How could the artist responsible for one of the year’s defining songs go from tall-haired conqueror to gasping also-ran?

THEY’RE calling it the triumph of the toffs. Where British rock and roll was once the megaphone of the working classes, nowadays all the hottest guitar wielders tend to be from exclusive, occasionally aristocratic backgrounds.

SLEIGH BELLS may be one of the buzziest acts of the moment but guitarist Derek Miller isn’t getting carried away.

IN THE dingy bowels of a Dublin music venue, a heavily tattooed young man best known to the wider public for having dated Paris Hilton is waxing philosophical.

IT’S that time of year when the British music industry is whipping itself into a state of apoplectic excitement at the prospect of a new batch of pop contenders sweeping all before them.

NOT SINCE gangsta rap’s heyday had mere musicians whipped the moral majority into such a lather. It was summer 2008 and ‘emo’ rockers My Chemical Romance were coming under uncomfortable scrutiny over their bleak, baroque concept album, The Black Parade.

EVER since the glory days of Wham! western bands have been trying to strike it big in China.

THE hottest new band of the year, girl-group Warpaint, are a seductive blend of indie-pop grit and Hollywood glamour.

IT SHOULD have been the high point of Victoria Legrand’s career.