Arts Diary: Will Marriott

It was a Tweet, apparently from Axl Rose, which started the rumour mill, and event organiser Melvin Benn admitted he sent more than a few anxious emails to the band's management.

However, when it emerged the postings were from some mischievous hack, it seems the show, next weekend, will go on.

I'm absolutely confident about them showing up," says Benn. "There were probably four or five emails back and forth between 1am and 3am on Monday. Guns 'n' Roses' agent was absolutely clear that it was false – it wasn't true.

"When you look at the Twitter transactions, Axl's Twittering is pretty infrequent and has generally been from a mobile phone. This wasn't in

Axl's style."

If you thought all the off-wall theatre companies and performance artists were safely confined to Edinburgh, then think on.

As part of this weekend's Halifax Festival, an Extraordinary Pod has been installed at Piece Hall.

After a spin of the wheel of fortune, audience members will be taken on a what's been described as a "short, but dramatic journey, by two larger-than-life characters".

Those not keen on audience participation should probably give Chol Theatre's pod a wide berth, but for the more adventurous, performances will take place between 10am and 4pm tomorrow.

We thought for a moment that Sam Riley had disappeared from the face of the Earth, but it seems we needn't have worried.

The Menston teenager, whose mesmerising portrayal of Joy Division's Ian Curtis in Control, won him a legion of fans, hasn't been seen much of late.

However, word has it, that Riley is set to return to cinema screens next year in an adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock alongside Helen Mirren and John Hurt.

He'll play Pinkie, the razor-wielding disadvantaged teenager doing everything he can to climb through the ranks of organised crime.

Not a film for all the family, then.

Never knowingly part of the mainstream, it comes as no surprise Jarvis Cocker has joined the line-up for October's Un-Convention event.

Cocker joins the likes of Billy Bragg and acclaimed photographer Kevin Cummins as guest speaker at the gathering, in Salford, which comes with strapline From Brass Bands to Colombian Hip Hop.

Events will take place in unusual venues from a barge to a church, and the former Pulp frontman will be joined by fellow Sheffielder John "Reverend and the Makers McLure" in what's been billed as a one-off performance with Jah Wobble and the BBC Philharmonic.