London based record label Heavenly celebrate 18 years of being in the music biz this Autumn and today they've put on sale tickets to some very special gigs in celebration. Set up by Jeff Barrett in 1990, not only did they manage to sign some of our favourite bands, but they also managed to open some of our favourite eating and dancing venues in the form of The Social. For a weekend in September,......

English National Ballet's return to its roots at the Royal Festival Hall on a balmy summer's evening last night was ultimately triumphant although there were first night nerves, timing and injury issues to deal with. A Million Kisses to my Skin opened the programme but, despite a stand out performance by Erina Takahashi who was delightful to watch, you could have been forgiven for missing the fact that this work is all about the......

Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material provided a soundtrack for our teenage years, every single one of its three chords forever fused with our memories of youth. As we grew a bit older, it remained a favourite and was soon joined by Mark Stewart and the Maffia's As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade and the many productions of Adrian Sherwood. Trawlling through used record shops, anything with Sherwood's name on it went home......

"What is house? Technotronic, KLF or something you live in To me house is Phuture, Pierre, Fingers, Adonis The Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and The Yellow Magic Orchestra" - LFO, "What Is House?" (Warp Records, 1991) Given their famous name check in LFO's classic track "What Is House?" from Warp Records' early days, it seemed appropriate to have a Warp artist open for Yellow Magic Orchestra's......

L-R: Panama Black and Jneiro Jarel of Shape Of Broad Minds; Dälek It is perhaps appropriate that, for a music so feverishly obsessed with being fresh, when forced to actually contemplate its own future hip-hop ends up delving back into the past for answers. On Thursday night we were treated to a glimpse, perhaps, of things to come. Atlanta's Shape Of Broad Minds stung the audience at Queen Elizabeth Hall into life after the fairly......

Never underestimate the power of bass. This is a lesson that the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall learned as pieces of aluminium cracked and began to break free from the ceiling on Tuesday night as The Dubstep Chronicles rumbled its way through Meltdown 2008. No one was ever in any danger of being injured, but the low end frequencies compromised the building's structural integrity enough to force organisers to err on the side of......

English National Ballet returns to the Royal Festival Hall this July after an absence of 11 years, with a promisingly lyrical, accessible and pleasing mixed bill. The Company was formed in 1950 - the same year as the Festival Hall as part of the Festival of Britain so it's apt that this show is called Festival Ballet. Yes, there will be tutus but this is no frou frou event. It's a celebration of classical......

Ether 2008 is well under way, and last night Radio Soulwax Presents… made sure to kick it up a notch. For the UK premiere of the tour film Part of the Weekend Never Dies, Belgian electro band Soulwax had taken over the Royal Festival Hall, and as well as showing the film in the auditorium (twice), guest DJs such as UK DJ Riton played sets throughout the night. The film paints a picture of......

The Camden Crawl isn't the only festival in town this weekend. If the thought of braving the Stables Market even on an average Sunday sets your agoraphobia aflame, you don't have to miss out on great live music, as today marks the start of Ether 08, Southbank Centre's annual celebration of art and technology. With Ether running through 28 April, you could even attend both festivals, though Southbank Centre's stunning line-up this weekend means some......

This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all! Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising......

We've not done very well on the virtuous January front and seem to have spent all our money and most of our nights out on the lash with a flagrant disregard for propriety and our bank account. We don't mind though because, as usual, there are some excellent free things to do in town this week. Monday: British Asian gangsta folk ska punk is where it's at with the intriguing sounding Barbar Luck at......

Right, so you're either saving up to blow the last of the December salary on one helluva NYE out or you're just stony broke after Christmas/sales shopping. Either way, unless you're happy to simply hibernate for the week here are some ideas for New Year jollity on a budget. New Year's Eve: Follow our top tips and gird your loins for the massive fireworks display along the Thames, focusing on the London Eye and......

Talia has already covered the more common places to go dancing tomorrow night, but for a more alternative music New Years Eve, then wander over to Kings Cross’ Monto Water Rats to catch Brighton rockers Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster play a special New Years gig with support from Gingerbread Men, The Foxes and a few others. Alternatively, there are still a few tickets available for Super Fury Animals at Royal Festival Hall. The fun starts......

Of course, the best way to do London on the Cheap this week is to visit friends and rellies and plough through their festive supplies of food and drink, play silly games, watch a bit of frothy telly (see Londonist Stays In for top tips) and fall asleep mildly pissed. When you get cabin fever however, here's a few ideas for low level expenditure entertainment that doesn't involve church or carol singing. Christmas Eve:......

With this season’s frenetic pace quickening with the passing of each day till the Twenty-fifth, Londonist genuinely appreciates Slow Food London’s mellowed and delicious approach to “good and clean and fair” Christmas shopping. Located immediately outside South Bank’s Royal Festival Hall (on the non-riverside Belvedere Road bit), the Slow Food London Christmas Market commenced yesterday and continues through Sunday, from 11am to 8pm each day. We were pleased to have a roam around the......

The Londonist Music Minions have had a night off from their hectic gigging schedule tonight, and we hope that you have done the same. The party season is rapidly approaching, and you need at least one laid-back evening to conserve your energy for the rest of the week… If you can, start things off gently tomorrow (Tuesday) with one-time Zero 7 vocalist Sia at King’s College Student Union (tickets are officially sold out, but......

