On the eve of their first ever stadium gig at Wembley, The Killers enjoy the view from the very peak of their career, reminiscing about their lowly origins playing Camden dives and peering into their glittering future. Not that Brandon doesn’t consider his stadium status any reason to stop dissing other acts – “I’m not picking a fight with Daft Punk,” he says, “but I’m sick of songs about fucking.”

Who you calling a ‘rock chick’? Roaring around Chicago in a blitz of leather and half-tops, tights-out LA fem-rockers Deap Vally lay out their new feminist agenda: “We own our sexuality,” they claim, “we see our sexuality as empowerment.” Girl Raw Power, anybody?

Looking like an invasion of glam rock aliens, Temples discuss being called the kings of new psych and feted by Noel and Marr while giving NME a tour of their home town of Kettering – the swings! The carousels! The gawping locals!

Twenty years on from their awe-inspiring debut ‘A Storm In Heaven’, The Verve’s guitarist Nick McCabe talks us through the turbulent, drug-boggled early days and all the astral travel, Ecstasy paranoia and dodgy American speed that turns you green…

Black Sabbath relive the ninth circle of hell they traversed to make their new album ’13’! Pussy Riot phone NME exclusively from prison! Johnny Marr talks rare Smiths tracks! Beady Eye Vs QOTSA: who won the battle of the small in-stores? What records made Miles Kane the man he is today?

Kanye and Kings Of Leon battle the elements in New York! Plan B and The Vaccines bask in rays at Rockness! And Charlie Boyer, Frankie Heartstrings, The Who, Splashh, Bosnian Rainbows, Deap Vally, Smith Westerns and Tom Odell face the NME critical firing squad. One is shot directly through the brain – but which one?

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