19th January

British MP Mike Weatherley announces that Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees is to be the latest in a distinguished line of Patrons for Rock the House, a parliamentary live music competition which supports the UK live music industry and promotes the importance of intellectual property rights.

The New York City health department closes Jay-Z's Club 40/40 restaurant for 69 health-code violations, just 24 hours after the rapper relaunched it in a star-studded celebration.

Shawn Colvin plays at Yoshi's, San Francisco, California, USA.

All-American Rejects play at The Alley, Sparks, Nevada, USA.

All Time Low play at The O2 Academy, Leeds, UK.

Chickenfoot, including guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, play at The Mitsubishi Electrichalle, Dusseldorf, Germany, Europe.

The funeral service for Cois 'Pee Wee' Moultrie, the original accordion player with Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys, is held at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida, USA. Moultrie died of a heart attack, aged 89, four days earlier.

Extremely patriotic right-wing rock band Madison Rising take advantage of the open mic provided by the Occupy Movement to play a five song acoustic set from their debut album to Occupy Congress protesters on the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, USA.

The Avett Brothers make a live appearance on tv show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in the USA.

Bruce Springsteen releases We Take Care of Our Own for digital download as the first single from his upcoming album Wrecking Ball.

Reggae pioneer Winston Riley dies at University Hospital of the West Indies, Jamaica, Caribbean, aged 65, from gunshot wounds he had received in November 2011. Riley, a noted producer and also founder of The Techniques, had been the target of a number of unexplained attacks in 2011, including being shot in August and stabbed in September.

The Damned play at The Hi-Fi, Brisbane, Australia.

Cymbals Eat Guitars play at Lille Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe.

On his Doowops And Hooligans tour Bruno Mars plays at The Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile, South America.

Wilco play at The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Christina Perri plays at Concorde 2, Brighton, UK.

The Gaslight Anthem [and their dog] arrive in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and set up in the studio to begin recording on their album Handwritten.

Chicago-based band Wilco play at The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, Colorado, USA.

As part of the New York Guitar Festival, the Silent Films/Live Guitars event in the Merkin Concert Hall features two groundbreaking guitarists premiering original film scores for silent comedies by Buster Keaton. On this night, Califone present a score for Keaton's 1925 movie Go West, and Howard Fishman presents a score for Keaton's 1922 film The Frozen North.

Rise Against play at The House Of Blues, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

File-sharing website Megaupload.com is shut down by the FBI in the USA for violating music download piracy laws. The FBI describes the dispute as one of "the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States" and says it "directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime."

The Wu-Tang Clan play at The House Of Blues, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Dir En Grey play at Zepp Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Chicago-born singer, songwriter and guitarist Owen [aka Mike Kinsella] plays at The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA, USA.

Sinead O'Connor reveals, via postings on her Twitter site, that she is checking into hospital, where she will be treated for depression.

On her California Dreams tour, Katy Perry plays at Sentul International Convention Centre, Sentul City, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.

Eric Church begins his first arena headlining tour with a show in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. Opening acts on the trek are Brantley Gilbert, Sonia Leigh and The Cadillac Black.

The Horrors play at The O2 Academy, Oxford, UK.

While touring in support of her tenth studio album, Let England Shake, PJ Harvey plays at The State Theatre, Sydney, Australia.

PaulMcCartney.com streams a thirty-minute-long press conference featuring Paul McCartney talking in London, UK, with press from around the world to promote the release of his new album of cover versions, Kisses On The Bottom.

Weezer, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz, Wavves, The Antlers, Yuck, Free Energy, Boom Bip, J Mascis [solo acoustic], Lou Barlow, Keepaway, Ozma, The Nervous Wreckords, The Knocks, Sleeper Agent and Yacht Rock Revue set off on The Weezer Cruise, a five-day event on the ship Carnival Destiny, sailing from Miami, Florida, USA, to the island of Cozumel off the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

The Mountain Goats play at Antone's, Austin, Texas, USA.

It is announced that Sub Pop Records in the USA has signed Poor Moon, a band from Seattle, Washington, USA, which includes two Fleet Foxes members, Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott.

Owen [aka Mike Kinsella] plays at The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA, USA.

Keb' Mo' plays at The Kentucky Theater, Lexington, Kentucky, USA.

Echo And The Bunnymen play at The Bataclan, Paris, France, Europe.

Tony Iommi [recently diagnosed with cancer] and Geezer Butler are working on two new Iommi songs at the Black Sabbath guitarist's home studio.

Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons play at The Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, Morristown, New Jersey, USA.