Friday June 1

Beyonce

While she’s unlikely to be including her remake of Des’ree’s I’m Kissing You unless the legal misunderstandings regarding mucking around with the title have been resolved and the chances of Shakira popping by to recreate their Beautiful Liar No 1 duet are slim to the point of anorexia, Ms Knowles will still have plenty to draw on from both the B-Day album and its Deluxe edition revamp as well as her 2003 solo debut Dangerously In Love.

Giving her acting career a rest for a while (and yes, she was excellent in Dreamgirls), the former Destiny’s Child siren’s back to what she does best, slinking through bootylicious slick r&b, hip hop soul in a variety of sexy costumes and dance routines. Choice cuts to include from the current album must surely be the bluesy Suga Mama, a fabulously jittery Get Me Bodied, deja Vu and mid-tempo ballad Irreplaceable while Crazy In Love, Check On It and Baby Boy should loom large too.

Hopefully, she might also find room for the Oscar nominated Dreamgirls tour de force Listen To Me, but whatever the set list this is going to be pretty spectacular stuff. 7.30pm. £56.30. NEC

Friday June 1

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton

Toronto frontwoman for Metric and sometime Broken Social Scene collaborator, Haines now hits the solo trail (accompanied by assorted members of BSS, Metric, and Sparklehorse) on the back of her own album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back (Drowned in Sound), a highly personal collection of songs written over the past ten years. Although it opens with the relatively musically upbeat Our Hell, it’s all very low key and piano driven, occasionally brushed with strings and horns or the occasional electronic sheen (as with The Lottery) but still coated with an airless sense of calm.

Somewhere between early Kate Bush and Regina Spektor, melodies pulsing like slow heartbeats through numbers such as Detective Daughter, Crowd Surf Of A Cliff and (in a wink at Neil Young) A Maid Needs A Maid, she sounds emotionally downbeat notes about life’s malaise that require attentive listening to make the most of the introspection. There’s a tendency to sound samey at times, though the orchestrations of something like the dreamy yet unsettling Doctor Red or Reading In Bed illustrate her ability to paint with a subtle palette. The gig should be a suitably hushed experience. More so given her support act is Donnie Darko composer Michael Andrews, the man behind the rearranged version of Mad World,  who’ll be unfolding tracks from his own understated lo fi folk album Hand On String (Pias).

As a composer, the numbers are understandably instrumentally well crafted and atmospheric, playing around with jazz, folk and pop colours and showing a deft sense of melody on things like the softly swirly title track or the gentle acoustics of Before The Echo.

And while he’s not got the strongest of voices he does at times sound attractively like a ghostly Syd Barrett (the Spanish pulsing Just A Thought), a laid back Paul Simon (Orange Meet Lemon) or Nick Drake (See Me Plain), a quality that adds extra charm to his disarmingly beguiling and moodily cinematic songs. 8pm. £8. Glee Club

Friday June 1

Silversunpickups

Looking to be LA’s answer to Smashing Pumpkins but with a little more sun, the quartet add the male-female vocals of  Brian Aubert and Nikki Monniger to the expected noisy guitar storms that blow through Carnavas (Sire), an album that does a decent job of spearheading an alt-rock revival with some shoe-gazing thrown in for good measure.

Maybe it’s the beaches, but there’s a lot of warmth seeping through the otherwise darker tones of tracks like Well Thought out Twinkles, Little Lover’s So Polite and the walking bass line dominated Lazy Eye. They’ve a solid hook into melodies too, bringing pop sensibilities into focus with Waste It On and Melantonin while both Three Seed and Dream Of Tempo 119 allow them scope to demonstrate their more experimental colours while remaining within a catchy tune.

 Anger, angst and revulsion with the plastic life vein Aubert’s lyrics, giving bite to things like Future Foe Scenarios and plenty for the sullen misunderstood teens likely to provide the audience mainstay to get their gritted teeth into. They’ll be back for bigger things than this. 8pm. £5. Barfly

Saturday June 2

The Aliens

Risen from the ashes of the Beta Band, regrouped members Gordon Anderson, John MaClean and Robin Jones seem to have plundered their 60s record collection for their new incarnation’s debut album Astronomy For Dogs (EMI). Opening track Setting Sun is organ driven California garage a la The Seeds, Honest Again introduces The Byrds to the Super Furrys, Robot Man takes a John Kongos funky soul groove to John Lennon, Tomorrow and Glover are pure Fab Four pop, The Happy Song a Sam The Sham party piece performed by the Klaxons, and Robot Man all George Clinton dressed in psychedelic robes. Rox is out and out Primal Scream while She Don’t Love Me No More lets them show off their sensitive fragile folksy ballad clothes.

A little schizophrenic perhaps and, when you get down to it, not quite as charmingly skewed as the Beta’s finest moments, but in retro-future rock terms they’ve pretty much got the playing field to themselves. 7pm. £8. Carling Academy 2

Saturday June 2

Seasick Steve

Literally thrown out of home when he was 14, the Oklahoma born Steve Wold opted for the hobo life, riding the rails, working carnivals, sleeping rough or in flophouses, and frequently passing a few days in a variety of county jails. During which time he learned to play the blues, picking guitar on street corners for loose change before eventually winding up living in Norway.

All of which, feeds into his Dog House Music (Bronzerat) album, a collection of stripped to the bone Mississippi acoustic/electric blues in the tradition of John Lee Hooker, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson that’ll have you checking the man’s skin pigment.

The hardship subject matter of songs such as Dog House Boogie, Fallen Off A Rock, Things Go Up and Hobo Low doesn’t stray far, but it’s Steve’s playing and talking style delivery that invest them with real individual personality, elevating above the blues cliches.

Looking suitably grizzled in his battered hat, dungarees and grey beard, perched on a stool and simply playing the blues, he’s cuts a mesmerising figure, an authoritative booming voice underpinning the tales of a drifter’s life. He also throws a few musical curves with a three string trance guitar (heard to great effect on Cut My Wings) and even, as on Save Me, the twangy one string ‘diddly bow’, stomping out the percussion on a wooden box he refers to as the Mississippi Drum Machine.

