Pop star Jamelia and reformed cocaine addict Justin Hawkins are voicing the singing parts in a new BBC One children's cartoon.

Hawkins, 32, former frontman of glam rock band The Darkness, sings and plays guitar for the character of Kurtz in the CBBC show. His cartoon alter-ego is a guitar-wielding frontman of an evil band, Mantyz.

THEY were Suffolk's most successful ever rock band but, when lead singer Justin Hawkins quit The Darkness, the remaining members admitted they were "staring premature retirement in the face".

The Lowestoft group sold more than a million copies of their debut album, won a string of awards and toured the world, but Hawkins' departure - blaming a drug habit that had cost him £150,000 over three years - appeared to signal the end for the rockers.

A GUITAR made for chart-topping glam rocker Justin Hawkins will help raise money for bone cancer research.

The £7,500 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar has been donated by Jonny Appleton who won it in a competition.

Jonny’s close pal, Adam Panther, from Ormskirk, died from bone cancer in May.

Recently I was offered the opportunity to review a band called "One EskimO" at a local venue in Kansas City called Crossroads.

I'm going to be totally honest for a minute here. I had no idea who this band was. I sent my littlest sister-in-law a message on Facebook to see if she knew of them and I got the response back, "Oooh I LOVE them" so I immediately agreed to do the review.

Here's the band on the stage at the Crossroads. They are an indie rock group from London (except for Pete Rinaldi, the guitarist, he's originally from Australia) and according to Pete, he's known Kristian Leontiou (the lead singer) for about nine years and the band has been together for about four years. They have a bluesy, acoustic blend and sound fantastic.

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