May 11 - 17
Monday 11th
Windmill Brixton: Normal Village, buffee, Clive, Cob
Pindrop’s monthly Windmill residency continues – this time with a lineup of artists from Leeds and Manchester - playing math rock, black metal, deconstructed electro-pop & moreeeeeee.
The Social hosts a conversation between the Guardian’s music editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Daniel Dylan Wray - author of a new book on the musical history of Sheffield. Pulp! Arctic Monkeys! Richard Hawley! WARP! Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League & Meatwhistle! What a city , what a history. Learn more at The Social.
Close Up Film Centre: Kenneth Anger – ‘Magick Lantern Cycle’ (1947-81)
Kenneth Anger was an American experimental filmmaker - his dreamlike , kaleidoscopic , homoerotic short films (many of them collected as part of the ‘Magick Lantern Cycle’) laid out a visual vocabulary which would pretty much define the aesthetic of the modern music video - vivid primary colours , surreal & occult imagery & an emphasis on mood over narrative.
Tuesday 12th
Shacklewell Arms: Beefheart & Mcquinn
This duo are a lovely soft rock group, sunny & sweetly psychedelic. They just put out their debut album, ‘Midtown Downtime’, having previously made music separately in different projects - the album is definitely worth checking out, and I reckon the show will be too.
Club Cheek: Sword II / Healing Power Of Horses / Citizenry
This band are great! I think I had them in my mind as an electronic group, maybe because of their name - which feels a bit cyberpunky ? , but really they’re a great indie-rock band , with lush harmonies , vocal & songwriting duties shared across the band , and narrative-forward lyrics. Support comes from the mysterious ‘Healing Power Of Horses’.
Windmill Brixton: Defender / Jonique /Hiding / Lex Vervain
Great classic Windmill lineup , with a genre diverse bill of artists on the up . Jonique is brilliant , the Windmill’s listing page describes her music as having ‘the edge of alt-rock, while weaving in the atmospheric influence of 90s trip-hop and electronica’.
George Tavern: Mên An Tol / Any Young Mechanic / Champ / Modern Guilt
Warm-up show for 4 artists playing the Great Escape festival this weekend – headlined by Mên An Tol, a folk-rock band with a Cornish name & trad folk influences, channeled through 2010s indie.
Wednesday 13th
Windmill Brixton: holybones + Sell Everything + Glasshouse Red Spider Mite
Another Great Escape warm up, put on by the promoters FORM. holybones headline, a masked alt-electronic collective, joined by Sell Everything and Glasshouse Red Spider Mite , a band whose spidery slowcore sometimes sounds like the best music ever.
Elephants Head: Christian Music / Temeraire
Christian Music are a rowdy hardcore band from Stoke on Trent - they are , I promise , ungodly.
This is a ‘listening session’ organised by Nada Sonics. Their show ‘Sway of the Verses’ has been broadcast on NTS Radio since 2023, and ‘shares the intricacies of raga music, an ever evolving ancient musical tradition weaving through the numerous musicians, instruments, ragas, time-cycles and concepts of this genre.’ This session will involve ‘an uninterrupted listening session of 90 mins, sat on the floor on cushions, sipping tea and melting away to the vibes.’
Candid Arts Trust: 0.500 kg of the self
Showcase for the CSM MA Contemporary Photography class of 2026 , ‘a pop-up show of sculptures, installations, photographic works and performances, offering at least a half kilo of the self.’ and drinks etc
Thursday 14th
Fox and Firkin: Transglobal Underground
Transglobal Underground are a folk music / world music / dance music collective ? They’ve been going over 30 years, and their big hit ‘Temple Head’ has a sort of baggy, madchester vibe . Apparently it was used in a Coca Cola advert for the 1996 World Cup. I was listening to some of their music while putting this week’s listings together and it’s nice groovy stuff.
Windmill Brixton: Fat Concubine / Omerta
This is classic sweaty windmill stuff – mosh pits, crowdsurfing & lots of antics.
This is - uh hum - a ‘three part sonic-led journey through the complex metabolic interplay between society and nature, exploring the vibrational continuum and interconnectedness of the Noosphere, Biosphere, and Geosphere.’ There will be video projections & experimental improvised dance.
Fabric: HENGE / Mariam Rezaei / D.M.S
The mad , cosmic rock group HENGE take over Fabric’s main room , with (mad, cosmic) live visuals from Rucksack Cinema.