Returning to live work after being struck down with a heart attack a year or so back, he arrives now packing a four track single of new material, It’s All Good,  following the same slap blues storytelling pattern, scuzzing it up on Thunderbird (the cheap wine not the car) and simply keeping you rapt as he talks his way through The Jungle. Unmissable. 7.30pm. £12.50. mac arena

Sunday June 3

Scouting For Girls

I’m unsure whether the name refers to being on the chat up prowl or a youth organisation, but I can say this Acton trio trade in upbeat Larndan rock n roll with the same scruffy off the shoulder cheeky chappie approach of Supergrass and a less intellectualised Pulp. Among the plethora of influences they mention Bowie, the LAs, Idlewild and James, all of which you may discern on their Epic debut It’s Not About You, the result of being allegedly signed up following an hour’s audition in their rehearsal rooms. It remains to be seen if they can earn their merit badges or tie a mean woggle, but this seems a promising start, Dib dib. 8pm. £5. Bar Academy

Monday June 4

Sparklehorse

It’s 11 years now since Mark Linkous formed his band and released debut album, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Since then two more have followed, sporting the more manageable titles of Good Morning Spider and It’s A Wonderful Life. However, five years and a battle with drug addiction on he’s resumed his linguistically expansive habits for the fourth, the snappily titled Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain (Capitol). Recorded in fits and starts, with Linkous playing everything, it’s good to report too that the band have maintained and improved upon his  brand of melancholic art rock Americana and fuzzed guitar storms.

Those who favour the latter should be lending ears to Ghost in The Sky and It’s No So Hard, a pair of especially noisy distortion rockers, while devotees of their more fragile persona should be prepared to curl up in a corner, fetal-like, and let such numbers as the treated vocal slow pulse Getting It Ready, a ruminative See The Light , the quietly plangent Brian Wilson on acid Knives of Summertime or the dreamy waves of Shade And Honey wash over their bruised souls.

 Given his experiences of addiction and depression, it’s not too surprising that the album should be pondering matters of life and death, loss and survival, or that there’s times when the spooked arrangements have the pallor of living ghosts.

It’s decidedly not his most accessible album, and the reworked version of Morning Hollow and the barely there ten minute ethereal and electronic instrumental title track that closes it take some work if you’re not already in an altered state, but for those prepared to free their minds and ears and embrace Linkous’s world, both on record and in the mesmerising live shows, the rewards are infinite. 7.30pm. £13.50. Carling Academy 2

Monday June 4

Caz Mechanic

Stepping out from behind her Seafood drumkit, Ms Mechanic (tht’s Caroline Banks to her folks) takes the solo trial in support of her seven minute debut single Moveover (Big Potato), a seven minute excursion into an icicled otherworld seen and heard through sleepy ears and eyelids. Evocative of spooked 60s folk pop, as if Bridget St John  had teamed with the Velvets, it weaves a carousel spell before giving way to the echoey Go Home, a song that’s stepped out of a narcotic underground Britflick by Kenneth Anger.  It might not work live, but, with tasters from her work in progress album, it should prove worth observing on the offchance.7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy

Tuesday June 5

The Concretes

Things have changed since the Swedish outfit last played these shores, shedding both their founding member lead singer (Victoria Bergsman) and a major label (EMI). Now, with former drummer Lisa Milberg stepping up to the vocals plate (sounding like Bjork channelling Debbie Harry), the seven piece arrive with their fourth album, Hey Trouble, on their own Licking Fingers imprint and for the most part it’s business as usual with hooks dripping Spectorish 60s pop, unfolding across reverb guitars and fuzzy keyboards.

There’s a certain reflective weariness to Milberg’s voice, especially evident on the nostalgic Kids single, but that just adds to the slightly ramshackle appeal while the melancholic charms of the pulsing 60s pop ballad beats of Firewatch, the tumbling rush that is Oh Boy, a dreamy Didion, and the album - and surely live - highlight, A Whales Heart, a gorgeous anthemic ballad that sounds like what Joy Division’s Atmosphere might have been had it been a 60s folk pop song by a female Roger McGuinn. And if that’s not an incentive to check them out, I don’t know what is. 7.30pm. £8. Bar Academy

Tuesday June 5

Mohair

Boys from Bushey with ambitions to take on the world, the name might suggest Mod but their Small Talk (Ear Candy) album is much more grandiose than that, with surging rock riffs, spraying guitars and thumping rhythms. The squally Everything I Want has a manic rockabilly beat, like Stray Cats mating with The Glitter Band, Keep It Together evokes Queen, Little Voice erupts with a hint of garage rock stapled to chancer indie pop and Life goes for the big epic sound.

Wednesday June 6

REO Speedwagon

Click the player above to watch a video clip of REO Speedwagon

Taking their name from a truck, they had their day back in the 70s, switching vocalists for each of their first three albums but, eventually settling down with on/off frontman Kevin Cronin. Classic American guitar and keyboards rock, they built a solid foundation with 157 Riverside Avenue off their eponymous debut but it wasn’t until the 1977 live album, You Get What You Play For, that they really found crossover success, scoring the first of several Top 40 single hits with Roll With The Changes from punningly titled studio follow up You Can Tune A Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish. The release of 1981’s Hi Infidelity spawned their most successful period, notching up hits with Take It On The Run. Don’t Let him Go and No 1 Keep on Loving You, returning to top the US charts again in 1985 with Can’t Fight This Feeling.

