Move over Manchester, Shepherd's Bush has been officially proclaimed the rock and roll capital of Britain (based on population). A survey conducted by Guitar RockStar found that the West London neighbourhood with a population of 11,000 proudly boasts one rock star for every 1,222 residents. Shepherd's Bush was the birthplace of three quarters of the Who, two Sex Pistols, and half of the Clash, as well as being the adopted home of Pete Doherty.......

Crowd-surfing in a mosh pit down the Astoria or Brixton Academy is the closest most in London can readily get to the waves and Waikiki lifestyle. That could be about to change: plans are afoot for a permanent outdoor surf machine in East London. As we reported yesterday, big things are happening along London's riverside. Spelling-shy Venture Xtreme have gone for the ambitious: they've released pictures of a "unique surf centre and extreme sports......

There are a *lot* of bands and artists in London, so many that it's easy to never discover the really great ones. Bandwatch is a new feature on Londonist where we talk to a new band or artist we think are really exciting. Of course it's our personal opinion and you might think our choices suck, but Bandwatch relies as much on you filling us in on the amazing band you discovered last week,......

Listening to the radio on St. George's Day (last Monday in case you missed it) we heard various proposals for a national anthem for England, something that could be sung at Twickenham to counter the emotion of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" or played at the unveiling of a putative English Parliament. This set us wondering if, given the prominence of London in international affairs and the prospect of the 2012 Olympics in particular, our......

There's an interesting interview with ex-Clash drummer Terry Chimes over on the BBC's Magazine website. Not surprisingly things drift away from the retired punk and now very happy chiropractor(!) to focus on Joe Strummer, but its well worth a read. What caught our eye were some of the comments left from the fans: My earliest memory of Terry was his pseudonym - "Tory Crimes" ...was never a real Clash fan. However, I am a......

More acts have been confirmed for the inaugural BBC Electric Proms, taking place 25th-29th October this year. The Electric Proms is looking to create "new moments in music" (there should probably be a trademark symbol there) so needs to be something other than just being another set of gigs. To this end each of the artists appearing has been challenged to come up with something innovative for their performance that reflects the ambition of......

This day in London’s history 1952 Joe Strummer is born in Ankara, Turkey. The lead singer of punk icons The Clash may not have been born here - few great Londoners ever are - but his band became synonymous with the capital after a series of legendary gigs (including London’s ‘best ever’, according to TimeOut). Many of their songs name-check London, including White Man in Hammersmith Palais, Guns of Brixton and, of course, London......

As that stadium near Neasden inches its way towards completion the world’s top soccer nations still can’t resist the draw of the capital. If you’re Welsh or just interested in watching four teams from this summer’s world cup on your doorstep then the next few weeks will be very appealing. First up are two teams who surpassed expectations in Germany. Ghana play host to Togo at Griffin Park, Brentford this Tuesday night giving West......

The Premiership hasn't even started but already there's a lot to say about this season's football in the capital. Tonight sees most of our professional clubs in competitive action as the six Football League sides are joined by Arsenal playing their Champions League qualifier away to Dinamo Zagreb (live on ITV, 8pm) minus the 'keeper (suspended) and half the defence from their appearance in the final three months ago as everybody continues to work......

Two days to go and eight games to play in the group stages of the world cup and only Brazil and Spain are going into them sure of their places in the knockout phase. Much of today's attention will centre on the clash between the USA and Ghana at 3pm where a win would see Ghana through, as might a draw, but even a victory might not be enough for the States if the......

Over the next two months the NFT are presenting Access All Areas, a veritable phantasmogoria of rock docs and concert films running between the 2nd June and 30th July. As they say:We can't offer you over-priced beer or appalling toilet facilities, but if you want rock 'n' roll circus, the NFT will be providing the essential festival experience of the summer!It's been a while since we were last in the NFT bar so we're......

How can the majority of England fans drag the cameramen and reporters away from focussing on a violent minority? Tonight from 7pm at The Offside Bar, 271 City Road, London EC1, over a hundred fans who will be travelling to Germany will be meeting the media to seek support for their campaign for good news stories this June. They will be expressing their concern at the constant anti-German angle to much of the pre......

We'll file this one under unfuckingbelievable: British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash. Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off. The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's......

Last week, the FA's David Barber showed that whilst he may know a thing or two about stats, he's not much cop at the predictions game. A paltry two out of six for David, who'll have been trying to avoid bumping into Trevor Brooking in Soho Square all week, for fear of receiving a volley of abuse from the apparently mild-mannered but secretly sharp-tongued Essex footballing legend. If the FA can't master this art,......

Today's Guardian contains a brilliant article by their music writer, Dorian Lynskey, who explains how he went about adapting the London Underground in order to plot the history of 20th century music. The idea is simple and ingenious: each line takes on a certain musical genre, so the Circle Line is pop (because it intersects with everything else of course), the DLR is classical (controversial), and the Northern Line is hip-hop. Key stations are......

The Curzon Soho has warmed the Londonist cockles by putting on this tribute to the film career of The Clash frontman: The UK Premiere and centrepiece of the season, LET’S ROCK AGAIN, was made by Strummer's cinematic collaborator and friend Dick Rude. It captures Joe & The Mescaleros on the road on the last US tour before Joe’s death and is sure to be an emotional experience for fans and friends alike. CHARLIE DON’T......

We've already started receiving bits and pieces regarding the London Film Festival later in the year, but between this weekend's FrightFest and October there are a couple of Festivals you'd be mad to miss. First up is one of our favourites: Raindance. Last year we had such a blast watching premieres of Dead Man's Shoes and Old Boy alongside the gay 'comedy' of Paul Hogan, The Onion's spam-tastic Chevy Chase starring unreleased, unloved but......

A rousing chorus of Happy Birthday to us will be heard from the ofices of Uncut magazine this Thursday as they publish their 100th issue. Over the past 8 years Uncut has kept us entertained with its mixture of cult movie writing and focus on classic country and folk oriented rock music. They've introduced us to some great artists (including The Drive By Truckers, Micah P Hinson and Richmond Fonataine) and in doing so......

Sandy Pearlman - Purcell Room, South Bank Centre - 23rd June Sandy Pearlman's CV affords him a certain authority when he speaks about his vision of the future state of the music industry. A producer and songwriter of some note, he worked with Blue Oyster Cult and The Clash. Spotting the potential of online music he founded EMusic.com, a downloading company that was probably too far ahead of its time, waiting for the technology......

The Clash's performance at the Rainbow Room in 1977 has been voted the Best London Gig Ever by Time Out. The Finsbury Park gig, which also included The Jam, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect and The Prefects as support, came top of the 100 strong list compiled by "journalists and contributors". The 'middle aged journos reminiscing about their youth' factor may have contributed to the Clash wining, but second place went to a much more recent......

Londonist breathed a heavy sigh of relief as posh-boy-band-novelty-act G4 missed out on winning ITV's The X Factor on Saturday night. (We're not too proud to admit that we found the winner Steve to come across as an immensely likeable chap, despite Sharon Osbourne inexplicably taking a dislike to him.) Anyway, if you'd rather your music was kept 'real' and watched in a smoky, sweaty hole of a venue, here's a list of gigs worth......