Front Row: Archive 2012 - Don McLean, Yayoi Kusama

With John Wilson.

Don McLean, winner of a lifetime achievement award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards last night, discusses his classic album American Pie 40 years after it topped the British charts.

Yayoi Kusama is perhaps Japan's best known living artist. In the 1960s and 1970s she became an important figure in the New York avant-garde. As a major retrospective of her work opens at the Tate Modern, she reflects on the mental illness that has informed her art and her influence on artists from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst.

The Golden Collar Awards - the Oscars for dogs - take place on Monday, and Martin Scorsese has been campaigning for Blackie, the canine star of his film Hugo, against stiff opposition from The Artist's Uggie. John and his dog, Jock, meet Blackie and her trainer Julie Tottman, to find out what it takes to be a dog star.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.

Published on Thursday, 9th February 2012.

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