After this, however, things fell apart, the band eventually disintegrating, changing line-ups, losing its major label deal and failing to find an audience for its two 90s releases. Although it never actually came to a halt, the band settled into reissues mode with a series of compilations and nostalgia tours. However, this year, still fronted by Cronin and sporting some scary hairdos, they’re making a concerted comeback effort with this UK visit and Find Your Own Way Home. Their first new material in eleven years, the title track and AOR ballad I Needed To Fall are certainly a return to their classic years while Dangerous Combination shows a strong country-rock influence, so perhaps the engine’s got a good few miles in it yet. 7.30pm. £35. Symphony Hall

Wednesday June 6

The Maybes

Part of the new Liverpool rising, but judging by Rock ‘n’ Roll and Action off debut EP Olympia (Xtra Mile), firmly rooted in 60s garage rock with heads down, foot on the pedal riffing. On the other hand Supercharged has definite shades of early Led Zep blues while Get On The Resin, a song about their favourite smoke, also veers off into a sort of country blues stomp with a vague Stonesy strut filtered into a hint of ZZ Top. Nothing overly special on disc, but they sound like they could be pretty hot and sweaty live. 7.30pm. £5. Bar Academy

Thursday June 7

Tom McRae

With his fourth album, King of Cards (V2),  the opening double punch of  Set The Story Straight and Bright Lights would suggest McRae’s opted to go for the anthemic, couching his familiarly melancholic downbeat songs in major chords, ringing guitars and the sort of thundering piano crescendos more normally the province of Springsteen.

However, while Sound of the City and Forbert-like strummer One Mississippi revisit the approach in a minor key, devotees will be relieved to hear that the rest of the album finds him in more familiar muted, whispery and acoustic mood.

 This is finely represented by the likes of moody moving on number Got A Suitcase, Got Regrets, the bare boned finger snapping and double bass blues shuffle Keep Your Picture Clear that eventually erupts into a mutant worksong chant, the world weary gospel Lord, How Long? and, adding yet another contribution to songs about the lost female aviator, The Ballad of Amelia Earhart.  However, haunting though those moments may be, you can’t but think that if he’s really going to rise above the increasingly overcrowded singer-songwriter it’s going to be by embracing his inner E-Street Band. 7.30pm. £14. Carling Academy

Thursday June 7

Foy Vance

Born in Bangor, Northern Ireland and drawing on roots influences absorbed from a time the family lived in Oklahoma, Vance has been slowly building a name for himself in the singer-songwriter league. Making his debut two years ago with the Live Sessions and The Birth of the Toilet Tour EP, from which the marvellous Indiscriminate Act of Kindness was lifted for last Christmas’ Great Ormond Street TV commercial, he followed up with Watermelon Oranges. A warm mix of gospel, r&B and country, a country tinged Stoke My Fire conjured hints of Loudon Wainwright, Don’t Please Yourself was straight from the Billy Joel school while, featured on Gray’s Anatomy,  the lovely strummed lazily dappled Homebird evoked James Taylor and Eric Bibb.

Described as the missing link between Richie Havens and Stevie Wonder and a gospel fuelled Pearl Jam, he’s here showcasing material from upcoming debut album Hope as well as new single Be With Me (Wurdamouth), something of a striking departure from his previous releases that sees him playing around with samples and bringing Sly Stone, Prince and Tom Waits together on a percussive jazzy Southern funk blues gospel groove. You’ll be hearing much more of him. 8pm. £7.50. Glee Club

Thursday June 7

The Cribs

Click the player above to watch a video clip of The Cribs

After four years and two past albums, the Wakefield trio are finally gaining wider attention with their third, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever (Wichita). Having cracked the album Top 20 it’s a catchy set of punky indie pop, opening track Our Bovine Public a  sort of mash up between Ordinary Boys and The Jam while elsewhere you might detect hints of The Thrills or The Strokes, Be Safe even adopting a spoken delivery for its self-hate lyrics. The loping semi-acoustic Shoot The Poets lets them show of their softer musical side, but otherwise the menu of the day is the sharply stabbing jerky guitars, noisy riffing and catchy art rock shapes of  My Life Flashed Before My Eyes, Major's Titling Victory, Girls Like Mystery and Men’s Needs. Ultimately though, there aren’t songs here that will outlast the album’s promotional life, so perhaps they’d best enjoy the exposure while they can. 7.30pm. £11. Wulfrun Hall

Thursday June 7

Emma Tricca

Born in Italy, relocated to Oxford and now based in London, singer-songwriter guitarist Tricca was discovered by John Renbourn, has been praised by Carolyn Hester, and compared to Joan Baez. By which you should figure that she's pretty much into the folk scene, mixing in English trad moods with those of Greenwich Village.

That she is, but as Gypsies and Red Chairs (Fairylands) demonstrates, she gives her roots an alluring twist with the use of  unexpected instruments, violin, cello and both Indian and African percussion painting her arrangements with some mesmerising and evocative colours, Celtic fiddle and tablas join forces on An Echo to striking effect.

Her dark pure voice too is unusual. Baez yes, but also Tanita Tikaram, Gay Woods, June Tabor and Judy Collins in her Brecht-Weill mood, the tendency to soar to high notes and hint of an accent giving it almost an otherworldly flavour of  cobwebbed leafy glades where unicorns and sprites might lurk. She's a damn good guitarist too, her folk, jazz and world style well versed in the influences of  Drake and Renbourn.

A nervy and slightly spooked  trad Lily of the West  is the only non-original here, and while Tricca's poetry inclined writing sometimes feels awkward on the page translated into song with the benefit of  the emotional resonance in the playing and performance, she can, on the hauntingly wonderful Where The Yellow Runs Free, make lines like "she said 'there are plates to wash in the sink and there are people in prison locked up just as in a film'"  send shivers down your heart. 8pm. £5. Tin Angel, Coventry

Saturday June 9

Homefires on Tour

Uprooting from its Holborn base, the alternative folk festival takes to the road with a shifting running order rather than any specific headline act, although string ensemble  The Elysian Quartet open proceedings before returning to back fest curator Adem who’ll be digging into   his Love and Other Planets album with songs such as Sea of Tranquillity and These Lights Are Meaningful about the spaces around, between and within us.

