MUSIC NEWS:Dreadlocked Belfast musician Duke Special has undertaken a unique project based on photographs from a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, and will perform it with a string quartet at Dublin's Sugar Club on Tuesday.

The project is entitled Under the Dark Cloth, and began when Special was approached by the New York museum after performing in the city last year. They invited him to write songs based around photographs from Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand – the work of three renowned photographers – and after a year of studying the material he collaborated with musicians Neil Hannon, Boo Hewerdine and Pádraig Ó Tuama on the 12 songs that make up the set.

The show had its Irish premiere at a sell-out gig in Belfast last week, and will also be performed at Cork's Cyprus Avenue on November 25th before travelling to the UK. The photographic works are projected on to a backdrop during the performance.

"Expect a door to be opened into a world of steam trains, controversy, passion and some of the most important photographs ever taken," said Duke Special. The songs have already been recorded in studio with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and are available from dukespecial.com

I got attacked by 5 people last night out of nowhere. Not cool. My face is f***ed

It sounds like life is pretty complicated for Avril Lavigne these days