Sanguinearts Network Journal

I recently bought some records (not something I do all the time, particularly since downloading became the norm). Morrissey - Years of Refusal: possibly his best solo record to date, new levels to his voice, great production, good songs, a good bite to the backing band. Morrissey - Live at Earls Court: another god slice of his solo stuff and some Smiths tracks. I bet the DVD is great, and it was only £2.99 in the sale! Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers: again, best work in years, Richie's lyrics return us to Holy Bible territory, the quick recordings retain an immediacy lacking from recent efforts. It got me to look back at the 'forgotten' works with new interest. 

The Kasabian single 'Fire' is a great new track and it has got me wondering whether any of their earlier stuff is any good. Dave played me a remix track when I was down in Pompey at the weekend; but we both confessed to being completely oblivious to them, having written them off as another posturing  post-Oasis act. I caught a little bit of Radio 1 in the car this morning and Chris Moyles was kind of saying the same, so perhaps this album is particularly different.

For any of you with any interest in the Sanguinearts project White Cliff Sands, we exchanged some of the now-almost-complete demos. There is still another tape of recordings to work on, but there have also been some developments towards the art direction, with images and titles being proposed. Sorry it's only taken2 years...

Coming up: Joy Division (Grant Gee 2007) Roxy Bar and Screen Sun 5 July 17:00 After the success of Control, this documentary was slightly overlooked, providing a fine factual insight into the band and their life and times growing up in Manchester. www.roxybarandscreen.com

Sun 19 Jul Barbican Very Cellular Songs: The Music of the Incredible String Band Featuring Mike Heron, Clive Palmer, Robyn Hitchcock, Danny Thompson, Richatrd Thompson, Dr Strangely Strange and more https://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=9000

Sat 25 Jul Barbican Antibalas + Gangbe Brass Band eclectic beats, energetic sounds, political musings FreeStage: Grupo Lokito + Che Sudaka ClubStage: Zun Zun Egui and AJ Holmes DJ set

Jeff Koons: Popeye Series Serpentine Gallery until 13 Sept http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2008/06/jeff_koons_popeye_series2_july.html

Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969 - 2009 until 18 October Barbican http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=8908

Walking in My Mind: Adventure into the artist's imagination Hayward Gallery until 6 September Ten international artists transform the Hayward Gallery's indoor galleries and outdoor sculpture terraces into a series of gigantic sculptural environments, each of which represents an individual mindscape. Featuring: Charles Avery, Thomas Hirschhorn, Pipilotti Rist, and Keith Tyson. Artist's talk: Thomas Hirschhorn Friday 17 July 19:00 Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall Martin Parr Tuesday 14 July Martin Parr presents Parrworld, an exploration of the themes and subjects which drive his inimitable work. Behind the sometimes lurid and eccentric images lie sharp insights into politics and social class. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/festivals-series/walking-in-my-mind

The Wild as Will and Mediation: Daniel Lehan, Suzanne Moxhay, Nicholas Symes Wiebke Morgan Gallery until 26 July work by three artists who share an interest in the re-processing of existing cultural production to create reflections of imaginative worlds built from material culture, rather than from 'natural' or 'direct' experience. www.wiebkemorgan.com

TOM HUNTER : A JOURNEY BACK  until Sep 18, 2009 Four significant bodies of work including two previously unseen works by one of Britain's most important photographers THE ARTS GALLERY  65 Davies St, W1K 5DA www.arts.ac.uk/gallery.htm

POOR. OLD. TIRED. HORSE. until Aug 25, 2009 An expansive look at text-based art practice including Carl Andre, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Philip Guston, David Hockney, Robert Smithson ICA The Mall, SW1Y 5AH www.ica.org.uk

GROUP SHOW : CURATED BY RICHARD WENTWORTH until Aug 15, 2009 LISSON GALLERY 52-54 Bell St, NW1 5DA www.lissongallery.com

TRACEY EMIN: THOSE WHO SUFFER LOVE May 29 - Jul 4, 2009  WHITE CUBE 25-26 Mason's Yard, SW1Y 6BU www.whitecube.com

Tonight Simon Bookish playing again as part of Coronary Crumpage at the Montague Arms (just down the road between New Cross Gate and Peckham). Also, a choir piece he wrote features in an installation by Richard Grayson at the Matts Gallery until 28 June. www.myspace.com/themontaguearms | www.mattsgallery.org | www.simonbookish.com/blog

Artist and writer Chris Jones has released another book through his website which you can print for free. This one is called 14 halftruths - the rights to the city. www.lighthinking.com

There's a good old-fashioned pomo painting show at Haunch of Venison - Adrian Ghenie: Darkness for an Hour, until 25 July. www.haunchofvenison.com

Catch the veteran moonwalker himself Buzz Aldrin speaking at the London Literature festival on the South Bank, 4 July. Other speakers include the artist Martin Parr (14 July).  
Look out for a giant upturned purple cow, which is is E4 Underbelly, featuring comedy, theatre and music: eg. Shlomo, and Joan Rivers - as described: eclectic.
This year's Meltdown Festival in a few weeks  is curated by  jazz legend Ornette Coleman, and features performances from Mike Patton (glad to see the FNM reunion was a temporary thing) with Fred Frith; and Kieran (Fridge, Fourtet) Hebden with Steve Reid and Mats Gustafsson; Free jazz saxophonist Evan Parker with Marc Ribot and Han Bennink.
Further ahead at the Southbank: Magazine 1 September. 
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Barbican Cinema has a screening 11 June of Lipstick Killers: the New York Dolls Story. Also screening there and nationwide is a classy French thriller called Pour Elle/Anything for Her. 
www.barbican.org.uk

Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. is a new show of text-based art since the 1960s at the ICA from 17 June til Aug 25. www.ica.org.uk

Fresh from his exhibition in the Hague, Duncan Ward is featured in an exhibition currently on display in Berlin entitled 'Reliquaries of Empires Dust'. That's a title worthy of Arachnotaur of you ask me...
http://www.bereznitsky-gallery.com/cms/website.php?id=/en/index/exhibitions/measures.htm

4 - 7 June is the 12th British Silent Film Festival at the Barbican
http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?id=736&show=listing
Another interesting film listing at the aforementioned is a bleak late 50s view of angry youth in post-way Liverpool: Violent Playground stars David MacCallum and features a cameo by a young Freddie Starr.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=8750
The next exhibition at the Barbican, after the Corbusier, is called Radical Nature (opens 19 June) and focuses on nature's inspiration of artists and architects: Beuys, Ant Farm, Simon Starling and more.
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=8908

A bit late, but Kevin Blechdom has released a new record called Gentlemania. Surprisingly its an acoustic record, and although still a mixed up bag of styles, this shows a more gentle side then the schizophrenic electronica we know her for.
http://www.myspace.com/kevinblechdom

Go and see Michael Raedecker: line up at the Camden Arts Centre before 28 June.
www.camdenartscentre.org

You've just got time to see Annette Mesenger's show at the Hayward before it closes next week. And the next show is called Walking in my Mind: Adventures into Artists Imaginations. It features Charles Avery and Thomas Hirschhorn, Keith Tyson ans Pipilotti Rist, and opens 23 June.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/productions/walking-in-my-mind-46998/?utm_campaign=email_hay&utm_source=email_hay090428&utm_content=email_hay090428_walking
Not much time to get tickets or anything, but Susan Hiller is speaking about her latest collection of texts at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday night.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/literature-spoken-word/productions/susan-hiller-the-provisional-46984/?utm_campaign=email_hay&utm_source=email_hay090428&utm_content=email_hay090428_hiller
See PaulMart: Breton Brut at the Southbank Centre before the end of May
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar?action=production&production=90f

Also this Friday night John Cale will be talking at the National Gallery about his upcoming installation at the Venice Biennale. That starts at 10pm so you might even get to see Susan Hiller first.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/events/2009/may/1505_museums_at_night.htm

JUNKYARD SHOW

So here we are… the day after the night before. I’m pleased to say that last night saw the return of Spiral Architects, playing at the Fawcett Inn as part of another successful Junkyard Show.

Having only had the one band camp in the lead up to our first Spiral performance in a while (the last being a Junkyard show at the Barn) it has to be said that the gig went seemingly well. We played our set around 5.30pm, ommitting "108" and "the new one" and had some top comments which is nice… and I even had a table. So yeah a set which took the crowd on a journey through pyschadelic tendancies, the way we know and love...