Sharing the tour bus will be New York songstress Nina Nastasia who’s swiftly followed up last year’s On Leaving with You Follow Me (Fat Cat), a full fledged collaboration with Dirty Three drummer Jim White who’d played on that and regularly sits in with the live shows. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of work to come to terms with the way her spare folk songs and fragile arrangements with their introspective dissections of  love, loss and childhood share space with his bluesy, rumbling fills, urging her voice into uncharacteristic storms.

That said, there are  some spine-shivering moments here, most notably I Write Down Lists,  The Day I Would Bury You, drunken lurching waltz I Come After You and the pokey  Late Night where White’s steady military beat underpinning guides Nastasia into soaring Buffy St Marie territory. Live, in the open air surroundings,  it should be a heady experience.

And finally there’s multi-instrumentalist LA singer-songwriter Richard Swift, back to encourage more ears to tune in to his Dressed Up For The Let Down (Polydor) album,  an ironic reflection on his failed early attempts to cut it in the music biz. 

Variously compared to Nilsson, McCartney, Randy Newman, Badfinger and Van Dyke Parks, his musical influences keep good company with dreamily forlorn numbers such as the  vaudeville feel title track with its tap dance backing and muted trumpet solo and the downbeat spare piano led Artist & Repertoire and Ballad Of You Know Who with their Brill building colours nestling alongside the poppier flavours of a sashaying Kisses For The Misses, oompah rhythmed The Songs Of National Freedom and a Brian Wilson tinged P.S. It All Falls Down. 

The gorgeous ascending scales of Most Of What I Know has understandably had him people falling over themselves to call him the new Rufus Wainwright, but he really is his own man. 8pm. £12.50

Monday June 11

Ben Taylor

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The son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, he’s back promoting Another Run Around The Sun (Independiente), a mellow singer-songwriter affair peppered with melodic folk rock songs of love and loss, delivered with a laid back warm voice and a familiar Taylor guitar sound.

While influences of McCartney, Cat Stevens and Paul Simon might be detected, he’s decidedly his father’s son, doing a nice line in acoustic shuffle for  I’ll Be Fine while Lady Magic and You Must’ve Fallen are easy on the ear examples of the jazz flavours that have also gone into the music.

  The sunny slow swaying opener Nothing I Can Do is a perfect example of Taylor’s stock in trade while the gently upbeat One Man Day, break up song Digest and the beautifully understated arrangements of the wistful Think A Man Would Know  just make you want to kick off your shoes and watch the world drift by.

Support comes courtesy of new name Ruarri Joseph, a Newquay based singer-songwriter whose acoustic jazzy folk pop groove’s seen him called a British Jack Johnson and mentioned in the same breath as Elliott Smith and Django Reindhart though you may well more likely hear throwbacks to the likes of Pete Atkin, Richard Digance, Noel Harrison, and, on the slope-shouldered cabaret feel of Patience, Tom Waits.

Signed to Atlantic, his debut album Tales Of Grime And Grit is due later in the summer and he’ll be showcasing material tonight, the likes of More Rock N’ Roll (the music for which is

a steal from something), a vaudeville coloured Won’t Work and the laid back vibe of Faces, Movements and Cheats showing off the wit that peppers his lyrics. 8pm. £12. mac

Monday June 11

The Sounds

Click the player above to watch a video clip of The Sounds

Swedish punk pop with a bisexual lead singer in Maja Ivarsson and a cocktail of rock, 80s disco and electronic that frequently throws up the Blondie references, new album Dying To Say This To You (Korova) wouldn’t have been harmed had it indulged in a little more variation rather than having much of the material stuck in a similar sounding rhythmic groove. Still, they certainly have attitude and know how to put together the churning jabbing guitar riffs that drive along acid pop tunes such as Queen of Apology, Song With A Mission, 24 Hours and Running Out Of Turbo. Indeed, were this 20 years earlier, Much Too Long and the Bananarama meets Erasure Tony The Beat might even have been dominating Top of the  Pops. As it is, they’ll have to settle for some indie cred and a clutch of leering lads at the front of the stage. 7.30pm. £8. Carling Academy 2

Tuesday June 12

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Click the player above to watch a video clip of  Does It Offend You, Yeah?

A new indie-electronica trio with a MySpace following, they’ve been mashing it around the clubs and getting the nod from the likes of Pete Tong and Zane Lowe. Now they look to translate the buzz into commercial sales with the release of debut single Weird Science (Virgin). That’s a jazzy dose of melodic cosmic surfing chill, but tasters of the piston stabbing bleeping Battle Royale or the aggressive Daft Punk beats to We Are Rockstars suggests they’re a far tougher proposition in the flesh. 7.30pm. £7.50. Carling Academy 2

Wednesday June 13

Cherry Ghost

Click the player above to watch a video clip of Cherry Ghost

Known to his mates in Bolton as Simon Aldred, taking his nom de musique from a line in a Wilco song, and inspired by the likes of Sparklehorse, Smog and Johnny Cash what you get here is country infused acoustic melancholy delivered with a nicotine stained rough edged voice. Shimmering debut single Mathematics conjured thoughts of fellow Northerner Richard Hawley and he’s back now with follow up People Help The People (Heavenly), another strings soaked dose of romantic aching and yearning choruses that serves as taster to next month’s album, numbers from which he’ll be showcasing here. 8pm. £7. Glee Club

Thursday June 14

Art Brut

Somewhere between Pulp, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Fall and Blur, it’s been three years and a lengthy UK silence since the release of debut album Bang Bang Rock & Roll, during which time they’ve been busy winning over American hearts. However, sporting a new guitarist, they’re back home now to pick up the affair with native admirers following recent support slots with Maximo Park, and the release of sophomore album It’s A Bit Complicated (Mute).

