Literally free tonight is Lyrical Late at the Museum of London. A mix of London’s finest "verbal veterans and up-and-coming poets" will be performing, stretching the boundaries of poetry. The Museum galleries will be staying open for you to have a wander round so you can take in the London Before London, Roman London and Medieval galleries and the London’s Burning exhibition. Magazine fans should note "Time Out Times" a exhibition celebrating the TO's......

The Royal British Society of Sculptors? No, we hadn't heard of its existence either. Well, if there exists a Royal Society of Holographers, there must be a Royal Society for this slightly more ancient artistic medium. With its headquarters tucked away in on Old Brompton Road in West London, it has existed for just over 100 years and currently has over 500 members. They are working sculptors, from all over the world (they removed......

March already? How did that happen? The perils of having our head buried in a book so much of the time, no doubt. If we must emerge this week from our cosy little book-enclosed chrysalis, it’ll likely be to head to the following events. Monday: The RSL-sponsored TS Eliot Memorial meeting brings together award-winning poets Alice Oswald and Kathleen Jamie for an evening of readings from their work. Both have been lauded for the......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. M Manzes 87 Tower Bridge Road SE1 4TW 020 7407 2985 Nearest Tube: Borough Mon: 11am - 2pm Tue-Thurs: 10.30am - 2pm Fri: 10am - 2.30pm Sat: 10am - 2.45pm Expect to Pay: Between £2.70 and £4.90 for pie and mash, £3.20 for eels and mash. Rating: 9 out of 10 Ahh traditional London fare. Food born out of......

We really didn't know what to expect. An invitation from one of the participating students brought us here, but since Fine Art shows have been the most disappointing part of months of degree shows on Brick Lane over the last couple of years, our hopes weren't high. Some of it was disappointing with works that were either lacking in visual merit, or others which showed promise with their presentation of clever ideas but were......

Words: useful little critters, no? Without them we’d be, well, a lot of things, but most certainly out of a job. From puns to poetry, improv to irony, books to blogs, we pretty much revel in all that language has to offer. But no, we will neither confirm nor deny reports that we’ve stayed home on a Friday night for a heated game of Scrabble. What we will confirm, however, is that we greet......

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......

Formally half of the much loved and missed Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton's solo career revealed unexpected pop sensibilities. Sure, he's no happier, and he's just as foul mouthed, but this time he does it with added melody and pop hooks. Tonight's show at the Scala comes a week ahead of his unexpected stab at the Christmas number 1 with his typically jovial "We're All Going To Die". Originally the gesture started as a joke,......

People keep mentioning The Wave Pictures to us. First we caught them supporting Architecture in Helsinki back in September, and tomorrow they play the final of 4 Tuesday night sessions at the George Tavern, Whitechapel. It's an amazing venue but not to everyone's tastes. Candlelight, cheap beer and a relaxed atmosphere, slightly reminiscent of an old village pub but with a mixed and lively bohemian crowd. The paint is peeling and you can't help......

On weekend nights it’s a long wait for a drink in our local. That and all the news lately about how this tiny island might soon be home to millions more people has got us thinking about Thomas Malthus. Malthus was the chief curmudgeon of the early 19th century, the person responsible for establishing the reputation of economics as the ‘dismal science'. Improvements in agriculture, he predicted, would never keep up with expanding population,......

If the clocks going back filled you with winter blues this week then we prescribe you must get yourself to Sadlers Wells sharpish. For a reasonable amount of quids you can get yourself a seasonal dose of magic and wonderment which will fix you right up. James Thiérrée's "Au Revoir Parapluie" is just what you need. Alright, so it's more expensive than a happy pill prescription from the GP or a map or your......

Imagine a bubbling cauldron in a remote corner of the Orkney Islands into which Half Cousin principal songwriters, Kevin McCormack and his old schoolmate Jimmy Hogarth, have poured found sounds, accordions, eye of newt, syncopated beats, eerie vocals, twangs, tongue of dog, and electronica, and you have an inkling of the musical alchemy experiments carried out for their second album together, Iodine. We mounted a darkened staircase into Kilburn's elfin grot of Luminaire, where......

For such a large venue David Ford's gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on Saturday was a dreamily intimate affair. Playing songs largely drawn from his second album, Songs for the Road, the balladeer and musician's musician enticed warm applause from the 'incredibly cool' London audience, and, despite the restraining stalls seating arrangement, had those standing at the back singing and swaying along, so much so that it was hard to hear the lyrics......

The stage was a veritable bed of white roses as Montreal-based Stars trooped on stage this Monday at the Scala. From the first note it's an extremely relaxed, professional sound – Pat McGee hardly misses a beat on the kit, meanwhile Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman are making sublime noises in the guitar and keys departments. They might've left the orchestra at home, and the new material is obviously less-rehearsed, but overall it's impressive......

Just after seven, and we're arriving at the Monto Water Rats, rushed and slightly late having dashed across London, expecting to see an already performing Crispin Mills et al and a small crowd of appreciative and nostalgic thirty-somethings. Instead though, there's a sign announcing that the band wouldn't be playing for anoher two and a half hours. Having split just three years after their seminal record, K, in 1999, the various members of Kula......

The judicial system never ceases to astonish us. We learned this week of the tale of a South London boy of twelve who has been slapped with a rap for Grievous Bodily Harm following improper use of an elastic band during some class-time high jinx. This follows another recent episode when a Lancashire lass was fined £40 and threatened with an ASBO for crayoning a single letter on a neighbour’s wall. Anyway, the poor little......

Londonist was deeply shocked and saddened at the weekend when we learned of the death of promising Queens Park Rangers striker Ray Jones. Tomorrow would have been his nineteenth birthday, but just after midnight on Saturday morning a car he was travelling in collided with a double decker bus in East Ham and Jones, along with two of the four other occupants of the vehicle, Idris Olasupo and Jess Basilva, died from their injuries.......

The past few years haven't been kind to Brighton's finest Goth punk psychobilly exports, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. In the years since 2004's phenomenal "The Royal Society" album, they were scandalously dropped by their record label, parted with guitarist and founding member Andy Huxley and witnessed The Horrors steal the hearts of the nations Goth youth. They have a lot to prove tonight. Within 30 seconds of taking to the stage lead singer Guy......

Josh Rouse has gathered a small but devoted following over the course of six albums (plus an EP with kindred spirit Kurt Wagner of Lambchop), and the cabaret tables that surround the small stage at Madame Jo Jo’s are packed. He’s in town tonight for a low-key acoustic set to launch new album ‘Country Mouse, City House’. The attentive crowd quietens reverentially as Rouse opens with a handful of songs from the new album.......

“Are you lot all sober? In that case you are definitely our best audience ever! Hat’s off to you” Ben Hudson. Mr Hudson & the Library brought their innovative musical fusion to Westminster Reference Library last night. This is not the first time they’ve played in a library, they seem to make a habit of it and Londonist last caught up with them at Swiss Cottage Library in January this year. Completely at home......

Five years after the success of "Strange and Beautiful", famously used in a car advert, Aqualung (aka 35 year old singer-songwriter Matt Hales) takes to the stage of Shepherds Bush's elegant Bush Hall. It's almost a wonder that we're here at all - his UK profile has dwindled over the years, and history threatened to write him off as a one hit wonder. When all seemed lost, his career has recently been rejuvenated by......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Latin Square Restaurant & Havana Bar 43-45 Farringdon Road EC1M 3JB Map Expect to Pay: Around £5 for a Daily Lunch Special Rating: 7 out of 10 Londonist needed an escape from all the rain this week and so visited the Latin Square Restaurant & Havana Bar. It's found just around the corner from Farringdon tube and not hard......

Fresh from the muddied fields of Glastonbury, Fat Freddy’s Drop arrived in London on Wednesday, playing the first of two sold-out Astoria dates. Most of the city’s dub reggae-loving New Zealanders must have turned up to see their countrymen mix up reggae, soul, jazz and electro-dub in the way that only FFD do best. Kicking off in fine form with their biggest hit Wandering Eye, the Astoria was transformed into a sea of bopping......

3. Animal apparitions Last week, we tackled spectral dog stories from around London. But animal apparitions are not exclusively of the canine persuasion. Animal spirits are often considered harbingers of doom, omens of misfortune, eerie forewarnings to a coming tragedy. Here, in the first of a two-parter, we round-up some of the London’s phantom fauna: Birds – at West Drayton, 1883, a large, black bird, resembling a raven, haunted the local churchyard. Locals considered......

Ever wonder what people must've filled their time with in the days before email, and sites like Londonist provided respite from the monotony of office life? Well, if this latest production of Alan 'History Boys' Bennett is anything to go by, the answer's not much. Office Suite takes us back to a time when co-workers addressed each other by their titles (Mr Skidmore, Ms Binns), filling in forms occupied three long hours, retirement really......

Words of wisdom on a wall near Finchley Road.......

Designer Sales UK is having a men's and women's wear spring sale at the Old Truman Brewery. The sale opens to the general public on Friday 25 May (11am-9pm) and continues Saturday (11am-8pm) and Sunday (11am-5pm). Entrance is £2.00. We checked out the scene at today's preview, there are bargains galore, but don't expect rock bottom prices. However, do expect queues and little elbow room. Restocking will occur every day of the sale so......

Buttoned Down Disco is a phenomenon that's been going for a couple of years now, you join a mailing list, they tell you where and when the next party is and people turn up and rejoice to a funky mix of indie, cheese, pop, and everything in between. Buttoned Down Liveshow is a monthly event, sort of like the Disco's younger sister. 4 bands and an all night barbecue for £5. It's great! We......

Londonist presents a weekly series about that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. City Snacks 29 Theobald's Road WC1X 8SP Average Lunch Price: £5 Rating: 4 out of 5 As Russell Davies noted in his A Good Place for a Cup of Tea and a Think blog, City Snacks' "optimistic sign, slanting excitedly towards the future" is a lovely example of urban advertising. Anyway, it lured us in......

It may be 9.30pm on a Monday night but the Borderline is rammed with exiled-Glaswegians and suitably ‘indiefied’ Japanese fashion students, assembled to jolly along Jackie McKeown and his band, the 1990s, for the launch of their debut album ‘Cookies’. Spreading the rumour that CSS will be DJing afterwards probably hasn’t hurt attendance figures. Now, this isn’t just any album launch. Hotly tipped, well-connected (McKeown spent much of the 90’s – the actual decade......