024 was soul-crushing. Only two years before, the singer, who goes by K Wilson outside music, had signed a deal and released her debut EP, Episode Wn. Now, she had been dropped from her label and was broke. Sitting in her van at the end of the shift, Wilson burst into tears.

“Be nice to your delivery drivers,” says the 26-year-old, shaking her head in dismay. “It’s not for the weak. By the time I got home, I was shattered. I don’t want to make music. What the fuck am I even gonna write about? Delivering packages?” Wilson lasted five months. Then, after failed attempts to whip up industry interest in her music, she hatched a plan with her manager to sell her next single, Worst Behaviour, directly to fans for £1.99. Five hundred sales would generate about a grand – enough to keep them afloat temporarily. Within a week, they had exceeded their target tenfold. Within a few months, Wilson was in record label boardrooms, listening to music executives pitch her path to stardom.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba/Elizabeth Watts
(Chandos)
The French composer – a contemporary of Debussy’s – wrote slender but perfectly-formed pieces of beguiling beauty

The welcome rediscovery of Mel Bonis continues, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Rumon Gamba do full justice to her finely crafted, perfumed orchestral music on this new studio recording. Bonis was a classmate of Debussy, and the best of her works here compare to his in terms of instrumental intrigue, albeit on a smaller scale.

Bonis’s most ambitious works for orchestra were the Trois Femmes de Légende, written around 1909. In these beguiling, brief tone poems, Ophelia emerges as a kind of tragic water nymph, Salome as a princess from a far-off, exotic east. Even more mystery surrounds Cleopatra, who is portrayed in music that is sensuous yet uneasy, with quiet writing for the bass instruments underpinning her languid melody.