Rolling back a couple of hours before us were the acoustic duo of Bemis followed by some rather impressive tribal drumming courtesy of DrumNation. Later in the evening were the live instrumentation and hip hop flavours of Jack Presto ( www.myspace.com/jackpresto ) , and a bit later our hosts Cool Banana ( www.coolbanana.com ). The afternoon/evening also provided some top Dubstep tunes from DJs Wobble and Squeak (which includes our very own Spiral Mitz) and other DJ’s providing Trance and such like… Plus hats off to Spiral Nick for also managing to pop round the corner to play in his third band of the day, Self Inflicted.

There’s also talk of a Spiral gig the end of June, which unfortunately I personally won’t be able to play as I will be seeing Neil Young at London’s Hard Rock Calling… can’t believe I may miss my own gig but there you go… Also, elsewhere on these pages you will see Spiral Architects are playing a mile out to sea on Spitbank Fort! Check out details here: www.thecoalitionfestival.com and tickets now on sale.

HAUSCHKA and SPACESHIPP

Last week I took a trip up to London to see Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized perform with Matthew Shipp, in what was an hour and 15 minutes of one continual drone piece. I think London’s Southbank is probably one of a limited amount of venues where they could get away with this… basically the sound was immense, with Spaceman hammering away at pretty much the same chord whilst Shipp played Celeste/Organ.

Initially I thought the sound man somehow managed to get the balance of the two on stage wrong, but soon enough I realised Shipp was basically playing the same keys and the barrage of noise was indeed coming from both organ and guitar. There was a definite element of art for arts sake, and people were walking out… part of me can’t blame them, it was pretty unbearable after a while! With minimal change in notes and played at quite a volume - you did find yourself getting lost in the sound at times drifting in and out of enjoyment, amazement, appreciation, dislike and despair… Then after about an hour it changed for a bit before the pair stood up, bowed, and walked off stage. It was all well and good if you like that kind of thing but after a while it was a bit “ok lads, a jokes a joke, we get the idea…”

This though, was preceded by German pianist/composer Hauschka, which in a complete contrast to what followed was absolutely beautiful. I can’t explain enough how I loved it. Playing semi-classical pieces with his grand prepared piano, consisting of random objects under the strings – wood, metal, bells and such like.

He was also happy to chat, explaining how one piece was written about water because there was a particular swimming pool he enjoyed as a child another was written specifically for the gig as he enjoyed London so much. At one point he’d written himself out of a composition so he could sit back and watch the string quartet that had been accompanying him throughout.

Hauschka’s set then ended on a piece where he gradually removed the objects from his piano, before pouring a handful of ping pong balls inside to bounce around… it was the great and perfect balance of amazing beautifully crafted music with the slightly experimental… Oh and did I mention I loved it?

Well that’s all folks, two blog entries for the price of one.

www.myspace.com/jackpresto
www.junkyardshow.com
www.coolbanana.com
www.hauschka-net.de
www.myspace.com/hauschka
www.spiritualized.com

Last autumn Duncan and I went to the Montague Arms and saw some bands which included an act which we both thought were amazing called Micachu and the Shapes. Now they're all over 6Music and the broadsheet press, and their album is out now on Rough Trade, so check it out! When we saw her she was playing a modified toy guitar, and she also has an amplified CD rack (we won't spoil things by saying Mr Teeth has been doing that for about 5 years).
Some other things I've picked up from said radio station include:
Tim Exile: dj and 'tweaked out' electronic musician, not sure what track it was, but possibly Su Doku Wars from his 2006 Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge record on Planet Mu, so get that one too. www.timexile.com
The Big Pink: retro 80s indie 2piece on 4AD records. you can watch a video on their website and hear more on MySpace. They're touring the UK now including ICA (23 April). www.musicfromthebigpink.com www.myspace.com/musicfromthebigpink
Soap and Skin: a young skandinavian who plays haunting electronic songs. The album is out the middle of next month, but you can pre-order on 7Digital, and you can also download a track free now: http://soapandskin.piasrecordings.com/ 
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: great new single called Zero, and an album out to buy soon (already available as a dwnload) which had be released early because someone had leaked it. www.yeahyeahyeahs.com

