Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the Matthew Ryan Competition we ran a couple of weeks back, in which you could win your very own bespoke song.

We sent all the suggestions to Matthew, who writes:

These are beautiful ideas. I'm really arrested by how thoughtful these are. But something about the simplicity of #7 really struck me. I believe Jon wrote it.

Indeed he did. So congratulations to Jon, whose suggestion went as follows:

What should the song be about?
A professional wrestling manager agonising over telling his charge he has been chosen to lose.

In whose style should the song be written?
Hank Williams

Why should Matthew select my entry?
I'm a singer songwriter in my spare time and would like an obscure cover to put in my set that also relates to me, with a tidy anecdote: 'this was actually written FOR me...' to preface it.

So there we have it. Jon, we expect your song to be ready by early June.

The Word's very own Kate Mossman and Rob Fitzpatrick celebrate summer's late arrival with an official outside broadcast to introduce the June 2008 edition of The Word.

Our intrepid heroes battle the sun's early evening glare, a dodgy air-conditioning unit and the sound of Young Islington to bring you details of an issue that also features rare pictures of The Who, Dave Gorman, words of infinite wisdom from philosopher John Gray, the best and worst opening lines ever, married couples in rock, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Hugh Cornwell and much much more...

Here are fragments from thirty well-known album covers. You've probably got at least some of them indoors. Now we want you to put names to them. Then fill in the form with the artists and album titles you've managed to put names to. Finally, click 'submit', and we'll show you the answers.

When you've conquered that you could backtrack and have a go at the first and second installments.

New podcast up now, featuring Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall talking about: how this got beaten by this, thanks to him; how Sarah Silverman broke the bad news to Jimmy Kimmel; Trevelyan Wright revealing the full extent of his anal listening habits.

Go here to subscribe or listen. Don't forget to join the Word podcast Facebook group.
Or listen below.

New to the site? Looking for a place to start?

* You could tell us the first five tracks on your iPod at the Randomizer.

* Here's Sarah Silverman setting new standards on how to dump a boyfriend on live TV.

* Read the full text of extensive interviews with Roger Waters, Elvis Costello and author Alan Moore.

* The best live album ever made is: fill in your favourite here.

*"Oh Zidane, oh Zidane, Zidane next to me" and other great gifts from pop to football.

* Might we direct you to Streamzy where you can be listening to just about any artist you like within seconds without treading on anyone's copyright?

The June issue of THE WORD starts reaching subscribers today, and will find its way to the newsagents towards the end of next week. Or you can buy it online.

There'll be more detail for you on Tuesday, but we can reveal that the magazine contains five (FIVE!) glorious, exclusive, brand-new interviews with the members of Radiohead by THE WORD's Andrew Harrison.

It's accompanied by particularly fine set of documentary pictures by new-to-WORD photographer Shamil Tanna. The shoot provides a peek into the band's private world as they rehearse at the Hospital Studios, London, where they recorded much of In Rainbows.

"I talked to Radiohead one member at a time, over a period of weeks," says Andrew, "and it was surprising to see that the intense persona of the band is sustained by a shared sense of humour and sometimes pretty frank disagreement among its individual members.

"We talked about TV comedy, football, the way the band's politics aren't as cut and dried as you might think, and why Thom will sometimes hear himself talking and think 'For God's sake just shut up'. They have an insight into what makes their music work that's rare among any bands, let alone the biggest."

As a taster, here's a sound clip of Thom Yorke talking to Andrew about the way his often opaque lyrics are scrutinised for meaning by Radiohead's obsessive fans (the "Stanley" he mentions is Stanley Donwood, who co-designs Radiohead's CD sleeves with Thom).

Anyone close to a radio this afternoon is advised to tune in to BBC Radio 4's The Music Group at 1.30pm, and enjoy Alexei Sayle discussing Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, the fantastic Sue Perkins on Jimi Hendrix (extremely entertaining) and THE WORD's Mark Ellen - almost inevitably - on The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Clare Grogan joins us in the podcast to talk about what it's like to be inside a birthday cake on stage at Wembley Arena, the likelihood of Elvis Presley ever having visited London, the sad loss of Humphrey Lyttelton, what the stage hands thought of Tommy Steele and what to do if your daughter says "Daddy work, Mummy wine".

Go here to subscribe or listen. Don't forget to join the Word podcast Facebook group.
Or listen below.

We started with the very hard rock quiz, the pop puzzle you couldn't Google. Twenty out of thirty was a good mark in that case. Now we follow up with thirty pairs of eyes cropped from legendary record covers. Some of them are laughably easy; others not as simple as they look; a handful are, frankly, plain impossible. You probably shouldn't even attempt these.

See if you can identify any of them. Then, fill in the form with the artists and album titles you've managed to put names to. Finally, click 'submit', and we'll show you the answers. You'll kick yourself.

Andrew Collins comes straight from birdwatching in East Anglia and joins David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Fraser Lewry in the pod to talk about growing up metal in the Midlands and the ethics of hacking into Mark Ellen's Wikipedia entry. Plus the triumph of "Gavin and Stacey" in particular and self-penned sitcoms in general. Also - Andrew reveals the true meaning of "forward slash".
Go here to subscribe or listen. Don't forget to join the Word podcast Facebook group. Or listen below.

We like Matthew Ryan. His excellent American Dirt graces the current Now Hear This CD and is taken from the album Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State, available right now from all the best record stores.

Rather brilliantly, Matthew, whose fans include Lucinda Williams and Nick Hornby, has kindly offered to write a personal song for a Word reader. And all you have to do is ask nicely.

First, to give you an idea of what Matthew is capable of, here he is:

Got that? Now all you need to do is fill in the entry form, and Matthew will personally select one submission to turn into an actual, real live song (Note: you'll have to be registered and logged in for your suggestion to be counted).

The person whose idea Matthew picks will receive a signed copy of the MRVSS CD, tickets to an upcoming UK show, and a few surprises.

Update: This competition has now closed

Congratulations to Jonny Evans, Richard Lowe, Syd Hancock, Jenny RL and Dr-Filth (check your e-mail, please), who all correctly identified "Absolutely Nothing!" as the thing war is good for. They'll all be jetting off the the Royal Albert Hall this evening to see Eric Burdon & War perform live for the first time in several decades, and eagerly awaiting delivery of the band's Greatest Hits compilation.

We're launching another podcast stream called "Backstage" which features occasional conversations with people who know how things operate in different areas of the entertainment industry. Hopefully it gives people a chance to get a better understanding and maybe passes a commute or two. The first one is with Jon Webster of the Music Managers Forum and touches on money, rights, Radiohead, merchandise and a world where record companies no longer rule the earth. Get an extract and subscribe to the podcast for free.

This week in our fiftieth weekly podcast we're following up Steve Bowbrick's feature about Wikipedia in the current issue. Does it work? Is it accurate? Why do PRs fiddle it? Is this all Mark Ellen's life amounts to? Plus even more pressing issues from the interweb, such as rock stars who look like old lesbians and stuff white people like. If you want to make a spoken or sung contribution to the podcast you can call 0207 078 8406 outside of what are laughably called office hours and leave your contribution. Keep it short, clean and legal.

Go here to subscribe or listen. Don't forget to join the Word podcast Facebook group. Or listen below.

Roger Waters
The Floyd man on Barack Obama, Dark Side of The Moon, Syd Barrett, and the tube journey from Goldhawk Road to Paddington.

Will Self
We can never fit everything into THE WORD that we’d like to, so here are the 'unreleased tracks' from this month’s FACE TIME interview with the always-illuminating Will Self.

Wikipedia
Are cracks appearing in the oracle? Steve Bowbrick on the rise and possible demise of Wikipedia.

Every month in the magazine we list the twenty best and twenty worst in one category or another. This time it's the best British television programmes.

We didn't think it was fair to show examples of the worst but here are the best - with clips that prove it.

Thanks to everyone who entered the competition set following the Supergrass podcast. We asked you to do a left to right of the 'grass while wearing masks. The first correct solution (Mick Quinn, Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey, Rob Coombes) out of the hat came from Harry Chalmers of Chester and he wins a framed version of the artwork for the new Supergrass album "Diamond Hoo Ha" signed by the band plus a copy of the "Now We Are Ten" DVD. Four runners-up get the DVD. They are Faye Brimson of Wanstead, Paul Vincent of Walsall, Simon Fenton-Jones of Brighton and Richard Stevens of Weston-Super-Mare. Prizes will be on their way to you soon. Thanks very much to Supergrass and thanks to everyone who entered.

The Word's very own Kate Mossman and Rob Fitzpatrick introduce a gleaming new issue of the magazine. Subscribers will already be getting to grips with this action-packed edition, while those who prefer the trip to the newsagent will have to wait until it hits the shelves in the next day or so.

New podcast up now. Mark Ellen, Matt Hall and David Hepworth keep a welcome in the hillside for Jude Rogers, now of The Lipster, and chew over the genius of "Gavin & Stacey", the extreme appeal of "Pulling", the things Arthur Brown could do with that fire on his head, the later sexual discoveries of James Brown, why indie music is so sexless, the redundancy of all the hooplah that surrounds professional sports, more on Cribbins, the sad end of Frederick out of "Nina and..." and other matters too weighty to be skimmed over here. And if the sound is better, thank Rex who came and lent us his mighty audio brain for the afternoon. Go here to subscribe or listen. Don't forget to join the Word podcast Facebook group.

Summer is allegedly coming in and it's time to think about further designs for the Word tee shirts which are on sale here. We already have "I love the smell of vinyl in the morning", "I read it for the articles" and a plain Word logo but we're always on the lookout for new ideas. If there's one particular form of words that you particularly associate with this magazine, its readers and its world, let us know what it is and we'll put it forward to the slogans subcommittee and see if they think it's worth printing up. Obviously we would discourage essentially trivial suggestions designed to do nothing more than amuse fellow visitors.