---

Saturday October 1

M People

It’s been six years since the band last played live in the UK or released a new album, since when singer Heather Small’s had an abortive attempt at carving out a solo career with the release of Small, though the track Proud has been adopted as the official song for the London Olympic Games. So at least she’s pretty much guaranteed a hit in seven years time. Following the top 20 success of the Ultimate Collection of hits, she’s got back together with band founders Mike Pickering and Paul Heard to cash in on the brief resurgence of interest in the likes of Movin’ On Up, One Night in Heaven and Search For A Hero though it must surely be overly ambitious to think they can do the same sort of arena size business they did in their 90s heyday when Small’s gargling vocals had yet to prove quite as irritating as they have become.

7.30pm. £28.50. NEC

---

Sunday October 2

Queen Adreena

 

Former singer with Daisy Chainsaw, Katie Jane Garside’s become an even more petulant little angry miss with her new outfit. Joined by sister Melanie, their latest album, The Butcher and the Butterfly (One Little Indian) is all dirty guitars, snarly swarfed basslines and little girl vocals that variously shout and slink their way through songs steeped in manic-depressive confessionals and haunting predatory aggression. Opening track Suck pretty much sets the mood with its rumbling drums and Garside’s shift from whisper to a scream before hammering off into the glam tribal beats of Medicine Jar, a clattering voodoo buzzsaw rhythmed Ascending Stairs with its touch of the Zeps, turning into pulsing neurotic blues with Wolverines while In Red and Black Spring Rising are full on punked metal assaults.

The witchy swampy blues of Chilhood and a spare Cold Light of Day provide welcome respite from the skull attacks, but it’s the yelping storm-blasted blues and blisters of the likes of FM Doll (about murdered seven year old beauty queen Jon-Benet Ramsay) that will be tearing through the girders tonight.

7.30pm. £8. Carling Academy 2

---

Sunday October 2

Idiot Pilot

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to take the atmospherics of Radiohead and fuse them with the guttural metal of someone like Deftones, then these boys have the answer. Delivering one hell of a sonic punch for just two people, the Washington duo are here to support debut UK single To Buy A Gun (Reprise), a skittering ethereal soundscape that erupts into throat-shredding storms, and accompanying space dust cruiser Moerae where the Cocteaus and Floyd join hands. Both tracks come remixes that transform the originals almost out of recognition, while the gig should also put a heavy showcase spotlight on the forthcoming Strange We Should Meet here album.

7.30pm. £5. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth.

---

Tuesday October 4

Gemma Hayes

It’s three long years since the Tipperary singer-songwriter released debut album On My Side, writer’s block and a loss of interest in music a sizeable reason for the delay in delivering the eagerly awaited follow-up. However, it’s finally here in the shape of The Roads Don’t Love You (Source) and any worries that the quality level might have taken a bit of a dip with the artistic hiatus can be quickly dismissed.

Recorded in LA, it opens with the self-advising Two Step where she sings ‘you carry all you ever need in your heart’ and proceeds to chart a largely acoustic course through a map of questioning emotions, self-declarations and yearnings laid out in such memorable numbers as the summer drifting Easy On The Eye, skittish pop single Happy Sad and the tumbling cascading melodies of Keep Me Here (shades of Aztec Camera one fancies), Something In My Way and the chiming frothiness of the title referencing Tomorrow.

You’d be hard pushed now to hear those Joni Mitchell comparisons (though hints of My Bloody Valentine still lurk within the arrangements) or indeed Beth Orton, the countryish twang in Hayes’s voice now more reminiscent of a cross between Lucinda and Stevie Nicks or, on the nasally vocal catch and semi-spoken phrasings of Another For The Darkness, maybe even Alanis.

The simple hymnal moods of piano ballad Helen (there’s those Jeff Buckley influences) and the chiming strum of Undercover seem likely to prove highlight favourites, but everything here is very special indeed. Released at the end of the month, she’ll be previewing much of it tonight, hopefully alongside the achingly wonderful likes of My God, I Wanna Stay and Over & Over from her debut.

Opening the evening will be Mono Band, the new home for Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan whose self-titled debut album takes his proven way with a melody and attaches it to fluid electronic colours and programming to produce a sort of late night hushed jazzy ambience. Inevitably there’s times when it echoes his day job outfit (though the female vocalists he uses here have a far less strident warble), but the Eastern textures evident on Brighter Sky, the Buckley shades of Waves and the post-rock Mogwai-esque colours of Invitation and Release are ample evidence he’s eyeing decidedly more experimental horizons.

8pm. £7. Glee Club

---

Tuesday October 4
The Modern

Touted as Madonna fronting The Bravery with a couple of Scissor Sisters in the wings or the missing link between Kylie and Ladytron, they arrive ahead of debut single Jane Falls Down (Mercury) and a gathering buzz for their cocktail of glam, theatricality, synths and style. Smart money says they’ll be turning crowds away from bigger venues next year, so get in while the floor’s still visible.

10pm. £4. Club NME, Custard Factory

---

Wednesday October 5

Art Brut

Somewhere between Pulp, Jilted John, Blur and Babybird, this sold out date coincides with the release of the Good Weekend EP (Fierce Panda) with its songs about sex and relationships. Frontman Eddie Argos can’t actually sing but that’s not stopped debut album Bang Bang Rock & Roll from picking up a sizeable following and, despite the fact they’ve yet to play there, glowing American reviews. Distinctly British in outlook and attitude (no doubt why Eddie likes a few pints before he performs), they may hover dangerously near the novelty line but for now Brut force seems to be dominant.

 7.30pm. £6.50. Bar Academy

---

Wednesday October 5

David Mead

A supremely gifted Nashville singer-songwriter, by rights Mead should be a world dominating star with his heady mixture of McCartney, Nilsson, David Gates, and Billy Joel put to the service of fluid floating tenor vocals and sunny pop melodies that could have wafted down from the roof of the Brill building.

However fortune and marketing have not shone as bright as they ought and while last year’s Indiana received deservedly glowing praise for such gorgeous songs as Only A Girl, Queensboro Bridge and Beauty, it sadly failed to reach the mass audience it warranted. He’s over here this time round to prompt reminders of that but also in the service of Wherever You Are, a mini album of songs that originally formed part of what should have been his third release for RCA Records until label mergers saw it being consigned to oblivion along with his contract. Three years later, however, thanks to independent outfit Eleven Thirty, six of the tracks have resurfaced, both companion piece postscript and prelude to Indiana’s songs about the end of his New York love affair.

Less introspective and hushed than the songs that followed, it’s a dreamily lush orchestrated work that, while downcast, glows with themes of encouragement and reminders that not all endings require closure and that even broken dreams wake up to new tomorrows. Admirers of Crowded House should swoon over Hold On and Only A Dream while the likes of the wistful Astronaut, the title track’s soothingly lilting sway and the quiet affirmation of Hold On underscore the fact that he truly is this generation’s Art Garfunkel. Isn’t it about time you discovered the fact for yourself.

7.30pm. £7. Little Civic

---

Thursday October 6
Texas

Having not done the rounds for 2003’s Careful What You Wish For, it’s now four years since Sharleen Spiteri and the lads toured the UK. They’re making up for lost time - and a dropping away of followers - by hitting the nation’s stages to support Red Book (Mercury), about as classic a pop album as they’ve ever released. More of a unified sound than its predecessor, throwing up thoughts of Kate Bush on more than one occasion (the stunning What About Us specifically) while bearing the band’s trademark affection for vintage soul, the old Blondie phases rippling through opening gambit single Getaway and the Moroder eurogroove evident on follow up Can’t Resist.

That electro flex also permeates the swaggery Get Down Tonight and slinkier mid-tempo swayer Just Hold On while admirers of the band’s big jangling pop cascades won’t go far wrong with Bad Weather and Masterthief. However, the truly luminous moments come with the whispering country soul of the gradually building title track and the quite wonderful tumbling retro soul pop love song of Sleep on which she’s joined by the Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan. If that doesn’t knock the crowd dead in their tracks then we might as well all pack our CD players in a trunk and call it a day.

