Bourgeois and Maurice. Image by The Two We witnessed the devastating glamour, glory and grot of Georgeois Bourgeois & Maurice Maurice at GSK Contemporary late night cabaret at the Royal Academy not long ago and we just had to share them with you. Words failed us, so fortunately, they've got some great ones themselves: Visionaries and victims of the 21st century hype-machine that is life, Bourgeois & Maurice are your transient musical guides through the......

16 artists are being nurtured by the Southbank Centre as Emerging Artists in Residence in what they're styling an "eclectic hub for music and performance". Keeping you ahead of the curve, we're getting closer to this multi-talented bunch of singer-songwriters, rappers, MCs and beatboxers, spoken word artists and DJs in a series of interviews. Who are you and what do you do? I'm IronBraydz the rapper, producer. Where do you live and what do you......

Medical London, just published by Strange Attractor Press and the Wellcome Trust, is the latest in a long line of books to refract our city through a thematic lens. We've dutifully devoured Underground London, Violent London, Mapping London, Secret London...and a shelf full of similar titles that collectively auger the publication of Barrel-scraper's London sometime in the next few years. So why should we care about, much less buy, Medical London? Like the Hippocratic......

16 artists are being nurtured by the Southbank Centre as Emerging Artists in Residence in what they're styling an "eclectic hub for music and performance". Keeping you ahead of the curve, we're getting closer to this multi-talented bunch of singer-songwriters, rappers, MCs and beatboxers, spoken word artists and DJs in a series of interviews. We caught this one live, back in August. By Isabella Charlesworth Who are you and what do you do? Catherine A.D.......

16 artists are being nurtured by the Southbank Centre as Emerging Artists in Residence in what they're styling an "eclectic hub for music and performance". Keeping you ahead of the curve, we're getting closer to this multi-talented bunch of singer-songwriters, rappers, MCs and beatboxers, spoken word artists and DJs in a series of interviews. Who are you and what do you do? I'm Riz Ahmed aka Riz MC. I'm an actor (you're probably thinking he......

In 2007, a Southbank Centre project "Aftershock London" harnessed the raw energy and fresh talent of local musicians and performers to collaborate under the artistic leadership of Nitin Sawhney and stage an event at the Royal Festival Hall. The 16 artists involved are now being nurtured by the Southbank Centre as Emerging Artists in Residence in what they're styling an "eclectic hub for music and performance". Keeping you ahead of the curve, we're getting closer......

Shilpa Rajan is a Wembley-based fashion designer who recently showcased her very first collection from her House of Bilimoria label. She stands out for us not just because of her beautiful clothes, but her love of the craft involved in the process of fashion design and her commitment to ethical practices. We caught up with Shilpa after her show at the Fashion Diversity event at the Museum of London. Bilimoria is my maiden name,......

Derek O'Reilly is about as close as you can get to a bonafide Black Cab Celebrity. A true Londoner born in Hackney at the Old Mothers Hospital and resident of Islington for over 20 years he recently transplanted to Wapping. Not only has he been Training Manager at the Knowledge Point School for over 10 years overseeing the training material and plans for aspirant cab drivers starting the Knowledge but he's a media starlet......

As London Fashion Week gets into full swing and celebrities, models and hangers-on sweep into town, we speak to a talented young designer who is working on something rather different. With a collective of up-and-coming designers, photographers, stylists and other creative individuals under the Untold moniker, Maame Baryeh will showcase her designs at an alternative event to LFW at the Museum of London on Friday and Saturday. She talks to us about hard work,......

Last month the Londonist brought you the news that the British Fashion Council (BFC) had decided not implement a recommendation from the independent Model Health Inquiry to issue models with a health certificate to verify that their body mass index (BMI) is healthy. This would have meant that models with a very low BMI, which signifies an increased risk of eating disorders, would be banned from working at London Fashion Week. The BFC's refusal......

We’ve just recently come across Unchained, a super cool and incredibly handy lil London-based website 'designed to help people find the very best Unchained shops’ in the London. By 'unchained' they mean businesses owned and run 'by real people with a passion for what they sell,' and let’s face it: those types of businesses are sadly becoming fewer and farther between at too rapid a rate. Here’s our interview with Dave Birss and Lea......

Meet Todd Barry, a deliciously dry American comedian who is making a long overdue trip to London this week, for a five-night run at the Soho Theatre. His biting, sarcastic outlook on life and deadpan audience banter have lit up comedy festivals around the world. Although some Brits might not recognise the name, comedy fans will know him from Flight of the Conchords as the bongo player that almost split up the band in......

Don't Ever Heckle is a column where Londonist gets drunk with has a chat with the most exciting up-and-coming comedians, who are generating a buzz on the London comedy circuit. Nat Luurtsema is a Londonist favourite - half of the staff here have seen her live at least three times, and with good reason. She's silly but thoughtful, scatty but charming, well read, self-deprecating, twee and whimsical, dark and disturbing, and very funny indeed.......

Imagine a style of comedy which combines a love of life with a quick wit, booming voice, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of every single movie that has ever been made, ever. For many years, people would have chased you out of the city for proposing such a ludicrous paradigm. But we've come a long way since the 70s. Thank goodness that, now we live in more enlightened times, one man has dared to bring......

