Hot tracks: Stars - From The Night Astronauts Etc. - Gravity Freedom Fry - The Wilder Mile The Preatures - Somebody’s Talking I’ve created a Spotify playlist with my top picks, which you can subscribe to via http://open.spotify.com/user/jenster13/playlist/0gYXunFqF4QGZahdvTtjFU or by searching Jenster13. If you want to share your own choice tracks, send me suggestions for a readers’ playlist.

Band to check out: South Carolina’s Heyrocco will be kicking it north of the border next month.

The lads - Nate Merli (vocals, guitar, hairspray), Christopher Cool (bass, driving) and Taco Cooper (drums, manual labour) - first plugged in their parents’ garage five years ago and have since left school in pursuit of becoming the biggest and loudest rock band of their generation.

They’ve already won love from Kerrang! (single of the week for Melt), XFM and Huw Stephens (Radio 1), and are currently slaving away on their debut album - which they promise to be packed with massive hooks and sing-along choruses.

Heyrocco will be playing at Glasgow’s Broadcast (8 Oct) and Edinburgh’s Electric Circus (22 Oct).

For more info, check out heyrocco.co.uk, like www.facebook.com/Heyrocco or follow on Twitter @whoisheyrocco.

Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2014: Anna Calvi - One Breath Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots East India Youth - Total Strife Forever FKA Twigs - LP1 GoGo Penguin - v2.0 Jungle - Jungle Kate Tempest - Everybody Down Nick Mulvey - First Mind Polar Bear - In Each and Every One Royal Blood - Royal Blood Young Fathers - Dead This year’s Album of the Year shortlist was chosen from over 220 entries. Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn and rockers Royal Blood have been tipped as favourites to win the award and £20,000 prize, but I’m going to put a cheeky fiver on FKA Twigs. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 29 October.

T in the Park: T in the Park organisers DF Concerts will need to carry out an environmental impact study before consent can be given to relocate the festival to Strathallan Castle. Some tickets have already been sold, but Perth and Kinross Council has not yet received any planning notice.

The festival had been based at Balado since 1997, but had to be shifted after health and safety fears were raised over an oil pipeline running under the site.

DF Concerts settled on a short move across Perthshire to the grounds of Strathallan Castle, but met opposition from local residents who wrote to the Scottish government demanding a review.

It was initially claimed that a full planning application was not needed unless the event was on site for more than 28 days. However ministers have now ruled that an environmental impact study must be carried out ahead of full planning consent being given.

A Perth and Kinross Council spokeswoman said, “T in the Park cannot go ahead at Strathallan Castle until planning consent has been granted.

“Notwithstanding the council’s support to retain the festival within the area, we take our responsibilities as a planning authority seriously.

“We will consider any planning application from DF Concerts to hold T in the Park at Strathallan Castle on its own merits and in line with national planning guidance.” A spokesman for DF Concerts confirmed, “We are currently engaged in pre-application planning and discussions to ensure that all relevant documentation is in place.

“Regardless of the type of planning process, extensive, careful and detailed preparation has always been a hallmark of T in the Park’s success - for this year and every year previous.” Las Tiesto: Tiesto has scored a Bellagio fountain show in Las Vegas. The chart-topping DJ, who is a headliner at MGM Grand Hotel’s Hakkasan nightclub and Wet Republic dayclub, will unveil his choreographed water sequence tonight (17 Sept). The Sin City attraction, set to lights and music, will reportedly feature a medley of three songs off his latest album (A Town Called Paradise), which was inspired by Vegas.

Top read: Festive in Death by J.D. Robb; The kitchen knife jammed into his cold heart pinned a cardboard sign to his well-toned chest. It read, 'Santa Says You’ve Been Bad!!! Ho, Ho, Ho!’ It’s Christmas, but Lieutenant Eve Dallas is in no mood to celebrate. While her charismatic husband Roarke plans a huge, glittering party, Eve has murder on her mind. The victim - personal trainer Trey Ziegler - was trouble in life and is causing even more problems in death. Vain, unfaithful and vindictive, Trey had cultivated a lot of enemies - which means Eve has a lot of potential suspects. And when she and Detective Peabody uncover Trey’s sinister secret, the case takes a deadly turn. Christmas may be a festival of light, but Eve and Roarke will be forced once more down a very dark path in their hunt for the truth.

