The big day has arrived! I couldn't be happier that never again in this country will I have to play a gig in a smoky room, but it is going to be interesting to see what side effects the new smoking ban has. Scaremongers are predicting that less people will go to gigs if they can't smoke and that the people who do go will keep going running during the performances to smoke. Now......

Over the next two months the NFT are presenting Access All Areas, a veritable phantasmogoria of rock docs and concert films running between the 2nd June and 30th July. As they say:We can't offer you over-priced beer or appalling toilet facilities, but if you want rock 'n' roll circus, the NFT will be providing the essential festival experience of the summer!It's been a while since we were last in the NFT bar so we're......

Ahoy there me hearties, it's day two of the Music Dungeonistas' look back at those musical moments of 2005 that made us go weak of knee, teary of eye and moist of crotch. Today it's Noisy Londonist's (Mark's) turn, and yes, that Coldplay gig is in there! As Pop Kid mentioned yesterday, remember to drop us a line letting us know your recommendations for 2006. Top Twelve Albums (since Ken only chose seven there's three......

The Dandy Warhols - Hammersmith Palais Portland's finest strolled rather than rolled back into town on Wednesday night. Playing a nigh on identical set to their Cargo show of a few months back, they still manage to clock in an extra half hour's playing time; languidly drawing out each track, taking their time, taking it easy, displaying a determined bloody mindedness in mainting their laissez faire attitude towards putting on show. So much so......

With Halloween traditionally a time for some serious gig going spectaculars, this year's a little bit of a damp squib, what with Marilyn Manson retiring from creeping folks out and concentrating on his new make up range and his Alma Mater, Alice Cooper, not yet in town, it would seem as if we're going to have to keep the Slipknot masks in the drawer for another year. There are some big shows in town......

Help: A Day In The Life Anyone else spend the weekend battling with War Child's servers, trying to download Help: A Day In The Life? Frustrating as it was at times getting on that golden free server, the end result was a mostly satisfying always interesting collection of 22 tracks, recorded and released in just over 24 hours, that will make it's physical appearance in the record racks on the 26th September. Stripped of......

HMV and Virgin went head to head this week with the release of their respective digital downloads services (Virgin last Friday, HMV yesterday). We're really not too bothered where you buy your music from, but iPod users will find neither service compatible with their shiny white boxes. That'll be Apple feeling a little protective of the iTunes store then. What these launches have meant is a week of instores, of which we've already missed......

The Dandy Warhols - Cargo, Tuesday 30th August If we'd released this today and not two and a half years ago there'd be a lot more assholes in here than there are. The cooler than cool Dandy Warhols have no time for the terminally cool, the wannabe coiffured scenesters and hangers on that you tend to get at small venue album release shows like this one; the Bohemians Like You they so wonderfully take......

It's a funny old world we live in, tearing down the information M25 waiting for the next speeding petrol tanker to flip itself over the central reservation right on to our unprotected heads. Terrified of losing control we've found a system that placates our every fear, that soothes our muddled minds, and gives us purpose outside of our living rooms. It is THE LIST. We have lists for everything, for good guys and bad......

If there's one thing we recommend you do today - over getting up, going to work, having a beer later, reading Londonist from cover to cover - it's that you buy Dandy Warhols tickets for their Hammmersmith Palais show on October 26, and not just because their site (see previous link) is in 3D. Of course our herb loving Bohemian-like-us friends may not be your cup of tea. But then again James Blunt may......

With another year under our belts (and not feeling much wiser about the whole thing either), and pretty much uninspired by this week's crop of new cds, we've decided to break with tradition and recap on a few of our favourite releases of late that for various reasons (in other words we didn't get hold of them in time) we've missed out on telling you about. It is after all, our party and we'll......