Festival: Oxjam
This annual music fest brings together a raft of big names as well as grassroots talent in the name of rocking out for charity.
Spanning the nation, from London to Bournemouth to Glasgow and beyond, and running for a month, it’s all about the tunes and raising money for the global do-gooders.
The festival is kicking off today with a series of launch shows. Graham Coxon takes to the stage for a very special performance this evening, so special in fact that you’re unlikely to see the Blur six-stringer in such intimate surrounds again – the decidedly not-arena-sized Oxfam store in Dalston is the host for this kickstarter.
He’s followed up on Tuesday by Orlando Higginbottom, who is more commonly known by the moniker Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, and will be bringing his shiny electro-pop to the very same east London store.
English singer-songwriter Lucy Rose, who’s worked with the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club, keeps things rocking the following evening with Hot Chip and Friends taking to the Oxfam shop this Thursday for a DJ set, with spin-off act The 2 Bears in tow, too. The run of events merely starts here, though.
Throughout the capital, at venues from Islington to Brixton, bands, performers, artists and more, representing more genres of music than you can conceive, will be taking to the stage.
There’ll be up-and-coming bands such as The Diamond Noise and the Popes of Chillitown, bands just starting out, as well as line-ups put together for one show and one purpose – to raise money for Oxfam.
Oxfam Dalston, 514-518 Kingsland Road, E8 4AR
from Mon, Sept 24 | Doors at 7pm | £25
Various | oxfam.org.uk
Festival Watch: Shakedown
Festival season is pretty much over for another year, but fear not as Shakedown in Brighton is keeping the party going right to the very end.
Dizzee Rascal headlines the main stage with support from Professor Green and Katy B, while Chase and Status top the bill at the Supercharged Arena, alongside Knife Party, Zane Lowe and a whole host of others.
Kiss goodbye to one hell of a festival season here.
Stanmer Park, Brighton, BN1 9SE
October 6. £44.50
Station | Brighton
shakedown.co.uk
Gig: Death In Vegas + Toy
Richard Fearless’s melding of shoegaze stylings and electronic music’s multi-genre invention impresses on this year’s newbie LP Trans-Love Energies, sure to get an airing tonight.
Support comes from hotly tipped psychedelic rockers Toy, born from the ashes of the stupidly titled and short-lived Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong.
Sat, Sept 29. 7.30pm £15
Electric Brixton
Town Hall Parade, SW2 1RJ Brixton
electricbrixton.com
Gig: We Are Augustines
Named after founding members’ August birthdays, heartfelt indie rockers WAA formed from the remnants of Pela, who succumbed to record company wranglings and the pains of intense familial heartache.
Their debut, Rise Ye Sunken Ships hit last year, and was followed by 2012’s EP Rock the Vote.
Mon, Oct 1. 7pm £13.50
O2 Shepherd’s Bush
W12 8TT
Tube | Shepherd’s Bush
o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk
Club: Connected 7th Birthday
Celebrating bringing parties to ‘Connected’ people for seven years now, this will be one hell of a birthday bash.
One Records man and underground house legend Adam Shelton toplines, with up-and-coming German DJ Larse, Inxec, Finnebassen, Rey & Kjavik, Jesse James, Johnny Bloomfield, Mark Derry and more.
Sat, Sept 29. 10pm-6am £10+
Cable, Bermondsey Street Tunnel, SE1 3JW
Tube | London Bridge
http://www.cable-london.com
Club: Secretsundaze Closing Party
Summer is done and dusted; it turned up sporadically and then, in a misleading flicker of Indian summer cruelty, has gone for another six months.
See it out with a proper bang at this final installment of the secretsundaze summer season with Martyn, Two Armadillos, John Heckle, Giles Smith and James Priestley.
Oval Space
Bethnal Green, E2 9DY
Station | Bethnal Green
ovalspace.co.uk
Sun, Sept 30. 2pm-10.30pm £9.50+
Club: Circus x LDN
Circus club events celebrate 10 years with shows in New York, at their birthplace in Liverpool and here in London, for a summer-closing night of deep house and techno as part of their north London residency.
Circus figurehead Yousef leads the festivities, alongside Frankfurt’s Sascha Dive, Riva Starr and more.
FrI, Sept 28. 11pm-7am £15+
Egg, 200 York Way, N7 9AX
Tube | King’s Cross
egglondon.net
Gig: Bleech
The aural assault continues for this startling young three piece – sisters Katherine and Jennifer O’Neill on vocals/ bass and vocals/ guitar respectively, with Matt Bick on drums – as they kick on from the release of their debut album,
Nude, earlier in the year with this headline show. Sure to be raucous.
Weds, Sept 26. 7pm £6,
Barfly, 49 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AN
Station | Chalk Farm
barflyclub.com
Photos: Andrew J Attah; Getty; Marten van Dijl/AFP/Getty
