Royal Festival Hall, London
Playing a mix of traditional folk and radically rearranged acoustic Led Zeppelin classics, the former Zep frontman is in fine voice – but also happy to step out of the spotlight

Between songs, Robert Plant describes his latest project, Saving Grace, as hailing “from the west side of common sense”. It’s a self-effacing remark but he has a point. Most rock stars of his vintage and stature (78 next year, somewhere between 200m and 300m albums sold with Led Zeppelin) would be out there underlining their status by touring the hits. But as anyone who has followed Plant’s serpentine post-Zeppelin career will tell you, the straightforward option doesn’t seem to hold great appeal for him.

So Saving Grace are a band assembled from musicians local to his home in Shropshire – though it isn’t entirely clear if Plant is joking when he suggests he found multi-instrumentalist Matt Worley working in the local tourist information office. Their oeuvre is an intriguing stew of traditional folk songs (The Cuckoo, As I Roved Out); covers that pay testament to Plant’s famously catholic tastes (Everybody’s Song by Low rubs shoulders with It’s a Beautiful Day Today by 60s psych heroes Moby Grape); and a scattering of Led Zeppelin tracks that you could fairly describe as radically rearranged: both Ramble On and Four Sticks now heavily feature an accordion, with the low end provided not by a bass guitar but a cello. Moreover, this is an evening in which one of the most renowned frontmen in rock history – whose voice is in quite astonishing nick – seems happy to regularly cede the spotlight, and effectively act as a backing singer for Worley and vocalist Suzi Dian.

From sustainable and low-alcohol tipples to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre’s surprisingly sippable bottle, these are the gins worth your time – and tonic – this Christmas

• The best whisky, from scotch and single malt to bourbon

It’s party season; better make sure the bar cart is fully stocked before friends and family descend. Gin forms the basis of many well-known cocktails, including the negroni, French 75, bramble, gimlet and – 2025’s favourite – the martini. Selecting a decent bottle – or two – will give your usual G&T an upgrade and ensure your Christmas drinks party will be one to remember.

But what is gin? Essentially, it’s a distilled alcohol made from a neutral spirit (usually derived from grain), flavoured with juniper berries and bottled at 37.5% ABV minimum. So, distillers have relative freedom to play around with ingredients, infusions and distillation methods – creating a huge range of gin styles but making it tricky to pick out the right bottle for you.

Tribute to Victorian author and LGBTQ+ pioneer secured in Dorchester amid parallel feminist campaigns around UK

“The thing all women hate is to be thought dull,” says the title character of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s 1926 novel, Lolly Willowes , an early feminist classic about a middle-aged woman who moves to the countryside, sells her soul to the devil and becomes a witch.

We ask supporters for their take on the Egyptian’s standoff with the club before Saturday’s game against Brighton

Mohamed Salah is one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history. That isn’t open for debate. But everyone makes mistakes, and after the draw at Leeds , Salah made a huge one. By seeking the media to air his personal grievances , he essentially justified Arne Slot’s decision to bench him for three consecutive games. Salah’s recent behaviour suggests he’s an individual playing in a team sport. An individual who Liverpool can’t quite afford to carry right now.

Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agriculture

On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season.

“These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations],” says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute , an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan’s breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture.

Artists explore insomnia and snoozing, sculptors imagine alternative futures and we look back with a great British photographer – all in your weekly dispatch

To Improvise a Mountain
Painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye portrays fictional people in made-up settings. Where does she get her haunting ideas? Here she reveals her inspirations from Walter Sickert to Bas Jan Ader.
• MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, until 25 January

Not a fan of the traditional festive spread? These recipes are a Christmas feast that even turkeys would vote for

Unhurried trippy bass lines and poet Iona Lee’s commanding, velvety voice conjure a glamorously unhurried sense of hypnosis

From Edinburgh
Recommended if you like Dry Cleaning, Massive Attack, Nick Cave
Up next Warm Days in December out now, new EP due early 2026

As fixtures of Edinburgh’s gig-turned-performance art scene, Acolyte’s eerie, earthy psychedelia is just as likely to be found on stage at the Traverse theatre as in a steamy-windowed Leith Walk boozer. Their looped bass lines and poet Iona Lee’s commanding, velvety voice conjure a sense of slow-burn hypnosis – and just like their music, Acolyte are glamorously unhurried. They’ve released only a handful of songs in the seven years since Lee and bassist Ruairidh Morrison first started experimenting with jazz, trip-hop and spoken word, but now the group (with Daniel Hill on percussion and Gloria Black on synth, also known for throwing fantastical, papier-mache-costumed club nights with her former band Maranta) are gathering pace.

Here are all the best movies to watch over the holidays – from favourites like Elf and Paddington to the latest from Mission: Impossible and Knives Out. Plus, two of the sexiest films ever made

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