Named after French painter Jean Debuffet's definition of outsider art, made without thought to imitation or presentation, they play, as you might possibly suspect,  art-punk, newly shaven frontman Eddie Argos talking rather than singing while the band clatter away behind him. As before the songs are generally bruised numbers about sex and broken relationships (People In Love the new Emily Kane), veined with a sense of humour so that Pump Up The Volume (no, not that one) wonders about the politics of pausing in the middle of a snog to turn up the volume on a song.

They don’t believe in gentle ballads, so from start to finish this is energetic, crunchy spiked pop. Tossing off a reference to Ike & Tina Turner on Post Soothing Out, they sing about punk and speaking bad German on St Pauli, riff like The Stranglers on Direct Hit, ooh away like the Beach Boys remaking Parklife with the jogging Late Sunday Evening and pen a love letter to life changing songs and growing up for Nag Nag Nag Nag. Rumbustious stuff and with more than enough subtlety going on to avoid slipping into sameness, they promise a floor pounding set. 7.30pm. £9. Carling Academy 2

Thursday June 14

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Birthed in the late 70s, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys were the thinking person’s Human League, making electro pop with a fine art sensibility, crafting such elegant, melancholic gems as Enola Gay, Joan of Arc, and Maid of Orleans, as well as the pop fizz of Telegraph and Tesla Girls. The pair split in 89, McCluskey keeping the band name going and enjoying further chart success with the Glitter Band like Sailing On The Seven Seas.

Last year, he and Humphreys got back together with fellow original members Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes, taking to the road now with a live performance of 1981’s groundbreaking Architecture & Morality, the album that spawned the multi-million selling singles Souvenirs and the Joan of Arc twin set. Recently remastered and re-issued with bonus tracks and DVD, it’ll be the first time they’ve ever performed it in full, giving the show something of a conceptual feel, and even if they don’t find room to include material from their other releases, this is still going to something special. 7.30pm. £27.50. W’hampton Civic Hall

Friday June 15

Ruby Turner

In a just world, the Birmingham soul singer would be an international star. As it is, largely down to some poor past label and management handling as well as basic bad timing, while she maintains a loyal following, her biggest exposure generally comes through her live and studio collaborations with Jools Holland, her own albums never breaking out of her fan base into wider success.

Deservedly described as the UK’s answer to Aretha Franklin, she’s an electrifying live performer, that huge, soulful voice capable of slinking seductively, belting out the power and carrying the groove. Ample evidence can be found on her latest album, Live At Ronnie Scott’s (RTR) that finds her easing her way through the a strong collection of self-penned numbers like Restless Moods, the gospel veined So Amazing, the stunning Ain’t Cried In A Long Time and I Will Hold On as well as such choice covers as If You’re Ready Come Go With Me), Stay With Me Baby and her seminal version of I’d Rather Go Blind.

  Coincidentally, it also comes with a bonus disc featuring a show recorded as this very venue four years ago and including a sterling treatment of Turner original Better and lengthy into the groove work outs of My Intuition Tells Me and Breath I Need.  8pm. £15. mac Arena

Friday June 15

The Enemy

With their debut album We’ll Live And Die In These Towns due next month, the Coventry boys should be in fiery mood, giving last minute tasters for Dancing All Night, Don't Shed A Tear, and Aggro as well as parading suitably piston-pumping new single Had Enough (Warner), a riff tumbling chorus friendly affair designed for whooping and hollering around to like a madman.

Support’s The Harrisons busy plugging their own debut album, No Fighting In The War Room (Melodic), the likes of  the jerking new single Dear Constable, a rollicking Man Of The Hour with its Jam echoes, the Clash-like white reggae punkpop of Monday’s Arms and the surging terrace bouncing Blue Note all ones to get the crowd bouncing around the floor. 7pm. £9. Carling Academy

Friday June 15

The Amateurs

Hailing from Kidderminster, last year saw the trio reaping fulsome praise for their self-released Let The Sun Shine In EP, earning references to Coldplay and the Guillemots for their melodic piano coloured acoustic indie-pop and frontman Matthew Colley’s soaring high notes. The title track reveals a taste for classic pop songwriting that harks back to the Brill building days of Carole King and Neil Sedaka while the more upbeat This One suggests a nod to Bruce Hornsby.

This is a special acoustic night launch for the follow up, Extended Play, which sees them spreading their wings with the jogging along summery opener Shoot Me Now reminiscent of  Paul Weller jamming with Ben Folds while She Don’t Mind heads into blue-eyed soul territory to come across like an indie Hall and Oates quite possibly filtered through early Steely Dan with a dab of Doobie Brothers guitar.  Those Southern soul-rock shades are evident again on laid back, fuzzy guitar ballad In Between, a lazy drifting number that older ears might well find themselves thinking of the Young Rascals. Certainly one’s to keep an eye on. 8pm. £6.50. Glee Club

Sunday June 17

Blackmore’s Night

Though more familiarly known for his heavy metal guitar work in the likes of Purple and Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore’s been carving a useful second musical career alongside singer Candice Night with their Renaissance influenced acoustic folk-rock, notching up six albums over the past decade, featuring both self-penned and traditional Renaissance music with instruments that include hurdy gurdy, shawns, recorders, bagpipes and chanters

To be honest, it can be a bit cheesy, what with the pair of them performing in period costume, but you can’t deny the musical result is all rather pretty and appealing, Night’s feathery voice somewhere between Sally Oldfield and Annie Haslem of, er, Renaissance, while Blackmore supplies the intricate fretwork.

They’re out promoting their most recent set, The Village Lanterne (Steamhammer), a predominantly self-penned affair with songs variously inspired by the legend of Siegfried (Village Lanterne), ghosts (the crunchy folk rock I Guess It Doesn’t Matter Anymore), Joan of Arc (World of Stone), faeries (Faerie Queen) and the world’s Don Quixotes (Windmills). It also finds them pushing the boundaries, so that while music is English and European in flavour the opening 25 Years calls on Balkan folk music for its tale psychic visions.

