London Gig Guide - H2

Well we're coming into the second half of the year and there are some exciting gigs coming up in the next few months.

Here's my pick of the bunch:

Real Estate at Electric Ballroom - 27th June - Still tickets here, quick!

Get People at Camden Barfly - 23rd July - Tickets here

Savages at 1,2,3,4 festival - 1st September - Tickets here

Grimes at Heaven - 5th-6th September - Sold out (please let me know if you can get any spare tickets!) Heard Grimes at Field day (tent too crowded to see) and sounded reaaallly good.

Yeasayer at Shepherd's Bush Empire - 27th September - Tickets here

Hot Chip with Django Django at Brixton Academy - 19th October - Tickets here

Francois and the Atlas Mountains at Village Underground - 25th October - Tickets here

Alt-J at Electric Ballroom - 5th November - Tickets on sale this Friday 29th June

Jessie Ware at Brixton Electric - 13th November - Tickets on sale this Friday 29th June

Jake Bugg at Koko - 14th November - Tickets here - one to watch

Alabama Shakes at Forum - 17th November - Tickets on sale Friday 29th June

Polica at Heaven - 20th November - Tickets here (can't believe it's not sold out, highly recommend after seeing Polica at CAMP at couple of weeks ago)

Ben Howard at Brixton Academy - 28th-30th November - Sold out - try n get a ticket if you can, he was brilliant at Hackney Weekend.

Lauryn Hill - The Comeback?

I've long been a fan of Lauryn Hill, Miseducation is easily one of my Top 5 albums of all time, but I was sceptical about Lauryn's comeback gig at Indigo due to reports over the years of disappointing gigs and erratic behaviour and decided not to get tickets.

Now I'm feeling like a right jerk as apparently she was amazing and some of the videos I've seen indicate she is back to form (with bad dress sense admittedly) and actually performed most of Miseducation.

Here are a couple of good uns:





I'm a douchebag, hopefully she will be back soon.

Little Dragon at The Forum

Back in Feb I went to see Little Dragon at The Forum.

This review is embarrassingly late and won't be a full one but this is no reflection of the band's performance by any means!

Little Dragon exceeded expectations with an amazingly energetic and flawless performance, heavier than anticipated with the percussion adding another dimension to it. The beats reminded me of the drum-off every year at the end of Soulwaxmas ie awesome.

Lead singer Yukimi Nagano is now on equal hero level with Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard.

I danced the night away and was knackered but very happy at the end. The venue was very good too.

Looking ahead, Little Dragon are playing the Saturday at Lovebox so go buy your ticket NOW!

A

Festival Watch

There are two festivals that have caught my eye over the last few days:

The Great Escape in Brighton and Melt Festival in Berlin.

The Great Escape announced a bunch of new acts today, most excitingly Lianna La Havas, Alabama Shakes and Natty. From the new lot, I would also be keen to check out Willy Mason, Duologue, Mystery Jets and Chew Lips, then from the full list there are some interesting prospects including, AlunaGeorge, Deaf Club, Friends, Jamie N Commons, Perfume Genius, Toy, When Saints Go Machine and Alt-J.

They've created a very cool interactive line up where you can watch videos from all the acts here.

Melt is a completely different kettle of fish, with more dance orientated acts including Justice, Richie Hawtin, Caribou, Gossip, The Bloody Beetroots and then a few more chilled ones like M83 and The Whitest Boy Alive.

There's the option to sleep in a train on bunk beds with 5 of your pals and the trailer looks a bit mental, but in an exciting way.



Let me know if you've been to either and any other recommendations.