Manchester Art Gallery has won a top tourism award. The gallery was awarded Large Visitor Attraction of the Year at the Manchester Tourism Awards 2008.

It was also highly commended for its two other entries to the awards – for Tourism Experience of the Year (for Kylie - The Exhibition) and for the Business Tourism Award.

The Manchester Tourism Awards are organised by Marketing Manchester, the agency charged with promoting Manchester on a national and international stage. They are supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

Speaking about the awards, Cllr Mike Amesbury, said: "This is a great reflection of the achievements of Manchester Art Gallery over the course of the last year. The gallery attracted over 380,000 visitors in 2007/08 making it the gallery's most successful year yet.."

She has emerged from deepest Wales to be hailed as the sound of 2008.

With prodigious natural talent and dollops of retro cool, it’s easy to see why Duffy’s background is being airbrushed a little by a record company that probably don't see coming second in 2003 on 'Wawffactor', the Welsh version of X factor, as anything to shout about.

Duffy and her six-piece band will be doing a series of live dates across the region this May and June performing tracks from her debut album, Rockferry.

She will play at Sheffield's Leadmill on the 27 May. For ticket information visit www.gigsandtours.com

Prince gave away his last album free with the Mail on Sunday, Radiohead let the fans determine what they wanted to pay for theirs and now you can download The Charlatans' tenth studio album for free at the website of a British radio station.

The band’s latest offering, You Cross My Path, has been available as a free download from radio station Xfm’s website www.xfm.co.uk and the band's official site www.thecharlatans.net since March thanks to a controversial move by their manager Alan McGee which threatens to throw the music industry into confusion. McGee hatched the audacious plan to make new singles and albums available to download free because he believes that the business model for selling music is moribund and that future income will largely come from ticket sales for live shows and merchandising.

The Charlatans are currently on a sell-out tour of Europe but have announced a 12-date UK tour in May which culminates on the 24th at Manchester’s Academy 1.

One of the greatest ever stage thrillers, which ran for a total of 12 years in London and New York inspiring the hugely successful film starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, makes its much anticipated return for an extraordinary revival.

Simon MacCorkindale, best known for his role as consultant Harry Harper in the BBC’s Casualty, the well-known hit TV series Falcon Crest and Manimal and his roles in several major films, stars in this audacious revival of Anthony Shaffer’s masterpiece in which a man arrives at the impressive home of a famous mystery writer, only to be unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of intrigue and gamesmanship, where nothing is quite what it seems.

This dark psychological thriller about thrillers and intriguing study of human conflict, jealousy and manipulation proves to be far more than a whodunit and promises to baffle even the most proficient sleuth!

Sleuth runs at Sheffield's Lyceum theatre from 12-17 May. For further details visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk