Heroes Never Die: Tribute to Bowie on Arte

On the tenth anniversary of the passing of David Bowie there have been a raft of tributes, written, on the radio and on TV. The date was marked in France as elsewhere, and one of the most interesting was a special on  ARTE with some of Bowie's best-know songs being reinterpreted by other acts.

The Molotovs, The Horrors, La Roux, Carl Barat and Pete Doherty, Anna Calvi and The Divine Comedy all feature. Jeanne Added provides some much-needed French input while Yasmine Hamdan brings the show to its end with The Man Who Sold the World.

The documentary by Thierry Gautier and Sylvain Leduc, which runs just under an hour, includes a bit of background from each artist on their chosen cover. All sensitively and atmospherically shot.

You can cast questions endlessly about which acts deserved to be included here: Why The Horrors and not Suede? Perhaps it's a bit old school indie. Similar questions can be asked about the songs covered. Why aren's some of my favourites included? No matter. What's actually there is more interesting than what isn't and what could have been there. All the acts bring something different, from the reverential (Anna Calvi) to the more spontaneous and energetic (The Molotovs and Barat/Doherty).

There's some great stuff here. You might not like everything, but like those 'tribute' albums of the '80s and '90s that featured a raft of artists covering the work by a particular artist, it both throws up some unexpected gems and encourages a different interpretation of material you're probably familiar with.

Rachid Taha at the Trans musicales de Rennes, 21012

Great to watch the live set by Rachid Taha that he performed at the Trans musicales de Rennes, in memory of the huge talent that we recently lost.

Rachid Taha died on September 12, leaving a legacy that few will match. He took the sound North Africa into new places, inspired by (and according to legend inspiring) the Clash, electronica and rock.

From his early work with Carte de Séjour to his 2013 album Zoom, Taha was the kind of iconoclast most artists can only aspire to being.

The set in Rennes was filmed by Arte, and having a performance like this on tape really shows the value of filming these events.

Hellfest 2015: Live streaming

This weekend sees the international metal music scene focus its attention on France, with the Hellfest
three day event unfolding in the west of the country.

It's the tenth year of the festival, which has established itself as one of Europe's premier rock events alongside Download, Rock Am Ring and Wacken Open Air.

Some of the genre's biggest names are on the bill, with Judas Priest, Scorpions and Faith Korn headlining the main stage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Also on that stage are ZZ Top, Slash, Alice Cooper, Motorhead and more.

But one of the main attraction of Hellfest is that there are six stages, each with their own curated line up, so that the event can cover pretty much every sub genre of metal.

So there are headline places on the main stage two for Slipkot, Marilyn Manson and Nightwish, and performances by Faith no More, Lamb of God, In Flames and Epica.

One particulaly impressive feature is that much of the festival is being streamed by broadcaster Arte, so that even if you can't be in a field in Clisson near Nantes, you can enjoy the event in the comfort of your own laptop or tablet.