Famed musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has come up with a catchy tune or two in his time; annoyingly catchy, some of them. After attending his 'birthday' party (six months too late, as the man himself pointed out) in Hyde Park last night, we still have several of his bloody "Ohrwürme" swimming around in our grey matter. Beware! The Phantom of the Operaaaaaaaaah!. Ahem....

Madonna's new tour has an exciting gypsy section, making her the Gypsy Queen of Pop. All very good, but how about seeing the real Queen of the Gypsies? Legendary Macedonian singer Esma Redzepova - crowned Queen of the Gypsies in 1976 - will play a small intimate concert at a club in Ealing on September 8. Esma is an amazing performer - her voice soars and has wonderful nuances expressing joy and pain, laughter......

Some say there are over 100,000 Poles now living in London. You may be getting to know their pierogi or drinking their wódkas - but just how much do you know about Polish pop music? The UK's first Polish pop music festival - PKO BP London Live - being held on September 7 at Wembley Arena gives you a chance to find out more. The festival - free to attend - will be an......

“So, erm, this is a song about death!” mumbled Richard Frenneaux, lead singer of Red Light Company when introducing “With lights Out” last night at London’s Camden Barfly. Let’s be honest – as you may be able to tell from that little quote, they’re not a light hearted, fun band like the Hoosiers or We Are Scientists. However, what they lack in fun they more than make up for in depth and darkness, as they......

Massive "event" gigs currently seem to be in favour at the moment, with Live8, Live Earth, and last saw one of the biggest to date, and most worthy: 46664, to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday and also to raise awareness of his AIDS charity's work. You've probably heard about it in the press - the whole Amy Winehouse will she turn up / won't she turn up situation, the issue over whether Nelson Mandela was......

Nelson Mandela is turning 90, and he’s doing it with style. A massive concert will be held in London for the former South-African president on 27 June to honour his life and work. A reformed Queen, now fronted by Paul Rodgers, Razorlight, Annie Lenox, Leona Lewis, and Simple Minds will be joined by South African artists for the Hyde Park concert as part of the 4664 Campaign. The 4664 Campaign takes its name from......

We've had champagne bars, reports of amazing bacon sandwiches and an all round thumbs up from the regneration project at Kings Cross so far, and now there's news on a musical twist. While the area lost The Cross, Canvas and The Key at the turn of the year, music will be brought back in October with the opening of the first concert hall in London in recent times. Located at Battlebridge Basin up York......

This week, we offered you the chance to go and see rising star Jack Savoretti on April 1st, enjoyed a triple bill of metal, mayhem and melee, and previewed El Guincho's looped tropical rhythms which are coming to the capital this week. Looking ahead to this week, Easter Monday offers the tantalising line up of R.E.M., Foals, The Duke Spirit and Robyn Hitchcock all at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the ICA's 60th birthday.......

A changeable week around the capital, as we caught up with the marvellous Black Cab sessions, saw Laura Marling live at Union Chapel on Tuesday, got excited about Radiohead playing the Beeb, had a quick chat with quickly rising stars Clocks, finally conceded that not even Ken can save the Astoria, and realised that Damon Albarn may have his fingers in too many pies. Meanwhile, looking ahead to this week things are rather quiet as......

It sounds like an April Fool, but Radiohead have announced that they're playing yet another small gig before they hit Victoria Park this summer. This time it's for the BBC, will be held at the intimate BBC Radio Theatre and takes place on Tuesday 1 April. Tickets are not going to be easy to come by. While Radio 2 will be offering ticket competitions on air, there are also 75 pairs of tickets to......

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......

This year is Jalal al-Din Rumi’s 800th birthday (it was on 30th September, to be as precise as we can be about these things) – and there’s an impressive range of exciting stuff going on in London to celebrate. Rumi – the original dude poet, truly one of Iran’s greatest exports, and one of the creators of ecstatic dance. From which you will surmise that Londonist is quite fond of him. I mean, what’s......

You might have heard - the Spice Girls are reforming for a few concerts. It wasn't very publicised, so you could be excused for missing it. Tickets for the London concert on 15 December at the O2 Centre went on sale on Monday and sold out in thirty eight seconds. That's right. Thirty eight seconds. That means the tickets could have sold out 4.74 times while you listened to an average pop song. Or......

It might be September, but it’s looking like this week will be summery and gorgeous, which should let us all forget about a dismal August. However, if you don’t fancy nights in a beer garden in the warm weather, here are a few things to check out at home. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 10 September Dispatches: The Olympics Cash Machine (Channel 4, 20:00-21:00) Interested in learning how much the Olympics is really going......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day Concert) takes place at Wembley Stadium. On a scale approaching the Live Aid concert that took place some three years earlier, more than 600 million people worldwide tune in to watch the epic day-long concert featuring dozens of high profile bands protesting against the apartheid regime in South Africa and the ongoing incarceration of Nelson......

As the start of the festival season rolls around once again, many big tours are finished for the summer, leaving plenty of chances to catch that small indie act you missed so you could catch Mika that night… we give you the best of the bands this week to see. Monday brings Ozzie shoe-gazers Architecture in Helsinki to Kings College, for a gig that is sure to be many a discerning music fans year-to-date......

Next Friday the Royal Festival Hall will open its doors after two years of hefty refurbishments. We're a bit excited about the return of this jewel of the South Bank, and more specifically the launch weekend itself, which features water and candles.Will the £100m price-tag attached to the work make the modernist building the world's best concert venue? Almost every single surface has been ripped out and then either adapted, restored or replaced. Splendid......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

El-Shaddai are very excited. Particularly Dr Ramson and his wife, Pastor Linda, founders of and pastors for this “non-denominational, Christ-centred” church. They've just spent £5m on a shiny new London home. This weekend, they'll be meeting their flock in the splendid surroundings of Golders Green Hippodrome, former home of the BBC Concert Orchestra. This is a considerable step up from borrowing bits of UEL or faceless Fairfield Halls. Yep, the Beeb wanted out of......

Kasabian have been added to the list of performers at the BBC Electric Proms. We only got the news yesterday and now that we've got round to bringing you the information, we hear that tickets for their gig have already sold out. Not bad for a 'not particularly well-known indie band'. God knows what would happen if a better-known band was added to the line-up; you'd probably have to travel back in time and......

Formed out of members of Art of Noise & The Auteurs, we first came across Infantjoy while wallowing in 'OMG SARAH NIXEY IS BACK!!!111!!' induced glee a few months ago. Guest starring on their working of 'Silent Night', we were intrigued by this duo who seemed to produce mesmerizing, elegant instrumental music. Almost cinematic sounding, their concept album Where The Night Goes is based on the idea that 'each track takes place at a......

Ever since Al Jolson opened his gob in the Jazz Singer the worlds of cinema and rock'n'roll have become inextricably linked. You're going to have to go with us on the Jazz Singer rock'n'roll analogy but you know what we mean. Almost 100 years later and we have movie stars wanting to become rock stars (Lyndsey Lohan anyone???) and rock stars wanting to become movie stars (Gene Simmons and half the cast of Singles).......