The Greyhound: TDB x Pulse Collective
Like a boiler room session at a pub in Peckham, a night of live recorded DJ sets with an unannounced lineup - promising ‘secret international headliners, rising underground selectors, and a fully immersive dancefloor experience… genres on the night: Hard House , Hardgroove , Techno , UKG’
Friday 15th
The Greyhound: Pys Melyn / Òrain / Candy’s Room
Back at the Greyhound, on a very different vibe with the Welsh indie band Pys Melyn - these guys are great, something 60s psychedelic about them .
MOTH Club: thistle. / ugly ozo
One of my favourite bands around at the moment – thistle. are a shoegaze (or nu-gaze , or grungegaze) trio from Nottingham . Their music is gritty, lofi & dirgey , while also a bit poppy in places , really nice stuff. Stick around at MOTH club afterwards for…
MOTH Club: Deptford Northern Soul Club
Deptford Northern Soul’s club nights, especially these ones at MOTH, are some of the most reliably fun & uplifting nights out in London. It’s really just perfect music for dancing isn’t it .
Windmill Brixton: The Wheel 2! / Spirited Followers / Rampressure / Platonica Erotica
So much good stuff at the Windmill these week , very nice to see . I fell for The Wheel 2! when I first heard their band name, and the music lives up to it - they constantly re-invent themselves as the set goes on , shifting between sounds & genres. Rampressure are great, and Platonica Erotica is a wonderful songwriter, her song ‘Marriage of Convenience’ is a classic in my mind.
Polyamor are a Berlin underground techno/trance label – ‘Shaping the sound of tomorrow from Berlin with love.’ They return to E1 with a lineup headlined by the duo 2HOT2PLAY - raw, energetic, rhythmic & ecstatic.
Distillery N17: The Great Wall of Bass
I think the name pretty much sells this night . The organisers promise a ‘fat rig’ and ‘wicked tunes’.
Saturday 16th
The Ivy House: Beer Fest (Steely Dan 2 / Sinatra… Lives! / …)
Another edition of the Ivy House’s annual Beer Fest - with free live music and ‘a preposterous selection of beers, ciders and ales’. The Saturday lineup is the centrepiece, with an array of great bands from London plus two special cover sets from Steely Dan 2 & Sinatra… Lives! - graduates of The George Tavern’s Halloweekender bonanza.
The Greyhound: TATYANA / MM’99 / Alexis / Lifeloose / PVA DJs
The first edition in a new series from The Cause nightclub, which sees them promote nights at venues outside of their docklands home. This is a great lineup of artists on the edgier realms of electronic & dance music.
Jazz Cafe: Wally Badarou & ddwy
A special collaboration between Wally Badarou - the legendary composer, producer & session musician who has worked with Grace Jones, Talking Heads & Fela Kuti - and the dubby husband & wife producer duo ddwy.
I saw this twin-brother band play at All Together Now festival in 2024 , and thought they were wonderful . Sweet , nostalgic folk-psych-rock.
Barnstormer! This is a massive 24 hour party at FOLD, with a long lineup featuring sets from a variety of exciting & legendary DJs, across a wide spectrum of genres – highlights include dub legend Aba Shanti-I, DJ Python b2b mad miran and former 808 state member A Guy Called Gerald. I reckon any stretch you can be here , from 11pm Saturday to 11pm Sunday , will be sick.
Sunday 17th
The Lexington: Flooding / Tummyache
Tummyache were one of the first bands I went to see regularly when I first moved to London. They are an awesome group – punky & intricate at the same time.
Ringlets are a post-punk / indie band from New Zealand , I listened to a bit of their album ‘The Lord is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies)’ - hehe - and enjoyed it! I reckon fans of bands like Ugly and Blue Bendy might enjoy these guys as well.
Nickel Cinema: Surprise Kung Fu Matinee
Get down to London’s best grindhouse cinema for a screening of ‘deep-cut chopsocky plucked from the 70s and 80s. Screening on both digital and VHS - with bone-crushing bashers from the genre that mixed Chinese folklore and fantasy, spaghetti westerns, melodrama, Japanese samurai films and American genre cinema into an electrifying combo that inspired both the future of action films - and hip hop.’
SET Social: Folk of the Round Table
A lovely weekly folk session at SET Social in Peckham . Bring an instrument, or sit back and enjoy some old old music played by proper folk historians.