The English National Opera are closing their season with what's advertised as a 'lavish new production of the legendary Broadway musical', Kismet. This strange, hybrid stage musical (heavy Russian score mixes with a book filled with light Edwardian exotic melodrama, harems, beggars and murderers from 1071 AD mixing with 1950s lyrics) hasn't been performed on the West End stage for nearly 30 years. With its setting in Baghdad, and an entire song dedicated to......

This summer, when Chelsea go out and lavish £31 million on Sheva, English football does not bat an eyelid. Galacticos come to play in the Premiership these days. 11 summers ago, it was very much a shock when Dennis Bergkamp arrived in London, because in 1995, the world's very best players went to Italy, or Spain, but not England. His coming was trumpeted in the tabs - '£7.5 million for Bergkamp!' - a seismic......

So yes it's been rather a while since Londonist went clubbing. January is all about the money saving, and February is all about the gym. This weekend though? It's all about the Guilty Pleasures. Occupying the final Saturday of each month at London's swankiest venue, Koko, the night has come a long way since it's tiny beginning at Hammersmith Working Mens club. It's manifesto is to play those songs which you'd shy away from......

Sports bars. The English just can't do sports bars. Absoulutely rubbish at them. They first sprung up on these shores in the eighties, when a few likely lads watched 'Cheers', noticed that american football had become popular and resolved to open bars with a few replica shirts stuck up on the wall, peanuts on the bar and a big tv screen slapped in the corner. Woeful. You'd have thought that they might have evolved......