It might seem a bit odd to be effectively reviewing albums released almost 20 years ago, but Duncan lent me some CDs for a band called Shadowlands, and I think they are worthy of mention. Because they are awful (he thinks so too). To begin this story I have to bring us forward in time to this century, and the end of the last. At his request I bought Duncan the second album by The Tyde last Christmas. Also picked up an album by Beechwood Sparks from the library which he later borrowed and we both enjoyed. Both these bands involved two brothers who were in a great late-90s band Further. They wrote short and noisy lofi songs full of dreamy distortion, they CD covers were all hand written and in some cases illegible. A pretty good mix all in all, and it is usually a good idea to check out artists' and musicians' formative early works. So we were quite surprised how un-alike Shadowlands' music is to Further; and how, well, bad it is... Their covers feature hand painted retro flowers, and poorly montaged band photos of the four of them in skinny jeans and polo necks with shoulder length floppy hair. The lyrics are all 'yeah, baby, hey hey, yeah', despite the sleeve notes referencing people like Woodie Guthrie, Hemingway, Kerouac, Tristessa. They were on the same label as Sonic Youth and Nirvana and members of the Waterboys were involved in the recordings, but the ultimate sound reminds me of late Billy Idol, Quireboys, Dogs D'Amour, all with an unhealthy slice of The Byrds and beachfire whimsy. The singing is just really bad. To be fair, fan forums, and the brothers' own web presence say how bad and misguided their early works are; how they were naive and got sucked in by the record label bods. So its okay to forgive them and continue listening to their best work. The only problem for me is that I don't think Duncan will take the CDs back.

Indie Country post-rock mega-group The National will be playing the RFH on 10 August http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/the-national-46073

When I heard The Prodigy and Pendulum where playing Download festival I thought that the combination with some good heavy rock would make for a great event. But then I looked up the website and saw it would be paying £135 to see Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Motley Crue, Dream Theater... I now find Faith No More are reforming to play which would be amazing, but still too pricey. And I don't think my wife would forgive me missing her birthday. I must say I'm quite surprised that Mike Patton would go back, but I bet the money's good and who can blame him.

Here are some free mp3s from Tomlab records:
Asthmatic Kitty, K Records and Tomlab mixtape http://asthmatickitty.com/mp3/Rafter_SXSW_AKTomlabK.mp3
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone 'Old Panda Days w/Nick Krgovich http://www.tomlab.com/promo/tom127_track1.mp3
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone 'Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In) http://www.tomlab.com/promo/tom128_track3.mp3
Niobe 'Fever' http://www.tomlab.com/promo/tom125_track8.mp3

Go to the Hayward, and alongside the Wallinger-curated main show, and the new Annette Messenger show, there is a sound and object installation by Ujino Munetero, until 24 April
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/productions/ujino-and-the-rotators-79f/?utm_campaign=email_visual&utm_source=email_visual_090217&utm_content=email_visual090217_ujino

If you like your movie adaptations of dark graphic novels, see Watchmen. http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

Go to the Camden Arts Centre for two new contemporary artists' shows: Mircea Cantor and Liz Arnold. www.camdenartscentre.org

Chris Jones recommended this artist Dylan Martorell who creates amazing sculptures, installations and sound pieces: http://www.hiddenarchive.blogspot.com/

This Saturday coming art event/craft fair people Hunga Munga will be putting on a night at the Bethnal Green Working Mens Club called Woolworthless, themed around the lamentably demised store. www.hungamunga.co.uk

Is it just me or is anyone else wondering what all the fuss is about Elbow's Mercury Prize-winning Seldom Seen Kid? I was a bit late in getting around to listening to it, and frankly I think I needn't have bothered. I got more than half way through without even really noticing anything above muzak. There is a slight lift when the sublime Richard Hawley joins in on 'The Fix', but I think it would be better if that Badly-Drawn-Boy-and-Sting-have-an-inbred-love-child singer didn't join in. 'Some Riot' retains some interest and 'One Day Like This' is a passable Verve-gone-commercial/Oasis pastiche. But I put the radio on and hear this kind of thing.