Support comes from what promises to be Norway’s answer to James Blunt in the form of labelmate Robert Post, a singer-songwriter with a knack for penning swoonsome, dreamy and airy pop that makes you want to skip down the street with a silly grin on your face. His self-titled debut album (Mercury) positively overflows with sweet upbeat radio friendly hook laden songs that also call to mind the Manics (There’s One Thing surely borrows from A Design For Life), Ray Davies (Got None), and, On Silence Makes Him Sick, perhaps inevitably, The Beatles.

Armed with the likes of the lilting Big Boat, broken hearter High Tide, the simple acoustic sad song Everything Is Fine, the Buckleyesque vocal swoops of Come Away and the sheer jubilant rocky pop that is Newborn, it’s difficult to see what’s going to stop him dominating the charts in the months to come. Still, you might wonder if he’s really singing "I’ve got mammaries after all these years.". (If you kick yourself after arriving late and only catching part of the set, he’s got his own headliner date back here in the smaller room on Oct 24).

7.30pm. £25. Carling Academy

---

Thursday October 6

Starsailor

With third album On The Outside imminent, there’s still nothing to suggest they’re ever going to be more than a poor man’s Travis or a pale Coldplay. Certainly not if lead off single In The Crossfire (EMI) is any indication, a track that’s generic Starsailor material if ever there was one. As past outings like Shark Food, Bring My Love and Restless Heart testify, they’re purveyors of pleasant enough pop but have yet to demonstrate a capability of producing even a minor memorable classic. This low scale gig serves as a showcase for the album, tracks among which include surely comment begging titles Counterfeit Life and Get Out While You Can, prior to a fuller scale outing next month. Maybe they have a surprise up their sleeves. But then maybe not.

7.30pm. £12.50. Irish Centre, Digbeth.

---

Friday October 7

The Editors

A welcome hometown return for Birmingham’s latest big white hopes, celebrating the success of debut album The Back Room (Kitchenware) and its Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen sonic signpostings. Indeed Someone Says wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Bunnnymen’s Ocean Rain while Tom Smith’s dark deep vocals bring a Scott Walker touch to Camera’s electronic storms and the big screen panoramic melancholy masterpiece of Open Your Arms. They still have to demonstrate an ability to flex muscles beyond their current weight, but for now they’re doing nicely thank you.

They’re joined by New York based Californian trio We Are Scientists back in the country in advance of With Love and Squalor (Virgin), a debut album that’s going to attract quite a lot of Franz Ferdinand comparisons with its soul laced brooding guitars power pop and, as on Callbacks and It’s A Hit, oftimes flurry of staccato riffing punk. New single The Great Escape’s jerky stickman dance rhythms should be familiar by the time they arrive, adding to the gathering swell created by Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt. And while there’s a couple of chemical reactions that don’t really ignite, it seems pretty much guaranteed that the Oasis meets Hot Hot Heat of Inaction, the soaringly anthemic Lousy Reputation and, taking a slight breather from the dominating urgency, the fluttering broodiness of Textbook will provide scientific breakthroughs to the chart laboratories.

7.30pm. £8. Irish Club, Digbeth.

---

Friday October 7

CKY

The Pennsylvania trio (with added touring bassist) has come a long way since their slash and burn skateboarding soundtrack days, new album An Answer Can be Found (Def Jam) seeing them carving out a highly commercial - at times almost emo - sound without compromising their basic hard guitar riffing style and bluesy rock solos. Opening track Suddenly Tragic ("why put the gun to your head if you’re already dead") is impossible to shake from the brain and seems to suggest there might be a Blue Oyster Cult album in their collections while the mournfully atmospheric The Way You Lived finds them in the more melodic gardens of Sabbath and Dressed in Decay provides an object lesson on how you can have punchy thoughtful lyrics, a muscular rock framework and fierce guitars encased in a radio friendly melody with harmonious burred soft throated vocals.

It’s not a bad opening gambit and things never dip throughout, recent single Familiar Realm sounding bizarrely like a bastard offspring of 10cc and Fear Factory while Tripled Manic State, As the Tables Turn, the piston jacking Deceit Is Striking Gold and Sniped show they’ve not lost the trick of coming out hard and hammering. They still remain something of a niche audience cult, but if there’s any justice this should blow the walls down to a much wider audience.

 6pm. £11. Carling Academy.

---

Saturday October 8

Supergrass

Having found themselves heading down a bit of a self-repeating cheeky chappie cul de sac that at one point threatened to put an end to the band, Gaz Coombes and the lads clearly sat down in the pub and had a chat about how to inject some new life and maturity into things. The result’s Road To Rouen (Parlophone) that packs a mind-boggling variety of sound into just over half an hour of album.

Tales Of Endurance (Parts 4, 5 & 6) sets the ball rolling with a lengthy piano, acoustic guitar and trumpet intro evocative of Morricone before unfolding into something resembling a Spanish sun seasoned Pink Floyd ballad with choppy Waters-like guitar, but then it swerves into the jogalong shuffling Neil Young meets The Verve of recent single St. Petersburg, a Beatlesy Sad Girl and a six minute multi-textured Roxy with rolling melodic refrains, shades of Lennon, mid section riffing guitars and closing orchestral cacophony. And then, just to turn your head around, they drop in Coffee in The Pot, a tropical flavoured percussive instrument with Bert Weedon steel guitar, maracas and the band shouting ‘hoy’ every few seconds. It’s a long way from where they started.

It’s not an immediate album and long term fans might need some persuading, but a few listen to the title track reveal its bluesy rock funky charms, Kick In The Teeth recalls the old psychedelic swagger while the 60s-ish mid-tempo lollopping Low C and the low-key lapping swirls of the Brian Wilson influenced Fin set the seal on their adieu to the youth and embracing of a grown up healthy future. Be interesting to see if it brings any sea changes in the way they handle the old stuff that everyone’s really going to be there to hear.

7.30pm. £16.50. Carling Academy.

---

Saturday October 8

The Rogers Sisters

The Sisters hail from New York and comprise actual sisters Jennifer (vocals/guitar) and Laura (drums) with Miyuki Furtado on bass and vocals. Garage post punk’s the name of the game with spiky angular funk pop that instantly calls to mind the likes of Devo, Gang of Four, B52s, Wire, The Fall and cult Athens outfit Pylon. Furtado’s bass pops and throbs, Jennifer’s semi-spoken vocals wrap around the songs with snotty sneers while her surf guitar cuts jagged grooves and Laura’s drums keeps a solid staccato beat. New mini album Three Fingers (Too Pure) is scuffed and raw like a back to basics night in some poky club, but it’s also packed with jerky rhythmic energy as they riff their way through the likes of Check Level, the urban chicken funk of the almost poppy 45 Prayers where The Slits and Devo party together and the coiled fuzzed tension of Five Months. Cramming seven tracks into 21 minutes, the album then adds four extras, 45 Prayers in Japanese, Jennifer sounding equally petulant in a French version of surf n sax squall Fantasies Are Nice, the poppy Object and cheery bass pumping romp through Captain Beefheart’s Zig Zag Wanderer. ‘We’re the voice of America’ they sing on Check Level. It would be nice to think they were.

They share the evening with Film School, a hypnotically brooding San Francisco quintet who weave synths, driving drum beats and big guitar noise into a grandiose cosmic soundscape of chilled sonics on their debut single, On & On (Beggars Banquet) while the accompanying Plus One and February show they’re equally at home in gentle, strummed acoustic leafy lanes.

10pm. £5. Carling Academy 2.

---

Saturday October 8

Ausgang

Veterans of the 80s Birmingham music scene will remember this bunch. Fronted by Max Freeth, they were pioneers of the whole batcave/goth/death rock movement and seminal influences on any number of subsequent American goth-punk artists such as Marilyn Manson before calling it a day back in 87. A compilation of collected works four years ago stirred up interest resulting in a reunion gig which eventually led to three New York shows and now self-label comeback album Licked.

