They're a mutual fan club: the rising rock chick and Australia's godfather of Italian cuisine. Stefano and Izzi Manfredi also happen to be father and daughter, and although Izzi supported the Rolling Stones yesterday with her band The Preatures, the main music legend in her life is her dad – no contest.

When The Preatures frontwoman took time out of rehearsals for yesterday's gig in the Hunter Valley to check out her dad's new Sydney restaurant, Pizzaperta, earlier in the week, she was happy to play support to him, too.

"Dad is the whole reason I am in music," Izzi told S. "He provided me with a musical foundation from a very early age. He's got an amazing ear - better than people who have been in the music industry a long time. He can pick great artists before they break."

Izzi recalls how her dad would drive her around Sydney as a child while they both listened to music. "He'd put in a classic record, describe its context and background and drive to a place that was somehow conducive to listening to that record," she says. "It was our quality time."

"I remember him playing me Neil Young's On the Beach; he drove me around Bondi and it was one of those rainy sunsets. The song See the Sky About to Rain came on. It was a great way to experience that record and I have never forgotten it."

She credits Manfredi, who met Izzi's mother Julie Manfredi Hughes through playing alongside her in a band, with her musical success. Manfredi gave up his band in favour of food and decades later is presiding over his newest baby, Pizzaperta. The new pizzeria and bar, which opens this week, joins his acclaimed Osteria Balla in The Star and will introduce to Australia imported artisanal flours promising a more delicious and easily digested dough.

Izzi's influence, Manfredi says, can be heard in the music lists he's created for both restaurants. "Now she is influencing the music I play. She puts me onto bands like The National, which I love."

The proud dad wasn't at the Stones gig – partly because Pizzaperta kept him busy, but also because he likes to give Izzi space. "I don't go to all her gigs, but when I do, I always pay," he says. Adds Izzi, with a laugh: "The last thing I wanted to see at that gig was Dad down there with his serious face on!"

Both see the similarities in their work. "Food is a practical, useful thing and so is music," says Izzi. And, she adds, success in either requires a fierce work ethic. "That was Dad's greatest lesson of all," she says. "He said to me all along: 'Focus on the work. If the work is good, it will endure.'"

Atlas Bound for glory

Maybe S just wants to belong to a superstar's entourage and we're getting in early while the talent's still fresh – but we do love discovering the best and newest acts in this creative city.

The pair flanking Guy Sebastian here are Atlas Bound, an electronica duo from Curl Curl – alias Adrian Kalcic (KALCIC) and Will Taylor, both 21.

Sebastian handed them a $20,000 cheque recently when they won first prize in the Bose Development Grant, beating 10 finalists from all over Australia, including artists, musicians and performers of all kinds. They were the only NSW contenders in the final line-up and were pleasantly surprised when they won the public and judges' vote.

"We've only been making music together for about four months," said Taylor. "We said to each other: 'did this just really happen?' "

The duo's entry was their debut single, Lock, already impressing on the music scene after going viral on SoundCloud with more thanover 300,000 plays.

The grant will enable Atlas Bound to develop an EP and hopefully put them on the road to fulltime music success. "Our dream is to be able to play music every day instead of doing those other things, like uni," says Kalcic.

They might also have to contemplate a move from sunny Curl Curl. "We write better when it's dark outside," says Taylor. "We'd be more productive somewhere like Norway. Maybe we should be the first band to attempt to record an album at the North Pole."

Top Gun aces it

It's tricky to catch up with Australia's own Top Gun, Matt Hall. He tends to move at speeds of over 300km/h somewhere overhead, in one of his beloved high-speed aircraft.

The former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot turned aerial speed champion touched down briefly at his Newcastle home last week. He's about to prepare for his seventh Red Bull Air Ace World Championship, and was also looking in on his latest purchase, an airfield 15 kilometres outside Newcastle (that's the sort of thing Top Guns buy).

The flying ace is also a popular motivational speaker, so S asked him for some jet-powered life advice. "Don't ever let others judge what your potential is," he told us.