The Estorick Collection in Islington has a show called Velocity Zero by Italian-born and New York-based artist Luca Buvoli. The exhibition aims to revisit the themes of the Italian Futurists from a present-day standpoint. Sections of the Futurist Manifesto are read out loud by people with speech difficulties to contrast with the group's values of speed and modern efficiency. Exploitative? you decide. Until 19 April, next exhibition Architecture and Photography in Italy 1930-60 www.estorickcollection.com

Endless Dreams and Water Between is an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum by Renée Green exploring material and spiritual transportation across oceans. The work consists of films, projections, sound, drawings and other media. Until 21 April www.nmm.ac.uk/newvisions

The Sea Hyun Lee exhibition Between Red previously seen at the Union Gallery is now showing at the Aspex in Portsmouth until 5 April. These obsessively detailed imagined landscapes involve disconcerting and impossible repetition, and are rendered in a kind of antique china red. www.aspex.org.uk
Sadly the Union Gallery is closing its Ewer St SE1 premises and focusing on the Teesdale Street E1 venue.

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 on now at Tate Britain until 26 April. www.tate.org.uk/britain

This week is the last chance to see the show Invisible Cities at the Jerwood Space, featuring painters such as Prunella Clough and Thomas Scheibitz. www.jerwoodvisualarts.com

This Wednesday night the Camden Arts Centre is screening Polanski's sinister Parisian thriller The Tenant. www.camdenartscentre.org

Monday 9 March go to the Roxy Bar and Screen for del Toro's Cronos (1993): an atmospheric vamire tale. www.roxybarandscreen.com

Southbank have just announced that Squarepusher will be playing on 24 April as part of the Ether festival. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

21 Feb Temperatures are playing at the excellent George Tavern, Commercial Road E1, as part of a monthly event called /other/. www.myspace.com/thegeorgetavern

Is it the end of the road for Spril Architects? We are awaiting the latest on this....

Nearly February already - where does the time go, eh? Listened back to White Cliff Sands' 2nd record the other day and it was an enjoyable return. I also managed to do some more work on the 3rd album and I am fairly confident it will materialise this year. I came up with the idea for a new musical project: possibly psuedo instant trash electronica/sinister kiddy pop, possibly conceptual and no music. The name Globszo came to me from a car registratrion (GL08SZO), and possible track titles include 'Buttons were his undoing', 'Hairline Recession' and 'Coffin Trails' - thanks to New Low for this last one. It might not come to anything anytime soon, but you'll know soonest if you check back here!

The Arnolfini in Bristol is showing the first major retrospective of Angus Fairhurst from this weekend, after this important YBA-era artist sadly took his own life last year. Let's hope the show tours. http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/189

Mark Wallinger's 'The Russian Linesman' is on from 17 Feb until 4 May at the Hayward Project Space: he has curated a selection of works dealing with physical, political or metaphysical thresholds, featuring Thomas Demand, Durer, Nauman and Penone amongst others. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/productions/mark-wallinger-s-the-russian-l-44420/?utm_campaign=email_visual&utm_source=email_visual090102&utm_content=email_visual090102_wallngr

Danish collective Superflex have a film called 'Flooded McDonald's' at the South London Gallery until 1 March. Yep, you've guessed it, a replica fast food chain restaurant is gradually submerged; it's supposed to be climate-change/consumerism metaphor.... http://www.southlondongallery.org/docs/exh/exhibition.jsp?id=157

Just a reminder that the Barbican's Corbusier show opens 19 Feb http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=8114

There are some great films out at the moment, like Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire; so what better reason to ignore the financial gloom and meanwhile support your local independent cinema.
The Roxy Bar and Screen has some good films on in the coming weeks: Gomorrah (highly acclaimed modern day Italian mob drama, 2 Feb), Hunger (Bobby Sands' Maze prison hunger strike, directed by artist Steve McQueen, 3 Feb), Chaplin's classic silent movie The Kid with live score by classical guitarist and composer Sebastiano Genovese (9 Feb).
Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965) is on at the Barbican 20 Feb, featurng Donald Sutherland. http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=8442 

