Like music? Go to London

What kind of music do you like?

Brilliant – London has something for your tastes coming up in the next month or so. Wait, I hear you cry, you didn’t even hear my answer so how can you know there’s something playing in the city that tickles my fancy? The answer is mathematics.

There are so many gigs going on in London each week, sounding out such a diverse range of music, you can’t fail to find something worth going to. I mean, if you’re a music fan like me who doesn’t live in London then taking a peek at a capital gig calendar will have you choking on your toasted crumpet/lunch bagel/roast dinner – or mid-meal snack if you happen to be browsing the web between meals.

Music at London

But forget about all that food you glutton – there’s a feast of music awaiting you in the capital and all you need to access it is a gig ticket, a plane/train/bus ticket and some accommodation – perhaps in one of the city’s many affordable Premier Inn’s.

What to see?

This is the big question and looking over the calendar of events may have already given you the answer. But if you’d like a little direction as you trawl through the acts that are playing, fear not — I’ve done some legwork and can lead you through some of the upcoming highlights. Here’s a couple of processes that I’ve thought up.

If you’re not set on any particular act or genre you could always take the finger of fortune approach to choosing a gig. It goes a little like this: Close eyes, extend digit, poke at the screen, open eyes, go to gig you’re pointing at. This option comes with the disclaimer that if you gig turns out to be awful you can’t blame me.

A more sensible approach comes in grouping the gigs around genres that you like and seeing which you can/want to make. This is what I’ve done, although I’m not promising my genre’s or groupings are of the most scientific nature.

Past Masters

If you’re looking to see some of the living legends of pop and rock music then you’re well catered for. And by well catered for I mean throughout the next month or so you probably won’t be able to turn around in London’s streets for fear of tripping over an ageing superstar.

Here’s your rundown of the big name performers doing gigs in the city:

June

Retro cool acts

This next selection are those acts who’ll probably be included as past masters when all the current past masters finally hang up their microphones. These are the guys who cracked it in the 80s and 90s and are still going strong – even if they look a little ropey (I’m looking at you here, Shaun Ryder).

As an aside, have you noticed how things are becoming retro-cool much quicker these days? The distance between things being deeply uncool and becoming retro-chic seems to be shrinking all the time. Does it mean that we could soon be un-ironically calling sap-rock titans Keane cool soon? Don’t be silly. Anyway, here’s the list:

June

July

The sound of now

Finally we’ve got a bit of a mixed bag of acts which are all fairly contemporary and playing in London soon. There’s everything in here from alt-electronica (Sub Pop’s finest troubadour Iron & Wine) to stadium rockers (Kings of Leon) so there’s got to be something that you like. Here they are:

June

July

 

Which of these shows gets your juices flowing?