The Old Queens Head on Essex Road is home to one of the very first solo gigs from ex Pipette Rosay tonight. Now performing as Rose Elinor Dougal, we're told she's ditched the retro vibes of the polka dot princesses and created a year zero for herself using the music of Broadcast, Penguin Cafe Orchestra and The Silver Apples as a base. Rose plays at 8.30 as part of The Cool Fun Club alongside French......

If you enjoyed lazing about and listening to music in Regent's Park this weekend at the Innocent Village Fete, then fear not - more music is hitting the greenest patch in NW1 very soon in the form of Big Wheel Sundays. Back for a 2nd year these Sunday evenings take place at the lush Open Air Theatre and allow you to laze about from 6pm with a picnic on the lawn, or the indulgence......

We are very excited about this year's Nationwide Mercury Music Prize nominations. Not only did we personally manage to guess 9 out of 12 correctly, but some Londonist favourites are nicely sitting in the mix with the unnervingly young Laura Marling, the mighty Elbow, dazzling jazz stars Portico Quartet and dubstep hero Burial all on the list. What we're really excited about is the inclusion of Neon Neon - Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip's......

“You want some real death-jazz?” screams The Agitator through a megaphone, to which an exuberant crowd responds with a gutteral “yeeeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhooooooo!!!!!”. Moments later they’re jumping up and down to the strains of Suffocation, a cacophonous blend of latin and modal jazz turned up to 11, whilst the group of Japanese musicians fling themselves around the stage like they’re being pursued by a horde of bees. It’s fair to say Gilles Peterson’s ‘Night Of Death......

We may have jealously watched Glastonbury on TV, but that was forgotten tonight when we witnessed the last ever UK performance by The Police. Headlining Sunday's Hard Rock Calling, Sting, Andy Summers and Stuart Copeland took to the stage and rocked out on a high. Sticking to the setlist which they've played since reuniting last year, they delighted us in the blissful Sunday sun, opening with 'Message In A Bottle' & turning the 35,000......

School of Language is out this summer touring the UK and is making a stop in London tonight. The current focus of Field Music's David Brewis will be making an appearance at the once-monthly club night Tapestry at the St Aloysius Social Club near Euston. School of Language will be breaking up an evening of rock, disco, and soul records with his layered experimental pop. Expect some well catchy tunes full of laptop loops,......

If you've not headed off to a muddy field in Somerset but still want some live music this weekend, then fear not! There are plenty of muddy fields in London to enjoy instead. Twickenham is the place of action for Bon Jovi fans today and tomorrow, as the fists in the air band fill up the stadium for some almighty cheesy rocking out. We expect to hear Livin' On A Prayer well into West......

We're a big fan of gigs at Union Chapel in Islington and this Wednesday it's set to be blessed by various part of current British indie royalty with the debut solo show from Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows. We like Andy because he has to deal with Johnny Borrell on a regular basis, and we hear that's not a very easy feat. We also massively enjoy the fact that he wrote the band's biggest hit......

Some stories are true slow burners. We've been pondering the fate of one of London's grubbiest, tattiest yet best loved live music and club night venues since mid 2006. However, the Astoria has soldiered on, pepped up by 35,000 supporters signing a "Save the Astoria" petition. Whilst its time on death row has been lengthy, the execution will be going ahead. Not even Ken Livingstone, friend of live music venues, can stay it. It's......

Londonist brings it on home… NAME: IRAN e MA STREET POSTCODE: SE1 0AJ Delivery Area: Southwark + the City (3 mile radius) PHONE NUMBER: 020 7620 0100 HOURS: 7 DAYS a WEEK, Mon-Fri 5-11pm, Sat-Sun 12 noon – 11pm Expect to Pay: £6-£8 a head for a huge main course; £8 minimum delivery charge Rating: 8 out of 10 Although Londonist isn’t particularly carnivorous, we recognise the fact that there are times when only......

This week saw Londonist get incredibly excited about a few live music events. First up, was French pop sensation Yelle, who played an intimate show at the Old Blue Last. Then, we had the Camden Crawl line up which, as ever, is pretty amazing for those of us who value music over sleep. Finally, Sally got (understandably) excited about The King Blues @ the 100 Club. Once we've come down from our excitement of last......

On rare occasions a live music show is so complete that it goes beyond mere listening to physically experiencing the music. Wolves in the Throne Room managed to achieve that in their set at the Camden Underworld on February 10th. Although it's hard to describe their sound, Wolves in the Throne Room play an atmospheric approximation of black metal that is simultaneously both minimal and majestic, arising from excruciatingly deep sorrow for the suffering of the Earth. (Well, it makes a change from the usual "HAIL SATAN" lyrics often found in the BM scene.)...

The Rainbow is long gone, the Hammersmith Palais now lingers only in the memory and even that good old grubby beer stained shit-hole that is the loveable Astoria is under threat. Gigs are selling out in minutes, replacing restaurants and cinemas as the preferred venue for gormless gobblers to converse after work, and yet the property developers keep their beady eyes focused on every venue lease going. How are we going to find the......

It's tempting to bask in the success of the re-branded O2 and write off the building's seven year existence as useless white elephant de nos jours as a bad dream. Unfortunately, that was no nightmare, and it seems that financially the Millennium Dome never stood a chance. The assembled politicians and VIPs had barely clunked their awkward way through Auld Lang Syne on December 31st, 1999, before the whole project was skint. Newly released......

Rapha makes clothing for serious cyclists - the couriers, the racers, the hardcore fundraisers pedalling over the Andes. They are also organising one of the most unusual events we've had the privilege of hearing about: this Saturday is the second Rapha Roller Race Culture Clash which is "a four-way clash between teams of bicycle couriers, cycle journalists, media folk and a ‘dark horse’ Dutch team made up of unnamed riders." And before you try......

You can get packed into a club playing bad techno any weekend, but it’s not often that you get to party like it’s 1859. Saturday’s White Mischief, themed “From The Earth To The Moon”, was an evening envisioning the future as the Victorians imagined it (well before George Orwell came along and scared the crap out of us). The crowd was split between those in standard club dress and those who went all out......

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......

If you missed out on Halloween fancy dress or just want an excuse to get decked out in Victorian garb, then White Mischief offers the perfect opportunity. White Mischief is a night of cabaret, vaudeville, and live music that encourages audience participation and dressing up. The event will be taking over Scala in Kings Cross this Saturday from 8pm until the wee hours. This show's theme is 'From The Earth To The Moon' and......

Peckham continues to earn its arty-farty reputation. Few weekends go by when there is not something amazing, avant-garde or just plain good old-fashioned fun going on. Next weekend sees a moving-out party with a difference: artist Mike Cupcake and a few of his friends are turning his (soon to be former) residence into a sort of installation thingy for a couple of days. There’ll be live music, video bits, lots of art, photography…something for everyone,......

Londonist spent all of its money this week getting drunk at its 3rd birthday party. Hopefully, you were one of the many people who decided to join us. As a thank you, London On The Cheap is back (hurrah!) showing you what fun and fabulous free stuff you can entertain yourselves with next week: Sunday: We had an extra hour today so you get an extra day of news from us. Out to Lunch......

Londonist appears to have spent all of our money on excellent but expensive gigs and over priced taxi fares this weekend. So once again, we've got no money. No, before you ask, we haven't ever heard of budgeting. We don't need to budget when there's all this exciting free stuff to be done this week: Monday: With so many other cool kid bars around in East London, the Rhythm Factory doesn't get written about......

Stereophonics' frontman, Kelly Jones, was in hospital yesterday with an injured arm following a "fracas" with a security guard at an aftershow party for the Vodafone Live Music Awards in town Wednesday night. We heard it went a bit like this: Security: Hurry up and...... wait! Stereophonic: I'm just looking... Security: Oooh, all handbags and gladrags are we eh? Stereophonic: Look boyoh, there's the bartender and the thief over there. Security: Don't step on my......

Composer Alvin Curran and the London Symphony Orchestra will be performing Maritime Rites on the banks of the Thames outside Tate Modern and on a barge on the water itself this Friday evening. Described as a sound sculpture, Maritime Rites is a semi-improvised live event that incorporates the bells of St Pauls, the sound of traffic on the river and music associated with the Thames. As if this piece of live music and site-specific......

If you were up in Edinburgh for the first week of the festival or are just back from that hedonistic week away then you’re probably feeling the pinch. You’ll not be able to go naughty Monday indie clubbing at Durr at The End. You can’t fork out to go to Cadogan Hall and watch the Charlie Chaplin triple bills with live music and celebrity hosts. Neither will you be getting a last minute ticket......

Bit of a slow week for live music with most larger bands travelling around Europe doing the festival thing. However, what better time to go and see a band you haven’t heard of – you might get a nice surprise! Monday night sees Dwarves bring their simple loud, yet nuanced punk repertoire to Monto Water Rats. Tickets are still available at £13 each.  If free things are of more interest, woman of the moment Kate......

If you're anything like Londonist, you're saving up to go on holiday somewhere sunny (well let's face it, it's not going to happen here any time soon). So, like us, you'll be watching the pennies this week. This means we can't go and see David Suchet at Theatre Royal Haymarket, or go and watch the new Simpsons Movie. We're very annoyed about this, so we've found some exciting free stuff to do instead: Monday:......

Ice cream and live music are two of Londonist's favourite things. Imagine our excitment when we realised there was a festival that had both! Yes. Both! Well, that's just the kind of event that'll send our blood pressure through the roof. So what's the event are we so excited about? It's the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Sundae. Over July 28th and 29th the Gods of ice cream take over Clapham Common (so that's......

From The Garage to new(ish) venue Bardens Boudoir, the Daughters of Kaos have been causing mayhem with their polysexual Club Motherfucker for the last 4 years. Mixing performances from cool up and coming artists with different guest DJs every week, you can expect sleazy electro, indie beats and well just whatever anyone feels like playing. The next (and last till September)Club Mofo is this Saturday 14th July, so if you like the sound of......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th July 1968: The Hayward art gallery on the South Bank is opened by the Queen. Tuesday – 10th July 1958: Britain’s first parking meters are installed in Mayfair. Soon there would be 625 of them in the district, charging 6 pence per hour. Wednesday – 11th July 1848: Waterloo Station is opened. The original station would survive just 52 years until 1900, when it would be......

As the buzz surrounding the weekend's Tour de France action in London builds steadily, more and more people are asking where will be the best places to watch, especially during the Prologue individual time trial on Saturday afternoon. Unlike the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, where the best vantage points are well established, there's no obvious form to go on for this one-off cycling spectacular in terms of where to set out your viewing stall......