Flower Power

Thundering out of Memphis like an 18 wheeler, Jay Reatard makes garage punk as it should be: loud, bloody and really confrontational. Imagine Rocket From The Crypt with J.J Allen up front.

Tonight he's bringing his awesome live show to The Old Blue Last, alongside Thee Vicars, free doors and free cocktails. Just don't get on stage - he will wallop you.

Prepare to have your world rocked (in quite a gentle way) as if.comedy winner 2008, David O'Doherty, the Irish viscount of rumpled whimsy, the marble fawn of tiny keyboard based musical comedy, embarks on his first ever UK tour with the show that won him the award.

Wow, has Maurice Broomfield never had a retrospective exhibition before? Apparently not. Well, not until this month's show at HOST Gallery that is.

The images on show document over thirty years of post-war industrial and architectural regeneration across Britain. There is a semi-futuristic sense of wonder to Broomfield's work and an appreciation of the beauty of modernity.

Highly praised at the Edinburgh fringe, this two-handed tribute to Ian Dury arrives at the Courtyard over Christmas, providing a festive slice of fun for lovers of new wave punk rock.

Hit Me! takes the form of three conversations between the affable, hedonistic Dury and his roadie/minder/confidant Spider, beautifully played by Jud Charlton and Josh Darcy. The show also features live performances of seven of his best loved tracks.

This is a loving homage, not a serious biographical investigation of the man, but it does fill in details about a wonderful, flawed life and the motivations behind the music, the drugs and the TV voice-over work

Irish star of Black Books, Shaun of the Dead and Run Fat Boy Run, Dylan Moran, is back with a brand new  stand-up show, What It Is.

Moran's legendary rants have sold out across the world cementing his reputation as one of the foremost comics of his generation.  Likened to Dave Allen and labelled 'The Oscar Wilde of Comedy', Dylan is unpredictable, bizarre, cruel and above all painfully funny

Hailing from the ever popular New York borough of Brooklyn, Chairlift are part of a developing scene of young hipsters who are taking electronic pop and are taking it in dappy and often brilliant new directions.

Possibly one of the big bands of 2009...

Three days of work in sound by nine contemporary artists at IMT this November.

The aim is to explore the changing role of sound within an artistic context, and on the Sunday there's a symposium with the artists and Ben Borthwick, Assistant Curator at Tate Modern, and Steven Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck.

Celebrating the centenary of American playwright William Saroyan, the chronicler par excellence of American society in the Depression and post-war years, the Finborough have assembled their largest ever cast for this lavish production of his Pulitzer Prize-winning bar-room saga The Time Of Your Life.

Set in San Francisco, in 1939 on the eve of the Second World war, the play follows bartender Nick as he tries to keep his menagerie of strange and dangerous customers happy. Into this alcohol-sodden world strolls Kitty Duvall. She may be an internationally renowned burlesque dancer, but there's also every chance she's a two-bit whore.

Rome-based three-piece UFOmammut sail a spatial voyage where monolithic mind action meets psychedelic Italo-doom in a brutalist sludge of riffs 'n' synths.

Inspired as much by the space-tinged acid rock of Kyruss and Monster Magnet as by the prog  of Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath,  these guys are certainly an experience.

Amazing costumes, great acrobats, contortionists and magic tricks, and a healthy dose of tongue in cheek humour have helped make The Insect Circus a fringe and festival favourite.

The costumes really are spectacular and the show has wit and pace, maintained by magician and ringmaster Sir Ronald McPeak. There's even an old fashioned knife-throwing bit for that authentic olde worlde circus thrill.

A properly entertaining and memorable night at the circus.

Yikes and cripes combined.

Over 30 of dubstep's finest gathered to display their bass-laden wares.

If dubstep is your bag, surely this is a must? Twelve quid for a line-up of this stature is insanely cheap - any of these artists could command that alone.

The Roots Of Dubstep room features sets which reference the sounds which helped shape the genre.

Leeds-based promoters Filth launch their London take-over tonight by bringing the absolutely remarkable house and techno aficionado Zoo Brazil in to spin.

He's joined by Ibiza house outfit SIS who are doing a live show. Expect dirty beats, growling basslines and high class house and techno.

Stamina required people. This rolls on till 9am.

It's the last exhibition at the Aquarium L-13 this month before the gallery closes its doors for ever. To mark the occasion, they've laid on something a bit special: a load of new work by Kent-based alt-art hero Billy Childish.

There's painting, drawing, film, photography, books, records, poetry, letters, prints and all manner of other paraphernalia produced by the punk-painter and ex-Stuckist. Sounds bloody brilliant!

Reggae superstar and one time Lee Scratch Perry collaborator Max Romeo is at the Hootenanny tonight to perform a few of his classic hits.

Probably best known for his song 'Chase the Devil' (which was sampled on the Prodigy's 'Out of Space'), Romeo has been a long time collaborator with Lee Scratch Perry, and is highly regarded as one of dub's pioneers.

Ketoloco is the name of an after-party that was started by a gang of student DJs in the basement of their house in Leeds.

They painted it a DC10 red, installed some decks and a rig, and opened their doors every weekend to the floods of curious ravers fresh out of Back To Basics.

The idea, spawned after a summer in Ibiza and a day on the nosebag and hooves, was to provide the elegantly wasted a place to continue having it and soon the headline DJs were joining the party crew at Ketoloco's 'DC15' basement.

Its popularity has spiralled to the extent that its residents now share flyers with James Zabiiela and Mr C, and have their own Ketoloco parties in Ibiza and many of the big clubbing cities in the UK.

After a sell out show in 2007, Jimmy Carr returns with Joke Technician.  If you're a fan, you'll be familiar with the format: fast-paced and incredibly rude one-liners.  You'd think listening to dozens of one-liners for an hour would get wearing but you'd be wrong; Carr is a true master of the genre.

From the masterminds of Danny Clarke (Late Night Audio) and Neil Thornton (Lasermagnetic) comes a shiny gem of a Sunday bash.

Tropicana will explode weekly at the Horse and Groom, providing a fruity and tropical array of guests. Sunday parties have always been a staple of London clubbing, and this one looks to be right up there with the best of them.  Future luminaries worth noting include; Heartbreak, Disco Bloodbath, Cocodisco, Softrocks and plenty more.

Yep, that's right, it's a disco. Get your jazz rags on people and prepare to dance.

'In the red corner, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee, and full-time moustache wearer, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Josef Staaaaaaaliiiiiiiiin!'

Join 'Sheffield's finest comedy synthesizer-player and twaddle-talker' in a celebration of all things strange and mythological, which may well include Father Christmas himself.

Shane MacGowan and the rest of the legendary Irish folk-punks play their now traditional Christmas dates at Brixton Academy, which have been selling out since 2001.

An essential guide to the best parties this New Year from Lowri, from fancy dress block parties via old-skool blowouts to chic techno fiestas. Don't miss out.

Captain Picard and Gandolf in a British classic at a huge, comfortable West End theatre? It sounds like a marketing man's wet dream. In fact, however, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen