ArcelorMittal Orbit at night

The twisting, cherry-red ArcelorMittal Orbit tower in the Olympic Park will be officially revealed today, although it won’t open to the public until 28 July.

The tower is being unveiled with no little hyperbole: a press release likens it to St Paul’s Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, while Anish Kapoor, the artist behind it, has apparently cited Tatlin’s Tower, a celebrated yet unbuilt Soviet structure, as a reference point. Standing at 114m, the tallest sculpture in the United Kingdom cost £22.7m, with £18.5m put into the kitty by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. A central lift will take visitors up to a viewing platform, from which they’ll be able to descend by walking down the winding staircase that loops around the central core. Better start saving if you want a trip, though: a family ticket will reputedly cost £60.

What does London think of the ArcelorMittal Orbit? The lack thus far of an accepted sobriquet suggests that locals have yet to embrace the design. London 2012 organisers have brushed off the generally negative response, arguing that people will grow to like it — an argument also made for the still mostly-loathed Olympic logo.

So, Londoners, what say ye: folly or masterpiece? This time lapse video might help you decide:

See also:

Pictures of the Orbit tower from last year

Olympic officials have released further details, and a handful of CGI images, of the 10,000-spectator site that will be available to Olympic Park visitors.

Those fortunate enough to have a ticket to an event in the Olympic Park will be granted access to the site in the Parklands area, where a 14m-high, double-sided screen, stationed on a pontoon in the River Lee, will allow them to watch the action live. It’ll be open from early morning until late evening, and access will be given on a first-come, first-served basis: if it’s full when you arrive then you probably won’t be able to get in.

And if, like many people, you haven’t got Olympic tickets? Things are less clear on this point. A statement on the London 2012 website says that “LOCOG has also announced its ambition to offer general Park tickets, enabling people to come into the Olympic Park without tickets for sporting events”. Having an “ambition” to offer such tickets isn’t the same thing as confirming that they will be available, and there’s no suggestion as to the price or when they might be ready, or how people who’ve stumped up the cash might get in if the venue was already packed out.

In a highly polished quote, Lord Coe said:

“Whether it’s ‘Halsall Hill’, ‘Pistorius Park’ or ‘Dai Greene Fields’ it will create a green and colourful place for fans to cheer their heroes and soak up the Olympic Park atmosphere.”

Groan-inducing names perhaps, and the media have other, better suggestions; the Press Association incongruously favours Henman Hill while More Than The Games goes slightly more original with Hoy Hill, Ennis Elevation and Bolt Bute. But they’re all improvements on the current moniker: “Park Live Presented by British Airways.”

The inclusion of football at London 2012 has drawn much criticism, with some arguing that the game will divert attention away from the core Olympic events. Nevertheless the prospect of a Great British squad — combining players from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — is a tantalising one. Add to that some of the world’s most promising talents, and both the men’s and women’s competitions should be brilliant spectacles.

Did you know that men’s football has been included in every Olympiad except 1896 and 1932? The women’s game was finally added to the programme in 1996.

Both British teams will be managed by Londoners: Hammersmith’s own ‘Psycho’ Stuart Pearce, and the current England women’s manager, Lewisham-born Hope Powell.

The last time a major football tournament was held in Britain was Euro ’96. In the Quarter-Finals at Wembley Team GB manager Stuart Pearce scored in a penalty shootout to help England knock out Spain. His crazed celebration after converting the spot-kick epitomises the spirit we should expect from his team this summer.

The men’s competition will be an under-23s event, but each country is allowed to select three older players. This has led to much speculation that David Beckham will be included in Pearce’s squad. There are no age restrictions on the women’s competition.

Olympic Football will travel around Britain with games also being played in Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. London’s skyline-dominating colossus Wembley Stadium will be the tournament’s hub, hosting the finals of the both the men’s and women’s competition.

Due to the large capacities of the stadium tickets are still available for many of the games. With some of the world’s best on show get booking now.

Did you know that London 2012 is the first Olympics since 1972 in which Team GB have included a football team?

Players to Watch:

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Team GB Men’s): Arsenal’s eighteen year-old winger has had a tremendous 2012 so far. Bought last summer from Southampton, ‘The Ox’ had to bide his time before bursting into the team in January. The youngster has explosive pace, quick feet, and a tactical brain which belies his years: if not included in England’s Euro 2012 squad he will be one of Team GB’s main weapons.

Kelly Smith (Team GB Women’s): Strong, mobile and clinical in front of goal: Smith is a world-class striker. However England’s all-time record goalscorer is struggling with an ankle injury and faces a race against time to be fit. Hope Powell needs her number 10 back if Team GB are to have a chance of claiming gold.

Neymar (Brazil Men’s): The Santos forward is the hottest prospect in the game at present. With a dizzying array of skills and a huge mohawk the twenty year-old Brazilian is impossible to miss. Expect his dancing feet to light up The Games.

Where can I play football in London?:

The capital is full of opportunities to get your boots dirty. Five-a-side, seven-a-side and eleven-a-side leagues are run every evening across the city, and there are also Saturday and Sunday day leagues. For more information on clubs near you speak to your local council or London Football.

We’re bringing you the Londonist lowdown on all Olympic and Paralympic sports in the run up to London 2012.

The full line-up for the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, was announced this morning. From 21 June to 9 September, London will be the focus of an unparalleled programme of music, theatre, film comedy, exhibitions, art and outdoor events.

In short, this is an arts jamboree to end all arts jamborees. All 204 Olympic nations are represented with 25,000 artists performing not just in London but throughout the UK. Much of the final programme has been previously announced, but here are some highlights from the whole festival:

• 160,000 free tickets for outdoor concerts at half a dozen riverside locations with stages for each continent. Artists featured include Scissor Sisters and Wynton Marsalis and his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
• The World Shakespeare Festival: centred on the Globe of course, this is being billed as the biggest celebration of the Bard ever staged.
• BBC Radio 1′s Hackney Weekend will star Jay-Z, Jessie J, Jack White and Tinie Tempah among many others.
• The 2012 BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall boasts Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performing a Beethoven symphony cycle.
• The Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s 115ft-high steel sculpture in the Olympic Park, will be launched in May and Yoko Ono takes over the Serpentine Gallery.
• Choreographer Pina Bausch will be celebrated at the Barbican Centre and Sadler’s Wells.