Nodding back to their own formative influences, it opens with a snarly cover of the Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog before plunging into new material with Big Big Love, a sort of punk disco affair with a pop sensibility chorus and Marc Bolan influence, a moshing dance direction also evident in the rock n roiling Lick and a flailing rockabilly Wasted Land that conjures an unholy alliance of Talking Heads and Theatre of Hate.They may be older and responsible citizens these days but they still know how to whip up a sleazy dark throbbing frenzy or prowl through underbelly skeletal riffs like mutant swampoid freaks on the staccato pulsing I Fear The Fear or the larruping stomp Your Role Is To Tease (As You Roll In The Lens) which sounds like the neu-metal lovechild of PiL. With the slow swaggering Itchy Fingers A Go Go with its Link Wray rumble surf guitar a personal favourite, it’s good to hear them back though quite where its psychotic air of menace fits in with the meditative yoga Max now teaches is anyone’s guess.

9.30pm. £6. The Windsor, Cannon St, Bham

---

Saturday October 8

The Magic Numbers

Famous for stomping out of Top of the Pops following fattist comments, London based siblings, Trinidadians Romeo and Michele Stodart and Acton’s Sean and Angela Gannon, are rooted in 60s harmony pop and have been dubbed a new Mamas and Papas. Which, judging by their eponymous debut album seems to be a fair description, albeit with Wheels On Fire tinged with more than a trace of Gram Parsons.

Gloriously sun-dripping upbeat affairs, their happy-sad pop nuggets spill over with catchy melodies and hooks from the Bacharach and David school as the four piece tumble through the likes of new single Love’s A Game, the handclappy delights of Long Legs, Which Way To Happy’s dreamily laid back charms and a chiming I See You, You See Me. Slightly over arranged perhaps, but you can forgive the temptation to lushness with gems like this.

Support comes from quirky Brum eccentrics Misty’s Big Adventure giving another helping hand to just released new album Black Hole and its trademark mix of jazz, psychedelia, punk, pop, electronica and wackiness that conjures wild images of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band playing in a 20s Berlin cabaret.

7.30pm. £10. Wulfrun Hall

---

Sunday October 9

Royksopp

Chill out pop’s alive and well in the hands of the Norwegian electro-wash dance duo, following up Melody AM with the Airy pattering grooves and whispering shuffled beats of The Understanding (Virgin), an album that signifies an increase in pulsing bass but also their own vocals to add to the usual collection of female collaborators. If the catchy breathiness of the gently trotting Someone Like Me is any indication then they should exercise their voices more often.

While dressed up in synths, swooshes, and squelches designed to infect the rhythm organs with something like the eight minute Alpha Male exploring an Orbital goes progrock swirl designed for whirly dancers, when you pare things to essentials most of the tracks here are really exquisite soft pop songs, Beautiful Day Without You, the moody What Else is There? (featuring the Bjork-like Karin Dreijer), and the infectious 49 Percent the most obvious examples. And, if you’re looking for that perfect 3am comedown breeze, then Dead To The World is the gorgeous sound of waves lapping on tropical beaches while grass-skirted beauties shimmer in the background. Take your own towel and coconuts.

 7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy

---

Sunday October 9

Tom Baxter

The latest breathily sweet voiced sensitively melancholic singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar and piano to get the new Jeff Buckley treatment, the Suffolk boy’s debut album, Feather & Stone touched all the right bases with its balance of minor key ballads and breezy upbeat melodies, veined with strings and songs about bruised relationships and overcoming misfortunes. There’s a hint of Michel Legrand to Girl From The Hills, a melding of Steve Forbert and Hothouse Flowers on All Comes True, some heady Celtic aromas on the overly earnest Don’t Let Go and a touch of bossa McCartney to This Boy while the finger-wagging Under The Thumb goes for the big tumbling pop sound.
Back on the road to support latest single, the rather forgettable The Moon & Me, he’s been working on material for next year’s follow-up album, so you can expect to hear a few being given the road test treatment tonight.

7.30pm. £9. Warwick Arts Centre

---

Monday October 10

Ladytron

Lining up as Helen Marne, Reuben Wu, Mira Aroyo and Daniel Hunt, the Liverpool retro-futurists have gone back to their leftfield roots for third album Witching Hour (Island), veining their electropop robo-chills with thoughts of My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab alongside the familiar reference marks of Visage, Human league and Numan. They still favour those treated bloodless female vocals but there’s patches of colours seeping into the sonics now, guitars fleshing the synth patterns as they whip up dance floor energies on things like the marching melody swathes of Destroy Everything You Touch, an almost Blondie-like The Last One Standing and the throbbing cool pulses of International dateline.

Ears with Young Marble Giants or Cocteau twins albums in the collection may discern hints of those formative shoegazing days here and there on such tracks as Soft Power, Beauty*2 and the ethereal cosmic floating All The Way, but it’s the dynamic urgency of a snarling High Rise, the rush of Sugar, the relentless rocking drive of Weekend and a staccato industrial delirium Fighting In Built Up Areas that guide the band’s determined fusion of paranoia and limb shaking moves. You’ll be wanting to fall under the spell then.

7.30pm. £12. Carling Academy 2

---

 Monday October 10

Brendan Benson

Currently being touted as prime contender for the power pop crown, the Detroit singer-songwriter’s back over to plug The Alternative To Love (V2), his latest collection of chugging four chord damaged love songs that variously call to mind The Cars (Spit It Out), Brian Wilson (Feel Like Myself) and, on the title track, even The Partridge Family. Tongue in cheek he even drops in a Spector pastiche with The Pledge. It’s all very pleasant and summery, but whether there’s enough substance to sustain a long term career remains to be seen.

7.30pm. £10. Wulfrun Hall

---

Tuesday October 11

The Sawdoctors

One of four low key, intimate showcases to unveil the new album prior to a major tour in December, with Davy Carton taking on all vocal responsibilities and the band now augmented by former Lucinda Williams drummer Fran Breen and erstwhile Waterboy Anthong Thistlethwaite handling bass duties, this affords an early chance to take in the band’s move into more serious-minded territory with The Cure (Shamtown). Fairly ironic timing given that their rousing old-school Joyce Country Céilí Band is currently attracting huge interest and new younger audiences back home in Ireland.

There’ll be more observations when they return, but for now suffice to say that sax wailing stomper My Last Summer In New York shows they’ve not wholly abandoned their trademark punky Irish folk clatter but for the most part the musical mood is more restrained and considered, reflective and contemplative on the likes of the politically inclined Out For A Smoke, gentle country jogging single Stars Over Cloughanover, the wistful years in mind ache of Vulnerable and the yearning lullaby I’ll Say Goodnight. The likeable rough edges remain, but while the emergence of their softer side may require some convincing among some long time admirers, it’s a welcome rounding out that should see them safely into this new phase of their musical lives.

8pm. £17.50. Glee Club

---

Wednesday October 12

Keith Urban

It’s been a while since a mainstream country star slung their geetar into these parts, but having supported Bryan Adams on his last tour, Urban will be looking to attract more than the rhinestone brigade. Of course, with some five million albums ales, several US No 1s and Grammy nominations, he’s not exactly going to be left standing lonely by the line dancing set either. Australian but sounding like he was born in Nashville, he’s over here on the back of Days Go By (Capitol), a compilation from his previous two releases, with its mix of bluegrass flavours (You Won), lachrymose ballads (Tonight I Wanna Cry) and twangy country rocking (Somebody Like You). It’s hard to see quite why Urban, as opposed to a dozen other interchangeable country names in the same vein, has caught on over here, but armed with a reputation for solid, go getter high energy shows he’ll doubtless be singing to legions of the converted tonight.

7pm, £18.50. Carling Academy

---

Wednesday October 12

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

It’s 26 years since Harley last used the name of the band with whom he enjoyed his biggest chart successes in Make Me Smile, Judy Teen and Mr Soft and recorded five albums, however to mark the 30 anniversary of Smile he’s dubbed his touring band Cockney Rebel Mark III and even recorded a new album, The Quality of Mercy, his first since 2000’s Yes You Can.

He’s in fine voice, at times sounding not unlike a cross between Sting, Gerry Rafferty and (on the superb The Coast of Amalfi) Chris De Burgh, and this is easily the best thing he’s done in years. Co-penned by ex Rebel Jim Cregan, opening track The Last Goodbye shows his ability to pen classic, radio friendly quality pop hasn’t dimmed with the years, a fact ably reiterated by the chorus friendly tumbling folksy Saturday Night At The Fair and the 60s sounding No Rain On This Parade.

But if the uptempo material shines, the slower songs positively glow. A father’s hymn of love to their child, Journey’s End (A Father’s Promise) mines a seam of Celtic folk influence, the God searching Save Me (From My Self) with its keening pedal steel and the closing plea for enduring love A Friend For Life are all stand-outs, but the centerpiece surely has to be The Last Feast, a seven minute throaty slow blues-rock burner that (referencing Phantom of the Opera) again finds Harley confronting God as he addresses the fear of mortality.

Giving it the full works after a spate of solo acoustic dates, no doubt fan demands will mean much of the set focus is on past favourites (hopefully Sebastian included), but there’s material here that will stand the test of time just as strongly.

 8pm. £17.50. Symphony Hall

---

Wednesday October 12

Laura Veirs

Four albums in, Veirs follows up the acclaimed double whammy of Troubled By Fire and Carbon Glacier with fifth outing Year Of Meteors (Nonesuch), the first recorded in direct collaboration with her band The Tortured Souls. Drawing on a year of touring to produce songs concerned with transportation and motion and the impact that can have on relationships, it’s a musically more varied, fuller and at times almost pop-oriented affair that (on Rialto particularly) sees her leaning increasingly in the nu-folk direction of Suzanne Vega. It’s also decidedly warmer on occasion (listen to Secret Someones) than her past somewhat chilly librarian approach might lead to to anticipate. Strings heat up the glacial flow of Parisian Dream, Black Gold Blues indulges in jagged slashes of noisy, throaty guitar, Lake Swimming suggests Latin undercurrents and Galaxies almost invites you to join in and singalong.

Some may regret the shift away from Glacier’s downbeat, icy shimmers and the dawning of the sweetness that ripples through even the introspective acoustic minimalism of Magnetized and Spelunking (a metaphorical song about cave exploration), but Veirs should be applauded for exploring new horizons rather than simply recycling the moods that made Glacier so well received. It’ll be interesting to see if she invests any of the older material with these outlooks, but either way this is going to be a night worth talking about for weeks to come.

8pm. £7. Glee Club

---

Thursday October 13

Teddy Thompson

Son of Richard maybe but while the guitar playing genes clearly run in the family, young Edward’s musical roots lie less in the dark folk and rock n roll pastures of his father and more in the folksy pop fields of the late 60s and early 70s, conjuring thoughts of Jackson Browne alongside The Beatles and confessed heroes the Everlys. He’s also got a lot lighter and warmer voice than dad, well suited to songs of romance that aren’t thickly veined with gloom, despair and existential angst.

He released a well received but commercially ignored eponymous album a few years back and now, freshly signed to Verve Forecast, returns with the follow-up, Separate Ways, showcasing material at tonight solo show before returning for a full band outing to coincide with its November release.

Featuring guest appearances by Martha and Rufus Wainwright (on the heartfelt dusk over the hills feel of Shine So Bright and the lilting dreamy rolling countrified pop of Everybody Move It which ironically evokes their own dad) there’s also some readily identifiable signature guitar work from the old man on five tracks.

It’s a warm, rich listening experience that calls to the heart on such numbers as the lost love barroom shuffling lament Sorry To See Me Go where he croons like a bruised angel, the Jackson Brown-like Altered State, a back porch lonesome Think Again, You Made It and the bluesy moods of No Way To Be and the title track. And, just to remove any suspicions that he only does ballad melancholia, he kicks up a pair of rocking heels too on That’s Just Enough For You and a swelling Petty meets Orbison You Made It.

Fully deserving to be hailed as one of the year’s best releases, it also comes with a bonus hidden treat as mom Linda puts in an appearance to duet on a simple acoustic rework of the Everlys’ Take A Message To Mary. Looks like the family tradition of sold out shows isn’t going to be dying out any time soon.

8pm. £5. Glee Club

---

Thursday October 13/Friday October 14

Bloc Party

Two house full nights is testament to the band’s pole position in the new dance-driven post punk guitar rock assault. Fronted by the charismatic Kele Okerere, they exploded out of the traps with dynamite debut album Silent Alarm, a tightly squeezed rhythmic groove of blood pumping basslines cutting a swathe across dance floors while married to a fine and firm pop sensibility that can turn out the gorgeous tick tocking Blue Light, shoe-gazing fuzz of Compliments and the angular rocking energy of Like Eating Glass and This Modern Love with equal accomplished ease.

Not ones to lie back and bathe in the adulation and album sales, they’ve already released a remix version of the album and are busy working towards the follow-up, the tour coinciding with the eagerly anticipated release of the all new Two More Years (Wichita), a spiky, chugging and naggingly infectious slice of melodic art school pop that, largely revolving around the repeated title line, surely points the signposts towards a fondness for early Police and XTC albums.

 7.30pm. £13.50. Carling Academy

---

Friday October 14

Goldie Looking Chain

Given the red card by the Football Association of Wales for cheekily dedicating recent single Your Missus Is A Nutter to Victoria Beckham prior to hubbie taking the field for the England Wales match, the Newport prankster rappers seem to have parlayed their one trick pony into a successful second release with Safe As F**k (Atlantic), Not only that but they’ve come up with a vastly improved record to Greatest Hits that may still revel in the sweary puerile vulgarity of Sister but on Monkey Love and Charm School (which samples the Grange Hill theme) also reveals a well sussed grasp of pop groove structures to go with the satirical blings of R’n’B’s hymn to boy bands, Bad Boy Limp (a dig at personal injury compensation culture) and the dig at identikit dance singles on Hit Song. The joke may well wear out by the time album number three comes along or the boys may have decided to take their university degrees and get a proper job, but for now at least their amusing observations on British life and culture still warrants an ear.

7.30pm. £10. Barfly, Sanctuary. Digbeth.

---

Friday October 14

Slaid Cleaves

Described as Loudon Wainwright fronting Wilco, the Austin based singer-songwriter also throws up such reference points as Dylan, Prine, Springsteen, Guthrie, Earle and Cash. He writes barroom stories about roads travelled, populated by dreamers and losers who don't know enough to lie down on the canvas, searching for or running from their hearts and souls. Four years back, Broke Down established him as a name with whom to reckon in the Texas troubadour canon and, joined by legendary producer and guitarist Gulf Morlix, he arrives here now on the last leg of the tour to promote Wishbones, another sterling set of Lone Star beer stained barroom ballads and slap rhythm boogie.

It’s an album that spins stories of getting by on getting by (a Prine-like weary title track), seeking to rise above your faults (Drinkin' Days, Sinner's Prayer), the homes (physical and metaphorical) to which you can never go home again (Below's story of a village flooded in a dam project) and lives battered by life ( the mini-drama Borderline, broken boxer saga Tiger Tom Dixon's Blues) and fate (the death of a jockey recalled in Quick As Dreams).

But if there's loss and death, there's also the stoic determination to laugh at adversity (the Johnny Cash like Horses), and a refusal not to end on your knees with the uptempo, fiddle fired New Year's Day where a dead man's friends and family raise a glass, sing a favourite song, eat lobsters and go swimming to celebrate the legacy left behind. You may not have heard the name, but give him a try and you’ll not be forgetting the songs.

7.30pm. £10. W’hampton Civic Hall Bar.

---

Saturday October 15

KT Tunstall

Upping the size of venue each time she tours, this third outing of the year comes on the back of recent poppy hit Suddenly I See, the third single to be lifted from the Edinburgh singer-songwriter’s hugely successful debut album Eye To The Telescope. It will have expanded the size of her fan base once more but, if you happen to have been with her since the start, it’s hard to see what changes she can possibly ring to make this visit’s set list markedly different from the last.

6pm. £13.50. Carling Academy

---

Saturday October 15

Ian McNabb

Having recently found himself unexpectedly briefly back in the singles charts with Let The Young Girl Do What She Wants (quite frankly not a patch on material that’s slipped under the radar over the past few years), McNabb’s out on the road for a series of intimate low key gigs to push the accompanying Before All Of This (Fairfield) album. Partly a collection of acoustic tracks from a project that never got released and partly a set of added electric recordings, it once again underlines what an overlooked talent the man is.

