We've been incredibly this week, catching tonnes of live music. On Wednesday we caught CSS and Florence and the Machine at Koko, and Bloc Party on Friday at an exclusive gig at the Apple store. For those in search of more highbrow stuff, we also caught Brodsky Quartet @ Kings Place and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Looking ahead to this week however and Monday night sees Queen and Paul Rodgers......

Usually, instore gigs are quite fun, but a bit tame - the crowd are divided by stock and shelves, crammed in, and slightly peeved off by an incredibly short set. However, last night's Bloc Party set at Regent Street's Apple store was anything but tame. As part of the iTunes' "Live from London", Bloc Party played a full hour long set, blasting through 13 tracks and sharing banter with a crowd of competition winners......

Proving that it's hard these days to put on a gimmicky night without the blessing-and-curse stamp of a large corporation, Koko tonight played host to the first Xbox My Gig night, where a competition winner gets £50K to put on their dream gig. We won't devote too many column inches to the fantastic electro-popstrels CSS, on account of them having gobbled up enough already. Aside from their catsuits and such and such, they fill......

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......

The "100 concerts in 5 days" that launched London's latest and most apostrophe free arts venue, Kings Place, have impressed us with the range of events presented. Sunday afternoon saw a concert that might be lost among the glitzier names on display, but deserves mention. Composers have to start somewhere, and here the spnm provided an opportunity for two composers from their shortlist to present works for string quartet, performed by the Brodsky Quartet.......

In yet another 'amazing band play the apple store shocker', Bloc Party are the latest to sign up to one of these tiny gigs. Kele, Matt & co are celebrating the physical release of 3rd album 'Intimacy' and scaling down their act from Alexandra Palace level to something suitable for competition winners in a shop! The band will hold back 50 pairs of tickets for first come first served on the door but we've......

There's an argument that the rituals of classical concerts make them seem closer to church-going than entertainment, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of its 2008-9 season at the Barbican addressed this problem head on. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a piece born of an intense and personal religious conviction, but it's difficult to imagine it as part of any conventional church service. If classical music has become something akin to a substitute for......

Looking at the highlights of Friday's experimental offering at Concrete and Glass - Lykke Li, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Telepathe, TV On the Radio - the latter stood out tenfold in terms of grandeur and sweaty adoration, which probably explained why the population of E1 trudged in a steady stream towards Cargo from early evening. A pleasant buzz was around the creative hub that is Shoreditch, people drifting from venue to venue in the crisp......

ROX SINGING 'VALERIE' WITH MARK RONSON Now this is exciting – Londonist gets to interview the next big thing. If this young lady isn’t a phenomenal success any time soon we’ll eat our mouse mats. Rox isn’t yet signed to a label she’s that raw and fresh, although the ubiquitous Mark Ronson has taken her under his wing. Half Persian/half Jamaican, Rox manages to look both sultry and mignon at the same time, and that......

The purpose-built cultural playground (and new Guardian HQ) at Kings Place opened its doors today, launching London's first new concert hall in a long while with five packed days of concerts. The venue's musical deflowering did not, however, take place in the main concert hall but in the well of the central atrium. Here, at 9am on every morning of the opening festival, the musical group Endymion are sparking off a performance of György......

Mini music festivals - you've got to love them, haven't you? Queuing up for two hours to get into an infamous London sweatbox only to get to the front of the line where you're overtaken by a 21-year old PR mogul with a VIP wristband and a gaggle of Bedales-educated media moppets beside them. Then you've got to try and get served. Oh, we're only joking! These events can be plenty of fun, as......

This week we've been branching out from the usual pop and rock, catching Alim Qasimov Ensemble & Kronos Quartet at The Barbican's Ramadan Nights festival. We also caught "brutal-cum-technical death metallers" Nile at the Underworld, and introduced Polly Scattergood, and caught her live the very next day. If you're looking for something different to do on Monday (29th Sept) night, then maybe check out Olie Bryce? Finally, for those of you with journalistic yearnings, maybe......

One of the many reasons why we love Camden's Jazz Cafe so much is its eclectic taste in music. Home not only to jazz, their offerings also include some of the best in hip hop and reggae, with legends passing across their stage on a daily basis. Tonight reggae rhythms take over their sound system as the Mad Professor's Dub Show rushes in to bop heads about. Susan Cadogan, a frequent collaborator with the......

The Barbican's Ramadan Nights festival went Caucasian last night with laurelled Azeri singer Alim Qasimov, joined by his daughter Fargana, their ensemble, and the tireless Kronos Quartet. The Kronos started off the evening alone with a compact showcase of the restless eclecticism on which they've built a brand name. This ran from a Saddam-era Iraqi pop song with the loaded title of Oh Mother, The Handsome Man Tortures Me, through raga and Palestinian electronica,......

Let's be honest: You've been hearing for ages about how New Cross is the super hip new neighbourhood, that's all sorts of amazing arts related activities are going on down there, and you're absolutely going to chceck it out. But you haven't. If ever there was an excuse to go exloring, than Saturday's Nail the Cross is it. Stretching across six venues and many many hours, Nail The Cross is featuring dozens of bands......

Despite being able to count Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp and Nick Cave as label-mates, Polly Scattergood greets tonight’s small but attentive audience with an air of modesty bordering on insecurity. She’s backed by synths, bass/guitar and live drums, which her three male bandmates use to conjure up subtle, lush soundscapes that never overwhelm Scattergood’s often fragile voice. I Hate The Way, the first single from her forthcoming debut album, sees Polly adopt a quivering, haunting......

