It's been a dramatic week in London. On Saturday, north London's rockingest district, Camden, went up in flames. Nobody knows why yet, and fortunately there weren't any casualties, but 100 firefighters were still called out to tackle the blaze, and the Hawley Arms, the pub that's pretty much been the centre of the scene this past few years, was burnt to a crisp. Owners promise the pub will be rebuilt, but a little bit of rock history was still flattened.

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But life goes on, and the ShockWaves NME Awards season of shows is underway at full pelt. The most exciting so far came on Sunday night, the return to the UK of NYC cult heroes Les Savy Fav, enjoying a spectacular new lease of life with their 'Let's Stay Friends' album. They don't make it over to the UK often enough, but Tim Harrington likes it that way.

"It's a cock-tease type situation," he told me, backstage, later. "I think it's better for our relationship with the UK to just have the occasional meet up for weekends and get it on. And we don't tell anyone what happened. We've gotta keep it a secret. It's just a thing between us, it's discreet. An occasional discreet thing."

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An 'occasional discreet thing' which was nevertheless attended by Kele Bloc Party, Barry Futureheads, Sam Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and members of The Horrors. Support came from the ferocious Future Of The Left and the lovely Los Campesinos!

It's been quite the week for star-spots. Last night I found myself watching two rather great bands from Kingston, Tubelord and Colour (www.myspace.com/tubelord and www.myspace.com/colouruk) at East London's Barden's Boudoir accompanied by Keith Murray from We Are Scientists and a few of the Mystery Jets. But it's also London Fashion Week, and after the show, Keith dragged me to a hideous but star-studded party at posho members club Shoreditch House. There, all four Dirty Pretty Things were rolling around the place, grot'n'rollers The Paddingtons found themselves in a bit of bother, and singer Tom was seen getting agitated with venue security. But most exciting of all, fresh from her Grammy win, was Amy Winehouse, looking healthier than she has for months and looking like she was behaving herself. Good.

Talking of the Mystery Jets, we've just had their second album 'Twenty One' land in our postbags, and there's a song called 'Two Doors Down' that will make you jump with joy once you hear it.

And finally, an update about Queens Of The Stone Age's YouTube makeout competition, which we told you all about last week. I caught up with an under-the-weather Joshua Homme at their Hammersmith Apollo date on Monday, and he explained it thus: "Valentines Day is coming up, and we wanted to do something cool with 'Make It Witchu'. So what better thing to do to put that holiday that was created by Hallmark greeting cards and a song about screwing together. We wanna be part of your lovelife, either directly or indirectly. I'll do anything to get between you and your significant other, for just a moment."

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