So we are out of here. That's your music news done for the day.

Scroll down for Metallica's top Manchester musical homage and a few other covers that it made us think of (wonder what they have planned for Birmingham tonight - Paranoid?)

Plus musical tributes to Chester Bennington in LA and a most pleasant surprise on stage for recent US chart-topping rapper Cardi B.

Good news comes in threes usually Cardi...

See y'all tomorrow.

Image source, Getty Images

Finally today...

Sad news for anyone who is nostalgic about wading through mud to see their favourite band/artist in a Staffordshire field, as The V Festival is coming to an end.

Nae, has come to an end - in name at least.

The company has announced that the 2017 festival, which was headlined by Pink and Jay Z, was in fact the final one under their sponsorship.

In a statement Virgin said the festival, which first took place in 1996, "has always been a special weekend for everyone at Virgin.

"We’ve been proud to sponsor V Festival for the past two decades and there have been some incredible performances on the stage. Now, after 22 very enjoyable and successful years, 2017 was Virgin’s last V Festival.

No word yet on who or what could potentially take the place of the August music festival, but it is expected to continue in some form.

More on this one tomorrow.

Read the full statement., external

Image source, Get

New York rapper Jay-Z kicked off the US leg of his 4:44 tour by hitting back at Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, after he criticised players for taking a knee during the pre-match national anthem in order to protest for black rights.

The American football chief said "we can't have inmates running the prison".

It's a view that US president Donald Trump seems to share, but after much criticism McNair eventually retracted his comments.

Too little too late though for Jay, who responded on stage during his gig in Anaheim, California on Friday night.

Image source, EPA

He said: “Injuring themselves on the field, giving it all they got. That’s how they look at you. That’s what they think about you.

“We got so much further to go. The truth is we all believe in whatever you believe in.

Thanks for your suggestions today, following Metallica's DLBIA in Manchester (scroll down).

Two belters from Richard Collier who points us first to Duran Duran's live rendition, external of the Steve Harley classic Make Me Smile.

Nice.

And then UK rock band Marillion's epic cover of Britney Spears Toxic., external

Hard to top that Richard, well played.

NME

Potentially some exciting news for early 2000s skater hip-hop.

Pharrell Williams could be reuniting with N*E*R*D bandmate Chad Hugo for their first new album in seven years.

Check out these billboards that have been popping up displaying the words behind the band's acronym: “No_One Ever Really Dies”.

The band have already been confirmed as one of the headliners for an event in California - ComplexCon - between 4-5 November.

He may have lost the questionable 'tashe but Pharrell has not lost the ability to write a choon so watch what happens.

Read more, external.

Image source, PA

You'll probably know her best as the actress in Cilla, Funny Girl or Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (for the real fans) but now Sheridan Smith is about to hit the road for her first tour of these shores as a singer.

The Bafta-winning star will set off on a nine date tour of the UK in April next year, in support of her forthcoming debut record Sheridan.

We're guessing 'Smith' was not deemed showbiz enough to go with her on the tour, which kicks off at The Sage in Newcastle on 10 April and culminates in a show at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on 29 April.

Check her website for full details., external

Image source, Reuters

More news from the rap world now...

Eminem has donated the proceeds awarded to him in the copyright court battle - which we told you about last week - with the New Zealand National Party, to help the hurricane relief efforts back home in America.

The hip hop star, who this summer headlined Reading + Leeds, was given £316,100 after the incumbent NZ party was adjudged to have used more than just a touch of M's track Lose Yourself in one of their party political campaign adverts.

Now that money will go to help those in need after hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Sandy caused destruction across the States this year.

Well played Marshall.

Image source, Reuters

BBC Radio 1

Image source, Getty Images

The chart-topping grime artist has cleared up the reason for the singer and producer's absence from The X Factor on Saturday (scroll down).

MNEK has tweeted: "What do you do when youve come back from a date to find out that Labrinth was singing your song on X Factor instead of you".

Now speaking to Radio 1, Stormzy said: "I spoke to MNEK last night and this morning as well, that [the performance] was a miscommunication from my side.

"MNEK is going to join me on Jonathan Ross, we have all of these different ways to communicate it [the song] but that didn't get communicated to him."

"So that was my deepest apologies to him."

Read more

Image source, Getty Images

As well as being a top solo star, actor, lothario and snappy dresser it seems that Harry Styles has also got a heart of gold.

The sometimes One Direction singer sent pizza and hot chocolate to fans who had camped outside the Hammersmith Apollo in London this weekend to ensure they got a good spot for the first show of his solo UK tour last night.

Stylesy will perform at the same venue again tonight and will be hoping for an equal amount of 'love' in the room.

Read BBC arts editor Will Gompertz review of Harry Styles gig in Paris on Friday night.

Meanwhile Harry's old band (not that they've split up or anything) have just joined the Beatles in being the only groups with three members to achieve a solo number one in the US.

