All good things must come to an end and we're afraid to say we've reached that point in Thursday's MNL.

Scroll down to see what role birthday girl Taylor Swift has in the new star-studded Cats movie, Janet Jackson's reaction to making the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the final ruling in the famous Blurred Lines legal case.

Plus Ye calls out to Bob, 'Keef' puts down the bottle and Matt opens a caf'.

Playing us off today are Smashing Pumpkins performing live outside for US TV show host Jimmy Kimmel (above). We wouldn't fancy doing that in the UK in December but in Los Angeles it's probably a fair few degrees warmer still.

Watch above and we'll be back tomorrow morning with New Music Friday and 5 Things We Learned This Week.

Ciao.

1Xtra

Finally today, a heart-warming pre-Christmas tale...

Manc rapper Bugzy Malone has revealed how his latest grime video helped reunite a family.

In an interview with BBC 1Xtra's DJ Target, the grime rapper confirmed that the homeless characters in his Run video were not actors.

Bugzy said: "We went out and got proper homeless people. We had a chance to chat to them and give them a little something.

"We got proper people off the streets of Manchester in there."

The 27-year-old rapper, whose real name is Aaron Davis, went on to explain that shortly after the video was released his management team received a message from a woman who recognised one of the men in it.

"We got an email off a mum of one of the guys, the guy had been missing for six months, to a year.

Listen above and read more.

Mark Savage
Music reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Everyone knows Silent Night, but contemporary carols are still being written. We meet two of the UK's most popular composers, John Rutter and Bob Chilcott.

"One of the nice things about Christmas music is that you get 11 months off from it."

So says "Mr Christmas" himself - better known as John Rutter, a choral tour de force, composer of some of the UK's most popular contemporary carols, and master of ceremonies at the Royal Philharmonic's annual Christmas concert.

But the 73-year-old, whose December is busier than Santa's, says he's never grown tired of the season.

"You do get 11 months off but by the time Christmas comes around, it's fresh again; and when you hear the same carols from year to year, it ties some of the threads of your life together.

"It's lovely, because we do look for reassurance in a changing world."

Read more

The beating heart of the Arctic Monkeys, drummer Matt Helders (above centre) has announced that he's to open a cafe called Ambulo in his hometown Sheffield next year.

"Different to what I usually post," wrote Matt today on Instagram this afternoon, "but I’m getting in the restaurant biz, believe it or not.

"Happy to be doing it with my mate James O'Hara and his capable team."

Wonder how many stars, external it will get in the local tour guide?

Lil Wayne was on fine form contemplating life and death during his performance of Don't Cry for US TV chat show host Stephen Colbert last night.

The track, taken from his long-awaited album Tha Carter V - seven years in the making - features a vocal track recorded by troubled late rapper XXXTentacion.

"If you love somebody and you celebrate life tonight," declared Wayne.

"Just put two fingers in the air ladies and gentleman, thank you."

Watch above.

Don't try this sunglasses and woolly hat indoors-look at home, folks.

BBC Radio 1

It's less than two weeks until the big day, so we hope you have your festive plans nearly sorted.

While you decide who is responsible for carving the turkey, take a look at Radio 1's Xmas Day line-up, featuring Little Mix, BTS, The 1975 and some Hollywood stars including Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Emma Stone and Benedict Cumberbatch.

It all starts from 10:00 GMT, which should give you enough time to unwrap your prezzies and eat too much chocolate for breakfast.

Here's the plan:

• Little Mix (10-11am)
• HRVY (11am-midday)
• BTS with Radio 1’s Adele Roberts (midday-1pm)
• Charli XCX (1-2pm)
• The 1975 (2-3pm)
• Radio 1’s Hollywood All-Stars (3-4pm)

Big question is - the Queen's Speech or the Hollywood All-Stars?

Hmm, it's too tough to call...

Following this afternoon's news that Janet Jackson is to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2019, our #TBT takes us back to 1989 when she released one of her most enduring hits.

The politically-driven Rhythm Nation was an upbeat call for social justice and appeared on her fourth studio album of the same name.

It reached number two in the US charts.

Watch above as Janet demonstrates her full repertoire of skills.

Read more

Janet Jackson has been announced as a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2019 inductee.

The pop star, who has sold more than 160 million records worldwide over four decades, will join Radiohead, The Cure, Def Leppard, Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music and The Zombies.

Janet said: “Thank you Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am truly honoured and I am happy to be in there with my brothers.”

It marks a pretty good comeback for the singer, who this year also collected the icon prize at the Billboard Awards.

Her career had been derailed somewhat after she was embroiled in the 'nipplegate' fiasco during her appearance alongside Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show.

Image source, Getty Images

The induction ceremony will take place on 29 March 2019 in New York.

It will be interesting to see if Radiohead turn up, with some members of the band having previously suggested they weren't too bothered about the accolade.

Image source, Getty Images

There's not much to say about this one Britney fans, other than click play above and enjoy.

If you're app-less and therefore confused by exactly how she's made herself look like a reindeer and sound like a chipmunk then please ask your young niece of nephew to show you on their smart phone on Christmas day.

It might blow your mind.

Miss Spears' Las Vegas residency launches in February 2019.

She's got great musical genes, being the daughter of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole's Courtney Love and now Frances Bean is showing signs of promise online.

"I wrote this here rough yet delicate tune last night," she posted on Instagram, alongside the above video.

"The creative death rattle of 2018, as it were.

"It’s been a weird one but I’ve never felt more creatively charged or more in control of my own narrative."

Watch above, while we await the next chapter.

And it was all in the name of their idol.

With almost 10.1 million "thumbs down", YouTube Rewind 2018, external, the annual review of the platform's highlights, has become its most "disliked" video.

It's now got more dislikes than the video for Justin Bieber's 2010 song Baby (above), which had filled the bottom slot for several years.

Some comments revealed a fan campaign to bump Bieber off the bottom.

Don't mess with The Biebs.

Read more

Image source, Getty Images

Ex-Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing has sold his signature 1967 Flying V axe for a cool $189,000 (£149,265).

As Blabbermouth, external reports, it was one of 11 guitars of his sold during international auction house Bonhams' auction on Tuesday.

The guitar was used on the Midlands metal band's albums Sad Wings of Destiny and Point of Entry.

We wonder if they paid in cash, external, like Wayne did.

BBC Radio 2

The Years & Years singer popped past the Radio 2 studios earlier in the week and sat down in the piano room to tackle a classic 80s ballad.

Check out his cover of Time After Time on Ken Bruce's show (above).

You can listen again to his session in full.

While Kanye's collab with Bob Dylan remains a pipe dream for now (scroll down) it seems 50 Cent's musical hookup with Ed Sheeran and Eminem is very much a reality.

“I recorded a song last night with Eminem & ED Sheeran," revealed the US rapper with the above tweet.

"I had fun doing it we got some heat."

Ed actually featured on Em's star-studded 2017 album Revival, on a track called River. He also joined forces with another superstar rapper, Stormzy, at the 2017 Brit Awards for a reworking of his mega hit Shape of You.

On Friday we told you how Ed had racked up the highest-grossing tour of 2018, raking in an eye-watering $429m (£336.5m).

No wonder Fiddy wants in on the Ed pound.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The singer and actress has appeared to confirm she is playing a role in the next series of writer Charlie Brooker's futuristic dystopian tales.

Appearing on Howard Stern's Sirius XM show, the singer/actress said she has been filming in South Africa when her California house was burned down during the recent wildfires.

"If you guess it, then I will shake my head 'yes,'" she told Stern, when he asked whether she was involved in series five of the Netflix show.

She added she couldn't actually give a verbal confirmation because nobody had told her she could officially speak about her guest starring role.

So you didn't hear it from us, but it's a yes.

We can't wait to see what nightmarish plot line she's involved in.

Image source, Getty Images

Meanwhile the 26-year-old has also been telling the Kiss breakfast show in the UK that after the fire, she was only upset at losing her shrine to Elvis Presley, which she used to say "good night" to at the end of every day.

"Actually, when I tell him good night," said Miley, "I would whisper to him, 'I wish we could have known each other because we would have been so great for each other."'

