Popscene

By london_ken Last edited 231 months ago
Popscene

Londonist breathed a heavy sigh of relief as posh-boy-band-novelty-act G4 missed out on winning ITV's The X Factor on Saturday night. (We're not too proud to admit that we found the winner Steve to come across as an immensely likeable chap, despite Sharon Osbourne inexplicably taking a dislike to him.) Anyway, if you'd rather your music was kept 'real' and watched in a smoky, sweaty hole of a venue, here's a list of gigs worth considering. There's a bit of a 'nostalgia' theme going on this week...

Tuesday 14th

Electro-poppers The Human League are on at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Still producing new music, they picked up a Q award for 'Innovation in Sound' this year. Whether you think this is a compliment or not, of course, depends on your view of Q magazine.

buzzcocks.jpg

Wednesday 15th

Venerated punks Buzzcocks (left) play The Forum. Fans of Green Day would do well to catch this gig, to see where the original ideas came from. (The Clash, sadly, not likely to be gigging soon.)

Thursday 16th

We didn't realise they were still going, but Smiths-influenced Gene are still gigging. Alas, the gig at the Astoria represents their final date before splitting up, so catch one of the casualties of NME's habit of trying to declare 'scenes' out of nothing (Gene were lumped into the lamentably lazy 'Britpop' tag) before they split.

To use another NME-inspired cliche, 'baggy survivors' The Charlatans play the Brixton Academy. Although past their commercial peak, The Charlatans almost always put on a good show with a great mix of classic singalong songs and funky beats. We're surprised tickets are still available, but at the time of writing, they are.

For a more intimate gig, and a newer band, try HAL at the Borderline. Tickets are limited so check the HAL website for details.

If there's any room left for the audience in the 100 Club after the band get on stage, and you've got nothing better to do, please pop along to Rik Waller's Mighty Soul Band Christmas Show and let us know what kind of person goes to these gigs (apart from 'ironic' students and social anthropologists, and sneering indie snobs like us).

Friday 17th

Yet another long-standing influential band play the Astoria. This time it's New Model Army. Again, a gig worth catching for historical interest, if nothing else.

Faded Seaside Glamour by Delays is one of Londonist's favourite albums of the year. You can see the band play a set at XFM's Remix Night Xmas Special. Also on the bill are Chikinki. Tickets are £10 in advance, with £1 going to Shelter.

As usual we've only listed gigs where tickets are still available as far as we know.

To get your gig or event listed or reviewed please contact us.

We're more likely to list bands we've heard, so if you're able to send us anything, do get in touch and we'll get back to you with further contact details.

Last Updated 13 December 2004