We've had fake funerals, government issue parental guidance, a chocolate baby, shock tactics, marching and in your face policing. It's about time someone actually listened to Lily Allen and put on the benefit gig. Yes, the Knife Crime Awareness Tour will be coming to a town near you in the next year. Kicking off in South Wales (who knew they had a Windsor, too?) and featuring 250 as yet unnamed music acts of all......

Late-night lash lovers in Clerkenwell will have one less option for the next month at least: Dust nightclub has had its license revoked after a shooting last weekend. Gunshots were heard in the vicinity of the Farringdon Road nightspot early Saturday morning, and a 28-year old man was later taken by a friend to a south London hospital suffering from bullet wounds to his legs. Following police advice, the club's license was suspended on Monday......

Although relatively new to the instrument, Olie Brice already handles the double bass with the emotion of a true jazz man. He first touched the instrument five short years ago, and only moved to London last year, but he's quickly making his mark on the capital's jazz scene. His love of free jazz masters like Mingus and Workman can be heard in his improvisational approach, but he happily avoids being trapped under the weight......

Polly Scattergood sounds like she might kill you at any moment. That or be the nicest flower you've ever met. With a Tori Amos / Kate Bush tone, she's Mute's hottest new talent and a surprise change from most of the music that seems to be coming out of the Brit School at the moment. Polly released new single 'I Hate The Way' on Monday and we've grabbed ten minutes with her before her......

(Note: In honour of the marvellously courteous tone of the sign posted by Nile's management regarding the most impolite practice, which sadly has of late been observed at several music-clubs and other live performances, namely that of STAGE-DIVING, an editorial decision has been taken to employ the same refreshing level of decency in the following review. One need not, it seems, talk down to metal-heads.) Located beneath Camden Town's old Mother Red Cap, the......

People may have scoffed at a gaggle of underdressed girls wiggling their glutes and calling it Girl Power, but twelve years after invoking ladies to "slam their bodies down and wind them all around", Emma Bunton has finally done Emmeline Pankhurst proud: she's bankrolling her husband's latest project, a new London-based restaurant. Pressed for details, the old Spice confessed: "We don't know where or when yet". We propose the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras,......

We do a fine job of covering indie, pop and odd abstract things here on Londonist, but there's a whole bunch of musical genres that we know nothing about. So if you fancy getting into the Londonist groove and know your opera, classical, folk, jazz, or world music, we want to hear from you. We can't promise any cash but we can provide you with tickets to some of the best gigs in town.......

This week we've been busy catching Jeffrey Lewis at Scala and The Loose Salute at the Barfly, whilst reminiscing over summer's festivals gone with the LoveBox CD - and you can win one for yourself here. Looking ahead to this week, and Dallas power pop rockers Forever The Sickest Kids play the Underworld on Monday night for fans of Fall Out Boy and Blink 182. Tickets are £7.50 each. Alternatively for those of more urban......

The annual jaunt to Victoria Park for Groove Armada's Lovebox festival is always one of the highlights of the summer for us at Londonist. And 'cos the sun is shining today, we thought we'd remind you of summer by offering up three copies of the 'Lovebox Weekender' double CD compilation for you to win. Put together with some of the best artists from our Lovebox as well as the one in Ibiza, both Tom......

Anti-folk [anti]hero Jeffrey Lewis and his band took the stage at Scala last night armed with energy, good humour, and cartoons. The packed room was dead silent for finger-picked acoustic melodies while the floor heaved during fuzzed out rock stomps (including a cover of a Crass song). While some of his New York-centric references might only make sense if you visit our cousins over at Gothamist regularly, the majority of his songs are on......

We're sorry, Ms. (Janet) Jackson, but celebrity fashion lines are usually a wardrobe malfunction of the highest order: throw a star and a bunch of fancy garms together, and hope gawping sleb-sessed punters will part with cash on dubious trends. Yet André 3000 (née Benjamin) of OutKast holds a little more credibility. Over the years he's furrowed an idiosyncratic line in Thirties dandy-wear and collegiate apparel. His new Benjamin Bixby label, launched at a lavish......

Coming from Cornwall with a bit of California dreaming, this beachy sextet has a sound influenced by shores of warmer climates. Taking their cues from the Beach Boys and Mojave 3 (including a bright cover of “The Mutineer”), the Loose Salute blend happy, poppy sixties surf with the mellow, melancholy tones of alt-country. And any band with a lap-steel wins bonus points. They tend to do the mellow, melancholy songs better than the happy,......

If you're into all things jangly, you'll be excited to hear that lanky Brighton boys The Kooks play a special Apple instore event tomorrow night for iTunes. Currently preparing for the release of their new single 'Sway' and their major UK tour in November, this is going to be a tiny venue for the band who can normally pack out The Roundhouse several nights in a row. We've got two pairs of wristbands to......

Last week we told you all about the London Airwaves festival taking over Hoxton on Friday night. With bands like Florence & The Machine, The Whip, The Teenagers and Metronomy all on the bill we think it'll be a pretty amazing night out. So we're giving you the chance to win 2 wristbands. Fill in the form and we'll figure out getting them to you on Thursday. Enter our other music competitions here and......