6th February 2012

gigs clubbing art comedy theatre blog competitions

Illustration by Julie Khan

Bowl a Maiden Over?

At Spoonfed, as you may have noticed, we like to combine info about the best things to do in London with occasional bits of semi-interesting historical piffle. And we’re certainly not going to disappoint this week. This Sunday, as we’re sure you’re aware, is a rather special date. For on that day, 264 years ago, women’s cricket was reported for the very first time, in The Reading Mercury of all places.

What with England currently having the best women’s cricket team in the world and The Ashes now in full swing, we thought you might be able to throw this little gem into your everyday conversations. If you’re a frightful bore, that is.

Anyway, back to the present, and, as ever, there’s a wealth of cool events next week, including art in a cafe, music played by a goblin, and comedy/poetry courtesy of Luke Wright. No, not that one – he’s back playing for Sussex.

Friday 24th

The Dø are an indie-folk duo (or Døo if you will) from the land of Lanvin and confit de canard: oui, c'est La France! They look very cool in their kooky-fashionista outfits - 'Oh ya look at my hi-tops, aren't they chic, no? Oh ya I am so loving those leggings right now'- but they also do music. Dan Levy makes the sounds - characterised by lots of

A highlight of the Voices Across the World series is this showcase performance (in the Paul Hamlyn Library) run by Flomotion and featuring head honcho Nick Luscombe plus two very special guests: Swedish pop sensations Little Dragon and Japanese jazz singer Maki Mannami. A brilliant blend of soul, electronica and pop in a striking venue - well

Glue is the latest Shoreditch jam, a mash up of tasty proportions from the cats who brought you We Have Fun. Headlining the battleground tonight are a trio of London up-and-comers; Thick As Thieves, French import Son of Kick and breaks junkie Rickie Balboa. Between them you can expect a high impact cross the board range of genre-busting beats and

Ben Watt's award winning house and techno imprint touches down again at Plastic People after a lengthy hiatus. Their clubbing series of Sunday night belters in 2006 - 2007 in the iconic basement was noteworthy and it's good to see them returning to this intimate venue. Tonight is the first of two special summer parties, with Michel Cleis (Cadenza)

Saturday 25th

An examination of the nature of sound this July and August at SPACE, featuring experimental works by a diverse range of contemporary artists. There's Thomson & Craighead's intriguingly entitled A Universal Machine for Testing Everything alongside Peter Cusack's Soundscape Sequencer - produced in collaboration with acousticians, engineeers and

Two nights of music, dancing and general extravagance at Zandra Rhodes' frankly totally awesome Fashion and Textile Museum. The fun coincides with the current exhibition 'Undercover' a look at, um, pants basically. There's corsets, bras, knickers and that designed by the likes of Elle Macpherson and Christian Dior. This is one of the cooles

Kingston-Upon-Thames three-piece Tubelord will be getting progressive in the loudest way possible this afternoon at the Notting Hill Arts Club.

Ghetto continue to bring the noise with their July edition, welcoming Home Park - the purveyors of deeply rooted, sexy house music who are just as at home packing a punch to a sunset Ibiza crowd as they are in this underground east London haven.

Another treat for the Ghetto converts.

Sunday 26th

Cast your mind back, if you will, to the hazy summer of 2007, and if you weren't being told to keep it down at Tales of the Jackelope, you may be able to recall the massive free festival that took over Shoreditch Park and cleared out every off-licence for about a mile in each direction. Well, after a year's absence, The 1-2-3-4 Festival returns to

Held in indie venue the Monto Water Rats, the Balowski Arts Club is a brand new art hub programming each season around a single theme, genre or art form. Season one, entitled 'Nouveaux', hails the return of comedy to this historical pub theatre with a selection of hour-long, new works by the finest Edinburgh Festival-going talent around. Tonight's

Monday 27th

Almost everything about Goblin is unique. Not only are they Italian and a progressive rock act (which is unusual in itself) they have taken one of the more curious career paths in modern music, foregoing the usual album-tour-album approach and instead producing music almost exclusively for low-budget but horribly grim horror movies like Dawn of the Dead, Profondo Red and Suspiria.

Tonight the band take the stage at the Scala for their first UK show in over 20 years.

'One man. One loop machine.'

Reggie Watts is a Seattle-based comedian with some very special vocal talents. He has the ability to channel a wide range of vocal characters, constantly shifting personas and alternating them with loop pedal-based acapella compositions.

He covers everything from ancient history and racism to pop-culture, in a heady mix of improvised music, comedy and social insight. Traversing hip-hop, trip-hop, alternative, nu-metal and classical opera, Watts is one heck of an entertainer.

Tuesday 28th

There's a decent precedent when it comes to leaving the nests of established indie bands and flying solo. Graham Coxon has done it, Pete Doherty has done it, Bobby Gillespie has done it, the list goes on and on.

One of the biggest success stories has to be Charlotte Hatherley, who was brought in to pep up Ash in the mid '90s. Peddling an innocent voice and well-considered lyrics teamed up with punchy rock guitar riffs, she makes for one quality evening down at the newly reopened Flower Pot.

Last year's if.comedy 'Best Newcomer' winner, Geordie lass Sarah Millican presents some new material as she prepares for her 2009 Edinburgh show.

Millican's last show Sarah Millican's Not Nice, based on her recent divorce, was full of warm, witty and filthy anecdotes. Although little has been said about the content of the new show, it went down well at the Leicester Comedy Festival in March - a good indication of Fringe success.

