Taking a break from the ongoing Crowded House tour, bandleader Neil Finn played a solo show at London’s Jazz Cafe last night, and as he’s wont to do, invited Johnny Marr onstage to perform several songs, including The Smiths’ beloved ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.’

While it wasn’t quite as momentous as last February’s performance of ‘Somebody’ at London’s Royal Albert Hall, former Depeche Mode bandmates Alan Wilder and Martin Gore teamed once again up last night, with Gore appearing as a post-show DJ at Wilder’s Recoil performance in Santa Ana, Calif.

Although his catalog was just put back into print last month, Peter Gabriel is planning a full series of new reissues in 2011, including an expanded 25th anniversary edition of his crossover smash ‘So’ packaged with mixes, demos and new artwork.

With his 30th anniversary ‘Pleasure Principle’ U.S. tour now underway, synthpop figurehead Gary Numan this week released separate CD and DVD documents of his Dec. 3, 2009, London performance of that landmark 1980 solo debut and other assorted selections from his ample back catalog.

A day after Ari Up, iconic frontwoman of The Slits, succumbed to a long illness, her label Narnack Records has released what it bills as the band’s ‘final work’: a heretofore unreleased video for the song ‘Lazy Slam,’ off last year’s ‘Trapped Animal’ album.

After teasing fans with a couple 30-second clips from its forthcoming ‘Tour of the Universe: Live in Barcelona’ DVD and Blu-ray, Depeche Mode today offered up something a bit more substantial: a nearly 6-minute electronic press kit for the film, featuring performance footage, backstage clips and interviews with Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher.

German-born punk pioneer Ari Up — the frontwoman of The Slits who learned guitar from Joe Strummer and was John Lydon’s stepdaughter — died today at age 48 following ‘a serious illness,’ Lydon and her mother, Nora Foster, announced via Public Image Ltd.’s website.

With a deluxe reissue due out and U.K. tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ set to being next month, Heaven 17 last night appeared on the BBC2 program ‘Later Live… with Jools Holland’ — although the synthpop group opted to perform its later hit ‘Temptation,’ the U.K. No. 2 single off its sophomore album ‘The Luxury Gap.’

Los Angeles punk icons Social Distortion today announced that their seventh album — ‘Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes’ — will be released Jan. 18 on Epitaph Records and preceded by the release of first single “Machine Gun Blues” via iTunes on Nov. 9.

With his North American tour now underway, former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder today offered up a free Recoil multimedia EP — ‘Want: The Architect Mixes’ — that fans can download from Mute Records in exchange for a name and e-mail address.

Bassist Eric Avery, who has now twice quit Jane’s Addiction, has decided to open up for the first time about his experience on last year’s reunion tour by submitting to a series of video interviews conducted by long-running fan site Xiola.org.

Bob Mould’s turning 50 today, so to celebrate, here’s a clip of Sugar — whose debut, ‘Copper Blue,’ is arguably the former Husker Du leader’s finest moment — playing ‘Helpless’ on the BBC in 1993.

Last night, the Pixies played Santiago’s Teatro La Cupula, their first-ever headlining date in Chile, and proceeded to celebrate the successful rescue of all 33 miners by playing an epic 33-song set (plus a two-song encore) that’s being billed as the longest set they’ve ever played.