Amid the soap opera of the US Presidential Elections, and with all eyes focused on who will be next in the White House, it has become all too easy to forget that George W Bush is still officially the man in power across the pond. Having been something of a forgotten figure in the British press of late, Bush arrived in the UK today to fulfil the demanding task of sipping tea with the......

Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend whilst you were out trooping the colour: Is carelessness catching? More sensitive documents have been left on a train. Londonist feels bad if we leave our umbrella on a train, let alone the nation’s secrets. As two C of E clergymen wed in the City of London, there is an entirely predictable outburst of outraged tosh. Wandsworth are being busy bees this weekend: firstly they have declared that......

We fell in love with Black Cab Sessions the moment we first heard of them. How could we not? Taking a drive around the best city in the world (okay, we're biased, yes) in a design classic with some of our favourite bands rockin' out in the back seat: it's exactly how we'd like to spend a lazy afternoon. Since we generally are unable to scrape together enough coins to even steal sideways glances......

It's been a strange ol' week for Londonist music-wise. On Monday we got worried about a rise in nightclub violence, on Tuesday caught Goldfrapp at Union Chapel, on Wednesday caught Nick Cave at HMV and on Thursday got excited about a new-ish club night at Three Blind Mice. Looking ahead to this week however, Monday sees Panic At the Disco and Kate Nash play sold out shows at the Roundhouse and Hammersmith Apollo respectively, whilst......

This week saw Londonist get incredibly excited about a few live music events. First up, was French pop sensation Yelle, who played an intimate show at the Old Blue Last. Then, we had the Camden Crawl line up which, as ever, is pretty amazing for those of us who value music over sleep. Finally, Sally got (understandably) excited about The King Blues @ the 100 Club. Once we've come down from our excitement of last......

Blogophobia: an irrational fear, intolerance of, or aversion to the blogosphere. Martin Amis has been accused of far worse, but after hearing him talk at RADA yesterday evening, this was the only accusation we felt it safe to lodge against him. The offending remark came early in the evening when, during his reading from the recently published The Second Plane, Amis effectively dissed Londonist and its ilk as “semi-literate windbags of the blogosphere”. Gauntlet,......

This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all! Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising......

We wanted to promote tomorrow's charity comedy night for War on Want at Shepherds Bush Empire for two reasons. Firstly, because it is going to be a spectacular night, with some remarkable comedians, in aid of a very good cause. And secondly, because their press release contains a line which, lacking as it is in context, had us giggling like children for far longer than is socially acceptable: "Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, with......

One of the reasons our economy could be in a real mess this year is that the price of basic stuff like fuel and food is going up fast. That means that it’s difficult for the central banks in Britain and Europe to justify lowering interest rates to encourage us to spend more — because spending would spur more inflation, which could get out of control. In developed countries, inflation is kind of like......

This week, Londonist caught two bands at either end of the musical scale - American metal stars Wolves in the Throne Room @ Underworld and the ever great Elbow at an intimate Porchester Hall show. We also started offering you the chance to win tickets to see Late of the Pier on February 28th. We also previewed the forthcoming second iTunes festival, which starts this coming Thursday. Looking forward to this week however, Monday night......

A fairly quiet time for Londonist music, but this week saw us introduce you to The Wave Pictures on Thursday, catch indie up-and-comers Parka at the Borderline on Tuesday, and suggest you catch "J-Dilla changed my life" at Cargo this evening. Throughout the week, NME favourites play their three week series of Awards shows, and this week sees Babyshambles play Brixton Academy on Monday night, Richard Hawley and Mercury nominated Maps play the Astoria on......

If you were wandering around Bayswater last night and wondering why you were surrounded by several thousand Americans, it's not because we started granting political asylum to those seeking refuge from the Bush regime (a bit late for that, really). No, it's because last night, Democrats Abroad held their very own Super Tuesday event for expatriates who wanted something more tangible than pointing and clicking for their favourite candidate. Obama advocates and Hillary supporters......

Philadelphia experimental indie stars Enon play the Luminaire on Monday night, with around 17 tickets left (at time of writing) on We Got Tickets. Support comes in the shape of Ill Ease, which features "Elizabeth Sharp playing guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, shaker, car horn and anything else that rattles, buzzes, shakes or hums in a riff-o-matic racket" apparently. Should be good. Meanwhile over at 93 Feet East, Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan plays his folk-rock. Tickets......

Daily Candy tweaks its culinary repertoire at a secret cooking class in Clerkenwell. Slonik at Edible London visits the Malmaison-ized Fox and Anchor twice in one week! An American in London checks out Crazy Homies in Notting Hill (she’d go back but …) Posting for Food and Drink in London, Ben Bush accuses Waterloo Brasserie of perpetrating a fishy felony. Photography courtesy of D I C K S D A I L Y's photostream......

News is breaking across the pond that this year's NFL fixture in the UK will be back at Wembley Stadium after all, with the New Orleans Saints hosting this season's losing Superbowl "semi-finalists" the San Diego Chargers on October 26th. San Diego president Dean Spanos, a member of the NFL's International Committee, reportedly in negotiations over the game almost since the first Wembley match ended just over two months ago, commented: We want to......