Among the acoustic tracks, the opening trio of a gently bruised There Oughta Be A Law, Before All Of This and Unfinished Business In London Town all conjure thoughts of the divine union of Scott Walker and Jacques Brel while, plugged in, the influence of musical hero Neil Young comes instantly to mind on The Nicest Kind of Lie, Lovers At The End of Time and, the album’s true killer, the rocked up full blooded version of The Lonely Ones. Highly unlikely to yield any further chart bothering or restore him to the relatively halcyon days of The Icicle Works, but a fine addition to his already impressive catalogue nevertheless.

6.30pm. £10. W’hampton Civic Hall Bar

---

Sunday October 16

Leaves

Having played Wolverhampton twice this year, Iceland’s answer to Coldplay, Radiohead and Muse wrapped up in one package finally stop over in town to talk up sophomore album The Angela Test (Island). It’s all wide sky stuff, setting the stall out with the opening seven minute Shakma and continuing to soar the heavens with a mixture of percussion driven numbers (Good Enough) and more fragile soundscapes (Killing Flies), all steeped in clouds of melancholia.

They can’t sustain it over an entire album and a certain sameyness begins to set in, reaching a low ebb on the tediously disposable Silver Night and a sluggishly dull The Transparent before rallying for one last sonic epic in Should Have Seen It All. Interesting enough but, as autumn sets in, these leaves seem likely to fall and be swept away with the breeze.

 7pm. £6. Bar Academy

---

Tuesday October 18

James Blunt

Five weeks simultaneously topping the singles and albums charts atop should safely see Blunt the year’s most successful name. Even so, it’s hard not to feel that it’s all a bit undeserved. Not that there’s anything wrong with his heartfelt balladeering, played out on acoustic guitar and piano, with big choruses, strong melodies and lyrics steeped in romance and melancholia. But, frequently suggesting more Chris De Burgh than David Gray, especially on You’re Beautiful which is really his Lady in Red, the songs themselves with their banal couplets aren’t exactly the finest examples of lyric writing you’ll encounter. Still, the likes of Goodbye My Lover, So Long Jimmy and No Bravery show he has it in him to deliver the goods if he sits down and tries. Hopefully, he won’t find this year’s laurels so comfortable that he doesn’t put in the extra effort for the follow up.

7.30pm. £14. Carling Academy

 

---

Tuesday October 18

The Rifles

Does the world need a Jam soundalike? Well, if they do then they need look no further than this London four piece. If When I’m Alone earlier this year coloured the Jam’s modrock with shades of The Smiths, new single Local Boy (Right Hook) is pure unadulterated Weller to the extent of not only passing a very credible impersonation of the younger Modfather’s inflections but at time sounding not a million miles away from Going Underground. Energetic and furious, but ultimately they really need to be firing their own bullets.

 7.30pm. £5. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth

---

Wednesday October 19

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Their engine having stalled when they lost their deal with Virgin, BRMC have been in for a retune, ditching the old Mary Chain meets the Velvets pistons for a whole new set of valves. Back on the road with Echo Records, they unveiled their new direction with Howl a couple of months back, an album that embraced old school Americana, blues, gospel, soul and r&b with such influences as Neil Young and the Stones. Kick off single Ain’t No Easy Way was a fine piece of stomping finger-picked guitar acoustic swamp blues of which Robert Plant would have been proud while Still Suspicion Holds You Tight and Fault Line were straight out of the early Dylan songbook and Elvis brings his ghost to Gospel Song. They’ve not totally devolved their rock n roll, Weight Of The World conjures the Verve and Sympathetic Noose evokes Lennon, but this is a brave new rebirth that truly deserves to take them a lot further down that highway.

 8pm. £14. Irish Centre

---

Wednesday October 19

Mohair

With the lurching gypsy vaudeville melody line sounding uncannily like the chorus of old Sonny & Cher hit Little Man, forthcoming suburbia sunset single End of The Line (Ear Candy) then turns it all inside out in its second wind by introducing a dash of Queen, boogie woogie piano solo and a flourish of trumpets. If that doesn’t confound you, the accompanying Ella May’s love song to a newborn sprog links hands with Bowie’s Kooks style English pop and smother sit in California sunshine vibes. If this is any representation of next year’s debut album, then 2006 is looking a brighter place already.

 7.30pm. £5. Little Civic

---

Thursday October 20

Gina Villalobos

Her swaggering alt-country debut album Rock'n'Roll Pony has seen Villalobos hailed, rather over-enthusiastically, as the best voice in country-rock. She's not that good, at least not yet, but she certainly knows her way around the sort of ringing guitar chords that made Tom Petty and Roger McGuinn stars with the likes of the big building California, Not Enough, What I'd Give and the soaring big rock climax of Can't Come Down custom built for highway cruising with the hood down. She does a darn fine rousing version of World Party's Put The Message In The Box too.

She's no slouch on the jukebox ballad moments either, the desert keening mood of We Got It Slow, pedal steel drenched lament Faded and the dusk and dust road shrug Trying To Find You all stand out moments. Well worth saddling up for.

8pm. £6. Glee Club

---

Thursday October 20

Morning Runner

Having upped their following after playing support to Coldplay, the Reading combo pave the way for next year’s debut album with a headlining tour and a new single, Be All You Want Me To Be (Parlophone) that proudly displays those early Radiohead and Elbow influences, bringing a soaring swell to Matthew Greener’s downcast soul lyrics. File under definite ones to watch for 2006.

Support comes from Wakfield bass, drums and casio keyboard boy/girls trio The Research out on the road to plug jaunty new single The Way You Used To Smile (At Large). A tweely English breaking up pop song with sha la la back-ups, it will either prove incredibly irritating or have you anxiously awaiting an album’s worth of the same from a live set that features such like-minded ditties as There's A Hole in the Boat, Ba ba ba and, indeed, Yeah Yeah. Any indie pop bunch that play a ukulele have to be worth a look.

7.30pm. £6. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth

---

Friday October 21

Dio

The diminutive former Rainbow mainman takes a break for his current side career of acoustic medieval-style acoustic balladry to persuade fans to part with their cash for a remastered collector’s edition reissue of his 1983 debut solo album Holy Diver (Universal). He’ll be performing the thing in its entirety (which, for those whose brains have addled with age, includes Stand Up And Shout, Don’t Talk To Strangers and Rainbow In The Dark) while a second set will pick and choose from the rest of his pretty extensive back catalogue.

6pm. £16.50 Carling Academy

---

Friday October 21

Alasdair Roberts

The young Scottish folkster will be looking to cheer everyone up with selections from his latest album, No Earthly Man (Drag City). A collection of trad material it’s comprised entirely of death ballads such as The Cruel Mother (infanticide), On The Banks of Red Roses (murder), Lord Ronald (poisoning), The Two Brothers (fratricide), Admiral Cole (shipwreck) and, from the works of Peter Bellamy, the classic funeral lament, A Lyke Wake Dirge.

Suitably spare of arrangement with fiddle, cello and harp with times when you can almost feel life ebbing away, it’s a marvellous set that not only showcases Roberts’ rich loamy voice but, against all expectations given the subject matter, frequently strikes celebratory rather than morbid notes. Go pay your respects.

7.30pm. £7. Glee Club

---

Saturday October 22

Deadstring Brothers

Had plans not gone awry with a fatal overdose, country rock pioneer Gram Parsons might well have joined the Rolling Stones back in the early 70s. Anyone wondering what combination might have sounded like should make an appointment with these Detroit boys. Following up 2003’s outstanding eponymous debut, they return to the front with Starving Winter Report (Evangeline), an album with its feet firmly planted on Exile On Main Street’s cobble stones and singer Kurt Marschke wearing a Jagger drawl. Heck, they even have a song called All Over Now.