Despite being a third generation pilot, Hall initially considered a career as a fighter pilot out of reach. "I didn't think I was special or unique enough," he said. "Then I had a life-changing conversation with an old World War II Spitfire pilot. He said he wished he could be in my shoes and fly those jet fighters. He said I was crazy not to have a go. So I applied and put my heart and soul into it."

He passed his tests and climbed the ranks faster than the fighters he flew, amassing 1800 Hornet hours in the RAAF, becoming an elite Fighter Combat (Top Gun) Instructor, accumulating awards and seeing combat in Iraq in a F-15E Strike Eagle during an exchange with the USAF.

After his military career, Hall switched to competing and in 2009 became the first Australian in the Red Bull Air Race. He's still the only Aussie in the gruelling speed and precision challenge, which kicks off in Abu Dhabi in February, 2015, and continues in locations around the globe for several months.

Hall's objective is to become the race's world champion. But most of all he just loves to fly. "You need a smile on your face when you go to work, or your career is over."

Basketball brings the Kings-sized glam

Stateside, basketball is the go-to glamour game, with its own huge stars as well as the constant courtside presence of obsessed A-listers: think Bey and Jay-Z, the entire Kardashian coterie, Matt Damon, Justin Timberlake, Cameron Diaz and a horde more. The NBA screams showbiz – and every game's a party.

Not to be outdone, Australia's NBL games are becoming the place to be seen this season, and on Thursday (SUBS: 20 July) the Sydney Kings clash with league leaders Cairns Taipans at the Qantas Credit Union Arena is set to be quite the show.

Hot DJ gals The Faders will provide the soundtrack and a celebrity match at halftime for the non-profit Save our Sons will put the likes of Ada Nicodemou, Brendan Jones, Home and Away's Andrew Morley and boxer Billy "The Kid" Dib through their paces.

Authentic American glamour comes from Kings import Kendrick Perry, who will line up as starting Point Guard against his childhood friend from Florida, Taipans star Scottie Wilbekin.

"We had two good wins in our last two games, and I'm focused on being my best in this next one," said says the 21-year-old, who has been dubbed a human highlights reel, and an excitement machine, by sports commentators since he arrived three months ago.

He is eagerly anticipating the courtside atmosphere on Thursday, too. "If we can get the crowd excited and involved then we can really feed off their energy," he says.

The Faders, AKA Milly Gattegno and Suhana Lye, are equally inspired by the big game. "We are huge fans and love sitting courtside at the Kings games," Gattegno told S. "We are so excited that we'll not only be watching the game this time, but playing during the show. We think our R&B and hip-hop jams are just what the boys need."

Meanwhile, with Thanksgiving approaching, as well as all this US United States-style glitz surrounding the upcoming game, Kendrick Perry admits to a pang of homesickness. In fact, he's wondering if he and fellow US Kings import Josh Childress might have to cook up a Thanksgiving feast themselves. "My go to dish is jambalaya," he says. 'But I've never cooked it for anyone but myself. I think we could create something pretty good, though."

Stand by for a new Masterchef MasterChef with mad slam-dunking skills.

Sydney Kings V Cairns Taipans: Thursday 20 Nov, 7:30pm, Qantas Credit Union Arena (formerly Entertainment Centre)

Scarlett Johansson photograph causes a stir

Drinkers at Woollahra's Hotel Centennial were surprised to find themselves in the company of a semi-clad Scarlett Johansson last week. The hotel is now home to a 1.5m long, sexy photographic portrait of the Captain America star shot by Annie Leibovitz at LA's famed Chateau Marmont Hotel in 2004. The image captures Johansson during her earlier career transition from ingenue to vamp, just after she shot Girl With a Pearl Earring. Johansson reclines on a green velvet lounger, almost wearing a bejewelled garment that's half top, half necklace – and not much else.

The hotel's owners were coy about the price but our art insiders reveal it cost $22,500 at auction in New York in October. It now hangs above a close replica of the Marmont's velvet lounger shown in the shot, and has created such a stir the area where it hangs has been re-christened The Scarlett Lounge. Drinkers, we are told, especially the male variety, line up for selfies on the lounger with the giant Scarlett