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
Today (Monday 28th) the home of live music in York takes to the streets as Fibbers presents York Live in Parliament Square. Showcasing local talent including the Nicoles, Cardboard Radio and the fantastic up-and-coming One Night Only this is a great opportunity to catch some acts you may have missed at Fibbers in the glorious setting of that big open bit outside Marks and Spencer. It goes on between 12:00 and 6:00, so you could even nip back to uni to attend that afternoon lecture.
Elsewhere in music this week, the return of the magnificent ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena with her single "Real Girl". Don't be put off by the awful lounge jazz rendition of her collaboration with Groove Armada on last week's Culture Show, this is a soulful pop tune with some great strings nicked from Lenny Kravitz's "It Ain't Over 'Till It's Over". As the chart receives it's second single from a Sugababes divorcé (after the actually-brilliant Siobhan Donaghy) one can only wonder that if the girl group continues to shed members, replacing them like a pop-starfish that has lost a limb, the chart will eventually be composed entirely of pretty girls singing vaguely derivative pop. What a future that would be...
Also released this week is something you may not have heard on constant rotation on "nation's favorite" Radio 1, coolest band in the world Digitalism with "Pogo". Go on, request it in the Toffs indie room this Tuesday and watch that bearded DJ change his expression from one of cooler-than-thou disdain to a loving, accepting smile as he turns to his record box. Don't you feel special now? You've been accepted. Either that or he won't have it, but that is a risk you're just going to have to take.
From a feeling of acceptance to one of mystery and alienation, on Thursday York Theatre Royale begins it's run of Harold Pinter's classic play "The Dumb Waiter". A one act tale of hit men, mundanity and the bizzare food orders appearing from a supposedly-abandoned dumb waiter, this is a great chance to see some of the Nobel prize winner's work on your doorstep. The performances run until the 16th June, so catch it while you can.
For live music later this week, the latest in a line of electro-influenced indie bands, New Young Pony Club, hit Leeds Cockpit on Wednesday. This promises to be a night of angular hair and over-enthusiastic dancing to the blipping synths and indie vocals that have soundtracked Intel advertisements and indie club nights. If you haven't made it out to Leeds yet this term this would be the perfect gig to start of a debauched night ending with that classic 3 am train ride back to York before falling asleep to the dulcet tones of an Ebor driver on the way home from the station.
If you can't make it quite that far, this Thursday is the "Battle for the Beach" event at The Basement Bar below City Screen. Some of the best musical talent from campus will be competing for a place at the country's first student-run music festival, Beach Break, taking place on 11th-14th of June at Polzeath Beach in Cornwall. The Basement bar is a great intimate venue, and tensions should be running high with the quality of the prize at stake.
Other notable releases this week:
Rihanna - Umbrella The Twang - Either Way Scissor Sisters - Kiss You Off LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends Rogue Traders - Way To Go Modest Mouse - Dashboard Au Revoir Simone - Sad Song Pendulum - Blood Sugar/Axle Grinder
Pigeon Detectives - Wait For Me Mumm Ra - These Things Come In Threes Ultra Nate - Grime Silk Thunder Hot Chip - DJ Kicks Stars - DO You Trust Your Friends
Camera Obscura - Sunday 3rd June, Leeds Faversham.
Wuthering Heights - 2nd-23rd June, York Theatre Royale. Bollywood Jane - 2nd-30th June, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.