Before his gig at Islington's Union Chapel, we talked to cult indie hero Malcolm Middleton, formerly of the greatly missed Arab Strap, about his new solo album, Madonna and a failed bid for the Christmas number 1. Can you tell us about your new album, "Sleight of Heart"?   It was originally supposed to be a mini EP, like a four track acoustic album with two songs, "Blue Plastic Bags" and "Love Comes in Waves" and......

Chocolatier-on-wheels Petra Barran loves a good chocolate pudding and wants to bring it over to yours for dinner. She talks to Londonist as she gets ready to embark upon her Chocstar Tour of Britain. Tell us about your business selling chocolate on wheels, Chocstar. Where did the idea come from? I wish I could tell you when it popped into my head! I spent five years out of the country travelling all over the......

Having previously interviewed Sian Berry, the standard-bearer for the Greens now currently in a pact (electoral, not economic or suicide we assume) with Labour's Ken Livingstone, Londonist sent a set of common questions out to (most of) the other candidates in the May 1st mayoral election. First up is Gerard Batten, standing for the UK Independence Party, who doubles up as one of the capital's representatives in the European Parliament (the existential considerations of......

Don't Ever Heckle... is a new column where Londonist interviews some of the most exciting and original comedians currently working on London's live comedy circuit. Don't ever heckle them, because we think they're great. As we're massive comedy geeks, we'll be digging deep, asking why they perform, how they write, what inspires them, and why on earth they do it in the first place. To launch this new column, we talked to Gerry Howell,......

Every so often we spend hours getting lost in social networking sites and when it's new bands we're after we turn to myspace. This is how we came across the gentle twinkles of Synth Girl. Mainly a musician for other artists, we loved 'Hurricane Butterfly' (which you can hear online) so got in touch to say hi. It turned out she was actually in a band of her own Toy Toy which with it's......

The streets of London are evolving. Once upon a time, they were paved with gold. Then came the more practical tarmac. Recently, dog turds, phlegm and spent gum have layered our thoroughfares. Now, The Great Cake Escape are on a mission to line our streets with...cake. We caught up with the duo who, by an incredible coincidence of nominative determinism, go by the names Cherry Bakewell and Fondant Fancy. So, fill us in with......

And now for something completely different. We stumbled upon Joey Herzfeld and some of Hooverville at the Carling Academy back in January. Their extraordinarily different sound, great musicianship and stage presence alienated half the crowd and transfixed the rest. Were they mental or brave musical pioneers? We couldn't resist snagging them for an interview purely on the basis of a song called "Cavity Search" and a frenetic gypsy dancing interlude. It went like this.........

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

Whenever Londonist is feeling a tad glum, we have but to turn to Matt Harding and his amazingly silly website to get all cheered up again. Matt Harding is one big internet sensation, albeit a very unlikely one. The former games programmer has made a new career out of dancing badly in front of some of the world’s most recognisable and iconic buildings, and in some of the planet’s remotest terrains. But Londonist has been......

Hmm. Londonist hasn’t always had happy bouncy things to say about the 2012 Olympics. And it is rather likely that we will come up with some more searing satirical observations before too long. That is what Londonist does. But just for today, it is with vague approbation that we report on one of the side effects of the whole proceedings – the Personal Best scheme. It is true that the idea behind it is a......

As Sunday evening's "home" fixture at Wembley for the Miami Dolphins against the New York Giants edges ever closer we interview Brian Tennent, Londoner and chairman of DolFan UK, the only UK-based Miami Dolphins fan organisation officially recognised by the club itself. What first attracted you to the NFL in general and supporting the Dolphins in particular? When it was first regularly broadcast on Channel 4, it looked more exciting and glamorous than UK......

Dick Maxwell, who retired last year as the NFL Senior Director of Broadcasting after almost thirty years with American Football's governing body was Wednesday night's guest lecturer in the seminar series organised for students of the MSc in Sports Management and the Business of Football at Birkbeck, University of London. Nowadays an NFL consultant in the areas of television and instant replay, Mr Maxwell kindly fielded a few questions for us after his well-received......

Despite the odd recent mishap, London's lidos take their rightful alongside our parks as great places to go around the capital. 70 years ago lidos were people's cathedrals, masterful municipal palaces to promote community health and wellbeing. Over the years since then they have been left derelict or sold off. But now, they are having their renaissance. Blame global warming for warmer temperatures or the Olympics for increased interest in health - but outdoor pools......

It turns out that being a genius doesn't mean you're a nice person. That's a lesson that the Science Museum reinforced today as they cancelled a talk by scientist Dr James Watson, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for his work in discovering the structure of DNA. Watson was scheudled to give a talk at the museum on Friday, but this was nixed after his controversial remarks in an interview with the Sunday Times.......

Even with the spectre of hazardous drinking looming over us, pubs are still our favourite places to be, so we were delighted to be invited along to the Fancyapint.com London pub awards 2007. Fancyapint has awards in 2 categories. The reviewers' awards are based on their dedicated team's experiences over the year and a bewilderingly scientific system of tick boxes. The visitor awards are based on a not wholly scientific but ingenious manipulation of......

Londonist was privileged enough to be able to sneak a quick interview with Gavin Pretor-Pinney in between his cloud-gazing activities and his idling. Actually, that was a very weak attempt at a clever introduction. Let’s try again with a drum roll this time. Meet Gavin Pretor-Pinhey, the iconic founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and the co-founder of The Idler. Oh, and proud London resident. Gavin, Londonist can easily understand idling (what is blogging except......