If our enthusiastic dance previews didn't inspire you to go as far as actually parting with cash for contemporary dance then perhaps you could cut your teeth on free events happening as part of London's International Festival of Contemporary Dance: Dance Umbrella. If you work near Liverpool Street then, this lunchtime or any lunchtime in the next 29 days, you can stumble across Paul-Andre Fortier performing "Solo 30x30" whilst you nip out for a......

Encased in a Victorian style, full length white dress complete with puff sleeves, high neck and crayon black scrawls, hair all crazy curls and mad bag lady styling, PJ Harvey revealed an endearingly warm and ditzy personality behind her astonishing set list at this very special show at the Royal Festival Hall last night. Chatting away to the audience between songs in her tiny, warm, West Country voice and sniffing into the microphone she......

Cult canadian star Feist is back in the UK playing a sold out date at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on Monday night. Now "1, 2, 3, 4" is all over an advert it might be tricky to find tix but we reckon the ever reliable XXX. Kill Hannah bring their Chicago rock to Kings College with I Was A Cub Scout and Saving Aimee supporting. Tickets are £7.50 and here and American R&B lothario......

Experimental hardcore stars The Locust play The Underworld on Monday night. Tickets are £12 each, and still available for box office collection. Emo favourites Circa Survive play the Barfly, though tickets are long gone. The Ravonettes play Bush Hall for a sold out show, former Japan frontman David Sylvian plays Royal Festival Hall, with a smattering of tickets available at £37.50 each. John Mayer plays the first of two sold out nights at the Royal......

Arguably the best city in the world for a music fan to live, pop legends come to play in London all the time. Often not only do they come for just one gig, but they stay for a while when they could easily make haste for the comforts of their own homes to eat biscuits and play video games. Prince recently played the O2 for three full weeks, Sonic Youth resided at the Roundhouse......

Monday night sees mad Australians Architecture in Helsinki come to the capital to play Koko after a stop off at Bestival this weekend. Tickets are £12.50 each and still available for box office collection. Faithless play the first of two nights in the capital at Shepherds Bush before moving on to Brixton on Tuesday night, which is mostly sold out though there are some balcony seats left. KT Tunstall plays an instore at HMV on......

Having appeared as the Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol as well as frequently contributing to indie film soundtracks, Yo La Tengo is no stranger to the dark of the cinema aisles. The contrast between spacious noise drone and gentle melodies that dominates their songs sometimes evokes a mood reminiscent of days spent indoors watching old movies flicker across even older screens. The feeling that the next frame might just be the one......

It seems summer is officially over now (though it seems to have never properly arrived really…), and with that the early autumn tours start to make an appearance. First on Monday night are two bands that are playing at this weekend’s Connect festival, Modest Mouse and the Polyphonic Spree. American band Modest Mouse play the Forum, with standing tickets sold out, but still with seats available at £18.50 each. The Spree brings their triumphant show......

We're skint again! We've spent all of our money on festivals only to find that we've spent hours standing in the rain listening to the bands we didn't really want to see but our best mate wanted to because they fancy the singer. This means that yet again, we can't go and do any of the things we want (and yes we're sulking). We can't go to any of the gigs we'd planned to,......

We mentioned the Watch This Space festival at the National Theatre just before it started but wasn't as enthusiastic as we were last year when the summer weather was hot enough to require dispensers full of free sunscreen. With all the rain and thick grey cloud that heralded the opening of this annual outdoor performance festival, we anticipated distribution of free umbrellas and cancelled performances... But look! At the time of writing, it isn't......

As a wise man once said, "Bloody hell, it's Soft Cell!" Well, actually, it's not Soft Cell. It's just Marc Almond solo. And the man wasn't all that wise. It was Alan Partridge. Either way, though, Monday gives you a chance to see Marc Almond of Soft Cell at Shepherd's Bush Empire. It's his 50th birthday party, so buy him something nice. For those whose prefer sax to synth, septuagenarian free jazz legend Ornette Coleman......

Whether they are singing the praises of greasy spoon cafés in Kentish Town or lazy afternoon walks down Parkway, London certainly belongs to Saint Etienne. Formalising their status as our indie poet laureates, they've spent the year as Artists in Residence at Southbank Centre. Tonight they unveil the fruits of their creative labour, a 75 minute film entitled "This Is Tomorrow". Directed by Paul Kelly and produced by Andrew Hinton, the film presents a......

More a fan of the chilled out vibes that Beirut give out than the skills of Calvin Harris? Missed out on your Glastonbury tickets and a chance to see Beirut this weekend on the Jazz World stage? Well, don’t worry. Monday night sees the Albuquerque native Zach Condon and his collective of musicians play a free acoustic show on the South Bank. To be there, all you have to do is meet at the 'Appearing......

Busy week for music as bands start to warm up for the massive festival known as Glastonbury next weekend. Monday night sees Pearl Jam grace Wembley Arena, with support coming more than ably from the brilliant Idlewild. Tickets are sold out; however as always check for a last minute allocation or Scarlet Mist for a fair deal. Doors are at 6pm. Everyone’s favourite Liverpudlians The Coral grace the Astoria as a warm up for Glastonbury,......