Booking Ahead

By londonist_mark Last edited 220 months ago
Booking Ahead
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You may have noticed that we skipped this week's mid week listings post. That's because we've decided to roll them into one bumper Friday post combining new tour announcements and a randomly bizarre recommendation of gigs for the week ahead. There's a bumper crop of shows to mention this week, but not until we've stopped laughing at the news that Justin Hawkins of The Darkness bought back a copy of their forthcoming album off eBay for £350. Surely he could have waited a couple of weeks and picked it up from Tescos for £8.99 like everyone else.

Talking of said lycra clad rock clowns, tickets for their Ally Pally shows on the 7th and 8th of February go on sale today. Also on sale and covering a multitide of sins are fresh faced foursome Westlife who are apparently quite popular still (Wembley Arena, 18th May); fresh faced... sorry we can't keep this up... seriously crusty old timers who once wrote the theme tune to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The Eagles, play to more folks than should be legal on the 17th and 18th June at Twickenham Stadium (note to self, DON'T be within a continent of Twickenham that weekend); and good ol' fashioned scuzzy rock'n'rollers The Black Crowes are back after a 4 year lay off at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on 18th and 19th March.

You might also want to get your dialling fingers in shape for a week tomorrow when boy band outcast Robbie Williams makes even moore dough by selling out Wembley Stadium in seconds. Dates will be on 14th and 15th September, ooh, rainy season. Come to think of it, you could practice by trying to get hold of tickets for Richard Ashcroft's King's College Union show (December 7th) that go on sale tomorrow.

We really weren't sure about ex Sugar / Husker Du frontman Bob Mould's Bodysongs album but after listening to a storming KEXP session we might just try to get along to his solo show at Bush hall on the 30th January.

Right, next week's recommendations over the other side.

Tonight: What else would you want to do on a Friday than head down the Barfly to catch the most alliterative band currently working the circuit Vincent Vincent and the Villains, taking time out from their day jobs as saviours of rock'n'roll to save rock'n'roll.

Saturday: Catch excellent art-rock electro revivalists Morten Valence at Electro Heaven (Push Bar, Dean Street) 8 till 1 or stay in to watch Madonna on Parky. Mmmmmm....

Sunday: Noisy Canadian Fugazi freaks, Constantines, bring their reputation for high octane performances to the Barfly. Sounds good to us.

Monday: If you didn't win tickets to Madonna's Koko show (that'll be all of you then) perhaps you might want to head up the road to catch Yorkshire's iForward Russia! (think metal, hardcore, dance and post punk having a wee set to at a dodgy party) at the Barfly instead. Or you could catch the Hoosier Complex for free at 93 Feet East. And it's not even Christmas.

Tuesday: Eerie, edgy, slow burners with a discomforting sense of menace from Picastro at 93 Feet East supporting Akron Family. Their Radiohead meets Godspeed vibe's making them a serious contender to keep the kids away next Halloween.

Wednesday: It's another night of warm electro down at the Marquee from 7.30 with hosts and headliners Schmoof throwing some serious RAWK poses in their pink PVC. Larger Than Live is a 72 minute film taken from the recent Queen Paul Rodgers tour and should you so wish you can catch it at the Shepherd's Bush Vue this evening. Do you really need to be that close Brian and Roger these days?

Thursday: Doing their bit to create one of the strangest bills of the year the Barfly are hosting grime king Lethal Bizzle and funky thrash metal hybrid Test Icicles. £7 for that kind of head fuck's a bargain and tickets are still available at the time of typing. Metal mania and general scariness from London's Pungza at the Hope And Anchor, watch out for some more about these guys next week.

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Last Updated 11 November 2005