Beyoncé & Jay-Z
Robert Smith‘s Meltdown Festival finally gets underway at the Southbank Centre this week. Big names to appear over the first few days include shows at the Royal Festival Hall by Psychedelic Furs on Friday, Placebo on Saturday and The Libertines on Sunday. Over at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room you’ll find the likes of 65daysofstatic, The Notwist, Alcest, Loop and Jambinai. We can’t wait. Find full details here.
Elsewhere, there is the small matter of Beyoncé & Jay-Z appearing at the London Stadium on Friday while Los Angeles sister-trio HAIM continue their rise to pop stardom with two shows at Alexandra Palace on Friday and Saturday.
There’s plenty of smaller gigs also taking place across the capital. Monday sees Waxahatchee play Oval Space and Hilary Woods promote new album Colt with a show at St Pancras Old Church. On the following night Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan will be appearing at the Jazz Café. Wednesday meanwhile sees a show by Gretchen Peters at Cadogan Hall (read our review of her latest album here).
Jay Som (aka Los Angeles based singer Melina Duterte) brings her lo-fi dream pop to Oslo on Wednesday. The previous day sees Oslo host a show by YouTube-discovered R&B upcomer Mullally while maverick American artist John Maus returns to London with a show at the Electric Ballroom on Thursday.
Finally, full album shows don’t happen as often as they used to but London has some this week. Animal Collective will be playing Sung Tongs at the Troxy on Tuesday and Travis play their 1999 album The Man Who on two nights at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday.
New Announcements
It has been a bumper week for new gig announcements. See below for some dates for the diary! We’d quite like to go to them ALL.
The Orb @ Roundhouse – 23th June
Pram @ Lexington – 22nd July
Joan As Policewoman @ Omeara – 13th August
Janelle Monáe @ Roundhouse – 11th September
James Holden & The Animal Spirits @ Queen Elizabeth Hall – 4th October
Daniel Blumberg @ Kings Place – 12th October
Fever Ray @ Brixton Academy – 5th November
Colin Stetson @ Hackney Arts Centre – 7th November
Laura Gibson @ Queen Elizabeth Hall – 13th November
Interpol @ Royal Albert Hall – 14th November
Courtney Marie Andrews @ Union Chapel – 3rd December
Nils Frahm @ Hammersmith Apollo – 5th December
Flying Lotus & Thundercat @ Brixton Academy – 15th December