There’s a couple of covers, Joan Osborne’s St, Teresa, a longtime staple of the live set, and  Ralph McTell’s Streets Of London while devotees of Blackmore’s other life will appreciate the resurrection of Street of Dreams from Rainbow’s 1983 album bent Out Of Shape, and, on the instrumental Mond Tanz a segue into Purple classic Child In Time. Go on, get your cod piece son and join in the revels. 7.30pm. £22.50/£20.50. Alexandra Theatre

Monday June 18

INXS

Very few bands survive the loss of a distinctive lead singer, and after the death of Michael Hutchence there can’t be many who didn’t assume INXS were, to all intents and purposes, now defunct. Temporary stints on vocals by Terence Trent D’Arby and Jimmy Barnes did little to persuade otherwise and when full time replacement singer Jon Stevens quit after three years, having recorded just one single, it looked like they’d either reached the end of the road or would be consigned to an ignominious life of  nostalgia club tours.

But then, along came Rockstar:INXS, a reality TV show designed to find a new frontman. The winner was JD Fortune, and the cocky Canadian seems to have given them a whole new lease of life, recording the hugely successful Switch (Universal) album and leading them on a massive sell-out tour. Hutchence comparisons inevitably poured down in the wake of first single, Pretty Vegas, and tracks like Hot Girls and Perfect Strangers but he’s been gradually establishing his own style and sound, even putting his stamp on past funky soul rock classics like Suicide Blonde, Original Sin and Need You Tonight.

While the new album (which gets a UK tour edition release featuring live tracks) isn’t, ultimately, up there with the likes of Kick or Listen Like Thieves, numbers such as the swaying ballad Afterglow,  stabbing dance pop Hungry, a nervy, heated up Like It Or Not and the AOR pop of US are solid additions to the band’s legacy.

A somewhat contrasting choice of support brings Brummie boy Dave Wakeling back home for the first time in years with The English Beat.  Now based in California  he’s still plying the ska pop and social comment style that characterised both The Beat and, subsequently, General Public. He released an unjustly overlooked solo album, No Warning, several years ago featuring She’s Having A Baby from the John Hughes movie, but despite demoing songs such as Rock Steady, Taking The Pills, Stand And Be Counted and Silver Bullet, the band’s never actually released an album. Word is that they’re currently working on new material with a  view to going into the studio, but for now this homecoming seems likely to be heavily weighted towards the old hits, Save It For Later, Mirror In The Bathroom, I Confess and Save It For Later. Whatever he plays though, it’s nice to see him back. 7.30pm. £27. Symphony Hall

Monday June 18

Motion City Soundtrack

The Minneapolis boys take time out from putting finishing touches to the new album, giving a chance to preview material for their follow up to Commit This To Memory as well as giving another airing to past nuggets such as the summery anthem chug of Everything Is All Right and stadium power fisting Hold Me Down.7.30pm. £12. Carling Academy 2

Monday June 18

Paul Curreri

After wife Devon Sproule’s recent album launch, now it’s the turn of the Richmond raised Charlottesville based singer-songwriter to unveil his latest, The Velvet Rut (Tin Angel). However, while the missus trades in sun-kissed Americana, his is an altogether darker  brew, Mantra opening up with rumbling hints of the Velvets the album’s lyrics a stew of anger and menacing images as he works his way through fingerpicking and leg slapping  blues (A Song On Robbing, Don’t Drink, Wasp), brooding through Jim Morrison in the swamps territory  of Fat Killer At Dawn, sounding like a delta blues Loudon Wainwright with Why I Turned My Light Off.

His previous releases have been slightly acquired tastes, but, if he puts in the touring work, this could well see his dark wit and deft playing breaking out into a far wider audience. 8pm. £8. Glee Club

Monday June 18

Tiny Dancers

Having caught everyone’s attention with the slow throbbing marching pop 20 To 9,  chirpy Hemsworth Hallway,  stomp along pop I Will Wait For You and the skittering Hannah We Know, the West Yorkshire quintet not unveil their much anticipated debut album Free School Milk (Parlophone).

There’s little disappointment here in its handclappy singalong glam folk pop, the album fizzing over with such infectious catchy treasures it makes Mika seem positively dour. There’s the bounce along circling chug melody of Will Wait For You,  I’ve Got To Go’s tinkling sunny 60s pop, campfire get together Bonfire of the Night where David Kay sounds a lot like Neil Diamond, the lovely acoustic balladeering sway Ashes And Diamonds, arms linked promenade stroll Baby Love, and bluegrass knees up Sun Goes Down.

 They lose it with the slow building, sea lapping finale Deep Water which aspires to the epic rather than the bubblegum pop they do so well, but otherwise they’re entertainingly light on their feet, ensuring that you will be too.

Openers Alberta Cross sound like they should have been born and bred in California but actually come from London’s East End. The quartet have been picking up glowing praise for  The Thief & The Heartbreaker (Fiction), though, with tracks Low Man and I’ve Known For Long tending to amble along on a Southern folk-blues groove and lyrics about lonesome roads with no real sense of direction, it’s more about future promise than current classic.

Hard Breaks kicks up the tempo somewhat, but there’s no great variation over the seven tracks, however  Petter Ericson Stakee pours bruised emotion into his delivery and there’s an air of dusty authenticity coating the Harvest era rural folk blues of Lucy Rider, the rough edged scuffed Van Morrison meets The Band flavours to The Devil's All You Ever Had and the enigmatic title track standout. 7.30pm. £6.50. Barfly

Tuesday June 19

Charlotte Hatherley

The former Ash rhythm guitarist continues on her solo flight returning to town for a second  outing with The Deep Blue (Little Sister). As I Want You To Know and Very Young show, she’s not ditched the punky bubblegum girlie pop of her debut but she has expanded her horizons, adding a spikier edge to hook friendly numbers like new single Siberia while exploring different musical shapes on songs such as the Kate Bush-like Roll Over, the Mercury Rev psychedelic cosmic prog Be Thankful, a folk veined Again with its vague Oriental colours and the moodily atmospheric swirling clouds of Dawntreader.

