U2, Wirelss, Live 8, B-Live, Queen, REM it's not exactly been about the small shows recently. So the cockles were gently stoked when we finally saw the words intimate show again recently.
First off was the news that Elbow are back in September on Tuesday 6th, the day after the release of their new album: Leaders Of The Free World. Guy Garvey may be the human looking equivalent of Droopy but the thought of experiencing Grace Under Pressure in a venue the size of Kokos is sending Londonist Music into quite a tizzy. That's almost more emotion than is humanly possible to experience without exploding in a puff of love.
And then Queens Of The Stone Age announced a show at Kokos on Thursday after their Sommerset House show. If you think you're going to be able to get tickets now then think again but you can always try our friends over at Scarlet Mist instead of re-mortgaging your house on eBay.
A couple of bigger shows also just announced. Noisy youngsters Nine Black Alps play the Electric Ballroom on November 1st, The Prodigy play their singles and hits at Brixton exactly a month later, Garbage play Hammersmith October 17, Bob Dylan - who surely must have sold his house by now, the amount of time he spends on the road rolls back in to Brixton November 20th to 22nd (don't expect tickets to hang around ) and Babyshambles are back at Brixton on August 6th. That's if Pete can get the lighter out of his mouth and his head out of his arse in time.
Pete's old Libs mucker, Carl Barat, looks set to swap his burgeoning dj career for his old job soon but in the meantime he's back at Kokos for his Dirty Pretty Things night on the 16th where the terminally shy and non retiring Graham Coxon will also be plucking away at a few chords on stage.
**Update**
Talking of club nights we're gently reminded by a large man with nice shoes and a baseball bat that tomorrow night is Sonic Cathedral, the night that celebrates itself, at The Legion, 384 Old Street. There'll be classic shoegazing sounds from the Velvets to the Valentines to Ulrich Schnauss as the Sonic Cathedral opens its doors for worship for the fourth time. There's an exclusive live performance from LA-based space-rockers Autolux (whose superb debut album 'Future Perfect' is released on July 18) and DJing by Erol Alkan (check out the 'Bugged In Selection' disc of his recent double-CD mix album, it's shoe-tastic), Ladytron (whose new album 'Witching Hour' has some very MBV moments) and Emma Anderson (of Lush and Sing-Sing fame).
There's also new solo material from ex Bernard Butler squeeze, David McAlmont at the Marquee on the 14th.
And that's us folks. We're off to catch The Duke Spirit tomorrow night and will report back forwith.