Wednesday 29th

Jasper Joffe - founder of the the Free Art Fair and artist of mixed repute - is selling everything he owns. After leaving his gallery and being dumped by his girlfriend Joffe is looking for a new start and thinks that an elaborate publicity stunt is the way to go.

On display in the Idea Generation is everything the artist owns, including suits, books, art and teddy bears. In some ways this should provide a fascinating experience for voyeuristic art lovers everywhere.

Argentina may have been slow to get on the whole riot grrl thing, but they're making up for it with Kellies.

Making sweet but deadly punk rock, these three ladies stick rigidly to the formula for catchy pop, creating two-and-a-half minute pogo-thons out of Cure-esque guitars, heavy bass and childish vocals.

Thursday 30th

Based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker, this musical comedy romp runs together classic romantic meddling and some show-stopping numbers (penned by Jerry Herman) for a truly riotous musical experience, Broadway style.

All-American musical farce with huge tunes, fantastic sets and a hatful of great gags, all played out under the stars at the Open Air Theatre. A winning recipe.

John Gordillo returns with a smash-hit new show about the economy of sex and its consequences - the 'Terms and Conditions' you skim over before entering into relationships.

We were lucky enough to catch this a bit of this preview at a comedy gig in May and it was the stand-out performance of the night by a mile. A passionate, thoughtful and thoroughly engaging comedian, this is Gordillo on top form again.

Friday 31st

OMFG LIKE TOTALLY AWESOME!

A night of food, fun, music, poetry, art and design at John Jones for the last Friday in July. Plus, and this might be the clincher, cocktails AND cupcakes. Could anything be better than that?

'Assemblage' sees the whole space taken over by a host of exciting creative types - there's live poetry, performances and recitals, various stalls and installations (with cool stuff like porcelain chandeliers, knitted wedding cakes and baroque wigs!) and the opening of new exhibition 'Meet Pamela' which includes mesmeric work by Laura Buckley.

As part of this year's Hackney Wicked, Ingrid Z of The Residence presents The Wrecking Ball. St. Mary of Eton Church has announced that it will knowck down Verger's Cottage (Ingrid's home and that of The Residence) in 2010 and replace it with a block of flats. The aim of The Wrecking Ball then is to combine creativity with destruction.

Dancers from across the world have submitted YouTube videos which will be projected around the space in what is being termed 'an international flashmob slamdance disco'. Of course, as ever with The Residence, expect a hefty dose of glamour - this is very much a ball in the dancing sense.

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 Chew The Fat seize the reigns again, with a special techno edition. They welcome D.I.M for his only UK club date this summer plus electro house don Miles Dyson and Tom Real and Rogue Elements collaboration Disco of Doom.

In room two, East London bass-lovers Z Shed sling some bassline, dubstep and other low end frequencies your way with Reso, Pirate Soundsystem, The Squire of Gothos, Alira Kiteshi and Foamo.

Three promoters unite to bring you another edition of Balance: Split, Wang and Base - stalwarts of London's dirty underside - make it bigger in all respects this month.

Their launch party placed them firmly on the map with one of the best techno line-ups of the year.

Tonight they dish up another who's who of techno, with The Advent playing a live show, DJ Stingray jetting in to spill his Detroit cuts and cult heroes Si Begg and Bass Junkie keeping it real.

Saturday 1st

The day after the tremendous Underage Festival, Victoria Park hosts Field Day, a day of music in a field (or a park, to be precise).

This year, they have the incredible Mogwai headlining. Eleven years on and these guys still sound like the future. There are no words to do them justice. Go and listen instead.

Fingers crossed, the weather will hold out this year.

For one day only Katie Guggenheim dons her apron to serve up a veritable feast of deep-fried contemporary art in the 1930s splendour of Hackney's Savoy Cafe.

Responding to the original nature of the space, MENU features work by a host of brilliant young artists, including Rachel Pimm, Amanda Dennis and Patrick Shier. Visitors take a seat and art is brought to the table. You can look at it, handle it, and apparently, even eat it.

We're hungry already. Hungry for art.

Undoubtedly one of the best young performance poets in the UK, 4 Talent Award Winner and Aisle16 founder Luke Wright previews his fourth solo show at the Hen and Chickens Theatre.

Set against a backdrop of grotty Travelodges and London stages, Wright tells the story of his last ten years behind the mic. Featuring some embarrassingly bad teenage lyrics and the death of a very tight pair of jeans, he combines comedy and poetry to convey how he saw past his own irritating ego to find what really matters.

Sunday 2nd

Leeds' favourite after-party starters KeToLoCo make another pilgrimage down south to service the Ket-hungry people of London with some decent tunes and an all-round belter of a party.

Tonight is another special at the Light Bar with subterranean ravers turned Manc promoters Micron and Remote Area - the Dutch imprint of 100% Pure and Intacto Records.

Steam Industries are putting on two pieces of free theatre this summer at the Scoop. The first, designed for kids, is Jason and the Argonauts, a lively musical adventure with puppets and a full scale pirate ship. The second also features Jason (now King Jason) but is altogether grimmer, full of sex, betrayal, murder and revenge.

Adapted by Stella Duffy from the classic revenge saga by Euripedes, this is a violent tale, but what gives it the really unpleasant edge is the nature of the revenge taken upon Jason for his infidelities. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.