6th February 2012

gigs clubbing art comedy theatre blog competitions

Illustration by Julie Khan

Guess Who's Back?

Easter: the choicest dish on the Christian Calendar’s menu of moveable feasts? We certainly think so. It thrashes the pants off Septuagesima, that’s for sure. There’s bunnies, chocolate, eggs, and – for those of you who are into all that – plenty of religion too.

In celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we at Spoonfed are spending the day having a picnic and Easter egg hunt in the park opposite the office. It’s going to be ‘small but challenging’ according to the kind Spoonfed chiefs. The treasure hunt that is, not the picnic. The picnic’s going to be colossal and so simple that any dork can manage it. Which is lucky.

Anyway, enough about us. What are you guys up to? Not sure yet? Why not scroll down and peruse all the lovely events we've selected for you.

Friday 10th

Kneehigh Theatre present their visceral, seductive and fundamentally nasty take on the age old story of a dangerous, but lovable lothario. Produced in collaboration with the RSC and the Bristol Old Vic, this flashy show transposes the action to the mean streets and spangly discos of the Winter of Discontent: 1978. Expect lashings of sex, violence

The sun's sort of out, the clocks have gone forward, you're leaving work while it's still light... That can only mean one thing - it's spring, or to us musos, festival time! Dalston's Barden's Boudoir is first off the blocks this year with 3 days of up-and-coming indie called Bird on a Wire (which is also the name of Mel Gibson's third best film).

Saturday 11th

From January to March there is a competition being held online at www.musicalcomedy.co.uk to find the best musical act out of the UK's established and emerging comedians. After surviving the public's online vote, a shortlist of the top twenty acts will be perused by a panel of judges, who will then choose their favourite five to see live at the

Renowned as the best and longest running comedy night in Nottingham (with 11 years mirth under their belts) the Just The Tonic crew made the trip down the A1 last year and set up shop in the rather grotty nightclub venue of Tufnulls in North London. In the space of 10 weeks they had featured Daniel Kitson, Tim Vine, Jeff Green, Mark Watson

Simply Salacious Parties is celebrating 5 years of weekly residencies at venues like The Whitehouse and Rouge, one offs at venues like Bar Rumba and Cafe de Paris and big ones at Ministry of Sound and Studio 33, all featuring some of the best DJs in London!

Sunday 12th

This is one hell of a proposition: a collection of London and NYC's most luminous disco pioneers gathered to lay it down for your dancing pleasure on a *sunny* rooftop garden in East London on Easter Sunday of 2009.

The star guest from NYC remains a secret for good reason. Seriously now folks - if this doesn't float your boat I don't know what will.

One of modern music's most intoxicating relationships gets revisited tonight as David Byrne brings to life the songs that he and Brian Eno forged across 3 Talking Heads albums in the 1970s and then on the groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The fact that after 30 years the two have reunited for a new record is surely enough to

Phenomenal and aptly named after party Circo Loco is indeed a circus of freaks. There's no getting round the fact that the people you meet on the dancefloor at 11am on a Sunday morning have had too much fun. Their brains don't work like normal people. What has set Circo Loco apart down the years is the quality of music they have chosen to play

Monday 13th

A couple escape the city for a life of fresh sea air, self-sufficiency and one-ness with the land.

But the land collapses into the sea, they can't really cope with solitude and what neighbours they do have, drive them mental.

A sharp but touching comedy about modern obsession by Torben Betts which was a popular favourite at the Edinburgh Fringe.

If Disney films, Heroes, Transformers and Rick Astley have taught us anything, it's that looks can be deceiving. Take Joe Worricker for example - he might look like your typical indie kid, but beneath the plaid shirt and well coiffed hair is a reincarnation of Gene Chandler complete with foghorn-like voice and a catalogue of smoky bar-room blues numbers.

An amazing vocal talent, we may just have unearthed the next Amy Winehouse. Remember, you heard it here first kids.

Tuesday 14th

Join the Cartoon de Salvo crew for a drink and some live music in one of the pubs around Hammersmith. As the gig kicks off and then breaks down, you'll learn more than you expected to about the lives of the band.

Cartoon de Salvo made one of the most raved-about shows of last year, Hard Hearted Hannah and Other Stories. Like that show, this incorporates live music and a big element of improvisation, but unlike it's predecessor, it takes place in a real life pub! Winner.

Butterflies On Strings like to refer to themselves as 'post pop', but it's hard to tell if they are joking or not. While their uplifting blend of indie-pop and electronica references Elliot Smith, Death Cab and the like, their songs seem to convey this nagging doubt of where they fit in the great scheme of things - which is fairly rare in modern music.

Crushingly heartbreaking at times and slightly Bukowski-esque at others, they sort of remind of us of Brand New - which is never a bad thing.

Wednesday 15th

Knock2Bag is not only the best comedy night in Shepherd's Bush but probably one of the best in London, regularly selling out each month.

Tonight's line-up is as good as ever with one of the circuit's best female comics, Shappi Khorsandi topping the bill alongside controversial gay stand-up Scott Capurro. Hackney Empire New Act of the Year runner-up, Seann Walsh will also be telling some cracking stories from his life as a student in Bristol and that's just three of the excellent acts on tonight.