It comes after Niall Horan topped the charts with his debut, Flicker, last week, adding to Harry and Zayn's previous #1s to equal The Beatles' record, which has stood since 1971.

Over to you now Liam and Louis to officially end the debate on who the best band ever is, once and for all.

Like many of us this weekend Adele brought the Halloween party forward by a few days.

Makes sense.

It's not actually until tomorrow but who has time to apply this sort of make-up on a weekday?

Top marks for Adele's 'just been dragged through a hedge' hair.

Scary stuff.

Benjamin Clementine has dug out his biggest pair of flares and is wearing his most mischievous look to mark the occasion.

BBC 6 Music

Image source, Getty Images

Saturday marked 40 years since seminal punk record Never Mind The Bollocks smashed its way into our consciousness and changed the landscape of British music forever.

Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones spoke to 6 Music about the making of the band's hugely influential and only studio record.

He said: "No-one wanted to touch us with a bargepole. We got slung off EMI. We got slung off ANM. No-one wanted anything to do with us."

Luckily a young Richard Branson at Virgin "got it".

Listen below.

Kev Geoghegan
Music News LIVE reporter

Nile Rodgers has revealed he was reluctant to release his remix of the George Michael song Fantasy as he didn't want the late star's record label to exploit him after his death on Christmas Day 2016.

"We were planning to do an entire album, he was so happy with the concept of me doing Fantasy and I was clearly happy about the direction that it was taking, that he wanted to have me do the next album and I was incredibly flattered."

Nile planned on speaking to George, who returned to the top of the UK album charts on Friday, about the project when he got a news alert telling him the star had been found dead at his home.

"I couldn't believe it. Can you imagine? I was sitting there in a movie theatre, I didn't know what to do.

"I didn't want to finish the record because it felt wrong to me, it felt like I would be giving the label something to exploit because he had passed away."

He added: "I didn't let anyone at the record company even hear the record until April.

Nile's remix (above) was eventually released in September.

Image source, AFP

The Chic guitarist and producer is in the UK to play a live show for Radio 2 later.

The good news for fans of both artists is that George's song might find its way into the show.

"The great thing is that our setlist is so wide and so varied that like I can choose to add and drop songs at will.

"So, we can play a Bowie song or Diana Ross or Madonna or Duran Duran or INXS or Daft Punk or Chic or any songs I've co-written or produced."

No-one can drop a name quite like Nile.

Read more about him performing for an "air bass slapping" Swedish monarch.

BBC Newsbeat

Image source, Penguin Random House

Wiley is reluctant to wear his nickname The Godfather of Grime, but he's been pretty forthright about his views on the mainstream success of the sound he helped pioneer.

"No-one's had a grime number one. Any number one that anyone's had, it's pop music. England is built on pop music, that's why the show was called Top of the Pops," he told Newsbeat.

"Stormzy and Skepta have made it into something today that pays as well as pop does," he said.

Read more.

Following on from Metallica's metal treatment of Don't Look back In Anger in Manchester this weekend (scroll down) we want to know what your favourite most unexpected live cover versions have been down the years.

There's a few to get you started below...but if you saw Taylor Swift covering Kanye in a field/venue somewhere then we want to know about it.

Get involved via BBC Music Twitter, external and tell us why it was so damn good.

Historic US rapper Cardi B got this weekend just gone off to a flyer.

Cardi, who recently became the first female rapper in nearly 20 years to have a #1 single in the States, accepted a proposal live on stage from boyfy Offset from Migos during a joint performance in Philadelphia on Friday night.

Watch the romantic moment, external the rapper got down on one knee, as caught on camera by a fan, if you think you can handle the screams.

She posted the above pic of her with her new marital bling, alongside the below message.

Image source, Getty

"Jesus Christ I’m so emotional, @offsetyrn, external I loveee you so much. Thank you for seeing the potential in me since you met me. For giving me advice molding me and loving me. Your such a amazing man to me your family ,friends ,kids and you are extremely talented.

Awwwww finding love and making shedloads of cash. That's what it's all about.

Whatever you got up to this weekend, we hope you had fun.

Singer and producer MNEK was out on a hot date last night but while that was going on many people online were questioning why he wasn't performing on the X Factor alongside grime sensation Stormzy.

The Gangs, Signs and Prayer star was appearing on the show to sing his track Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2, on which MNEK featured.

However it seems his invite got lost in the post, as Labrinth did his parts instead.

Awkward.

Could've been worse. At least they didn't get Bradley Walsh to do it...

None of the thousands of fans who went to the Manchester Arena at the weekend to see Metallica play live would have expected a cover version of Oasis' Don't Look Back in Anger.

"What a moment", tweeted drummer (and Noel Gallagher's pal) Lars Ulrich, external, "Goosebumps".

We couldn't agree more and it got us thinking about some other unexpected moments of musical magic, when bands covered songs and artists we tend not to associate with them.

