The group's 20-date tour visits cities and towns including Llandudno, Oxford, Aylesbury, Keele, Folkestone, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool and London.

The set will include many of Supergrass' classic hits spanning their decade together.

The band release a greatest hits album, Supergrass is 10, in June.

'Strat' guitar is 'world's best'

A guitar used by the likes of Jimi Hendrix has been named the world's greatest electric guitar by experts.

The Fender Stratocaster is the "ultimate" guitar, said a team of experts from What Guitar? magazine, according to the Independent on Sunday.

"It's one of those instruments that can be used for anything from country to rock'n'roll," What Guitar editor Stephen Lawson told the newspaper.

Sales of the "strat" were up by about 8,000 in the UK and Ireland last year.

The former mining town of Castleford in West Yorkshire is to get a �5m facelift in a Channel 4 television show.

Architects and designers will revamp the town centre and plan to build a new bridge across the River Aire for the programme due to air next year.

Castleford fell into decline when pit closures cut mining jobs in the town from 6,000 to 600 in 1997.

Local councillor Peter Box said: "I am looking forward to seeing Castleford evolve over the coming months.

Singer Sophie Ellis Bextor has given birth to a boy eight weeks early , undergoing a Caesarean section.

Doctors had diagnosed the pop star with the potentially life-threatening condition pre-eclampsia.

Sonny was born on Friday at 28 weeks and mother and child were "doing well", said a spokesman for the star.

The baby has to remain in hospital for the next few weeks. Ellis Bextor is the daughter of former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis.

Actress Kim Basinger has sold her engagement ring from ex-husband Alex Baldwin to raise money for an animal welfare society.

Basinger, an active animal rights campaigner, received $59,750 (�33,100) for the 3.7 carat diamond ring.

The money will go towards the Performing Animal Welfare Society, which helps performing and exotic animals in captivity.

Basinger married Baldwin in 1993, but the couple split up in 2002.

Partridge Family to make comeback

The 70s TV series The Partridge Family, which turned David Cassidy into a teen idol, is to make a comeback.

The show, which ran from 1970-1974, followed the fortunes of a singing family who toured the US in a psychedelic bus.

Cassidy, 53, told GMTV he would star in and executive produce the new show, as well as being involved in casting.

"I thought it would be great to put a spin on it for a whole new generation of people," he said.