To start with, a hearty congratulations to the organisers of Guilfest for breaking the world record for largest number of air guitarists at one time. Over 4000 ethereal fret manglers whammy bar-ed their way through Sweet Child O' Mine and thankfully no one was penalised for missing that difficult hammer-on in the second solo.
It's also been a week when XFM's who'd make up the greatest indie band of all time poll was won by all the members of Muse. Now fine a band as they, are some nefarious skullduggery was at work. They would have got away with it too, if it hadn't been for those pesky (indie) kids (on the message boards).
We'd also like to wish a speedy recovery to Spiritualized mainman Jason Pierce as he recovers from an illness that almost killed him. Good to hear he's on the way up.
Now on, as they say, with the shows.
The slightly bonkers, right out of time indie prog rock sounds of the utterly bonkers, right out of time indie prog rock Mystery Jets can be heard at the ICA, September 9th. NME once described them as a prog-space-rock cake with Flaming Lips icing with chanting and smiles thrown in for good measure. Which sounds tasty enough to us.
Less prog-rock-space cake and more Krispy Kreme Donut, although we currently have NO idea what we're talking about, the up and coming Pixies play the Alexandra Palace on 31st August. We're required by law to love the Pixies, which we do, but not the Ally Pally, which we loathe with a passion usually reserved for paper cuts and mosquito bites.
Staines's biggest export since Richard Madely's impressionist skills, Hard-Fi will be relishing their new found status as Q2 indie darlings and spinning their tales of life, love and hanging out at Woollies to Camden's Electric Ballroom on October 19 / 20.
The man responsible for William Shatner's storming cover of Common People, no not Jarvis, Ben Folds, is going to be tickling his ivories at the Brixton Academy on December 13th. A guest appearance by the great man is always a possibility.
It wouldn't really be Booking Ahead without mentioning one of our favourite venues, Kokos, so it's convenient that country-Libertine John Hassall's band, Yeti, have just announced a date there on the 4th August. You CAN expect them to be there. On time too! Don't let me down boys, we're on a roll here.
If you like your rock shaggy, craggy but not baggy there's also a chance to catch living rock legend Robert 'Percy' Plant on fine form with his new band The Strange Sensation at the Hammersmith Palais on December 4th.
And finally if you're not up for paying for any gigs next week and you're somewhere near Fopp at 2pm on Thursday then drop in and check out the young old men of the blues,Gomez, supporting the release of their new live cd. A live performance to support a live album. That's a new one for us.
Have a good one folks.
The Go! Team play the Astoria, 7th October
Extra night for the NME O2 thingy (Kaisers / Cribs / Maximo Park) on the 26th October
Eels at the Royal Albert Hall on the 12th October
Alkaline Trio at the Astoria, 18th August
