I'm not sure that buying your tickets months in advance is really getting into the festival spirit, but I guess that's what you have to do these days if you want to actually get into anything. Anyway, this is a round about way of informing you that earlybird tickets for next year's Reading and Leeds festivals, plus delegate passes for The Great Escape, are now on sale, while Glastonbury 2011 tickets will be available from 3 Oct.

Reading and Leeds tickets will set you back £180, The Great Escape £80, and Glastonbury £195, though the latter will, as usual, only initially require a down payment of £50.

SWN, Various Venues, Cardiff, 21-23 Oct: Peggy Sue, Man Without Country and Bastions have all been confirmed to play at October's SWN Festival, along with Wickes, Y Bandana, Young Legionnaire, Cyrion and Drains. www.swnfest.com

That Axl Rose fella has claimed that his band's late arrival on the main stage at the Reading Festival on Friday night and Leeds Festival on Sunday was due to the late running of the event rather than any tardiness on his part.

Guns N Roses began their headline set at Reading over an hour late on Friday night, forcing organisers to come good on their threat to cut the gig short - though an extra half hour was negotiated, allowing the band to play past the festival's supposedly strict 11.30pm curfew. Rose was not a happy chappy when Reading bosses cut the power to the main stage at midnight, lashing out at organisers as he tried to carry on with a megaphone.

Amid in-the-end untrue rumours that the band would pull out of their headline slot at the Leeds Festival as a result of the Reading debacle, Axl took to Twitter to call on festival bosses to apologise to his fans, while GnR's tour guitarist DJ Ashba accused overall Reading/Leeds boss Melvin Benn of having a "personal vendetta" against the band relating to their last (also late) appearance at the Leeds Festival in 2002.

But, possibly aware that neither he nor his band had come out especially well from their run in with Benn and his team, Axl (or someone using his Twitter account) took to the net last night to issue an uncharacteristically literate (well, almost) and un-ranty statement. Said statement claims Guns N Roses stuck to the stage change-over times set out in their contract, and that the problem was that festival organisers did not give them access to the stage on time.

Axl's statement reads: "Our start times at the Reading and Leeds festivals factually had nothing to do with us, as the previous bands (who were great, by the way) came off stage when they did and we went on within our contracted and documented changeover time period. Whatever other nonsense anyone's choosing to write would appear intentionally false".

He continues: "Having the fans or our show penalised for how the event was run, or simply the natural flow of events those evenings and for such minimal amount of overtime, along with distortions and falsehoods by media, the promoter and/or event organisers regarding the events seems a bit draconian and more than unfair to the fans. A simple question: If you are aware of our changeover time, the average length of our show and the general nature of how these types of festivals run, all of which are no big secrets... why book us?"

"Is it simply because the line-up on our nights at both festivals sold well? So it's a cash grab with no respect for the fans or the band and somehow an unwanted inconvenience for the cities and law enforcement? If we're not wanted and [are] just being used to line someone else's pockets or for fictitious tabloid fodder at the fans and our expense we're fine with going elsewhere. God forbid we would force ourselves on anyone. It's not that kinda party".

He goes on to imply that he wasn't especially keen about playing Reading or Leeds in the first place, saying: "I didn't organise, arrange, authorise, have knowledge of or was even consulted about our being booked for these shows til after the fact, nor did I choose to work with anyone I'm aware of other than our manager, who was involved in arranging these dates. Yet it would appear we're amazingly often legally obligated to honour such arrangements whether against our will or better judgment. That's simply and unfortunately how this business often works with the artist and [in my opinion] seems is legally supported to benefit managers, agents, promoters and ticket vendors".

He concluded: "With how the fans and we were treated in the past I had what I feel were legitimate and now proven justified apprehensions. Yet we gave 100% and, from where we stood, it seemed as if the both the fans (who rocked!) and our camp were having fun and making the most of things. Why (and what would appear intentionally) risk having it go bad for everyone? [In my opinion,] that's where true recklessness and negligence at both the fans and our expense would seem to be".

So there you have it. Benn's company Festival Republic have not, as yet, commented on Rose's implications that their festival's general late running caused Guns N Roses' delayed arrival. Benn did previously say, however, that despite everything he thought Guns N Roses were the right headline act for his festival and that he'd happily book them again, though he conceded Axl probably wouldn't accept such a booking (though given the above statement, Rose doesn't seem to always get a veto).