Impressive leaders of the much touted LA noise scene, Health specialise in mathy indie rock that turns tribal drums, squealing guitars, wonky basslines and a home-made guitar/microphone called a zootphone into an acutely intense and uncompromising experience.

Aggressive, concise and frantic, Health are a hefty kick up the arse of the oft played-out art punk scene.

Thursday 16th

Alain de Botton quoted in a press release? Ha! That's amazing. What's wrong with usual suspects: Foucault, Derrida and Baudrillard? Have they been superseded by cod-philosopher Bottom?

Anyway, whoever the thinker they've co-opted to provide intellectual foundations, this looks like being a cracking show. No Man's Land seeks to explore the concept of the unoccupied space - geographically yes, but also in terms of representation, meaning, and reality.

The exhibition is curated by Brendan Murphy, Cherie Marie Veiderveld and Simon-Reuben White, and features work by several contemporary artists across video, sound installation, painting and photography. In particular, look out for Jeni Snell whose work is consistently fascinating.

A stylish new psychodrama by Juan Mayorga about two tenants in an apartment block who bump into each other around midnight in a nearby cafe and find they have much in common. Except this happy meeting isn't a coincidence. It's been meticulously planned by one of the two new friends.

How far would you go to make a new friend? A new drama about loneliness, insomnia and obsession in the claustrophobic (but comfortable) Gate.

Brand new show from Victorian sketch troupe the Penny Dreadfuls as they follow up last year's hit play Aeneas Faversham Forever with new blockbuster The Neverman - a terrifying psychological thriller in a world of spies, assassins, bullets and er, biltong.

Their last show was immense and well worthy of its stockpile of five star reviews. We can't wait to see the next installment.

Friday 17th

Painting, drawing and site-specific installation combine to brilliant effect in the works of Anne Gathmann and Kysa Johnson.

Gathmann coats sheets of paper in wet paint so that their form begins to wilt and distort - these are then presented in such a way as to interact with the surrounding space.

Johnson uses microscopic structures as the basic building blocks of her painting - a bit like if Seurat had a PhD in molecular biology.

Works by the two are on display for a month at Standpoint - should be fascinating to see the way their styles compare.

Contemporary artist Isabel Rock combines a variety of media and techniques - spray paint, printing, drawing, collage, gold leaf... - to produce images that are layered with folk-tale whimsy.

Her works are visually complex and fascinating, but also light-hearted and fun: a rare combination indeed. This is her first solo show, and provides a promise of great things to come.

This elegant Edwardian music hall is a fine setting for hosting some of the best comedians on the circuit and they really are. No local children's entertainers here - recently they have had cult comedy heroes like Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Andy Zaltzman and Sean Lock performing live and this month looks just as just as special.

It is a rare night when you get to see both Simon Amstell and Stephen Merchant on the bill, not to mention superb comic poet Luke Wright and award-winning stand-ups Milton Jones and Simon Munnery. What a line-up!

Two ex-programmers from late and sorely missed nightclub The End save the day by taking over Friday nights at top notch newly cool venue The Arches.

Tonight is the launch of A Bunch Of Cuts - a brand new night brought to you by Marcus Intalex's dnb collective - which includes Doc Scott, D Bridge, Calibre and Klute.

Room two is tonight headed up by Appleblim - one of the pioneers of the innovative techno-dubstep hybrid which has been heating up London dancefloors massively of late. His label Apple Pips label welcomes Peverilist, Brackles and Greena.

The venue has been fitted with a Nexo Geo sound system - the first of its kind in the UK and known for its killer bass - you know it'll be given a run for its money tonight...

Saturday 18th

Tobias Rehberger produces incredible sculptural installations that are a riot of colour, incredible gravity-defying form, and conceptual weirdness.

All manner of shapes, materials and ideas converge in these almost overwhelming pieces. He's got a solo show at Pilar Corrias this April and May and it looks like being a cracker.

Keeping it dark and bumping as we cruise into spring, Colony touches down again at the Russian Bar.

Topping the bill is the mighty Untold, a man responsible for some of 2008's most interesting dubs via his Hemlock imprint.

He cuts a line between skippety garage, smoked-out half step and tribal IDM.

Outlook Festival is one of the biggest on the dubstep calendar.

Kicking things off with this simply enormous launch, they unite a host of underground nights including SubDub, Exodus, New Bohemia, Vagabondz, The Tuesday Club, Hit and Run and more.

DJ wise it's absolutely stunning. The Digital Mystikz make a special guest appearance, added to pretty much everyone who's big in London dubstep.

Sunday 19th

Temporary experimental art space Five Hundred Dollars opens this April with an exhibition that explores the idea of anonymity.

ANOPSEUDONONYMOUS consists of work across a variety of media, including painting, sculpture and video, by a group of contemporary artists. The twist is that all the works are being shown without artist attribution.

Marking the 150th anniversary of Kenneth Grahame's birth, the Finborough presents an odd but compelling piece of social and literary history by David Gooderson.

Starting with the delivery of flowers to his widow Elspeth Grahame, this play is essentially a flood of memories, with the characters of Toad, Badger, Rat and Mole from the classic children's story Wind In The Willows coming to life to help tell the story of their creator: Kenneth Grahame was an extraordinary man who was both the steady and reliable Secretary of the Bank of England, and the flyaway romantic who created Mr Toad based upon his own tearaway son.