M.I.A. is pregnant. And not just with revolutionary ideas for her next record. The British-Sri Lankan vocalist/visual artist/producer/record-label founder/clothing designer, born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, is due to give birth in February, and despite what you may have read online, it's not Kanye's baby.

Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are talking in hushed, hurried tones to a stuffed border collie. Crouching low, noses to snout, they take turns mumbling into a BlackBerry and then holding it up to the puppy's left ear. Their furrowed brows and tender pats suggest concern.

Caleb Followill needs a dentist. The day before the biggest gig of his life, the 26- year-old Kings of Leon frontman is standing outside a boutique hotel in London, flanked by his bald, tattooed bodyguard and his girlfriend, a thin, dark-haired model named Lily Aldridge.

FADE IN: AMSTERDAM, JUNE 30

The drive from Cardiff to Nefyn, a remote fishing village on north Wales' Llyn Peninsula, is only about 160 miles, but it takes me nearly seven hours.

In a slightly sketchy part of north London, a cockney blonde whom we'll call Myrtle smokes a cigarette in the driveway of the plain white-fronted former bakery that serves as recording studio, office, and grown-up clubhouse for the members of one of the worlds' biggest bands, Coldplay. Myrtle says she works at the office next door, and when asked if the guys are good neighbors, she hedges.