Initially known as a sextet called Six As One, then later renamed as IOYO, the Sligo-born boyband Westlife came to the attention of Louis Walsh very quickly. Seeing potential in three of the six members, he quickly decided he needed to audition for a better line-up, and on July 3, 1998, Westside was born.

Shortly before his death, Scotts gave his former pupil the scores he had gathered over a lifetime of playing, and nearly every piece here comes from that bequest. That gives the programme its character. Much of this music vanished from publishers’ catalogues long ago, and what survives in the collection tells you as much about Scotts’ personality as about the concerts he gave. Savage wanted the album to bring back the teacher he knew: a player of charm and dazzling technique, quick to laugh and generous to a fault. He makes a pointed case against the familiar myth of the great teacher as a tyrant at the music stand. This is a recording in praise of kindness in the teaching room, and it is all the more appealing for it.

Westlife turned Leeds Arena into a 25th anniversary singalong, Joe Jackson brought snarl and wit to the York Barbican, and the Burt Bacharach Songbook gave Halifax’s Victoria Theatre a night of timeless melodies, writes Graham Clark There are few bands who can turn 25 years of pop history into something that feels this effortlessly celebratory.

The 1980s were turbulent times for the Soviet Union. The death of the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, in 1981, and the slow-slow-quick-quick-slow waltz of the regime toward its collapse and eventual dissolution in 1992.

In a world that refreshes itself by the second, the past has never felt more appealing. Scroll for long enough and you will eventually run into it in the form of a clip from an old TV show, a song you had forgotten you loved, a photo from years ago that feels strangely close.

What makes the album particularly compelling is the way McVittie brings together the warmth and intimacy of the harp and traditional vocal styles with atmospheric electronic production. Rather than feeling like a clash of old and new, these elements compliment one another beautifully, giving the music a distinctive identity that is at once organic, otherworldly and modern.

Her playing is fluent throughout, her agility impressive and her rhythmic precision unerring, while soloist and orchestra alike embrace the full Romantic sweep of these scores. Period instruments are often sold as a corrective to excess; here they serve the opposite purpose, lending these concertos a warmth and freshness that makes a persuasive case for all three.

Following the Fannies’ 2023 Nothing Lasts Forever and last year’s side-project Butler, Blake & Grant, Blake and (day job) co. return with Teenage Fanclub’s 13th full-length album. Opening with There Was You, a playful, folksy and upbeat song about how magical surprises can interrupt otherwise predetermined lives, Do Not Dare To Dream gets off to an engaging start. There’s an easy warmth to the song, but also a sense that the album might be setting its ambitions rather lower than some of the band’s finest work.