June 2009 - an absolutely huge month for music. The world was shocked by the death of Michael Jackson, who passed away following a cardiac arrest at his home just days before the planned start of concerts in London. Music stars worldwide paid tribute.

Chickenfoot was this year’s second supergroup and the release of their album in June was preceded by colossal hype. The ‘foot, made up of Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith, went on to play a series of smokin’ sell-out shows, one of which resulted in the fire department being called out (really). Satch caused further fuss in June by breaking his longstanding alliance with Peavey and switching back to Marshall for amplification.

Meanwhile, on the greyer, muddier side of the pond: festivals! We clearly couldn’t go to every one of the hundreds of UK summer festivals June had to offer, so we hedged our bets on Glastonbury and Download being the best. The gamble paid off, too - see our Glastonbury picture diary and our Download video highlights for coverage of mud, tents, rock stars, mankinis and more.

June also saw the UK’s best product event: the London International Music Show was a smashing success and hosted the launches of Zildjian’s Z3 cymbals and Roland’s Juno-Di.

Anti-Auto-Tune sentiment boiled over in June. A year of rampant and unchecked pitch correction had been met with a harsh backlash from Jay-Z, Death Cub For Cutie and other heavyweight stars in preceding weeks, but the online “Auto-Tune must die” campaign at www.deathofauto-tune.com was the most focused and definite attack yet.

From blogs vs Auto-Tune, we finish up our re-cap of June with Eminem vs Bruno’s arse - and the 'revelation' that the stunt was staged. It's still funny though!