The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers and Authors will host a conference for songwriters in London in October, which will see music business types and award winning songwriters like Iain Archer, Rob Davies and Sacha Skabek sharing their knowledge with fellow songwriting types.

BASCA's Lucy Weston told Msuic Week: "We hope this event will encourage up-and-coming songwriters to develop their skills and pursue their passion for music and add to the UK's illustrious history of making amazing music".

Called Songsfest, the event will take place from 25 - 27 Oct at The Brickhouse on Brick Lane, with tickets a tenner.

LOOPALLU, Ullapool, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, 17-18 Sep: Kassidy, Rachel Sermanni and James Mackenzie & The Aquascene have all been confirmed to play at next month's Scottish fest, joining the previously announced Idlewild, Turin Brakes and The Magic Numbers. www.loopallu.co.uk

ICELAND AIRWAVES, Reykjavik, Iceland, 13-17 Oct: Chateau Marmont, Mondkopf, Rolo Romassi, Wild Geese, Olafur Arnalds and Hafdis Huld are amongst the latest artists to be added to this year's Iceland Airwaves line-up, joining the previously confirmed Bombay Bicycle Club, Alex Metric, Joy Formidable, Robyn and Everything Everything. www.icelandairwaves.com

So, Guns N Roses are still planning to head to the UK this week in order to begin the second European leg of their current world tour. But that doesn't mean they will actually play the opening shows, their headline sets at the Reading and Leeds festivals. Having assured everyone that the shows are still on, festival boss Melvin Benn has now said he will still pull the plug on them if they're late.

Last time GnR headlined the twin festivals, back in 2002, the band arrived on stage two hours late in Leeds. As with all festivals, Reading and Leeds have strict curfews set by the local councils, and breaking them can incur large fines (Glastonbury headliners are charged £1000 for every minute they play past the curfew). Eight years ago, Axl and co were allowed to play on. However, that will not be the case this year.

Benn told BBC Newsbeat: "If Guns N Roses decide to take to stage as late, as they did in Leeds some years ago, then the performance just won't happen. I've had a very heavy warning from the local councils. There is a curfew - it's a very strict curfew. We got away with it once. We won't get away with it for a second time. Unfortunately, if the band chose not to take to the stage on time there's really nothing I can do. I won't be allowed to break the curfew. The truth is - it's threatening the viability of the festival. It threatens the licence. It really is quite important".

As previously reported, Axl Rose's Twitter account was apparently hacked last week, and used to publish a fake announcement that all future dates had been cancelled.

In the first mention of the fake tweet direct from the band, bassist Tommy Stinson spoke of the confusion it caused in the GnR camp, telling Ohio radio station 98.5 WNCX: "It's startling to me how stuff happens. It's stressful. You kinda think, 'OK, well, I've gotta get my life in order here because I'm leaving in five days', and then you hear something like that coming down the pike. It's Sunday night and you're like, 'How am I supposed to deal with that?' Everyone's just trying to figure out what's happening with it and how it happened and then I get the call that everything's fine, whatever - it's just some crazy shit going on".

How something for which resolution requires nothing more than the deletion of a tweet and a quick statement (or clarification tweet, perhaps) could have stirred up such confusion was a question pondered by CMU editor Andy Malt in last week's CMU Weekly, which you can read here.

HEADSTOCK, Newstead & Annesley Country Park, East Midlands, 11 Sep: Frightened Rabbit, Spiro and Nick Harper have been added to the line-up for this year's Headstock, along with The Clay, Gypsy Fire, Pete Lawrie, Elliot Morris, DJ Emma and many more. www.headstockfestival.com

Despite the fact that the band themselves are yet to make any statement on the matter, and the rogue tweet that announced the cancellation of their upcoming UK tour is still online, Melvin Benn is still insisting that Guns N Roses are playing Reading and Leeds at the end of the month. To be fair, they probably are, but if you don't build a bit of drama into these things, what's the point?

Benn told NME: "I'm absolutely confident about them showing up. There were probably four or five emails back and forth between 1am and 3am Monday morning. [Guns N Roses'] agent was absolutely clear that [the Tweet] was false - it wasn't true. I think he was in the UK, but I think he'd spoken to Axl and he came back and said it was a false alarm".