Some of the performers have been announced for this year's Ether festival on the Southbank. Names include: Brian Eno, Peaches, Royksopp, David Byrne, Mouse on Mars, CM von Hausswolff and Christian Fennesz. Full details at www.southbankcentre.co.uk/ether
Also on the Southbank, Bonny 'Prince' Billy will play 20 April; and on the same night J Spaceman (Spritualized) and Matthew Shipp reprise their Meltdown duo as Spaceshipp. 14 Feb and Bellowhead put on a 'dirty weekend'show with special guests.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/a-dirty-weekend-with-bellowhea-44044/?utm_campaign=email_cont&utm_source=email_cont090128&utm_content=email_cont090128_bellowhd

12 Feb our friends at the free literary pick-up Litro are putting on an evening of spoken word called Litro Live! at Foyles café. Tickets £6/5 www.foyles.co.uk

We hope you've enjoyed the festivities and are looking forward to New Year. Here's a final round up for 2008 of what's on and to come:

Seasick Steve is hosting an evening called Fok America at the Barbican on 21 Jan. We're looking foward to the Le Corbusier show at the Barbican, opening mid-Feb. 4 Jan sees a special screening of The Baader-Meinhof Complex.
www.barbican.org.uk

7 Jan, artist Nathaniel Mellors presents a special one night only event at the South London Gallery, reconstructing his installation 'The Time Surgeon' inspired by Samuel Beckett. www.southlondongallery.org

GSK Contemporary exhibition is on in the back of the RA for another few weeks, with installations, events etc. http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season/ 

Keith Coventry at Haunch of Venison until the end of Jan http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/#page=london.current.keith_coventry

that's about it...

I saw something about My Vitriol playing somewhere (amusingly with that Suicide Slut Georgina Baillie as support - is that cynical or what?), and Faith No More reforming... obviously I'm more interested in the latter, but did I dream the last 10 years?

Artist, photographer and writer Chris Jones has released his 5th online publication called Articulates. Each page can be viewed on his website and then downloaded as a Word document for printing. Jones describes his output thus:

Generally, most of my work – writing, photography, or both ­– comes from working to see lightly, emotional tension, working to think lightly, and belief, then show this on the page. Specifically, Articulates, to me, is sorrow, formed in a migrant’s experiencing a city and its language. An attempt to articulate both, in the migrant’s own terms, who feels and thinks integration will not come, but believes it exists. It’s from this sorrow the pictures come.

www.lighthinking.com

Mr Teeth's new 7 track EP (at one time that'd be enough for an album [Ed.]) 'Broken Sunlight' is out now. Email us for copies.

John Korner's exhibition War Problems is on now at Victoria Miro until 24 January. www.victoria-miro.com

Go and see the animated feature film Waltz with Bashir in cinemas now. I went to see Quantum of Solace, which is not normally my kind of thing, but I quite enjoyed it; but I was surprised by how deeply melancholy it was.

13 Dec the Beatboxer Shlomo is on at the Southbank. Then on the 17th there's Teddy Thomas, Bert Jansch and Badly Drawn Boy amongst others. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

The Barbican have 'Twisted Christmas' on 11 Dec featuring Jarvis Cocker, Patrick Wolf and many others. Then on 13 Dec a special screening of the Flaming Lips' film 'Christmas on Mars' with a talk by the band's Wayne Coyne. www.barbican.co.uk

Jerwood Photography Awards on now at the Jerwood Space until 11 Dec. www.jerwoodspace.co.uk

If you're in Bristol the Kill Your Timid Notion tour hits the Arnolfini and Spike Island Tues to Thurs next week featuring experimental art, film and sound. And on Wednesday there is a talk from Jamie Shovlin. www.arnolfini.org.uk

Gigs coming up: Cradle of Filth 1 Dec The Forum Slipknot / Machine Head 3 Dec Hammersmith Apollo (I think I woke up in the shower) Wildhearts 10 Dec Hammersmith Apollo (ditto above) Sick of It All 11 Dec The Forum (my fingers form a bull horn as I type) Manu Chao 16 Dec The Forum The Wedding Present 18 Dec The Forum

These people from Israel representing a centre called MOBY emailed me out of the blue hoping I'd plug their call for submissions for an exhibition called Factory. So despite political reservations  but in a spirit of openness, here's the link http://mobyinfo.googlepages.com/home. But do't blame me if there's anything dodgy about it; like I said, it was out of the blue.