The long-running copyright case over the hit song Blurred Lines has finally ended, with Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams being ordered to pay $5m (£4m) to Marvin Gaye's family.

The ruling concludes a legal battle that began in 2013, when the late singer's family claimed the song copied Gaye's 1977 hit, Got to Give It Up.

Gaye's family initially won the case in 2015, but Thicke and Williams appealed.

A California court upheld the verdict in March this year, and the new amended judgement confirms the settlement.

Thicke, Williams and Williams' publishing company, More Water From Nazareth, are jointly required to pay Gaye's family damages of $2.8m (£2.2m).

Meanwhile, Thicke has been ordered to pay an additional $1.7m (£1.3m), while Williams and his publishing company will pay another $357,630 (£282,296).

Gaye's family will also be entitled to 50% of all future royalties earned by the song.

Read more

Image source, Getty Images

It's been confirmed by Universal Pictures

Shooting has started on the new all-star movie adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, directed by Les Miserables and The King's Speech's Tom Hooper.

As well as today's birthday girl, Tay Tay, the film will star Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, James Corden as Bustopher Jones and Idris Elba as Macavity.

It will also feature Dame Judi Dench, singer Jason Derulo and Sir Ian McKellen.

Taylor's character is described as "a flirtatious red adult female cat with a white chest and black spots and marks".

She sounds pur-fect for the role.

In other news, Taylor - 29 today - has revealed that her Reputation stadium tour will be released as a concert film on Netflix on December 31.

"Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes!" she tweeted, alongside a trailer for the film.

"Today I finally get to show you something we've been working on for a while..."

Sneak a peak below.

Rolling Stone magazine

Image source, Getty Images

Rolling Stones guitarist and famed former hell raiser Keith Richards has revealed that he's quit boozing.

Sort of.

The 75-year-old rocker has told the US magazine that shares his band's name that he simply "got fed up with it".

“It’s been about a year now,” he told Rolling Stone.

“I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.”

He admits that he still enjoys “a glass of wine occasionally, and a beer,” but it seems the full on days of excess might be over.

“It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff,” he added.

Image source, Getty Images

Bandmate Ronnie Wood is pretty happy with this new calmer version of Keef.

“He’s a pleasure to work with,” said Ronnie.

“Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some [crap] for saying this.’

"Now, he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.’"

He added: “I think the Keith that we used to know and love had this cutoff point where if he had one more, he’d go over the top and he’d be nasty.

"The cutoff point became shorter and shorter, you know, and he realised that.”

Read more, external

Image source, Getty Images

The Chicago rapper and prolific tweeter has put a big shout out to Bob Dylan for them to make some music together.

“Calling out to Bob Dylan,” he wrote. “Let’s get together.”

He could of course just want to meet him for a pint to be fair, but that would seem like a waste of a golden opportunity, don't you think?

The link up might not be as unlikely as it sounds at first, given that Ye linked up with Sir Paul McCartney, another legendary 60s songwriter a few years back on their track FourFive Seconds, external, which also featured Rihanna.

Last year, Dylan released Triplicate, his epic 38th studio album and he's due to make a rare UK festival appearance alongside Neil Young next summer.

Image source, Getty Images

Morning music fans and welcome to Thursday's MNL.

Coming up today:

• Kanye calls out to Bob Dylan for a collab
• Rolling Stone 'Keef' Richards on why he's put a plug in the jug
• The big money conclusion to the Blurred Lines’ legal battle
• Miley Cyrus to appear in Black Mirror

Getting things started today though is Avril Lavigne who doesn't know whether she's coming or going with her fella in the video for her soulful soulful track, Tell Me It's Over (below).

It's set to feature on the Canadian's forthcoming album, Head Above Water - her first in six years, following a battle with Lyme disease - which she's announced will be with us on 15 February.

“I wanted to write something classic and have been inspired by some of the timeless queens I listen to everyday at home, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin and Etta James,” she said in a statement.

“They represent women who stand up for women and aren’t going to put up with a man’s [nonsense] anymore!”

New Year, new Avril.