Nu-metal stars Linkin Park are the main draw on Monday night, with support coming from the mighty Biffy Clyro as they play the first of two consecutive nights at the O2, and whilst tickets are all sold out, there are a few floating around on Scarlet Mist and such like. Stephen Fretwell plays a sold out show at The Troubadour, and reggae star Finley Quaye plays the first of a three night stay at the......

Transport anarchy is threatening to break out in W12. TfL's plan to close Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line in early February for escalator upgrade work has been met with a stentorian campaign by locals to keep it open. The protesters claim that the work - to fix up the station in anticipation of the hordes of shoppers flooding to the £1.6 billion Westfield complex, scheduled to open later this year - is......

The first full week back at work, and with that we start to get a few decent gigs happening. The Spice Girls continue their record-breaking run of nights at the O2 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Tickets are still available from See Tickets and Ticketmaster for all three nights, and for the rest of their shows this month in London. If you like your music a lot heavier than some camp pop, then you might......

We already knew London was capital of the world, but 2007 has firmly cemented us as the best city by far musically. The Millennium Dome reopened as the O2 Arena, hosting not only 21 nights of Prince, the Rolling Stones, Take That, and the Spice Girls first UK dates for 10 years, but also the most anticipated gig for a good decade or so: Led Zeppelin’s reformation. Unfortunately this Londonista had to settle for some......

After a quick break travelling the US, this Londonista is back to normality bringing the weekly roundup of whats happening in London. Monday night sees Oakland metal stars High on Fire grace UL. Tickets are available for £12 each on the door or from See tickets. Reformed 90's Brit rockers Shed Seven grace Shepherds Bush Empire, with a few tickets left at £17.50 each, if you really must indulge your nostalgia. Finally, Scritti Politti plays......

This is what we have learnt this weekend whilst you have been making your mince pies: The tube link to Heathrow Airport is celebrating its 30th birthday. Spicing up Christmas - they’re back and better than ever. Apparently. Appalling teenage violence continues. Perhaps they should all be kept indoors from the ages of 12-19. The Savoy Hotel has closed for a facelift. As one does when one reaches a certain age. ‘Cept this one......

Josh Rouse might not be a well-known name, but he fills the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with ease tonight. In fact everything seems to come naturally to him, from the relaxed shuffle onstage to his casually turned-out country-pop gems. Opening the bill is Sweden’s Jens Lekman, playing a solo set except for a girl who joins to play bongos and occasional piano. Lekman’s bittersweet tales of small-town romance sparkle with lo-fi pop hooks mixed with......

To be honest the rain and coldness is kind of making us not want to go to gigs at the moment, preferring instead to wrap ourselves up warmly at home. But if we did, this is what we'd be bouncing at. Monday: The biggie tomorrow is of course Led Zep at the O2, but you've more chance of meeting Santa than getting tickets for that. So instead, forget the dinosaurs and try something new......

Noah and The Whale. It's amazing what names bands are coming up with these days, but somehow this fantastical one suits one of our new favourite bands. We know we're a bit behind the times here, after all Noah's crew have been making waves since the summer, but for some reason we've only just properly listened to them and wow. Noah and The Whale are part of the newly cool folk scene. If we......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

A special two-for-one offer on gig reviews this time. Londonist saw the slightly odd combination of Gorgoroth (old-school Norwegian black metal) at Scala on Wednesday, and former System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian the next night at the Astoria. Musically they were worlds apart, despite a shared taste for heavy riffs.Gorgoroth are not a band for the faint-hearted. Once arrested in Poland for a "blasphemous" stage show that included naked women on crucifixes and......

Shh! We don’t want to jinx things, but apparently the O2 is set to become the busiest and bestest venue in the world. (Well, bestest is perhaps subject to opinion: the Shepherd’s Bush Empire is pretty hard to beat if you ask us.) Anyway, all things being equal, by the end of 2007 its ticket sales will have exceeded those of Madison Square Gardens for the whole year, even though our pet bubble only opened......

Tonight start the week by going to see massive Swedish popstar Marit Bergman at Hoxton Bar & Grill. She's playing a one off UK gig in an attempt to get signed in the UK. (£6, here. Former Hefner frontman Darren Hayman teams up with fledgling band The Wave Pictures at The Luminaire (£8, here). Plus the awesome Cold War Kids play Shepherd's Bush Empire. On Tuesday, German dance kids Digitalism are at the Scala......

As reported last week, Monday should see you going crazy to hear that one good song (are there others) by Peter Bjorn and John at the forum. More importantly make sure you get there in time to see support act Those Dancing Days. We caught them at Water Rats on Saturday and are pleased to report they combine cuteness and moodiness with alarming grace. The much loved Beirut play an instore at Rough Trade......

In celebration of their 25th anniversary, avant-garde music magazine The Wire will be keeping the capital busy this month with a series of gigs under the banner Wire 25. Whilst many of the events are up our street, we were most excited to hear that two of the gigs were being organised by one of our favourite promoters, [no.signal]. Their evening with Tony Conrad this past June at St. Giles-in-the-Fields was the most fun......