It’s an interesting pointer to her future musical development with an eye on audiences beyond the three minute pop rush buyers, but while she can surely craft a well constructed and complex melody, if some of the material here is any indication she might want to consider finding herself a lyrical collaborator to offer some second opinions. 8pm. £7.50. Glee Club

Tuesday June 19

Dragonette

Recovered from the Sugarbabes tour, the Canadian electronica pop quartet do their own thing, following up I Get Around’s squelchy electrorave with Take It Like A Man’s summery pop (Mercury), gearing up for the upcoming debut album Galore with tasters of the purring kittenish dance number Competition, the seductive True Believer, a Scissor Sisters styled Get Lucky  and the dreamy sun kissed shores of Another Day. 8pm. £3. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Tuesday June 19

Shawn Colvin

It’s been five years since the world last heard from her with Whole New You, during which time she’s switched labels to Nonesuch. However, little much else has changed in the interim as These Four Walls finds her still very much in the slightly breathless soft folk vein she’s increasingly adopted since she first appeared with the rather more adventurous, muscular first two albums.

Lyrically, as songs like Fill Me Up, Summer Dress, I’m Gone and Tuff Kid she remains sharp in her observations of relationships,  self-reflection and years slipping away, but musically there’s nothing here with the bite of, say, Polaroids or Shotgun Down The Avalanche. It’s comfortable and tasteful easy on the ear stuff, numbers such as That Don’t Worry Me Now conjuring crystal streams and  clean mountain air in the manner of her classic I Don’t Know Why,  but only on The Bird and bluesy Marc Cohn duet Cinnamon Road does it ever really seem to break out of the case. And, really, her cover of the Bee Gees’ Words just sounds uninvolved.

However, she’s always worth catching live, where she can bring a little more edge and involvement to proceedings, and the fact she rarely tours here these days makes this well worth the visit.

 Opening proceedings is husky voiced  Anglo-Italian Jack Savoretti , giving another whirl to  debut album Between The Minds’ easy on the ear set of relationship and self-examining songs, likely to warm the cockles of  James Morrison and Nick Drake lovers alike. 7.30pm. £19. Wulfrun Hall

Wednesday June 20

Trabant

Leather-clad Icelandic glam electropop straddling the borders between Erasure, Queen, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan and The Killers, the Rekyavik quintet have been picked up by Fatboy Slim’s label, Southern Friend. Understandably given the dance beats bedrock of the Emotional album and tracks like the sleazed and horny smeared lipstick of Nasty Boy, the narcotic cellar jazz I Love You Why?, the poisoned cabaret slouch of  Pump You Up and the bubbling scratch and slide grooves to Loving Me and Galdur.

They give camp brooding big glacial ballad with Emotional Meltdown while new single The One is all dreamy melting icicles with a DAF meets Yazoo shimmer, pretty much ensuring them a berth on the Scissor Sisters cruise liner. 7.30pm. £5. Bar Academy

Wednesday June 20

Jake Stigers

Younger brother of soul-jazz man Curtis,  Stiger’s making an equal name for himself on the US east coast in much the same musical territory, though with perhaps more of a rock and blues roots edge.  Described as a cocktail of Mick Jagger, Bill Withers, Steve Miller and The Black Crowes, he arrives here touring current album  Do You Feel High (Lil’Pony),

the swaggering title track, a bluesy End of the World, soulful falsetto ballad Marlena, She’s A Woman’s Dr Hook-like AOR, the Southern blues rock  of Comin’ Back Again and Flys On Your Skin and Ride With You’s Stonesy strut all quality classy listening.

 The album comes with a bonus disc of Live and Loud In The UK,  so you get to hear much of the studio material being given a muscular in the flesh workout, things like Miss Reality and This Ain’t Living ample evidence of a solid, sweat-lathering volcanic evening.  9pm. Free. Jam House

Wednesday June 20

Kate Nash

Imagine a teenage street savvy cross between Gary Numan, Fuzzbox, John Cooper Clarke and Flying Lizards and you might have an idea of where Ms Nash is coming from. Bigged up by Lily Allen, debut single Caroline’s A Victim was a three minute robotic drone with zombie drums and deadpan, colourless vocals basically intoning the title over and over to infuriating effect. Infuriating but also annoyingly catchy, a description that equally fits the more lyrically adventurous follow up Foundations (Fiction) an amusing tale of a fragmenting relationship as she hangs on to some geezer who’s clearly a right dick. Not one for the long haul, but she sounds a lot of fun. 8pm. £7.50. Glee Club

Wednesday June 20

The Cat Empire

Now here’s an interesting one. A six piece from Melbourne who are massive in Australia and the Edinburgh Festival alike, they play a concoction of jazz, soul, hip-hop, salsa, reggae and rock that defies anyone not to get up and shake a hip or two. Musically, it’s not exactly original but, led by vocalist Felix Riebl, these guys give it a kick up its backside with slick playing and a solid energy. Recorded  in Cuba,  new album Two Shoes (Virgin) opens with Sly, its driving beat, blasts of brass, and sweeping boogie woogie keyboards evoking the  60s garage soul of Sam the Sham if they had Strine accents, before slipping into the Latin groove In My Pocket and then a scratching 60s calypso gone hip hop hybrid Lullaby that sounds bizarrely like Chas n Dave crossed with Kid Coconut.

The Cuban experience is spread all over Sol Y Sombra, a track that’ll get cha cha fans on their feet while Saltwater is an infectious ska skanker complete with sunny Caribbean horns, Lullaby a lazy tropical jazzed incarnation of Madness and Protons, Neutrons, Electrons a sort of zip ah dee doo dah jug band soft shoe shuffle love song that almost harks back to the days of the Mixtures and The Pushbike Song.

There’s a definite playful streak here, rollicking along on a rock n rolling The Car Song, playing the sentimental ballad card for Miserere where The Streets meets Billy Joel and a Latin choir and winding up with the closing time, tipsy The Night That Never End where they pile their myriad influences into one big brassy party sway. shake and enjoy.  7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall

Thursday June 21

Bob Lind

Photo by Henry Diltz

I’ll be honest, I thought he was dead. Born in Baltimore, Lind was one of several singer-songwriters touted as the new Dylan or even the new Tom Paxton during the 60s.  In 1966 he was suddenly the next big folk thing when he released Elusive Butterfly, scoring a Top 5 hit both in the US and here with, ironically, Val Doonican’s cover sharing the same UK chart spot in the same month.

Unfortunately, maybe because he didn’t fit into the protest singer coat, Lind was to prove a one hit wonder on both sides of the Atlantic, his follow-up, Remember The Rain (twinned with the excellent Truly Julie’s Blues), spluttering to a halt outside the Top 40 here and failing to chart back home.

He had considerably more success as a writer, Cheryl’s Going Home providing Adam Faith’s last UK hit (and once a staple of John Otway’s live shows) with  Mr Zero recorded by the fledgling The Yardbirds and names such as Cher, Aretha, Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell all contributing to his royalties.

He quit the business in 1969, going on to write five novels and contribute to various publications, but finally resurfaced in 2004, releasing Live At The Luna Star Cafe on his own label last year.

 It finds him in good form, proving a relaxed raconteur in his song intros, his voice as mellow now as back when, the set pulling together old favourites I Love To Sing, Theme From The Music Box, a hitherto unrecorded How The Nights Can Fly (covered by Richie Havens) and obviously, Elusive Butterfly alongside new material like Sophia’s Lullaby, a song about the adoption of Chinese baby girls to save them from orphanages or worse.  He’s a minor name in the history of the 60s, but nevertheless one well worth remembering. 8pm. £11. Glee Club

Friday June 22

James Yorkston

Three albums in, the most recent The Year Of The Leopard, the Fife singer-songwriter’s become a bit of a national treasure on the contemporary folk scene with such warm voiced meditations on love as I Awoke, Don’t Let Me Down and the lazily lovely Us Late Travellers. To tie in with the tour, he’s been rummaging through his cupboards and come up with Roaring The Gospel (Domino), a collection of old singles and B sides to replace the faithful’s worn out or lost copies and bring newcomers up to date, allowing a look at how his music’s come together.

Despite the time span it covers, there’s a clear unity of style and sound, his hushed and weary voice quietly surrounded by acoustic guitars, double bass, bouzouki, accordion and, on the title track, harmonium. It’s a half-sleeping reverie as he picks out the romantic melancholy layered through the burnished Blue Madonnas, a woozy brass embellished Seven Streams, the traditional Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk’s ISB-inclined wheezing tale of a drunk husband and an abusive wife’s dysfunctional marriage, the jazzy loose limbed Are You Coming Home Tonight? and the delicate darkness of the finger-picked La Magnifica.

A Man With My Skills shows he can do more uptempo beats when the mood takes while it’s worth the money to lay your hands on his now impossible to find debut single, a ten minute drone ramble through a story of domestic violence complete with bagpipes intro (sadly unlikely to figure in the live set) and his haunting, peat-flavoured version of Tim Buckley’s Song To The Siren. If ever a song was built to be sung in the venue’s open-air theatre, you should persuade him that this is.

 Sharing the bill is fellow Scot folkie, the more trad Alastair Roberts who, as those who felt like wrist-slitting  after his death ballads album No Earthly Man will be glad to hear, is in cheerier mood with the current The Amber Gatherers.

A collection of self-penned but traditional minded numbers in the troubadour tradition, songs like the tinklingly wonderful Where Twines The Path, Waxwing’s optimism in the continuance of life and the seasons, the rippling River Rhine and Firewater’s poachers pub singsong further enhancing his reputation as writer, singer and guitarist. 7.30pm. £12.50. mac Arena

Friday June 22

Devo

One of the pioneers of art-punk pop with songs that circle around themes of science fiction and social satire, often dressed up in surrealist togs and kitsch clobber, they surfaced in the New Wave boom of the late 70s with debut album Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! featuring their radical reworked of Satisfaction and the controversial angular dance gem Mongoloid. Their 1980 hit Whip It remains their best known track, but they’ve been turning out eclectic, eccentric and experimental material up to the present time, their last studio set, Mine Is Not A Holy War, surfacing last year.

Still featuring the classic line up of  Gerald and Bob Casale and Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh (the latter having carved a lucrative career composing soundtrack music, notably for Wes Anderson’s films as well as the recent Herbie movie), they might be even more of a cult here now than when they began, but you can guarantee they’ll have plenty on offer to surprise and confound as well as doing the nostalgia hits trip. 7.30pm. £35. Symphony Hall

Saturday June 23

Elliot Minor

Formerly an acoustic duo called The Academy featuring former choristers Alex Davies and Ed Minton, now a quintet the York outfit’s christened after the pet name for their piano and the band’s fondness for minor chords. Translate that to musical terms in the shape of debut single Parallel Worlds (Repossession) and you get a fusion of rock and classical, Samuel Barber and Green Day with a dose of Jeff Lynn in the service of  a song about Alex and Ed’s  haunted attic flat back in school. A little overstating the case to say, as some have, that they sound like nothing you’ve ever heard, but they are quite good and if the upcoming album matches the single could well be in for big things. 7pm. £6. Carling Academy

Sunday June 24

I Was A Cub Scout

Two teenage guys from Nottingham who came up through punk and have a thing for 80s flavoured synth-pop flavoured with emo, they caused a few ripples with debut single Pink Squares and pushed the boat out a little further with follow up I Hate Nightclubs. Neither were actually especially good, but they didn’t have you reaching for the off switch either. A new single’s due once they’ve packed up the flight cases, so doub