Norah Jones brought a bluesy, melancholy feel to her stripped cover of Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun in tribute to late singer Chris Cornell in Detroit back in May.

Its a very different sound to the more savage original but we can't help but think Chris would approve and it would have sounded even better as a duet, with Norah's sumptuous smooth vocals wrapping around his plaintive rasped soulful voice.

It was given extra emotional heave due to the fact that it was performed at the Fox Theatre; the site of Cornell's final show.

Following the death of Prince in 2016, many artists had a crack at one of his hugely distinguished back catalogue.

But leave it to The Boss to pull off the ultimate cover of the ultimate song at a gig in Brooklyn.

A pretty faithful recreation of the original but somehow Springsteen makes it sound like he's been singing it in dive bars for years.

Coldplay have form in this department, having performed various cover version in the live shows throughout the years, somehow making them all sound like Coldplay originals.

Here's a poignant reminder of just how affecting Chris Martin singing solo with a piano can be, when he covered Linkin Park's Crawling following the death of singer Chester Bennington during the summer.

Whether or not you like Coldplay nobody can question the sincerity of this performance.

Linkin Park themselves could also pull a creditable cover out of the bag, as they demonstrated at the 2011 iTunes festival in London, with this atmospheric performance of Adele's Rolling In The Deep.

Its a brilliant vocal performance by Chester, not trying to compete with Adele's soaring stadium-filling voice instead turning it into an intimate, emotionally raw plea to a lost love.

Again, he pays full respect to the original song and the singalong from the crowd proves why he is such a loss as a charismatic frontman.

At the other end of the scale, this one is brilliant for its unabashed weirdness.

Jarvis Cocker and choir perform the KLF's Justified and Ancient as part of Toxteth Day of the Dead in Liverpool in August.

Check out this video shot by Sean Clark.

If we've whetted your appetite with this list check out Radio 2's 10 most unlikely heavy metal covers of classic songs.

Friday nights mean live music on the BBC once again. Woop woop!

The first of a six-part series, Sounds Like Friday Night, featured performances from Jason Derulo (above), Jessie Ware and Charlie Puth.

As well as live music there was plenty of comic capors too, including the multi-talented Jason shooting some hoops, external and Foo Fighter Dave 'Grohls' attempting a new job as the BBC voiceover guy (below).

We're not sure that Dave should quit the day job just yet.

While we enjoyed it from the comfort of our couches, BBC Music reporter Mark Savage was in the studio on Friday to watch the action unfold and tell us exactly what went down.

It seems that many of you were loving having live music back on the BBC on a Friday night and it's generally considered that Jason, Jessie (below) and Charlie smashed it.

Others would prefer a few more tunes in this week's show, which features a battle of the Liams; Payne v Gallagher.

Check out some of the viewer reaction below and tune in again on BBC One from 19:30 on Friday.

Image source, Getty Images

Linkin Park played their first gig since the tragic death of frontman Chester Bennington at a special memorial gig at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Friday night.

Linkin Park & Friends Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington featured performances from remaining members of the band, plus Blink-182, a newly-blonde Alanis Morissette, DJ Steve Aoki and many more.

You can watch the entire three-hour show via the band's YouTube page., external

US publication Billboard has written up its top 5 moments, external from the gig including Mike Shinoda performing a new "unfinished" song Looking for an Answer, written in the wake of his friend's death.

Watch his emotive stripped down piano rendition below.

As well as remembering the late singer, who took his own life in July, the gig was held to raise awareness of depression and suicide prevention through the One More Light Fund, which came out of the band's Music For Relief charity.

Chester's wife of 12 years, and mother to their combined six children, paid tribute to him onstage.

She said: "Chester and I always loved bringing people together, and he was filled with joy when our house was full of family, friends, kids, dogs, cats, birds, turtles - the more the merrier - and he would have loved all of this tonight.

"He was incredibly proud of the work done for Music For Relief.

Image source, Getty Images

The all-star guests returned to the stage for a finale of the band's 2007 track Bleed It Out, during which Shinoda said the band still "don’t know where we’re going."

Check out some fan-shot footage from the gig below and some more reaction from the acts involved.

Don't be sad that the weekend is over, be glad that it happened.

We hope you're all feeling suitably refreshed and have wiped the fake Dracula blood off your face from the weekend (you can paint it back on again tomorrow).

Let's open the Pandora's box of music news again for another week and see what's inside. Today we'll tell you about Jay-Z's call to arms for racial equality and find out what happened at the Chester Bennington memorial gig in LA.

Plus another US rapper Cardi B receives a very decent on-stage proposal and Eminem shows his charitable side.

We'll look back on the first episode of the BBC's new live music show Sounds Like Friday Night too.

While we get rolling check out Metallica's version of Don't Look Back In Anger at their Manchester Arena gig over the weekend and we'll be back with you before you can say Enter Sandman.