Faces of the week

Our regular look at some of the faces which have made the news this week. Above are Simon and Garfunkel (main picture), with Pierluigi Collina, Lord Butler, Philip Green and Syreeta.

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

They started out as Tom and Jerry, though at times their relationship has been more like Cain and Abel. Along the way, they recorded some of the most memorable pop songs. More than 30 years after their split, they are back touring Europe.

"Can you imagine us, years from today, sharing a park bench quietly?" Paul Simon's wistful song, Old Friends, written a chilling 36 years ago, exhibits a remarkable prescience.

The story of Simon and Garfunkel has featured huge commercial success, a creative and performing partnership marked by true genius and long periods of feuding, anger and mutual loathing.

On stage in their 60s

For a long time, their fans had to get used to the sounds of silence from the gifted duo, but this summer they are back on the road.

It is fitting that S&G should be accompanied on this tour by the Everly Brothers. It was under the pseudonyms Tom Graph and Jerry Landis - Tom and Jerry - that the young Jewish boys from Forest Hills, New York, first performed Everly Brothers numbers during the late 1950s.

Early success was limited. Hey Schoolgirl, released in 1957, only made it into the US top 50 assisted, Paul Simon was later to allege, by a payola scam by the record company agent which brought the record valuable air play.

Though Tom and Jerry flopped, the pair, by now students, came together again in 1962. Garfunkel was studying architecture and Simon flirting with English literature and law.

After signing with Columbia Records their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., hit the record stores in 1964.

Alchemy

Featuring largely traditional folk songs it included their first No1 hit single, the Simon-penned classic, The Sounds of Silence.

The album that broke the duo: Bridge Over Troubled Water

The beguiling mix which is Simon and Garfunkel combines the former's lyrical alchemy with the angelic voice of the latter to produce a sound which is as melodic as it is intelligent.

Songs like Homeward Bound, I Am A Rock and The Boxer deal with difficult themes - alienation, loneliness and failure - in a way that is both accessible and popular, while retaining a distinct social awareness.

But, by 1970, the years of touring had taken their toll. Despite the huge success of that year's album, Bridge Over Troubled Water - a 13-million seller - Simon and Garfunkel decided to call it a day.

Allegedly Simon was incandescent with rage, believing that Garfunkel was taking all the glory for an album which he had written himself. For years, the pair barely acknowledged one another.

Separate ways

With their relationship at its lowest ebb, Art Garfunkel concentrated on his acting - which included roles in Catch-22 and the sexually-charged Nicholas Roeg film, Bad Timing - and had a couple of hit singles - I Only Have Eyes For You and the rabbit-themed Bright Eyes.

Paul Simon, "a poet and a one-man band", as he once called himself, continued as a highly-successful, and influential, solo artist.

The solo, moustachioed years

"I didn't want to go out with a whole repertoire of Simon and Garfunkel," he told a journalist in 1973.

Simon's solo hits have included the Grammy-winning single, Still Crazy After All These Years, and the spectacular African-flavoured, Graceland - an album credited with kick-starting the world music trend.

But, by 1981, the clamour for a reunion had reached fever pitch, and the pair reunited for a spectacular free concert in front of 500,000 people in New York's Central Park.

Since then, despite continuing creative differences, S&G have toured intermittently, while steadfastly refusing to record any new material. But, with a whole back-catalogue of hits to choose from, why should they bother?

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PIERLUIGI COLLINA The world's most famous football referee, Pierluigi Collina, has received an honorary degree from the University of Hull. The 44-year-old Italian, who has been an on-field official for 27 years, became a Doctor of Science, in recognition of his technical skills as well as his contribution to the sport. Mr Collina, who retired from the international stage after Euro 2004, said: "I hope that what I did in the last years can help the image of other referees." Full story

LORD BUTLER Britain's former top civil servant, Lord Butler, has delivered his long-awaited report on the way intelligence was used before the war in Iraq. The report said there were serious flaws in some of the intelligence, but that no individual was to blame and that the mistakes had been "collective ones". Lord Butler said that the man responsible for collating the intelligence, John Scarlett, should not resign from his new job as head of MI6. Full story

PHILIP GREEN The billionaire businessman Philip Green has withdrawn his £9bn bid for the Marks and Spencer retail chain. The owner of BHS and the Arcadia retail group decided to pull out after the M&S board refused to meet him. But Green has promised to give Marks a run for its money. "They are going to have us breathing down their neck in every street and every shopping centre in the UK," he said. "Then we'll see who's the best retailer." Full story

SYREETA Syreeta Wright, the Tamla Motown singer and sometime wife of Stevie Wonder, has died of cancer aged 58. Originally a secretary at Motown Records, Syreeta went on to collaborate with Wonder, writing lyrics for several of his best-known songs such as If You Really Love Me and Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours). Syreeta's biggest hit came in 1979 with ballad With You I'm Born Again, a duet with Billy Preston.

Compiled by BBC News Profiles Unit.