Early September's Best Free Music

By Talia Last edited 210 months ago
Early September's Best Free Music
Chris from The Rapture

If you didn't catch Primal Scream at The 100 Club last night (did you? how was it?) and you're still itching for some lovely, free music then these are the pick of instore gigs coming up over the next two weeks.

You've got a bit of a choice on Monday between two great bands. Fopp Tottenham Court Road offer up the Mystery Jets celebrating the release of a reworked version of Diamonds in the Dark. They're on at 5.30 and you can watch the video here.Then if you're very, very quick, run over to HMV Oxford Street to see the kids that got the most hype in the world back in 2001 - The Rapture. New single Got To Get Myself Into It sounds like it could have been picked straight out of Manchester in 1993, but indie dancefloors across London are absolutely loving it. The band will be signing copies of the single and playing tracks from their new album at 6pm.

Thursday 7 Sept is a calmer day, but still presents a Fopp vs HMV clash. Over in Fopp, soulful jazz singer Alice Russell will appear at 5.30, while ex-Pulp man Richard Hawley will be getting moderately excited over his new single release over in HMV from 6.

The following week, Monday will see teenage emo kids clambering round HMV for Canadian rock group Billy Talent but pick of the whole two weeks goes to the latest indie chartbashers, The Fratellis. Following the briliant Henrietta with new single Chelsea Dagger, the guys will be playing tracks from their new album at Virgin Oxford Street on Wednesday at 6pm. This is one of those wristband events, so you must buy a copy of the album in order to get into the gig. We've got to be honest with you, if you're hoping to spot some cute indie boys, then it's no exaggeration that The Fratellis aren't the best looking people we've ever seen. They don't ever have that strangly attractive monster thing going on (e.g. Boy Kill Boy). But y'know The Kooks are generally acknowledged as quite pretty and we know what ear-destroying crap they produce so maybe 2006 should be the year of the brilliant, but ugly indie boy bands.

Best of all, and nothing to do with music, the man that is the legend of Henry Cooper is opening a betting shop next to Woolies on Bethnal Green Road this Saturday from midday. Seriously, nothing can compete with this. We're setting up camp outside tonight.

Last Updated 01 September 2006