How much the Londoners and visitors enjoying these events will care about the London 2012 Festival brand is questionable. The whole Cultural Olympiad programme has seemed amorphous at times. But there is no doubt that, with all elements combined, the festival will make arts and culture a huge part of this Olympics summer.

As well as the National Lottery and Arts Council, the festival has been funded by a raft of sponsors, of which BT and BP are the lead partners. BP invests heavily in the arts and has been advertising its involvement in the Cultural Olympiad with massive billboards across town.

The London 2012 Festival brochure will be distributed across the capital. Get the brochure online here.

Image: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: World Cities 2012, taken as part of the London 2012 Festival commissions. Photo credit: Angelos_Giotopoulos / London 2012.

Remember when the Games was all about dodgy design? These days it’s being recognised for the right reasons: last night the Olympic Torch was named Design of the Year 2012 by the Design Museum.

Produced by British firm Barber Osgerby and likened to an elaborate cheesegrater or the world’s largest spliff, the torch has been the rare bit of Games-related design to have received mostly positive notices. The Velodrome is another and, happily enough, it won the architecture prize last night.

Want to see the torch in, er, action? It’s likely to be visiting a street very near you in the coming months. Find out where.

An exhibition featuring all of the winners at the Design Museum, Shad Thames until 4 July.

Ken described the election so far as an “X Factor Slug-fest“. What would happen if it

It is Monday, and the X-Factor Slug-fest contestants Boris, Ken, Brian and Jenny turn up at a local radio station to do some publicity to promote the tour. Despite appearing on the radio – where of course, no-one can see you – everyone is dressed in the spangly leotards from last week’s show. Apart from Jenny who has gone for a two-piece ensemble made of hemp.

Boris has been on at Ken for the past few weeks now, claiming that he has been stealing all of the mint Aeros from the sweet jar in the communal house they all share. He kicks off the radio interview by having a slight dig about this, saying that Ken’s not declared the fact that he’s been having extra.

Ken comes right back at him by saying that he did eat the last mint Aero. He claims it’s a completely normal arrangement and is allowed under the rules of the house – although has now stopped eating them to concentrate on winning the X Factor Slug-fest. He then has a pop at Boris, saying in turn, he finished off the last of the Double Deckers out of the jar, by getting his family members to pick them up and stash them away for him later on. In the background, Jenny keeps asking if its fair trade chocolate, but everyone seems to be ignoring her.

Boris is furious at Ken’s apparent slur and his face turns red. Despite being an ex-copper, Brian is doing nothing to quell the feud. Quite the opposite indeed; he’s indulging in a bit of shit stirring, saying they’re both going to develop type-2 diabetes if they carry on eating all of this chocolate. Jenny has stopped asking about the chocolate and is now sat in the corner doing crochet.

After the interview, which no-one really paid attention to, Boris catches up to Ken as they both squeeze in to the lift. He’s shouting: “It’s fucking lies. Fucking lies. It’s all fucking lies!” and goes nose to nose with his fellow contestant. Ken jibes that it’s not the first time Boris has taken the piss with a double decker. Brian is doing ‘bunny ears’ behind Ken’s head, although Boris hasn’t noticed as he is about to suffer an aneurism; a side effect from his face turning puce.

Back at the house, Ken tries to cool things down by offering to shake Boris’ hand. He is saying they should just get back to concentrating on the singing “after all, that’s what the viewers tune in for – not the pantomime.”

Boris accuses Ken of using all of this to cover up the fact that he’s been snaffling Aeros and not telling anyone. Brian is laughing at both of them, somewhat manically, and threatens to arrest them both “for being divvies”. Ken turns around, looking for support from Jenny, but she’s not there.

“Shit… we’ve left her in the radio station…!”

The X-Factor Slug-fest final will take place on 3 May 2012. For more information on voting, click here.

Limited edition Oyster cards marking the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee will be available this summer, the designs for which were revealed earlier today.

The Jubilee card (which, contrary to what one might expect, doesn’t confer free travel on its namesake) features a portrait of Her Maj, while the second one celebrates some of the events taking place in the capital this summer, including the Olympics. It’s graced by a cartoon cavalcade of grinning people and various other Londony symbols like Tower Bridge and, er, the Red Arrows.

250,000 Diamond Jubilee cards will be available in mid-May, while 1.5m will be ready for mid-June. Buy them for £10 (£5 deposit and £5 credit included) from Tube station in Zone 1.

So, on the Olympic design-o-meter, are these cards at the Velodrome or the Wenlock & Mandeville end of the scale?

Olympic Rings float past the Tower of London

A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report has raised concern over the miscalculation of the security budget at the Olympic Games. The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) has more than doubled its security allocation from 10,000 to 23,700. As a result the associated cost has risen from £282m to £553m.

This report comes only ten days after Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson  told us of his confidence that the Games were, “likely to be under-budget”. Robertson has prided the Olympic project on being, “absolutely transparent”. The PAC report, therefore shows a concerning number of inconsistencies with official government figures. The most important issue being the overall cost of the Games, fixed since 2007 at around £9bn. Margaret Hodge, Chair of the PAC has questioned that figure:

“Taking into account costs outside the package, the full cost to the public of the Games and legacy projects is already heading for around £11bn.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are keen to reassure us that the Olympics are running under budget, if anything. A spokesman for the department said.

“With 140 days to go until the Olympic Games, we are on time and under budget with over £500m worth of uncommitted contingency remaining.”