Star Wars: Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo has confessed to emailing his Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson to ask for a part in Star Wars: Episode VIII. Ruffalo is clearly following my example after I Tweeted Sly Stallone, offering my services for The Expendabelles. I’m still waiting for a reply.

Salomé & Wilde Salomé at Stirling Vue: Salomé is Oscar Wilde’s most controversial work, banned in London in the late 19th Century. This scintillating tale of lust, greed and revenge follows the legend of King Herod and his passion towards his young stepdaughter, Salomé, and her sexual baiting of John the Baptist.

Adapted for the big screen in the shape of a filmed play and accompanying documentary, Stirling Vue will show each production back-to-back and live broadcast a Q&A event - via satellite from London’s BFI Southbank - with stars Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) and Al Pacino (The Godfather, Heat).

Salomé; When a drunken King Herod (Pacino) offers to grant his stepdaughter (Chastain) any wish she desires in exchange for a suggestive performance of the Dance of the Seven Veils, it’s a decision he quickly comes to regret. She demands something which fills him with dread; the head of John the Baptist.

Wilde Salomé; Al Pacino directs this remarkable documentary which explores the life and times of Oscar Wilde. This film was inspired by Pacino’s desire to play the character of King Herod, having seen the play performed in London with Stephen Berkoff.

Stirling Vue, Sunday 21 September, 4pm. For more info and tickets, go to www.myvue.com.

Playstation picks: As the PS3’s glory days come to a close, I’ve chosen my top three games/series for the console.

Mass Effect (series); My own personally-designed Shepherd blazed through Bioware’s space trilogy - and boy did she look good doing it. What I loved about this series - as well as the Fallout franchise - is that I was able to shape what I looked like, play as a woman (very important to me when gaming), make story-changing decisions, choose to be good or a rogue, and enter into relationships with other characters. Over the course of the three games, one simple action taken in the first had consequences by the third. It was all down to you, whether you sided with serial killers and genocidal lunatics or fought with your last breath as humanity’s last hope. The sci-fi’s conclusion received backlash from some fans, but I felt it was an apt ending in the fight to save the universe. Mass Effect is one of the most definitive RPGs I’ve ever played and a wholly unique experience. If you haven’t played the game but fancy a shot, my only advice is to use cryo ammo to freeze any frightening banshees and if you’re already 'dating’ someone do not - repeat do not - get into the shower with comm specialist Traynor.

Fallout: New Vegas; Words cannot describe how much I fell in love with this game. Luck was certainly a lady as I crossed the post-apocalypse wasteland to make my way to the bright lights of the New Vegas strip. I battled cannibals, defeated deathclaws, defended towns, slaughtered slavers and took revenge on the man who shot me in the head during the opening sequence. I also made many companions on the way and discovered fascinating secrets between brutal battles. As with Mass Effect, in New Vegas I was able to design what I looked like, play as a female character, make story-altering decisions and choose to be good or evil. This is an epic game; one that I would happily start from scratch and devote another 50,000 hours to. When developers Bethesda finally announce the release date of Fallout 4, know that I will be booking that day and following week off work. Hallelujah.

Red Dead Redemption; Rockstar’s western-themed video game had me hooked from the get-go. It featured everything from horse-riding and treasure hunting to hog-tying outlaws and saloon shootouts. In keeping with the studio’s repertoire (GTA, Bully, The Warriors), the storylines were quirky and tasks easy enough to complete to keep you coming back for more. As an open world game I literally hopped on my horse and set off for the sunset, finding adventure on the way. My only issue; there was no alternative to the male lead. Although hero John Marston looked cool and sounded sexy, as a female gamer I would rather have played as a cowgirl. Rockstar Games take note.

Also worth a mention; Dragon Age (series), Far Cry 3, The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim & Oblivion), The Last Of Us, GTA V, BioShock, Batman: Arkham City, Unchartered 2: Among Thieves, L.A. Noire, Heavy Rain, Saints Row (series) and COD: Modern Warfare.