He added: "Axl confirmed to the agent and the agent confirmed to us. When you look at the Twitter transactions, Axl's Twittering is pretty infrequent and has generally been from a mobile phone. This wasn't in Axl's style. I didn't know it was still on. I don't know why it hasn't been deleted. It certainly is completely untrue".

The tweet in question was actually posted from a mobile phone, but whatever. It wasn't from an iPhone, and that, my dear friends, is how Axl rolls.

BESTIVAL, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle Of Wight, 9-12 Sep: Janelle Monae and The Jolly Boys are amongst the latest acts confirmed to play at Bestival, along with Domino State, David Harks, The Shadow Orchestra, Sound Of Rum and many more. www.bestival.net

BINGLEY MUSIC LIVE, Myrtle Park, Bingley, 3-5 Sep: Public Image Ltd have been confirmed as special guests at Bingley Music Live, with Hadouken!, Buzzcocks, Frightened Rabbit and The Fantasy Funk Band also confirmed to play. www.bingleymusiclive.com

ELECTRIC PICNIC, Stradbury Hall Estate, Co Laois, Ireland, 3-5 Sep: John Cooper Clarke, Omar Souleyman, Caribou and Timber Timbre are the latest acts announced to play at next month's Electric Picnic, joining the previously announced Massive Attack, Roxy Music, Leftfield and LCD Soundsystem. www.electricpicnic.ie

LOOPALLU, Ullapool, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, 17-18 Sep: The Magic Numbers have been announced as Saturday night headliner's at this year's Loopallu, with Clare Maguire and Carly Connor also added to the line-up. www.loopallu.co.uk

READING AND LEEDS, Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Bramham Park, Leeds, 27-29 Aug: Neil Hamburger and Dan Nightingale have been added to the line-up for the Alternative Stage at this month's Reading and Leeds, along with Inel Tomlinson, Carl Barat and Jon McClure. www.readingfestival.com, www.leedsfestival.com

SWN, Various Venues, Cardiff, 21-23 Oct: Throats, Stricken City and Pull In Emergency are amongst the latest acts confirmed to play at Wales' SWN festival, with the likes of Tall Ships, Mimas, Talons and Dad Rocks also added to the bill. www.swnfest.com

SWN, Various venues, Cardiff, 21 - 23 Oct: Egyptian Hip Hop, Truckers Of Husk and Young Rebel Set have all been added to the Swn line-up, along with Attack + Defend, Drains, Among Brothers, Brandyman, Mitchell Museum, Samoans, The Gentle Good, The Keys and Tom Williams & The Boat. www.swnfest.com

The boss of the Sonisphere festival, Stuart Galbraith, has passed on his condolences to the family and friends of a 50 year old man who recently died of injuries he suffered during a freak storm at the Finnish leg of the touring metal festival.

Strong winds and freak lightening caused big problems at Sonisphere Finland earlier this month, damaging equipment, forcing a second stage to be shut and resulting in various delays. A reported 40 people needed medical attention, the man who died having suffered the most serious injuries, obviously.

Confirming that man's injuries had proven fatal, Galbraith told CMU yesterday: "We have just received news that the 50 year old male that was critically injured during the freak storm at Sonisphere Finland has passed away. We are obviously shocked and devastated and would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victim - the thoughts of Team Sonisphere, [headliners] Iron Maiden and all Sonisphere fans are with you".

ATP NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Butlins Resort, Minehead, Somerset, 3-5 Dec: Tindersticks have been announced to play at the Godspeed You! Black Emperor curated event, along with Throbbing Gristle, The Sadies, Yomul Yuk and Dreamcatcher. www.atpfestival.com

AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT, various venues, Amsterdam, 20-23 Oct: Among the first acts announced for the fifteenth Amsterdam Dance Event are Kelis, Armin van Buuren, Sven Väth, Roger Sanchez, Boys Noize, Dubfire, Richie Hawtin, Josh Wink, Flying Lotus, Aeroplane, High Rankin, Bomb The Bass, Jesse Rose, Abe Duque, Mark Pritchard, Magnetic Man, and James Holden. www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl

ELECTRIC PICNIC, Stradbury Hall Estate, Co Laois, Ireland 3-5 Sep: Tiga, Crystal Fighters and Stacey Pullen are amongst the final acts announced to play at this year's Electric Picnic, with Juan Atkins, Trojan Sound System and Daniel Wang also added to the bill. www.electricpicnic.ie

