And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
If you're feeling devoid of live music and festival-based mirth this weekend, don't worry, York University is putting on its Glasto challenger Woodstock. The event in Vanbrugh Bowl brings out the best in University entertainment, with a wide variety of music and even magicians. For the full lineup, check out our Woodstock preview on Tuesday.
The third important festival this weekend is the seventh Nasty Fest at the Faversham in Leeds. Starring I Was A Cub Scout, and featuring Artsweek favourites The Maple State, this day long event includes a BBQ and two stages and has showcased bands with the calibre of The Futureheads, The Sunshine Underground and Hot Chip. This means that it is a fantastic, relaxed way to introduce yourself to some bands who may well be setting the agenda this time next year.
For a slighty more theatrical weekend, student groups are putting on productions of Much Ado About Nothing and The Importance of Being Earnest in Rowntree Park on Saturday. The two classics, Shakespeare's comedy from which most modern romantic comedies can draw their lineage, and Oscar Wild's fantastic tale of mixed identity, flutering hearts and silliness, are perfect for a summer's evening, weather permitting.
Elsewhere, two of the year's most exciting dance albums are released this week: Simian Mobile Disco's "Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release" and Justice with "†". SMD, orchestrators of "La Breeze" when they were still only called Simian, and purveyors of forward-thinking dance and thumping remixes since they went mobile, are dropping the album that will hope to define the parts of your summer where you are jumping wildly around or driving fast. Similarly, Justice, creators of the fantastic D.A.N.C.E. promise to provide a slice of Daft Punk at their prime, updated for a culture so bloated with New Rave that it is ready to burst.
For when this level of rave exhausts you to the point that you can only function at the level of a 10 year-old the latest installment of the Shrek franchise hits City Screen on Friday in the shape of Shrek The Third. Let's face it: it's going to be more of the same. But if "more of the same" consists of a witty script, hilarious characters and an even more hilarious Scottish accent from Mike Myers, then it can't be a bad thing.
Other happenings this week:
Singles
Albums
Live