The DCMS went on to claim that they do not recognise the £11m figure and insist that they have always been transparent about the budget. However, there will surely be concern within the department as to how the PAC came to such a different figure to that published by the government.

 Photo by Jymography from the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Staircase at Fortnum and Mason by David Bank

• Boris Johnson has told Channel 4 News that he will never run for Parliament again.
• The New York Times Magazine has published an issue devoted to London, including a grand essay by China Miéville, and a section on explaining Londoners. Snipe has already picked it apart.
• India may decide to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony over the Dow Chemical deal.
• Lucky escape for a 5-year old boy who fell onto the track at Finchley Road. Drivers’ union Aslef has been quick to cite this as a warning against driverless trains.
• The Queen’s been having a butcher’s around Fortnum and Mason.
• What do you make of Carol Ann Duffy’s Olympic poem, Eton Manor?

Photograph by David Bank

A few days after the Velodrome staged an impressive test event, this week it’s the turn of the Aquatic Centre to welcome the public. The building, designed by Zaha Hadid, will showcase sports in which Britain has a number of potential medal-winners in the likes of Tom Daley, Rebecca Adlington and Kerri-Anne Payne, and has long intended as the Olympic Park’s signature building. I is, up to a point.

The Aquatic Centre’s most impressive feature is the 180m wave-shaped roof that undulates above the spectators, and is said to be inspired by a swimmer’s motion through water. It’s a hugely impressive piece of architecture, although the low dip does tend to block out views of spectators on the other side, much like the Velodrome’s roof. In order to cut costs, which spun from a predicted £75m to over £250m, the design was altered, and temporary wings of raked seating to either side replaced the original, all-inclusive plan, which has saved some money but diluted the overall aesthetic appeal. Entering through cut-away portholes in the wings, where the concession stands are sited beneath an Escher-like tangle of metal staircases leading up to the vertigo-inducing seats at the very top (screened off for this event), is also not perhaps the best welcome visitors will have to Olympic aquasports.

At night, when these wings are illuminated by a yellow glow, the Centre still looks special; but in the harsh light of an overcast morning it seems like a missed opportunity to show off what is a genuinely world-class building. London will get to see it in full glory once it is converted into a public swimming pool — but by then the Olympic cameras will be turned half-way to Rio.

Not that any of this affected the divers during event we watched, the men’s 3m springboard. The competitors were received warmly for the most part by the 3,000 or so people in attendance, most of whom didn’t seem particularly familiar with the sport, if the polite applause even for dives disdained by the judges was anything to go by. Predictably the applause turned to raucous cheering when the Brits took to the board. Team GB didn’t do too badly on the day of our visit, with Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow leaving it late to pick up a bronze medal in the 10m synchronised event. If some of the hometown athletes can bring home the gold then few people will care about the efficiency savings that have slightly dented the Aquatic Centre’s appeal, which remains the most impressive building in the Olympic Park, albeit one that has some way to go before we can fully appreciate it.

Read Diamond Geezer’s report from earlier in the week for some interesting thoughts about the diving itself and the etiquette of towel usage.

Joining the Britpop elder statesmen will be Manchester’s New Order  and The Specials from Coventry, under the banner Best Of British, reflecting Britain’s musical heritage not just London’s – although ours is better.

The concert, from BT London Live, takes place on Sunday 12 August as part of a series of shows throughout the Olympics. Tickets for the closing ceremony concert will be £55, although all other music events will be free, except the opening ceremony still to be announced.

Blur said on their Facebook page:

We’re rowing in.. going for gold.. grabbing the baton.. for the high jump.. No, hang on, is that right? Fact is, Blur have accepted the invite to headline the Olympics’ Closing Ceremony Celebration Concert in Hyde Park on 12th August.

As previously reported, sound levels for Hyde Park remain at 75 decibels  with a max capacity of 80,000

Tickets are £55  on sale 9am Friday 24 February.

Britain’s female cyclists took two gold medals and broke a pair of world records in the process at the Track World Cup on Friday night.

In the team sprint, Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish outclassed their Australian rivals (and world champions no less) with a  time of 32.754, breaking a world record that had been set by the Aussies earlier that day. Minutes later, the trio of Joanna Roswell, Laura Trott and Dani King won the team pursuit final in 3:18.148, another world record. The men, in the form of Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy, later took bronze in the team pursuit, having been edged out of the final the previous day.

To say that the atmosphere was electric would be an understatement. Beneath the Velodrome’s low, dipping roof, the noise from the crowd was immense whenever Team GB took to the track. Listen for yourself: the BBC has a video of the team sprint final.

The Velodrome itself is a beautiful building, finished to a high standard throughout. Widely expected to win last year’s Stirling Prize (it eventually lost out to Brixton’s Evelyn Grace Academy) the arena has become the Olympic Park favourite amongst the general public, its sinuous Pringle-shaped form and wood-panelled exterior exuding a charm and clarity that the Aquatics Centre, with its temporary spectator wings, currently lacks.

Seeing the building in action was a thrilling experience, although the organisers might wish to re-think the ventilation. Far too warm for most of the evening, towards the end some of the doors were left open as people departed, leading to a noticeable drop in temperature. These minor issues are the sort of thing the test events are supposed to iron out, and hopefully the Velodrome will bear witness to some star performances this August. If Team GB can bring the kind of form they showed last night to the Olympics, cycling fans across the country are in for a treat.

The Track Cycling Word Cup finishes tonight. Watch it live on BBC Two from 7pm.

Previously on Londonist:

BMX Test Event

World Rowing Junior Championships at Eton Manor

Basketball Test Event

• On how the London Olympics could, er, crash the internet.
• Meanwhile, the ‘games makers’ have commenced training
• Boat owners beware: you’ll have to pay to moor near Olympic events in the Summer.
• James Bond is here. Living among us. Looky here.
• The National Geographic’s top three British pubs are in London.
• Have you seen this man? Trident officers (unusually) release a photo of someone they want to talk to….

