Brian Cox is enjoying what, in our fickle and flighty society at least, is known as a ‘moment’. Dubbed the ‘pin-up professor’ by the Daily Mail and the inspiration for Facebook groups such as ‘Prof. Brian Cox can collide with me any time!’, the 40 something physicist, in addition to his popular TV series is a regular feature on the 6Music Breakfast Show, solving listeners’ mysteries of the universe, and has recently appeared on Friday Night With Jonanthan Ross, and hit the dizzy heights of ‘Going Up’ in the Sunday Times‘ Style Barometer.

But Professor Cox isn’t just a scientist. He was on our airwaves long before he was bigging up the Big Bang and hyping the Hadron Collider. In what must seem like another life, he toured the world drumming for the band D:Ream, whose most high profile single, ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ was none other than the Labour Party’s theme song of choice in their landslide election victory of 1997. His recent success as a television presenter dealing with a subject matter most of us leave behind at 16, along with quadratic equations and Pythagoras’ notorious theorem, could be largely attributed to the fact that he doesn’t look or behave like a scientist, but instead, well, like a rock star.

Inspired by Brian Cox’s wide-ranging achievements, we imaginewhat the school reports of other notable multi-tasking musicians might look like…

Alex James and his Little Wallop cheese

Name: Alexander James

Subject: Home Economics

Perhaps it’s a little predictable, but no article on musicians whose achievements range beyond the admittedly restrictive parameters of selling out the odd 20,000 capacity stadium and going platinum is complete without professional multi-tasking Blur bassist Alex James.

Not content with having been ‘the second drunkest member of the world’s drunkest band’ as well as really quite a reasonable bass player, James published his excellent autobiography A Bit Of A Blur in 2007. In it, he details his many and varied talents as well as just being utterly charming in print. He now produces his own range of organic cheeses at his farm in the Cotswolds. Oh, and he’s a qualified pilot.

Headteacher’s remarks

Not just the best all-rounder, but also the coolest kid in school.

Name: Daniel Snaith aka Caribou

Subject: Mathematics

Last month, Elephant and Castle’s Corsica Studios was packed to the rafters with hipsters, journos and plain old musos, for a sold out gig by Caribou, alias Dan Snaith. The Canadian born multi instrumentalist’s fifth album, ‘Swim’ has just been released to critical acclaim and both the band’s long players and live show have received rave reviews, the mathematical precision of their carefully ordered electronic chaos winning over critics and music fans alike.

Although not a native Londoner, Snaith probably got to know the city pretty well during his time as a PhD student at the prestigious Imperial College, culminating in the publication of a thesis, catchily entitled ‘Overconvergent Siegel Modular Symbols.’ Perhaps that’s why all the tracks on ‘Swim’ are monosyllabically named…

Headteacher’s remarks

In a decade’s time, perhaps we’ll be glued to BBC2 for a hugely popular series decoding those pesky modular symbols and making maths super cool – fronted, obviously, by ‘model mathematician’ Snaith. I’ll be starting the ‘Dan Snaith can overconverge with my symbols!’ Facebook group myself…

Name: Zooey Deschanel

Subject: Drama

Zooey’s musical endeavour She & Him, an endearing collaboration with musician M.Ward, is the very incarnation of her character in (500) Days of Summer; unbelievably cute and harmonious, but more than a little bit bitchy. The duo have just released their second album and played a stonking set at Coachella a few weeks ago. LA has been turning its nose up at ‘mattresses’ (model-turned-actresses) and other portmanteaus for the celebs’ less than perfect transition from one performing art to another, but Deschanel has a great set of lungs on her and a genuine talent for songwriting. Nothing like competence to silence the critics.

Headteacher’s remarks

Take notes for 30 Seconds to Mars’s next album, Jared Leto. Zooey Deschanel sets a pretty high benchmark for multi-tasking in Hollywood, surpassed only perhaps by Johnny Depp’s guitar part on Oasis’s ‘Slide Away.’

Nick Cave reading from his 2009 novel

Name: Nicholas Cave

Subject: English Literature

Apparently not satisfied with having released an intimidating discography of brilliant albums as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, as well as composing soundtracks for the likes of The Assassination of Jesse James with Warren Ellis and writing screenplays, the Australian musician’s second novel The Death of Bunny Munroe was published to critical acclaim in 2009.

Headteacher’s remarks

We would expect nothing less than a book describing Avril Lavigne’s vagina from a man who released a concept album about grisly killers and killings (1996′s Murder Ballads). Cave’s astonishing prowess as a lyricist and songwriter transfers effortlessly to fiction.

Names: Miike Snow, Owen Pallet, John Anthony Gill

Subject: Music Technology

Faced with all these across-the-board high achievers, it’s easy to forget the ones who are just really good at being in the music industry. Take Miike Snow, whose single ‘Animal’ was pretty much the catchiest single of last summer. The band were also the Grammy-winning super-producers behind Britney Spears’s killer single Toxic.

Owen Pallett, the loop pedal obsessed violinist formerly known as Final Fantasy and now playing sold out shows under his real moniker, wrote most of the string arrangements that made Arcade Fire’s debut album ‘Funeral’ so unforgettably stunning.

John Anthony Gill, more commonly known as Jack White, the maybe-sibling axe and keys man of the White Stripes, is not content with being in the most famous two piece of the last ten years. His two successful supergroups, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, are both signed to his record label ‘Third Man’, and he has produced material for, among others, country legend Loretta Lynn and his supermodel wife Karen Elson. And he used to upholster furniture for a living…

Jack White’s collaboration with Loretta Lynn