WIZARD, New Deer Show Ground nr Peterhead and Fraserburgh, Scotland, 27-28 Aug: Make Sparks, Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders and aka-SKA have all been confirmed to play at this month's Wizard fest, along with Gerry Jablonski, Indian Red Lopez, OnTheFly, Three Knots and Velvet Audio. www.wizardfestival.com

ELECTRIC PICNIC, Stradbury Hall Estate, Co Laois, Ireland, 3-5 Sep: Marc Almond, Robyn and Chew Lips have been added to the line-up for the Irish fest Electric Picnic, along with Cap Pas Cap, The Late Fragments, Jonny Woo and Our Lady J. www.electricpicnic.ie

FREEZE FESTIVAL, Battersea Power Station, London, 29-31 Oct: Pendulum have been announced to perform a headline DJ set at this year's Freeze Festival, with Mark Ronson & The Business International, Roni Size, New Young Pony Club and I Blame Coco also confirmed to play. www.thefreezefestival.com

HARVEST AT JIMMY'S, Ipswich, Suffolk, 11-12 Sep: Scouting For Girls have been confirmed to replace The Zutons at next month's Harvest at Jimmy's, with Alan Pownall also added to the bill. www.harvestatjimmys.com

INVINCIBLE FESTIVAL, 21-22 Aug: Zane Lowe, Scratch Perverts and Beardyman are set to play at this month's Invincible festival, along with the likes of The Cuban Brothers, Dub Pistols and Beatbullyz. www.swindoninvincible.co.uk

BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR, Catton Hall, Walton-on-Trent, South Derbyshire, 13-15 Aug: Cathedral and Winterfylleth have been confirmed to replace Behemoth and October File at Bloodstock this weekend, joining a line-up that includes the likes of Opeth, Children Of Bodom, Fear Factory and Twisted Sister. www.bloodstock.uk.com

END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL, Larmer Tree Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 10-12 Sep: CW Stoneking, Dylan LeBlanc and Voice Of The Seven Thunders are the final acts to be added to the bill for this year's End Of The Road, joining the previously announced Modest Mouse, Wilco and Iron & Wine. www.endoftheroadfestival.com

OZZFEST, O2 Arena Complex, London, 18 Sep: Paradise Lost have been confirmed as headliners on the second stage at this year's Ozzfest, with Jettblack, Black Spiders and Revoker also set to play. www.ozzfest.com

MIA had to abandon her headline slot at the Big Chill festival on Saturday after a rather dramatic sounding stage invasion. According to reports (our Big Chill reporter is still chilling, so hasn't been able to verify this) some 200 festival-goers invaded the stage while Mathangi was doing her stuff.

Well, I say invaded, the singer did invite her audience up on stage, so I'm not sure that counts as an 'invasion'. But neither MIA nor Big Chill organisers seemingly expected quite so many people to accept the invite.

In a statement later tweeted, organisers said: "A spokesperson for MIA thanked the wonderful audience at the Big Chill for the fantastic reception received and apologised for having to cut the set short due to overwhelming demand for fans to come on stage when only a few were expected".

Michael Eavis has confirmed that "two of the three main performers have already been booked" for next year's Glastonbury, though neither are U2, who were forced to cancel their performance this year after Bono did his back in.

Although Eavis told BBC News you shouldn't get too hung up over who the headliners are: "Although it is very good to get headline artists, like Stevie Wonder and Muse, that's not the whole story. There's a lot more going on at Glastonbury and that's why we're so popular".

On his duet with Stevie Wonder during the singer's headline set this year, which has come in for a little criticism, Eavis said: "Obviously I was very flattered and I do sing a lot - I'm not afraid of singing - but the techie people didn't give me an ear plug. There was millions of people cheering at me, which is lovely, and I couldn't hear the tune, so I was having to wing it ... I can sing in tune but I didn't know what the tune was. So I was just lip reading it and making the best of it".

He added that Muse had also asked him to sing with them the previous night "but then they changed their minds so I got dropped by Muse and taken on by Stevie Wonder - wasn't that good?"

People who can plan things more than two seconds in advance completely amaze me. Imagine actually knowing that you're going to a festival a full twelve months before it happens. What must life be like for those people? I can only wonder. Speaking of which, earlybird tickets for next year's Camp Bestival went on sale this morning.

All tickets are available on a six month payment plan, allowing you to spread the cost in a more affordable manner. Full details at www.campbestival.net.