From the opening Stonesys country rolling strutter Sacred Heart through to thumping Motown beat meets blues country closer Lonely Days, there’s not a duff moment in evidence. Given the influence of The Band to be heard on Lights Go Out and the gutsy Til The Bleeding Stops it’s no surprise they turn in such a cracking cover of their rootsy swaggering Get Up Jake while Talking’ Born Blues nods the hat to The Band’s old boss circa Highway 61 Revisited.

Fiddles akimbo, Moonlight Only Knows is more straight ahead mountain music country, picking up the earlier Wild Horses soulful ballad notes of Lights Go Out and giving them a bluegrass colouring with the assured unbridled confidence of a band that knows exactly where they’ve come from and where they’re going. They may not be carving out any new highways, but the old roads they travel have rarely been in such good repair.

Opening local act James Summerfield is one of the finest exponents of moss hung backwoods Americana you’ll find the length and breadth of the UK. And he can hold his own in the land of his musical heart too. His self-released sophomore album, Paint The Road is proof of this. His voice cracked and dusty like leaves strewn along an Appalachian cabin porch, here are metaphors about drinking dirty water (the brilliantly Louvins aching You Got Me To Blame), tales of being bullied (Self-Retribution), nursery rhymes with spiders (the banjo waltzing Spider on the Window), feeling sick to the stomach thinking you’ve just killed someone with your car (Road Killers straight out of Oh Brother), and, as the fabulous unaccompanied opening track recalls, being Drunk In Montreal. That’ll be Will Oldham looking worriedly over his shoulder then.

8.30pm. £6. Jug of Ale

---

Saturday October 22

John Tams

A former member of seminal English folk rock outfits the Albion Band and Home Service, Tams has quietly become something of an institution, even if he probably remains better recognised by the public at large for his recurring role on the Sharpe TV series where he played Daniel Hagman, not to mention writing the music.

Yet surprisingly he didn’t release a solo album until 2001, Unity going on to become one of the folk albums of the year. Swiftly following up with Home he now returns to tour his third and arguably best release, The Reckoning (Topic), a warmly melancholic consideration of mortality and lives weighed.

The opening Written In The Book’s reflection on times gone is something of a self-penned wistful stunner while the percussive tapping of Safe House unfolds a down snapshot of a world where winning is hard and losing worse. Things are no less gloomy in How High The Sky, a triptych meditation on balance the catch with the cost of fishermen’s lives.

The waters rises again on Amelia’s traditional tale of lovers divided by the western ocean while The Sea itself is a trad four part maritime suite embracing an a capella Pretty Nancy, A Sailor’s Life, and a folk rock take to One More Day before closing up with a squeeze box hornpipe.

How much will make its way to the stage set remains to be seen, but it’s to be hoped he finds room for his marvellous interpretation of Man Of Constant Sorrow which locates the song in his own former mining community days and an industry now virtually non-existent. Expect to be seriously moved. 8pm. £9. Red Lion, Kings Heath

---

Saturday October 22

June Tabor

As coincidence would have it, another veteran interpreter of traditional folk song is to be found in the neighbouring country. A young generation may have captured the popular limelight of today’s folk scene but Tabor remains without a shadow of doubt its first lady, her deep voice as rich and resonant as English oak.

She’s out on the road in support of her just released At The Wood’s Heart Topic), a remarkable album with songs spanning some 400 years from Ah! The Sighs from the days of Henry VIII to her showstopping treatment of Duke Ellington’s Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me.

As you’ll gather, it’s a mix of the trad and the, relatively, contemporary, opening with the beautiful The Banks Of The Sweet Primroses set to a tune best known as John Bunyan’s To Be A Pilgrim and embracing such gems as the Chaucer penned roundel Now Welcome Summer, Irish lost love lament Johnny Johnny, Bill Caddick’s bittersweet tale of industrial decline The Cloud Factory and a haunting, dark hued world-weary reading of Anna McGarrigle’s classic Heart Like A Wheel. Any Tabor concert is a thing to be cherished, but if she only includes a handful of these tracks, it’s going to be a very special night indeed.

7.30pm. £12. Bridge House Theatre, Warwick School, Warwick

---

Saturday October 22/Sunday October 23

Kaiser Chiefs

A happy collision of Mott The Hoople, T Rex, Roxy Music, Pulp, Blur and everything that was good about BritPop, the Kaisers are the most deliriously enjoyable around at the moment, their Mercury nominated Employment album exuberantly embracing 60s doo wop, sea shanty, glam and Two Tone skank while still laying down some sharp lyrical observations.

The Sparksy Na Na Na Na Naa, recent punky-pop hit I Predict A Riot, Saturday Night’s pub rock knees up and the jerky anti-romantic Everyday I Love You Less and Less show a keen sense of commerciality and while new single Modern Way is rather more restrained there’s no reason to suspect it won’t continue their substantial chart bothering run. Expect to see them loom large in those end of the year best band lists.

Newcastle’s Franz Ferdinand meets The Strokes, Maximo Park supply mainstay support in reminder of debut A Certain Trigger (Warp), a fizzing collection of keyboard swirling art pop that nods several heads in the assorted directions of Sparks, XTC, and Roxy Music with 13 naggingly infectious tracks delivered in Paul Smith’s unabashed Geordie accent.

Personality oozes out of the speakers as they crack on down with such masterly melodic moments as the swooping Signal and Sign, Graffiti’s quivering evocation of those early spangly Roxy days, a jerky I Want You To Stay, the rush n tumble Now I’m All Over The Shop and the love and loss bittersweetness of The Coast Is Always Changing.

A little more variation of musical shades will deepen the strengths, but given that they’re re-releasing Apply Some Pressure due to to public demand it seems that for this Park life is one well worth living.

Charged with warm up duties are Leeds garage popster The Cribs no doubt clinging desperately to the hope that having a shouty singalong chorus on Martell (Wichita) will disguise the fact it’s even more anaemic and forgettable than its predecessors. It doesn’t.

7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy

---

Tuesday October 25

Tom Vek

The bespectacled multi-instrumentalist art-rock Londoner is currently being hailed as the genius saviour of the British music scene, drawing comparisons to Beck for his DIY genre hopping experimentation that trawls in funk, electronics, lo fi garage rock, throaty clangy avant blues and angular pop.

With debut album We Have Sound (Tummy Touch) more a ragged blueprint than a defining map this may well be a little premature, but there’s certainly something exciting going down, borrowing from obvious sources but bending the shapes to suit his own visions.

The Lower The Sun leans on Beck’s Odelay, Nothing But Green Lights owes a considerable debt to Talking Heads, If I Had Changed My Mind blends Tom Waits and The Fall while I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes surely points in the direction of PiL lashed to a Depeche Mode mast with mutant Northern soul ropes. You suspect he’s probably heard the odd Captain Beefheart track along the way too

But there’s never the feeling that Vek is simply a copyist, indeed C-C (You Set The Fire In Me) with its soul brass flourish and New Wave lurching rhythm, the swaying heady bass funk groove of If You Want and the avant samba A Little Word In Your Ear all denote a firmly individual talent with a sharp sense of lyrical image and wordplay.

It should make for an invigorating if possibly difficult live experience, and hopefully fashions and fads will give him time to grow into the sounds and shapes for which this is a tantalising taster.

The guiLLeMoTS is the latest home for multi-talented Brum songwriter and classical composer Fyfe Dangerfield, joined here by percussionist Rican Caol, guitarist MC Lord MagRaO and double bassist Aristazabal Hawkes for debut EP I Saw Such Things In My Sleep (Fantastic Plastic).

Touted as making ‘modern lullabies for uneasy times’, they trade in adventurous, experimental but catchily infectious offkilter pop that, for example, will lounge its way through the easy white soul pop swing of Who Left The Lights Off Baby? but then catch you offguard with a sudden flurry of bleeps, a soft shoe shuffle and a jazzy sax solo outro.

Also featured on the EP there’s the late night dreaminess of Cat’s Eyes which begins like some world wearily romantic Parisian boulevard waltz and turns into something psychedelic off the Sgt Pepper carousel, the cascading night sky stars sparkling love struck tumble of Made-up Lovesong #43 with an urgent skitter of beats behind Dangerfield’s classical Brill Building pop delivery and tinkling keyboards, and, a cosmic breeze blowing quietly through the northern lights atmospherics that lead into the churchy tones of a strung-out Over The Stairs, a number that evokes warm thoughts of Jeff Buckley, Coldplay and bruised angels as it pulsingly takes off into the fire escapes and rooftops of a Scott Walker landscape. They’re going to be huge.