Wimbledon Common. Because we just can’t get enough of London in the snow, can we? Image by Stephskimo via the Londonist Flickr pool.

• Wanna take baby to the Olympics? He’ll need his own ticket.
• Man U London HQ is up for sale.
• The armed forces are to lose their London living allowance.
• Croydon hearts 99p stores.
• Seems foreign patients owe London hospitals an awful lot of dosh.
• Mind you, the Whittington Hospital has other things to worry about: it’s haunted by the ghost of a 15th century leper.

Tea time, by pollyblue via the Londonist Flickr pool.

View over Cannon Street rail bridge

• A burst water main is causing chaos on the western end of Oxford Street.
• The shortlist of potential tenants for the Olympic Media Centre has been revealed… looks like we won’t be getting that indoor ski centre, then.
• That Olympic ticket resale blip… explained.
• Wanna work at the top of the Shard? There’s a job opening for a Marketing Manager in the viewing galleries.
• Occupy London has staged a mock war trial at its Old Street redoubt, but even the Guardian’s reporter found it hard to keep the faith.
• Team GB’s rhythmic gymnastic team miss out on 2012 berth.
• The Temple of Mithras is on the move back to its original home.
• Snipe has some interesting ideas about how to improve the Tube.

Photo / Chic*ka

• Details of the Queen’s water-borne Diamond Jubilee pageant have been revealed.
• As unemployment figures hit a ‘new high’, seems London’s worse off than most.
• Spurs spying charges: another man has been arrested in connection with the Olympic Stadium kerfuffle.
• The Roundhouse is to team up with other round venues to commission round things around the world.
• BA planes are to get a dove design for 2012.
• Boris announces further regeneration plans for the Greenwich peninsula.

The lengths our Flickr friends go to to get us good photos…. Image by mattomatto via our Flickr pool. If you’ve figured out how to use that new camera you got for Christmas, why don’t you join the Londonist army of photo contributors too?

Clean-up time at the London School of Economics

• London School of Economics to investigate allegations that a Jewish student was assaulted after a Nazi-themed drinking game
• Pictures of the Olympic Park from above
• The Treasury plans to make London one of the leading hubs for trading in the yuan, China’s currency.
• Every property owned by the UK government…. mapped.
• Ian Visits has been out to take photographs of the under-construction cable car.
• A great piece from this weekend’s Financial Times on the state of the Underground.

London produces the best music in the world with home grown talent revitalising itself each year, and 2012 guarantees to silence those troublesome Manc and Brooklynite competitors for good.

No longer is London’s music scene defined by a specific patch or cliquey area. Whereas the past had Carnaby Street, the Kings Road, Camden or the ‘Ditch as its dominant Zone 2 focus, 2012 reflects London as a whole with bands from Bromley, Watford and Kingston making our Ones To Watch list.

London is a city as varied as The Lexington’s whisky list and its music is just as intoxicating. There is no London ‘sound’, just a melting pot of genres, often at the same shows, reflecting our musically invigorating home.

So to reflect this great time for London music we present Londonist’s Ones To Watch 2012.

Graveltones
Graveltones live are a phenomenal experience for a mere duo. Although grounded in classic gritty blues rock they manage to invigorate the basic twelve bars to recreate the guttural sound of rock behemoths Monster Magnet. Watching them bulldozes any presumption of a new White Stripes or Black Keys thanks to their Bonham-esque thunder drumming cocooning vocals lifted from Howling Wolf or Chris Cornell with BB King’s guitar shredding.
Their debut EP is out now. They play Monto Water Rats 13 January.
www.thegraveltones.com  

Clement Marfo and the Frontline
Kingston’s Clement Marfo leads his seven strong grime collective out from the underground brandishing bruising rock leanings which mirrors the Jay Z Linkin Park crossover, but remains deeply rooted in London’s urban scene. Initially starting as a solo MC, Clement has morphed into the polished UK hip-hop perfected by Professor Green and Wretch 32 and is sure to attack the mainstream this year.
New single Mayhem is out 12 March. They play The Garage 11 February and O2 Academy Islington 29 February.
www.clementmarfo.com

The Staves
These three Watford sisters produce the kind of beautiful folk pop only a lifetime spent weaving knotted harmonies can produce. Avoiding the traditional folk tendencies of The Watersons they draw from the melodies of the great 60s groups like Crosby Stills Nash and Young, yet adding mesmerising porcelain fragility. The Staves produce a contemporary folk bypassing the novelty waistcoat and banjo quirks recently prevalent in the genre.
The Staves’ Mexico EP is out now. They play HMV’s Next Big Thing @ The Borderline 8 February and Islington Assembly Hall 16 February.
www.thestaves.com

Nzca/Lines
Nzca/Lines, the solo project from former Your Twenties bassist Michael Lovett, deploy genre hopping electronica which is part polished RnB, part rumbling breakbeats. His exact production nods towards Hot Chip’s take on sexy minimalism, which disregards nostalgia for a thoroughly 2012 sound. Precise beats cushion falsetto vocals which flirt with Kraftwerk and Rihanna alike.
Nzca/Lines’ self-titled debut is released 27 February, they play Old Blue Last 14 January and The Royal Albert Hall 22 February.
www.nzca-lines.com

Tribes
Camden’s Tribes are the kind of band we’ve needed for years: cocksure lads with boisterous guitars who will flick you the Vs then steal your beer – and your girl. They are the embodiment of their home borough’s grunge t-shirts, skinny jeans and grubby effects but manage to create the kind of heartfelt rock n roll not felt since before the Towers Of London parodied the genre for comedy gain.
Their debut album, Baby, is out 16 January. They play the NME Awards Tour @ Brixton Academy 25 February.
www.tribesband.com

Psychologist
Iain Woods’ choral vocal majesty is something to behold, his vulnerable warmth fluttering tenderly amongst late night tales. As Psychologist he employs James Blake-lite post-step beats and mute piano chords to create delicately caressing bedsit poetry, yet willingly dives into juddering epic electronica bass patterns with swooping strings. Similar to a dark Hurts or The XX in a jolly mood.
The Propeller EP is out now.
www.psychologistmusic.com

Van Susans
Musicianship will always work its way to the top, perfect for Bromley’s Van Susans who ooze skilled talent. Their Frank Turner-esque folk rock honours classic song writing with monstrous choruses holding up verses steeped in Chaucerian tradition with a pounding Celtic edge. They’re destined for stadiums, rather than low key fashion pandering, with their epic story telling akin to Bruce Springsteen, The Levellers and Counting Crows.
Van Susans’ debut album is due this year.
www.vansusans.tumblr.com

Toy
Being name dropped by The Horrors and S.C.U.M has secured their place as key figures in the shoegaze revival and they don’t try to deny it. Drowned in psychedelic distorto drones this five piece’s sound is more attune to Curve, Slowdive and Ultra Vivid Scene than the Simple Minds stadia of recent Horrors. Very image conscious and aloof with it, Toy are the band for people into black and vintage synths.
Debut single Left Myself Behind is available as free download  with limited edition vinyl out 23 January. They play HMV’s Next Big Thing @ Barfly, 7 February.
www.facebook.com/toy.band

Lianne La Havas
South London’s response to Lana Del Rey and Ren Harveu, Lianne La Havas delivers a sweeping soulful folk which has already backed Paloma Faith and supported Bon Iver. She started song writing aged 11 having been taught the piano and guitar by her father paving the way for her easy commercial sound which is destined for great things.
She plays HMV’s Next Big Thing @ The Borderline 8 February. The Forget EP is out now.
www.liannelahavas.com

Fever Dream
This east London trio create a lo-fi post-punk which Husserlianly transcends Sonic Youth’s visceral energy into raw teetering repetitiveness which is hypnotic and empowering. They have the jangly pop sensibilities of Ride with the gnarly urbanism of The Fall yet reinvigorate a nu-gaze sound which often seems to border on psy-trance played live. There’s an noir art-house edge which trumps more fashion conscious contemporaries.
Fever Dream release This Waste on 6 February and play a single launch @ Ryans Bar 3 February. UPDATE- Change of venue now at The Others, Stoke Newington
www.facebook.com/FeverDreamBand

In this video released by London 2012, Jonathan Edwards, Olympic gold medallist and holder of the world record for men’s triple jump (18.29m if you were wondering) has a wander around the Olympic Park to mark 200 days until the opening ceremony; the moment passed yesterday, in case you missed all the celebrations.

The “uplifting” music and corporate-video overtones are a bit difficult to stomach, but there’s some excellent footage of the park from the air and on the ground. The swooping shots around the curvaceous interior of the Aquatic Centre are particularly impressive, as are the glimpses of the parklands that will surround the various arenas. It’s also a useful primer if you’re yet to get your head around the park’s geography.

Read all our posts on the Olympics.

• That we are to get killer egg-copters to patrol our skies;
• That the Olympic Park has apparently lost 75% of its value;
• But it is to boost our economy by £1 billion, so that’s OK then;
• The Cabinet has relocated to the Olympic Park for the day;
• Post-Olympic operators have been appointed for three of the venues.

In other news:

• Yesterday was ‘no trousers on the Tube day’.
• Fatality on the tracks at Hither Green Station this morning.
• Budding horticulturalists wanted to help at Clayhall Orchard this weekend.

2012 image by tezzer57.

• Our Kate chooses the National Portrait Gallery as one of her pet charities.
• Hackney’s Pembury Estate gets solar panelling.
• The Bush has been named London’s finest theatre.
• Nestle is to leave Croydon, where it is the biggest private sector employer.
• And so it starts: how much rent would you pay during the Olympics?

Standy-still painty man. Because we all knock them, but still they make us smile. Image by Peter Denton via the Londonist Flickr pool.

Plans for a floating river park on the north bank of the Thames have been scuppered for the time being. In a letter seen by Property Week, and cited in Building Design, the company behind the project confirmed to stakeholders that construction of the park will not go ahead before the Olympics.

The London River Park, a 1km walkway stretching between Blackfriars Bridge and Tower Bridge, was strongly backed by Boris Johnson and had been pencilled in for deployment ahead of the Olympics. However, objections from local residents and a less-than stellar reception from key bodies including the Port of London Authority has led to the proposal being withdrawn and placed under review.

The letter states that the plans have not been totally abandoned, and that further details will be released in early 2012, but the London River Park website and Twitter account don’t appear to have been updated since November, and we have been unable to contact any representative to confirm what might happen next. For now it doesn’t look promising.

• Gary Dobson and David Norris get around 15 and 14 years respectively.
• The animals are entering two by two by two… It’s census time at London Zoo.
• Controversy surrounds the Iron Lady as much at the cinema as in real life.
• Olympic organisers have oversold around 3000 synchronised swimming tickets. Best synchronise computers then.
• Happy 250th birthday to the Cock Lane ghost.
• Camden Town Brewery is to recreate a special Olympic ale.
• SW residents are London’s most sociable, says a spurious New Year survey.

Walking to Work, by O.F.E. via the Londonist pool.

Alongside the traditionally uplifting New Year’s Day storyline, EastEnders viewers got to enjoy a new addition to the title sequence: the Olympic Park is now included in the title sequence. It can be seen above the ‘a’ and ‘s’ in the image above.

The sudden appearance of the park and its amenities could present something of a continuity challenge to the soap’s famously fastidious scriptwriters: it shares the same E20 postcode as the fictional Albert Square, despite being a mile or so from where the show is set. Perhaps next year’s storylines will revolve around the challenges presented when the Beale family moves into a flat in the Athlete’s Village, and the local market’s economic viability is sorely tested by Westfield. Or perhaps not.

• NYE passed off ‘peacefully’, notwithstanding the 77 arrests made by police in Central London.
• Shard gossip: seems the tall pointy one has yet to attract any office tenants. Oh, and it may cost you £20 to view stuff at the top.
• Fatal shooting in Clerkenwell: one arrested.
• Seems the Reading to Paddington train service is Britain’s worst.
• Guess what? You still need to avoid the Hammersmith Flyover.
• The Olympics are to get a specialist unit to target ‘event fixing’.
• Missing 13 year old girl: please keep your eyes peeled, London.

Big Bang, by RobertCoxwell via the Londonist flickr pool. Have a very Happy 2012.

February: A Tube driver is forced to work 10 minutes unpaid overtime due to a signal failure. Union leaders call for immediate strike action.

March: Occupy London, Charles Dickens and Banksy riot in a secret underground tunnel before climbing the Shard and making an alternative Tube map. Londonist is accused of manipulating events to match its most popular keywords.

April: TfL scores an own goal by announcing a Private Boat Hire scheme on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.

May: His Omniscience Boris Johnson secures a second term in office following a landslide win in the Mayoral Elections. Ken Livingstone declares the official victory photo ‘a bit pompous, really’.

June: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations are undermined when some wag points out that she actually became Queen in February 1952, not June.

July: Danny Boyle’s much anticipated Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics turns ugly, when the 28 Days Later director invokes a legion of zombies commanded by a terrifying ‘Satanic Blood Seer’, a thinly disguised anagram of Lord Sebastian Coe, rather than some nice dancing girls with ribbons.

August: Thousands of normal people are deployed across the Olympic site to ward off threats from extremist security groups.

September: The world’s first pop-up shop selling vintage photos of pop-up vintage shops from 2010 pops up in Shoreditch. Meanwhile, the slightly hipper kids in Dalston decide that the phrasing ‘second-hand clothes shop in temporary premises’ has more retro-cool. It’s still on-trend to say you hate Boxpark, while secretly visiting three times a week.

October: With capacity improvements to the Thameslink route stricken by further delays, First Capital Connect adopts the creative expedient of increasing the number of hours in the day rather than putting on more trains.

November: Thousands of Londoners sport hair styles like His Omniscience Boris Johnson. ‘Bovember’ involves the growing of blond, bouffant hair for charity, and supersedes Movember as the ironic outlet for hair-based silliness.

December: The End of the World occurs on 21 December, as prophesied by the Mayans, His Omniscience Boris Johnson, The Satanic Blood Seer Lord Sebastian Coe, and Woody Harrelson. Thousands crowd onto the Thames Embankment, but the best views are obtained from Primrose Hill.

Got your own predictions for the year ahead? Please unload them below. And check out how many of our predictions for 2011 came true (hint: nearly one).

What with today being 20th December, or 20/12 and a convenient marketing date for the Games, there’s quite a bit of Olympic-related news about.

First up is the announcement of an arboreal art installation in the Olympic park. Ten of the tallest trees will each have a 20ft wide metal band wrapped around it; over time the tree will envelop the band and act as a “permanent reminder” of the Games. We’re promised that the inside of the rings, designed by British artists Ackroyd and Harvey, will also be inscribed with “hidden histories”, including data gleaned from archaeological surveys. We suspect they’ll also be tempting targets for graffiti writers.

In other Olympic news, the Legacy Committee is being bullish about the future of the Stadium, ahead of the bidding process for a long term tenant, which begins today. The OPLC’s chief executive Andrew Altman said that they were “keen” to do a deal with West Ham United and Newham, the joint bid which had previously won the aborted competition to take over the stadium, but stated that its future viability was “not solely dependent” on a football club’s involvement. With London having secured the 2017 World Athletics Championship, Mr. Altman is perhaps right in his belief that the stadium won’t immediately be labelled a white elephant once the Olympic bunting has been torn down, but maintaining a successful legacy might be harder if it were restricted to infrequent gigs and sporting events.

The stadium’s post-2012 name is also uncertain. The expected £20m cost of transforming it after the Games is likely to be at least partly met by a corporate sponsor, which will also get the opportunity to brand it as they see fit. Naming rights for the other permanent structures, including the Aquatics Centre and Velodrome, are also set to be negotiated.

One company unlikely to be involved in the bidding is Dow Chemical: the firm, which is sponsoring the wrap around the Olympic stadium, has agreed that its name and logo will not be displayed, after India reportedly threatened to boycott the Games due to the involvement of Union Carbide, now owned by Dow, in the Bhopal disaster of 1984.

Field Day 2011 photo by shuma.rani

Franz Ferdinand have been announced as headliners for next year’s Field Dayfestival which takes place in Tower Hamlets’ Victoria Park on 2 June 2012.

London is represented by dub stepper SBTRKT and guitar heroes Zulu Winter and The Vaccines, alongside Metronomy, Gold Panda and Tortoise in the initial line up with many more still to be announced for London’s nicest and most wonderful festival.

Now in its sixth year Field Day has moved to early June from its regular August date due to some sporting event taking place nearby. Early bird tickets are £39.50 through See Tickets.

Other London Festivals to have made line up announcements include:

Radio 1’s Hackney Weekender @ Hackney Marshes 23-24 June 2012
The BBC are bringing their One Big Weekend to Hackney to celebrate the Olympics with a free party for residents of Hackney and the surrounding areas. The line-up is set to be huge with Florence and the Machine, Tinie Tempah and local gal Leona Lewis confirmed so far. Details.

I’ll Be Your Mirror @ Alexander Palace 25-27 May 2012
Slayer, Mogwai and Guided By Voices headline this fantastic festival, which is now takes-over three days for its second year, along with Yuck Mudhoney and The Melvins. Tickets

UPDATE: 7 December- Guided By Voices will no longer be headlining due to the band cancelling all live shows. They are replaced by the super ace Afghan Whigs.

Hard Rock Calling @ Hyde Park 13-15 July 2012
Bruce Springsteen and the E street Band headline London’s proper rock festival on the Saturday, following from their 2009 appearance.  Tickets

Wireless @ Hyde Park 6-8 July 2012
Rihanna is the sole confirmation so far for the rather clinical festival, but her Sunday night performance will be sure to transfix the gazes of young men throughout the crowd.  Tickets.

• Seems anger at the police was behind the Summer riots. Hmm.
• Competition for City jobs has never been keener. Best polish your shoes and clean under your finger nails.
• A second woman has been arrested for a racist rant, this time aboard a train at London Bridge.
• LOCOG needs you…to volunteer to take part in the 2012 opening and closing ceremonies. They still don’t have enough recruits.
• That new super-casino in Stratford Westfield seems to be rather popular.
• Finally we’ve another mayoral candidate for you to ponder: meet Wolfgang Moneypenny.

Irrelevant but totally awesome image by NoirChick73 via the Londonist Flickr pool.

• Next week’s strike could ground Heathrow…but would anyone notice?
• India threatens to boycott London 2012 over the Dow Chemical stadium wrap.
• The BBC announces its cultural programming schedule for 2012.
• Those flats built on the old Highbury Stadium? They’ve all been sold.
• Yay for yippee-kay-ay shopkeepers! Boo for robbers!
• Commute home in a North Easterly direction? Congrats: your trains are about to get bigger.

Leaves. Image by Peter Simmons plucked from the deeply and importantly talented Londonist pool.

Image by Herschell Herschey from the Londonist Flickr Pool

Last week, The Royal Mint unveiled 1 kilo silver and gold coins, worth £500 and £1,000 respectively, produced for the 2012 Olympics in London. Who said that this was going to be an austerity games?

In an interview in today’s Guardian, however, the artists behind the designs have revealed that they ‘winced’ at using the 2012 logo.

The coins were designed by eminent artists Sir Anthony Caro and Tom Phillips and were approved by the Queen before they could be declared as legal tender.

Sir Anthony told the Guardian: “I made mine as small as possible and then saw Tom’s and realised I could get away with making it even smaller.” Tom Phillips used a tiny version of the logo as a full stop at the end of a poem which skirts the circumference of the silver £500 coin.

The artists are not the first to disparage the logo. In February this year, the head of the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran said the logo was racist as it appears to spell out the word Zion (another word for Jerusalem). The much-maligned piece of design work has also been accused of looking like a lady giving London a blow job and footage of the logo flashing on the 2012 website was removed shortly after the launch because of fears it could prompt epileptic seizures.

Whatever you think of the logo (and the artists’ use of it), the new coins are unlikely to be finding their way into your pocket. The silver coin (face value, £500) will sell for £3,000 and the gold coin (face value, £1,000) will cost collectors an eye-watering £100,000.

• Islington slows the pace…to 20mph.
• Oh this is cool. A mini Marble Arch made out of West End rubbish.
• Still plenty of time to get involved with the Olympics. Howabout volunteering to meet and greet at Heathrow?
• Have you seen this woman? ‘Cos she’s suspected of stealing stuff from hospital patients. Which is really mean.
• Coloma Catholic girls school in Croydon pulled up over its admissions policy.
• Animal confusion: the London Wetlands Centre has a raft of ducklings. And it’s, like, November.
• Oh this will rock a few boats: the Wombles look set to claim a Christmas Number One. It’s been a while.

Smoke. Fog. Lights. London. Image by Sabine Thoele via the Londonist flickr pool.

Opening in May (so a few months before the Olympics), Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 will go on show in the newly renovated Fashion Galleries at the museum.

Displayed over two floors, the exhibition will trace the evolution of eveningwear from 1950s debutante balls, through private parties and state occasions to the red carpet events and opening nights of today. Look out for the V&A’s most recent acquisition, the satin Ralph & Russo gown worn by Beyonce when she sang at Barack Obama’s inauguration ball in 2009.

In addition, you can see a Norman Hartnell dress designed for the Queen Mother; Princess Diana’s “Elvis Dress” by Catherine Walker; gowns made by Zandra Rhodes, Jonathan Saunders and Hussein Chalayan; and dresses worn by Elizabeth Hurley, Bianca Jagger and Sandra Bullock. There’s even a dress made especially for the show: a metallic leather creation by Gareth Pugh.

We’re big fans of the V&A, and can’t wait for the Lates programme associated with this particular show. Dust off those elbow-length gloves, girls…

Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 is on show in the Fashion Galleries at the V&A from 19 May until 6 January 2013. Admission charges apply. Visit www.vam.ac.uk/ballgowns to find out more.

Around half of London’s small businesses (or SMEs, as they are known to statisticians) are either unwilling to play or unready for the Olympics. This is according to a new report by Deloitte, the posh audit people. When you read that sentence, it seems kind of shocking. Mean, we are just about to host the biggest sports gig that there is. The whole world will be looking at us, at London. How can anyone fail to be excited? Thousands of extra people are going to pour into the city, business will boom, the economy will bounce back (a bit, according to Visa – but then they would say that anyway) the arts will flourish, and the state of the nation will register an optimism high. Right?

Well, er, not entirely. The government has made all the right moves, and has a rather impressive booklet of handy hints for businesses to follow. Unfortunately said literature concentrates on minimising the negative effects of the games rather than accentuating the positive (there’s a song in there somewhere). Thus there are sections on re-routing deliveries, coping with staff shortages, facilitating home-working, adjusting your insurance, checking your utilities, upgrading your mobile and deploying extra security. Add to this the stories that we’ve all read in the papers about the penalties for incorrect use of the logo, or not using certain wording sequentially…it leaves one struggling to work out how exactly one can captitalise on the event.

Now this shopkeeper is an incorrigible optimist, even in the middle of a frankly godawful recession, and his penny drawer is always half full. But for the majority of small London businesses that are outside the Olympic corridor, and are not actually javelin or bunting manufacturers, the Olympics mean bugger all at this stage, and are unlikely to impact on sales even when the games are in full swing. Quite the opposite, as travel and parking will be affected right across London no matter how well the planners have done their job. It has to be said that few small businesses are likely to experience staff issues, as most employ staff who live within a modest radius.

Most fellow shopkeepers to whom we spoke (in South East London) were at best hoping that the Olympics would have no detrimental effect on their trade, and many have a gut feeling that they are somehow being stealth-taxed through the nose for it one way or another. None of them anticipated a sales boom. Many suggested that the streets will actually be quieter during the games, as people stay in glued to their tellies. Pizza shops will do well. Beer sales will soar. But, unfortunately, busy people with TV to watch usually vroom into supermarkets to get what they want rather than frequenting their local small shops. Wethinks that unless Team GB bucks the odds and snatches a few extra golds, the wave of national Olympic-related cheeriness is unlikley to materialise. We were told to expect a sports boom as we jogged towards 2012, but are there any stats to show a greater uptake? This predicted upsurge in retail confidence may also be ODA pie in the sky.

We will be watching the games (although small business owners rarely get enough time off to go watch these things live), and we want to be their friend. Please tell us we are mistaken, and that it will all be alright. Please tell us that a splendid, glorious sporting jamboree in East London CAN have a positive effect on a small launderette in Kingston. Or that a year of awesome pageantry will help sales in a cosmetic shop in Brixton… We would so love to be proved wrong.

Closing for business. Image by Buckaroo Kid via the Londonist pool.

Manchester rioters were copying those in London. Who says we don’t give anything back to the rest of the country?

Photo / mmbrook8

It’s official — London has been announced as the winner of the race to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, beating off competition from Doha. It is the first time the Championships will be held in the UK, and is the first event to be confirmed for the Olympic stadium post-2012. That ever-promised athletics legacy just took a major step forwards.

London has previously bid for the championships in 2001 and 2005, with derisory results; indeed, the capital actually won the 2005 bid, but was forced to abandon it after a proposed new athletics stadium in Edmonton was scrapped.

The result, announced just now in Monaco, could be seen as vindication for last month’s decision to hit the reset button on the Olympic Stadium bid, after fears that the legal wranglings could jeopardise the bid.

This good news calls for a drink. Fortunately, those thirsty souls at the Visit London blog have put together a list of suitably-named pubs where you can celebrate London’s WAC success.

• Ealing Abbey monks lose control of St. Benedicts’s School amid allegations of sexual abuse.
• Fifa bans Wembley poppies; our Dave doesn’t approve.
• Fire crews tackle mock chemical emergency in Woolwich in readiness for the Olympics.
• Suicide by tube increases by 74% in 10 years; recession blamed, natch.
• London is apparently home to five of the world’s top ten bars.
• Heathrow is to get an electronic green grass gateway for 2012.

Yesterday’s Men, by buckaroo kid via the Londonist pool.

The borough, which by then will be called The Royal Borough of Greenwich, welcomes the torch on 21 July. No doubt there’ll be some big photo opps by the Prime Meridian Line. The torch will then travel around the capital for a week, visiting all 33 boroughs, before completing its journey at the Olympic Stadium on 27 July. There, the cauldron will be lit at the Opening Ceremony, signifying the official start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Here’s more details about the daily route:

• 21 July: After spending the night guarded by Beefeaters in the Tower of London, the torch will travel to Greenwich, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest
• 22 July: The torch starts at Redbridge Cycling Centre, before making its way through Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Bexley
• 23 July: Today’s starting point is the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Lewisham, before being welcomed in Bromley, Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth
• 24 July: The route is from the Hook Centre in Kingston-upon-Thames, to Richmond-upon-Thames, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Ealing
• 25 July: Headstone Manor and Harrow Museum in Harrow, is the starting point on 25 July. The flame then travels through Brent, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey
• 26 July: Look out Roundhouse! The Camden venue is today’s starting point, followed by Islington, the City, Southwark, Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster. (Quite a busy penultimate day…)
• 27 July: The final day is all about the Thames. The torch will travel by boat from Hampton Court Palace to the Olympic Stadium

Look out for various publicity stunts along the way too: the torch will be rowed along the river at Henley, and take on the rapids at the Lee Valley White Water Centre. We predict it’ll ride at least one Boris Bike, too.

The complete 70-day relay starts at Land’s End in Cornwall on 19 May.

The Olympic Torch then travels about 8,000 miles around the UK carried by 8,000 torchbearers, selected because of a “personal achievement” or contribution to their local community.

Photo: author’s own

Tickets for the next round of London Prepares, the series of test events in the Olympic venues, will go on sale 17th November.

This time round, the Aquatics Centre and Velodrome will host competitive events for the the first time, while gymnastics qualifiers will be held at the North Greenwich Arena, which is how the O2 will be known for the Games.

The full line-up of events:

Track Cycling – 16–19 February 2012, Velodrome, Olympic Park
The final round of the 2011-12 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics features the best track riders from around the world. Tickets: £10 to £40

Diving – 20–26 February 2012, Aquatics Centre, Olympic Park
The 18th FINA Diving World Cup is the last opportunity for divers to qualify for the Diving competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Tickets: £5 to £30

Gymnastics – 10–18 January 2012, at North Greenwich Arena
International Gymnastics, a qualification event for the London 2012 Games, will see some of the world’s best gymnasts compete in Artistic, Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnastics competitions. Tickets £5 – £20

Previously in London Prepares: BMX racing, basketball, road cycling.

Pictures from inside the Aquatics Centre

• Luton is building an add-on stretch of motorway for visiting 2012 VIPs.
• The Met has ‘secret spy planes’ to listen in on our mobile calls.
• Sailing centre for the disabled threatened by 2012 ‘superyacht’ invasion.
• Tons of fish die after raw sewage hits the River Crane.
• London is rubbish at adoption.
• Non news of the day: judge laments closure of Strand courts, fondly recalls Kylie’s bottom.

Dungeon, by Kenchie via the Londonist pool.