Opening things up tonight is a Beatles tribute band, but the real ‘belle of the ball’ is the appearance on Saturday night of the fantastic Aussie, Abba tribute band, Björn Again.

It seems fitting that Stone, who as a little girl asked for an Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits CD for Christmas, is herself now being hailed by some as the white Aretha Franklin, a woman who is herself considered one of the best rhythm and blues singers of all time.

Liebing is a very big noise in his field and was awarded the title of ‘Best DJ’ at the German dance awards in 2003. Now running his own record label, he’ll also be bringing along one of his recent signings, Monoloc, to do a set. Belgian threesome The Subs have been labelled Punktrance, a genre I think which is all their own.

Two theatrical productions which, in their own way, are well worth seeing. We’ve already covered ‘Bug’ in the Theatre Nationale, but you might also want to check out ‘La Mégère apprivoisée’ (The Taming of the Shrew), outdoors at the Abbaye de Neumünster. The publicity seems to suggest it will be quite a spectacular production.

On the bill that day were U2, Simple Minds and Eurythmics and my abiding memory of the day is standing with a beer, in a break between bands (after Simple Minds and before U2), and chatting to a very excited Scot. I told him I was looking forward to seeing U2.

Having said that, we’ll begin our recommendations for this weekend with what’s said to be a pretty shocking, but very funny play, currently running at the National Theatre. ‘Bug’ is the work of American playwright Tracy Letts, who in 2008 also brought us the Tony and Pulitzer prize winning ‘August: Osage County’.

For the general public, the roots of hip-hop go back to somewhere between Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. The true Father of Hip-hop though, is that immigrant New Yorker from West Kingston (Jamaica), who, in the summer of 73, launched a Back to School Jam in the Bronx. With roots reggae, the funky beats of James Brown, Jimmy Castor Bunch and Mandrill and two turntables and a microphone, DJ Kool Herc, who was barely 18, invented breakbeat DJ-ing by mixing two records to create a new rhythm.

Most of the events fall under the auspices of the Fête de la Musique, but on top of that there’s the Duke’s little soiree in the city centre, and piling on the fun the commercial venues stage a couple of shows that would make anybodies weekend, on their own, at any other time of the year. So, strap yourself in, put on your baseball cap with the can holders, stock up on Red Bull and take a deep breath… It’s the l-o-n-g-e-s-t weekend in the Luxembourg year.

Since the end of the 18th century it has been customary to celebrate the sovereign’s birthday and traditionally, the date chosen was 23 January. But it’s a miserable time of year to party al fresco. If you are royalty, you can celebrate your birthday whenever you damn well please, so in 1961 it was decided to transfer the public celebration to warmer times. Thus was born the tradition of National Day on the 23rd of June of each year. History part over….

T&T have a big and loyal following in Germany (so we can expect a lot of cross-border traffic), and are universally known for the song ’After Dark’, which featured in the Roberto Rodriguez movie ’From Dusk Till Dawn’. All in all, it should be an absolute cracker of a show.