7.30pm. £7.50. Carling Academy 2

---

Tuesday October 25

The Shout Out Louds

A quintet from Stockholm whose lyrics seem to be steeped in the sort of existential romantic angst that makes Sweden the suicide capital of the world, their debut album How Howl Gaff Gaff (EMI) perversely dresses things up in toe tapping melodies with singer Adam Olenius possessed of an infectious catch of a nasally yelp of a voice.

Opening track The Comeback conjures strange thoughts of a hybrid of The Strokes and The Cars. With its jangly circling guitars and tumbling rhythm, it seems set to become the band’s anthem though flurrying dejected love song Very Loud chases it to the post with the 80s new wave trinkly self-pitying ("every one’s got someone, I got no one") A Track And A Train and its musical box keyboard figures snapping at the heels.

Please Please Please jogs along to an Iggy Pop Passengers train rhythm while Oh, Sweetheart oddly evokes Jonathan Richman backed by The Ronettes and Hurry Up Let’s Go explodes in a whirlwind of handclaps, wheezy keyboard trills and beating drums like Weezer on helium. A fine reminder of the fun you can have with three chords and a grin.

7.30pm. £5. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth

---

Tuesday October 25

Tokyo Dragons

Having paved the way with a couple of AC/DC cloning singles, the Harrow four piece now step out with their Give Me The Fear debut album, released via Escapi after having been dumped by Island.

There’s no surprises here, just 11 tracks of rabble rousing rifferama punchy dual guitar 70s rock metal that reeks of nicotine and beer as it strides its way through the Motown stomping Let it Go, current rock n rolling single Teenage Screamers with its Spirit in The Sky rolling riff, live barnstorming favourite Come On Baby, a Lizzyish Ready Or Not and the crowd rallying hand clapping chanter Do You Wanna.

While no classic, it’s enough of an improvement on the turgid What The Hell single that preceded it that you can excuse the occasional collapse such rock cliches as the obligatory guitar solos and recycled headbanging.

They’ve got their work cut out for them though since they share the bill with The Answer, recent winners of Best New Band at the Classic Rock Awards. Hailing from the same town as Ash, the Irish four piece equally wear their bluesy rock influences on their sleeves, emblazoned by the likes of Led Zep, Free, The Black Crowes and Thin Lizzy. Indeed, when they played a Phil Lynott memorial benefit gig in Dublin his mother allowed Paul Mahon to be the first since Lynott’s death to play the revered black iconic bass!

They’ll be previewing material from what will make up next year’s debut single, trailblazed here by current soul n blues 70s rock fired single Never Too Late with its Paul Rogers meets Plant vocal swagger and Rock Bottom Blues, a track which suggests they’ve got a copy of Creedence’s Green River in their bottom drawer back in Downpatrick.

7.30pm. £5. Little Civic

---

Tuesday October 25

The Subways

Launched on the world via Glastonbury and with hyperactive bassist Charlotte touted as the new Kim Deal, the teenage trio have rapidly consolidated their promise with a debut album, Young For Eternity (Infectious), positively bursting at the seams with its collision of 60s retro garage, snarling guitar riffs, hammering percussion and influences that surely embrace The Pixies, Vines, Pistols and Oasis along with a hint of English folk to go with its rock n roll credentials.

Crackling with the sort of energy that makes the White Stripes look comatose, they rattle though an armoury of amped up punky teen angst belters along the lines of the bulldozing Holiday, Rock & Roll Queen, a Stooges-like Oh Yeah, With You and the blazing title track.

However, as they prove with Lines of Light, She Sun and No Goodbyes they can do quiet balladry and lollopping pop with equal dexterity.

With the album clocking in at under 42 minutes, they’d best have material in reserve to bulk up the set where they tend to take things at a faster, more adrenalised pace, frontman Billy growling out his vocal howls and spraying riffs into the crowd. It’ll be interesting to see how the next year shapes them, but for now the world would seem to be at their feet.

7.30pm. £9. Wulfrun Hall

---

Wednesday October 26

Kathryn Williams

Her last album, Relations, a collection of covers designed to recharge her own creative batteries, Williams returns to her self-penned material - and self-funded Caw label - for Over Fly Over , a collection of songs written either side of the covers project that deal with her familiar concerns of everyday bruises, scars and epiphanies.

Shorn of pressures to become a unit shifting household name, it’s a gentle, unfussy but complex album that wraps her breathy vocals around the textured and layered arrangements that twine folk, indie and indeed classical and world music influences together into deceptively muscular melodies and rhythms.

Shop Window’s handclappy riffing is unexpectedly popsy in a disarming 60s way, Just Like A Birthday hints at The Breeders (complete with her first use of heavy drums) and Three catches you offguard with its feedback and petulant guitar clouds, but otherwise this sits firmly in a simmering cauldron of acoustic Nick Drake witchery, nakedly confessional on Baby Blues with its 3am trumpet and chamber cello, teasing out a suicide allegory on the beguiling Beachy Head and, her voice a thing of infinite hushed beauty, touching the realms of the inexpressibly lovely with City Streets. "People like you and me could leave this world and go unnoticed.." she sings on the closing Full Colour. Well, certainly not in her case.

7.30pm. £10. Glee Club

---

Wednesday October 26

The Fall

The dictionary definitions of acquired taste and addled, Mark E Smith’s ever flexible combo continue to pursue their idiosyncratic path through rock’s landscape, the ramshackle harsh vocals and dirge guitar assault never really disguising the sharp musical minds behind the seeming undisciplined noise.

They’re out on the road promoting new album Fall Heads Fall (Sanctuary), one of their more relatively commercial offerings given the likes of the funkily catchy clumping Ride Away, the surgingly rhythmic drive of What About Us (a number about Harold Shipman it seems), loose limbed buzzsaw dancer Breaking The Rules, the Diddley riffing drum beat joys of Bo Demmick, acoustic country strummer Early Days Of Channel Fuehrer and a decidedly individual slurred reading of Move classic I Can Hear The Grass Grow.

Not really the sort of band you go and see out of idle curiosity, you really do need a degree of commitment to the gimlet-eyed Smith’s sneering sarcasm and musical visions, but those who’ve followed the flag at any stage over the years are unlikely to be anything but ecstatic.

7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall

---

Thursday October 27

Towers of London

Continuing to maintain their image as punky bad boys with recent single F*** It Up, the Towers are finding it increasingly hard to hide the fact they’re really just a jolly good rock n roll pop outfit. Further proof’s to be found on the new How Rude She Was (TVT) with its catchy hooks, swirly, squirly keyboard riffing, circling guitars and chirpy Cockerney vocals that increasingly sound more like Jarvis than Johnny. Blimey they’re going to have to start slagging off the Queen and piddling in the middle of the Albert Hall if they don’t want to start becoming loveable moppets.

 7.30pm. £7. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth (+ Little Civic, Oct 30)

---

Friday October 28

Rooster

Taking time out from working on their follow-up to their self-titled debut album, the London quartet will no doubt be trying out new material as they venture from the studio for a breath of battery-recharging fresh air. Having already demonstrated a rock solid ability to translate such influences as Aerosmith, Free, and Led Zep into their own muscular melodic arena friendly numbers it’s unlikely they’ll be much messing with the blueprints laid down by the likes of Joyride, Standing In Line and You’re So Right For Me, though you should be on the look out to see if the closet Bryan Adams lurking in Angels Calling is likely to be putting in a reappearance.

6pm. £12.50. Carling Academy

---

Friday October 28

John Prine

It’s a long time since Prine, who first made his name way back in the early 70s with such songs as Sam Stone, Illegal Smile and Dear Abby, played around these parts. A double celebration then that the show comes in tandem with his first album in nine years, during which time he was battling to beat throat cancer.

Fair & Square is trademark Prine, relaxed, largely acoustic and veined with honest songs that deal with the personal and political with his combination of humour, anger and compassion. He skewers George Bush on the quietly biting Some Humans Ain’t Human, laments the soul destroying nature of Hollywood with Crazy Like A Loon and touches notes of heartfelt wearied nostalgia and wistful regrets with Long Monday, My Darlin’ Hometown (where Alison Krauss shares harmonies) and the shuffling blues Morning Train (which features support act Mindy Smith) while the Kristoffersonesque talking Safety Joes warns of the dangers of wearing a seat belt around your heart.

He rocks things up slightly on the electric She Is My Everything, a jaunty Glory of True Love and a licketysplitting bluesy cover of Bear Creek Blues, but as always it’s the warm, inviting rough hewn intimacy that makes the strongest impression, particularly so on the non-original Clay Pigeons which sounds ironically a lot like his own classic Hello In There. Hopefully, these are the notes he’ll be mostly sounding tonight in a show likely to range over his entire impressive repertoire, but whatever the set list you can be sure to leave with a smile, illegal or otherwise.

7.30pm. £22.50. Symphony Hall

---

Friday October 28

Engerica

Bursting with uncontained pounding riffery metalcore and David Gardner’s scouring vocals, this lot have been pummelling their way into the rockage consciousness. Following on from the debut dark burning My Demise, they return now to see out the year with second single Roadkill (Sanctuary), a savage, howling rage of loathing, anger, disgust and, like the accompanying Detective Show, diatribe rejection of paternal advice that should have the walls rattling and disorderly queues forming for next year’s debut album.

7.30pm. £5. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth

---

Saturday October 29

The Ordinary Boys

Clearly looking to carve themselves a place as the new Madness, the OBs skank their way through Brassbound (b-unique), the follow up to their Over the Counter Culture debut that had everyone tossing around references to The Jam.

Those Wellery mod shades aren’t absent here (listen to the phrasings of Thanks To The Girl or Life Will Be The Death Of me) , but it’s the jerky ska beats that ring loudest on the likes of Boys Will Be Boys, On An Island, and the nightboat to Cairo taken on Don’t Live Too Fast. Just in case you missed the point, they even throw in a cover of the old Locomotive hit Rudi’s In Love.

It’s hardly bursting with original ideas, but it’s also hard to deny the infectious brightness of the beezy jogalong and the sheer exuberance spilling over the sides of the likes of One Step Forward (Two Steps Back) and the (Jam go 2 Tone) title track. Nutty and no slack.

6pm. £12.50. Carling Academy

---

Saturday October 29

Stuck Mojo

Formed back in 1989 the Southern heavy metal meets hip-hop hybrids fell apart six years ago under the usual pressures of musical and personal differences. Last year they decided to try working together again and, following a road testing tour to se if things held up, locked themselves in a studio to work on a comeback album. That’s due sometime next year, so this short flurry of live activity should provide a useful previewing gauge of where their heads are currently at.

7.30pm. £7. Barfly, Sanctuary, Digbeth

---

Sunday October 30

Echo & The Bunnymen

While unlikely to ever rescale the heights they enjoyed in the 80s with albums like Ocean Rain, since they got back together 8 years ago the Bunnymen (now down to core duo Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant and assorted sidemen) have consistently produced material that can stand tall with that from those halcyon days. Their latest outing, Siberia (Cooking Vinyl) continues to hold up the standard even if, with the slight exception of Scissors In The Sand, there’s no real departures from the trademark heroic rock sounds that have always characterised their career.

Despite the title, opener Stormy Weather is as sunny a beam of Bunnypop as ever sprang from their warren while the resignedly majestic Everything Kills You, the chiming yearnings of All Because Of You Days, a decidedly Soviet folk influenced title track, sterling hushed piano ballad What If We Are? and the epic soaring Parthenon Drive give the lie to any suggestion the band’s grown jaded by its own familiarity. Of course, the trench coat army will naturally be there to demand hearing The Cutter, The Back of Love and Killing Moon but I doubt any will object to a few of these fine new moments slipped between the memories.

7.30pm. £17.50. Carling Academy

---

Sunday October 30

Johnathon Rice

Briefly to be seen as Roy Orbison in the upcoming Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, the Scottish/American singer-songwriter is on the road repromoting debut album Trouble Is Real (One Little Indian). Possessed of a dusty rasped voice, he wears his Van Morrison, Dylan, Gram, Nick Drake and Clash influences on his sleeve. What he doesn’t have is an album’s worth of solid songs.

There are times when he touches on the achingly beautiful - the bruised tenderness of Mid November or the gentle acoustic shrug of Behind The Frontlines for example - while jangly mandolin led REM-ish Kiss Me Goodbye hits a fine guitar pop vibe and the short scuffed and crackling gospel folk Put Me in Your Holy War is startlingly effective.

But too many moments are overdone (an orchestral overloaded My Mother's Son), undercooked (lazy blues Lady Memphis) or, in the case of the college rock inclined So Sweet, featured on The OC and released as a remixed single, simply unmemorable. Still, he should be able to prune out the dead wood to make this worth catching.

An added incentive comes with opening act Eileen Rose, the Irish-Italian American singer-songwriter in town to unveil her follow up to Long Shot Novena. That took several departures from the alt-country style of her debut with tracks variously evoking the Velvets, Dylan and Tom Waits and now Come The Storm (Banana) continues the eclectic approach with numbers that range from jaunty twanging power pop (Last New Year’s Eve) and piano ballad jazz lounge torch (Saffron & Ginger) to scratchy drumtracked rhumbas (Never Be The Same) and swaggering rockabilly (White Wave).

Informed by her return to live in the US after 9/11, there’s a lot of reflectiveness and soul-searching twining around the lyrics of such songs as Nothing But Blue’s swampy back alley blues questioning of divine existence, Stagger Home’s hymn to the security of your backyard in days of uncertainty, and the themes of mortality that inform Time To Go and Staying In.

But if this suggests the gig’s likely to be a downbeat, gloomy affair then you’ve clearly never seen her play live.

 8pm. £6. Glee Club

---

Sunday October 30

Erin McKeown

A Massachusetts born ethnomusicologist, McKeown’s last album, Grand, took a skittering romp through pop, punk, folk, tin pan alley, and New Orleans jazz with Judy Garland keeping a watchful eye over proceedings. The follow up, We Will Become Birds (Parlophone) has a less idioms-hopping musical approach, settling largely for summery folk-rock of the Sarah McLachlan variety with McKeown recruiting a live band rather than playing everything herself. The result brings a much more of a muscular rock feel to several numbers, notably the anthemic guitar ringing opener Aspera,a Vega-like Bells and Bombs and the soft rock dance inclinations of Life On The Moon.

She’s not totally abandoned her musical genre excursions, The Golden Dream for example is an atmospheric scratchy sway that sees her teaming with Argentinean folktronica artist Juana Molina, but generally it’s a far more unified collection. This may not, perhaps, sit well with those attracted to her on account of the rich diversity, but it’s hard to take exception to such hymnal beauty as Float, the skittering handclappy Paul Simonesque folksy pop of We Are More or the heartache nurturing duet with Peter Mulvey on Delicate December. Besides, the live set is bound to take wing and fly in as many directions as you could wish.

8pm. £8. Ceol Castle.

---

Monday October 31

Diamond Nights

Fed up of waiting for the new Darkness album for your 70s metal rock fix, then this lot should fill the gap for a while. Hailing from New York, their debut album, Popsicle (Kemado), sounds as if they spent their formative years shut in a room with just Thin Lizzy albums to listen to. Occasionally some other influences filter in, acoustic T Rex on Shakey Ruth, The Cars and early Costello on Dirty Thief, Aerosmith with the helium voiced Saturday Fantastic, a little Zep to Drip Drip and Judas Priest for It’s A Shocka , but mostly as typified by Morgan Phalen’s delivery and the choppy rock guitars of lead single Destination Diamonds, this is a Lynott love affair. Fortunately they keep their tongue sufficiently stuck in their tight trousers as to make it almost as much fun as Justin and the lads, but without quite the same strength of memorable songs.

7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy.