Having sold out her visit last November, overwhelming ticket demand brings the gutsy voiced rock chick back for an extended leg of her debut tour. While likely to be pretty much the same show as last time round, that’s not going to be too much of a disappointment for those seeing it for a second time with its costume changes, aerial acrobatics, ballet dancers, stiltwalkers and a dynamic 40 minute mix of rock, pop and soul spearheaded by such stunning tracks from her current self-titled album as Left Outside Alone, Sick and Tired, and searing ballad Welcome To My Truth. Armed with a formidable stage presence to go with the vocal chords and body, this promises to punch yet another hole in the back wall.

 7.30pm, £35/£28.50. NEC. Mike Davies

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Crodyon theatrical rock nine piece seem to have dispensed with any notions of conquering the charts. How else to explain the turgid rock blues of new single What’s Hideous (Atlantic), a dreary welding of Britney and Queens of the Stone Age that not even its last gasp break into jazz fusion guitar and brass can salvage from its destiny as part of some disastrous glam rock musical that folds after the first night. Things don’t much improve with second track The Forgetful Tapier which tries to fake r&b pop but, once again, is overcome by the urge to collapse into prog rock guitar histrionics mid way. And they once promised to be so good too.

7pm, £7.50. Carling Academy 2. Mike Davies

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Recently signed to Independiente following a storming set at Glastonbury and a brace of their own releases, the visit heralds the release of the teenage Wiltshire trio’s new EP, albeit this to be released on Fierce Panda.

Self-descriptively titled BlackBudEP, it’s an enticing and hugely accomplished affair that occasionally hints at the early Radiohead references but is singularly devoid of the funk-blues notes that early reviews cited.

Lolloping lead track Forever marries twangy guitars to a Eastern European mazurka flavour while Lost In Time exudes a desert nights mood that sounds like its been written for a David Lynch movie but with a cascading anthemic spangly skies chorus hook and finale flourish and 158 etches a noir landscape mood psychedelia sound that conjures Giant Sand, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jimmy Page and Neil Young guitar workouts, and, in Joe Taylor’s breathy vocals, Jeff Buckley.

With the equally excellent yet to be released Dancing Barefoot displaying an influence of mellow Hendrix, this is arguably the most exciting new name to have emerged so far this year. Catch them early, because they’ll be fighting for tickets in a few months time.

Able support’s provided by local boys The Mexicolas who’ll doubtless be talking up their debut single, the excellent surging guitar, choppy bluesy rhythmed and soaring chorus of Falling.

7pm, £6, Bar Academy. Mike Davies

Consisting of whiny lead singer Billy Lunn, drummer brother Josh and bassist girlfriend Charlotte Cooper on bass, the Liverpool trio were picked by Michael Eavis to play Glastobury and Ian Broudie’s taken charge of producing their debut album. However, while they make a decent racket with plenty of energy, new single Oh Yeah (City Pavement) just says they’re basically just a White Stripes garage rock rip off really. And if they don’t pretend to be anything more, that’s fair enough. Enjoy, sweat and throw yourself around a bit, just don’t expect this sound of the underground to be around for the long haul.

7.30pm, £7. Carling Academy 2. Mike Davies

Campbell devotees had better have deep pockets because she’s over her promoting not one but two new albums, though not new material. Produced by Will Kimbrough, who joins her on tour as both accompanist and support, they’re actually re-recordings of songs that have proven live favourites over the past 10 years, one with a band and the other wholly acoustic. The Portable Kate Campbell (Compadre) is a musical photo album of the South, a tangle of contradictions, memories and landscapes that offer the empty mansions and hillside gravestones of Wrought Iron Fences, of widows and lonely dogs (Moonpie Dreams), beloved old cars (Galaxie 500), crazy dreams (Bud's Sea-Mint Boat) and childhood confusions about segregation and civil rights (Crazy In Alabama, Bus 109).

She sings of the South's lost promises (Visions of Plenty, an achingly hymnal Look Away), yearnings for more innocent times (a Southern funky blues When Panthers Roamed In Arkansas), regrets (a lonesome Elvis looks back on his days back home in Tupelo's Too Far), the security of love (A Perfect World), wistful stories of bruised souls seeking escape (the girl off to See Rock City before it's too late, the cigar factory girl in Rosa's Coronas) and, most personally, poignant recollections of mom and Rosemary Clooney (Rosemary).

Its companion, Sing Me Out, is less specifically themed in terms of landscape and location, but remains firmly reflective and rooted in songs of hope, faith and belonging.

Here are the uplifting Heart Of Hearts, the burping Jesus and Tomatoes, Older Angel's prayer for guidance from someone who's been round the block, Ave Maria Grotto (a lovely story of devotion about a man who built a grotto from shells and broken china), the prodigal daughter welcomed home In My Mother's House, the man following God's calling and his mama's wishes in Would You Be A Parson, and Delmus Jackson, an affecting account of the simple, honest black custodian of the local church content in knowing he'd one day be welcomed by the Lord.

Death's here too; on the bluesy gospel Sing Me Out a man still mourns the death of his wife's illegitimate young daughter thirty years earlier while on the heartbreaking Who Will Pray For Junior a recently widowed mother worries about who will care for the child she more late in life when she passes away, and the jauntily closing Funeral Food notes how somehow a funeral nosh up always seems to attract those friends and relatives that never managed to pay a visit in life.

Superbly played, throughout, Campbell's achingly honest voice rings clear with the sense that these are folk and places that she not only knows, but which are a very part of the blood and history that runs through her veins and keeps her heart beating. It’s going to be a very special night.

 8pm, £11, Ceol Castle. Mike Davies

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Hailing from Dublin’s Northside, Dempsey made his first impression back in 97 when debut single Dublin Town made the Irish Top 20. Since then he’s carved a solid reputation over the course of two well reecived albums, picking up such admirers as Sinead O’Connor , Eno, Shane McGowan and Morrisey along the way. He’s here now with his third album, Shots (Clear), his deep nicotine stained brogue making him sound considerably older than his years, more than Christy Moore than Paddy Casey.

Not one for Irish romantic whimsy, Dempsey comes out punching with his songs about working class struggle and Ireland’s troubled history (and kindred oppressed spirits, the Native Americans) rarely on speaking terms with lyrical subtlety as he recounts the trials and tribulations of a litany of losers picking through the detritus of life in search of a scrap of hope.

There’s times when, as on the drugs bashing Party On, Cursed With A Brain’s attack on greed and the fairly self-explanatory politics of Colony, that you come away feeling like you’ve gone ten rounds with a soapbox and a hammer. But, given the alternative is him uncomfortably trying to sound romantic and tender on the string-dripping Hold Me, perhaps St Patrick’s Day and Sing All Our Cares Away aren’t such a bad alternative.

Raw and blunt, he can turn a gig into a storm of righteous anger, so you’ll at least get plenty of meat to go with the potatoes, though whether there’ll be free glossary notes handed out on the door (as they are on the album) to explain such difficult concepts as a ‘breezeblock’ remains to be seen.

7.30pm, £9, Bar Academy. Mike Davies

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It’s barely two months since the Birmingham boys were launching new single, Bullets and here they already back with the follow-up, Munich (Kitchenware), another mighty amalgam of Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen with driving drums, swirling keyboards and guitar thunderstorms. Altogether rather glorious.

Warming things up are The Rakes who’ve been spending some time thumbing through their Magazine, Pistols, Madness and Specials collections if scratchy guitar and adenoidal new single Retreat (Moshi Moshi) is anything to go by. And, unless the accompanying Dark Clouds is much mistaken, they may quite possibly have had a brush with The Teardrop Explodes too while an energetic live recording of Strasbourg sounds curiously like the early Jam. If any of the above selection rings your bell, they could be worth staggering in early for.

10pm, £4, Club HQ (Hampton Street, B’ham). Mike Davies

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It’s been 15 years since Hawkins first appeared on the scene with the classic Damn., I Wish I Was Your Lover and, thanks to the vagaries and politics of the music business, six since her last album, Timbre. However, taking control of her own career and creativity, she’s resurfaced now with Wilderness (Trumpet Swan), a sultry Brill Building kind of album that lazes its confessional way between the dirtily sensual blues of Sweetsexywoman and l You Make Me High’s jazz-soul through the airy classic Motown pop of Meet Me On The Rooftop to the spinning around joyfulness of Blue and, getting back to the angsty emotions that made her name, the wounded ballad moods of Open Up Your Eyes and Angel of Darkness with its closing Zep storm of guitars.

Indicative too of her musical inclinations now she’s freed of ‘marketing directions’, You Make Me High and her cover of John Coltrane’s Feelin’ Good both find her at ease in the jazz-blues stylings of a Simone or Washington.

A rare appearance on these shores, it promises to be a smoky affair of a gig with emphasis very much on the new material though, having re-recorded it for the UK version of the album, fans will be delighted to know that Damn stands a very good chance of putting in an appearance too. Now, if she could be persuaded to do her sizzling sexy cover of Dylan’s I Want You too the night would be complete.

Support’s provided by Yorkshire singer-songwriter Elaine Palmer whose debut album, Into The Spotlight (Booney Tunes) made by 2004 Best Of list with its introspective but snarly songs about struggles with self-confidence and the harder, uglier sides of love and relationships. Palmer’s endowed with a muscularly emotive voice and a musical style reminiscent of Melanie and Michelle Shocked bringing a darkling folk feel to her work, occasionally tinged with hints of late night smoky jazz and shades of Brel. Tender and angry, often at the same time, the songs repay attention as she delivers such dazzling heart-mapping numbers as Sometimes, Love and Lies, Deja Vu and her stunning seven minute live highlight Space Girls. She's little known yet, but take note this is one of the most exciting new talents to emerge in recent years.

8pm, £8, Glee Club. Mike Davies

Despite acclaim for the live shows, it looks depressingly as if they’ve given up the fight after the critical slagging for last year’s Lifeblood album, resorting to the old standby of beaten men and heading out on a career retrospective tour. They’ve tagged it the Past, Present, Future tour and claim to be returning to cities they have not played in almost 10 years. Well, not since last December anyway as far as Birmingham’s concerned, though that wa sin the rather bigger environs of the NEC. No doubt this is so they can be on more intimate terms with the audience.

Anways, label it how you will, it’s essentially likely to be a thinly disguised Greatest Hits bash with more obscure material such as 4st 7lb and Of Walking Abortion from the recently reissued The Holy Bible to give it some sort of integrity. The future but supposedly promises new material they’re currently recording, but with nothing confirmed I’d not hold my breath waiting for more than perhaps one glimpse of how they intend to try for a post Lifeblood transfusion.

7.30pm, £22.50, W’hampton Civic Hall. Mike Davies

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New Jersey punk cut from the Green Day cloth and sewn with big patches of hook riddled melodies, raging riffs and liberal amount of teen angst, the boys arrive to rip the heart out of current album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (Reprise). A impressive clutch of three minute pop explosions that also trawl in emo and goth influences, current single I’m Not Okay (I Promise) ramping through the roof with effervescent abandon while the likes of the moodier (and at times strangely Sparks-like) staccato You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison (featured live on the single), an urgent soaring Helena, The Ghost of You’s slow fast quiet loud balladry, a metal riffing Thank You For The Venom and an early Queening The Jet Set Life’s Gonna Kill You all spread out the range bubbling through their self-declared 'violent, unsafe pop music.' They have black hair, black clothes and black humour. The gig though will definitely be bouncing into the red.

7.30pm, £10. Wulfrun Hall. Mike Davies

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Now tying in to new funk-lite single Keep The Fire Burning (Parlophone), the Wolverhampton born queen of UK R&B finally gets to play her rescheduled dates originally intended to support last year’s album Affirmation where she came over all Anastacia with Come As You Are a muscular fist of guitar driven tigerish pop rock soul that wouldn't sound out of place on a Tina Turner album.

Nothing else has quite the same dynamite punch, but that's by no means to say it disappoints as Knight wraps her stunning voice around radio friendly pop soul, hitting Prince fun territory with Supersonic, conjuring soundtrack chill moods with the title track, hitting slinky sophisticated groove with the airy jazzer Under The Same Sun, making a bid at the new Diana Ross stakes with soulful ballad Not Too Late For Love and No One Ever Loves In Vain.

It does perhaps wear a little thin on the likes of Tea & Sympathy, Below My Radar and the well intentioned but actually rather dull Latin flavoured r&b of token social comment number Salvador, but any minor blips are fully redeemed as those vocals take off into gospel heaven with the wholly self-penned piano soul closing track Remember Me. A slick, stylish and soulful evening’s guaranteed.

Opening the evening will be emerging star Kevin Mark Trail who provides the soulful voice for Mike Skinner on The Streets’ Let’s Push Things Forward. He makes the solo leap now with Just Living (EMI), but while he’s undeniably got the voice he also sometimes slumps into the yawnsome meandering jazz-funk of Backbone and Da Ragga.

When it cooks though, that’s a different proposition altogether. D Thames evokes the better moments of The Lighthouse Family but without the annoying warble and with more soulful lyrics while Vibe, Perspective, Lion By Trade and Full Moon variously embrace jazzy r&b, hip hop, ragga and acoustic rootsy pop. Bread shows a way with catchy radio friendly melody even if the song itself borders on the cringeworthy and he rounds the album out with the urban social comment soul ballad and hip hop hybrid City Boy that at times suggests that George Benson territory might not be beyond his grasp. Be interesting to see if he has the charisma and confidence he need to carry it through live.

7.30pm, £17.50. W’hampton Civic Hall. (+ Warwick Arts Centre Sat Apr 16, 7.30pm, £19) Mike Davies

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It’s been a couple of years since the Kendal spawned quintet released their debut album The Decline of British Sea Power and found themselves proclaimed the best new band in Britain by the Sunday Times for their cocktail of Joy Division, The Smiths, Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen and Bowie, not to mention the fact they sometimes sang in Czech. They return now with Open Season (Rough Trade), a second sublime slice of intelligent spangly pop tumbling with melodies and wit. Singer Yan still has that breathless quality to the voice that conjures thoughts of a naïf Bowie but also the work of Ian Broudie and, on the tumbling sparkle of Be Gone, the English vocal erudition of Momus.

Trailed by the proudly triumphant clarion guitar waves and marching drums of first single It Ended On An Oily Stage, it’s a fine second trimming of the sails their leafy folk influences holding hands with rushes of classic pop on the likes of How Will I Ever Find My Way Home? and the gorgeous waterfalls of North Hanging Rock while Please Stand Up recalls the halcyon days of Kitchens of Distinction without quite the same overkill arrangement. It’s all marvellously buoyant, tangy with an invigorating hint of indie brine on the skipping Victorian Ice and, possibly the only song to reference an Antarctic ice shelf in the title, Oh Larsen B with its walking New Orderish basslines and imminent status as live highlight.

They climax the album with True Adventures, an epic anthemic iceberg of a number that swells to majestic kaleidoscopic storms of multi-layered guitars and keyboards to with an emotional power the equivalent of scaling the summit of Everest. Naval gazing of the highest order.

7.30pm, £12. Carling Academy. Mike Davies

Inexplicably the incandescently anthemic The Last Broadcast failed to elevate the band to the arena venues their music warrants, but in the wake of the current Some Cities (Heavenly), this must surely be the last tour before they take their deserved place on the stadium circuit. However, despite opening with the tumultuously soaring title track and the general panoramic sonic views, it’s not a slavish repeat of its predecessor’s vast landscapes, preferring instead to frequently scuff its shoes in the 60s back alleys of the North West on something like Someday Soon and Shadows of Salford with their echoes of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society or to loosen the limbs in some Northern Soul club with Black and White Town.

The mood remains subdued with the metronomic rhythms of Almost Forgot Myself evoking the inner city grime in which they were raised, but they also stoke up the coals when the occasion demands, barrelling along with a country verve for Walk In Fire, tick tocking the Velvets walking bass lines to a Northern Soul beat on Sky Starts Falling while the slow building The Storm duly erupts like a cloudburst over the Pennines.

It’s not, perhaps as emotionally immediate as the last album, but it permeates the soul to no less effect, sweeping you up in the breathtaking majesty of Snowdon and the closing Ambition. Take a raincoat because they play with a beauty that’ll make the heavens weep.

 7.30pm, £16.50. Carling Academy. Mike Davies

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Here a few months back, the Californian singer-songwriter harpist returns for another go round with her with extraordinary debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender. Grounded in American folk with particular leanings towards Appalachian, bluegrass and old blues, her high pitched childlike voice, ragged and cracking in place, sounds like Bjork singing country after inhaling helium or Victoria Williams possessed by faeries.

A little of Newsom goes a long way, but it’s hard not to be beguiled by such articulate, literate playful songs like The Book of Right On, Three Little Babes, Sprout and the Bean and, pointing up her nursery rhyme shapes, the harmonium pumping Peach, Plum, Pear.

Sporting references to molluscs and Camus alike, she musically somersaults between the trebly piano waltzing Inflammatory Wit and the quiet Edward Lear pulsing shanty pop of Bridges and Balloons, all making for an intoxicating and bewitchingly eccentric evening.

She’s joined by the rather more traditional sounding young Scottish folkster Alasdair Roberts who’ll be looking to cheer everyone up with selections from his Will Oldham-produced 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.

8pm, £9. Glee Club. Mike Davies

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Fronted by Johnny Bramwell, one of the best English lyricists since Ray Davies, the Mancunian trio returns with their third album, Gods And Monsters (Echo), and another finely invigorating assemblage of acoustic folk and 60s northern pop put to the service of songs about everyday hope, frustration, anger and tragedy.

Opener No Direction Home immediately lays down their Northern Soul roots with its driving rhythms only for the bitingly powerful title track to lurch into a slow clatter like some neurotic carnival ride before first single Over My shoulder steers things into a weary train rhythm chug with a New Orderish bassline.

The disillusionment of Dead Man’s Cigarettes shows off a jazzy rhythmic undercurrent while Sand and Glue, An Ordinary Girl and the starkly sombre piano ballad Avenue of Hope all point up the new theatrical quality in evidence on the album and would easily translate into a Northern cabaret imbued equally with the spirit of Allan Sillitoe, Brecht and Ken Loach.

Founded on a bedrock of passion and concern, observed through the melancholic eyes of a poetic socialist and sung with warmth and compassion, there’s times, most specifically the simple acoustic guitar folksy love song Astray and the album’s glorious, emotionally heartfelt highlight The Stars Look Familiar, that it stands comparison with the very best of Martin Stephenson. Seeing things off with the closing soaring affirmation of I Believe, it’s not unreasonable to suggest this is the best new album of the year so far. And you just know the gig is going to be even better.

 7.30pm, £10, Carling Academy 2. Mike Davies

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Having won over a small legion of new fans with debut album Racecar Is Racecar Backwards with its urgent yet melodic pounding Foo Fighters styled rock and shouty thrashing hardcore, the Guilford lads move into follow up gear with upcoming download only Blamethrower (Xtra Mile), a grinding guitar riff dose of anger, anxiety and melodic hooks that serves to trail second album Very Fast, Very Dangerous due sometime in August. They’ll be showcasing that, and future singles A Kick In The Mouth and Keep It To Yourself tonight.

7.30pm, £6, Bar Academy. Mike Davies

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Saturday April 23

Lucie Silvas

The reign of the mediocre continues. If scientists were asked to clone a hybrid of Norah Jones, Mariah Carey, Katie Melua, Tori, and Alanis but leave out any personality or memorable tunes then Silvas would be the result. She has the lungs and the looks and her debut album  Breathe In (Mercury), is perfectly acceptable anodyne easy listening coffee table fodder, but you can’t help but think she’s making more of a show about twisting her warbly vocals into swooping shapes than is necessary in an effort to sound passionate on things like The Game Is Won.

Pretty much dividing her time between piano friendly ballads and mid tempo gospel pop soul but apparently unable to come up with more than variations on one tune per style, she makes her way through a series of  in and out of love songs that have earned her relatively sizeable hits and an album chart residency. However, unless they’ve spent every waking moment listening to the likes of  Last Man Standing, Twisting The Chain and Don’t Look Back it’s hard to imagine anyone leaving the show with the faintest idea of what they’ve just heard. 

7.30pm, £14. Wulfrun Hall. Mike Davies

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Sunday April 24

Idlewild

Play Warnings/Promises (Parlophone) blind and you might find yourself thinking you’ve stumbled upon REM’s return to form. Certainly Roddy Wooble’s resonant vocals on the glorious opening Love Steals Us From Loneliness could even fool Michael Stipe into thinking he’d recorded it, though he’d probably not have borrowed that touch of Breakfast At Tiffany’s for the chorus. But that’s nothing compared to I Understand It which might require an  musical DNA test to prove it wasn’t filched from the Green sessions.

It’s not only the ghost of REM that hovers here though. I Want A Warning conjures thoughts of Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols while Welcome Home is so firmly steeped in the blood of acoustic Scottish folk-rock that come the big anthemic solo the guitar clearly has aspirations to be bagpipes.

Bu, really, who cares where it’s coming from, the fact is that, now a five piece, this is the band’s finest hour yet, albeit a long way removed from the rowdy boys they were back in the early days. Centring around themes of dislocation (specifically so on the yearningly bruised Disconnected) and uncertainty, it marks their full on entry into the realms of big music after announcing their intentions with The Remote Part, ringing anthemic numbers such as Too Long Awake, El Capitan and As If I Hadn’t Slept standing shoulder to shoulder with the more  reflective uplifting balladry of the strings drenched Not Just Sometimes But Always, the acoustic closing Goodnight and guessingly titled hidden track Together. Despite its chart success, the last album didn’t quite bring the expected Coldplay like breakthrough;  this should put matters deservedly to rights.

7.30pm, £15. Carling Academy. Mike Davies

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Monday April 25

Tears For Fears

Given the number of 80s acts getting back together to milk the era’s revival, it was, perhaps, no surprise to find Roland Orzabel and Curt Smith patching up their differences in the wake of the huge success of  Gary Jules’s cover of Mad World. What is more surprising is that the reunion should produce such a generally fine album in the shape of  Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (Gut), their first together since 1989.

Of course, as you’d expect from the electro pop duo responsible for the likes of  Sowing The Seeds of Love, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Shout, much of it is suitably overstuffed and pretentious with huge arrangements, massively dense production, flower power all you need is love lyrics and Beatles influences oozing out of  the pores in a way not seen since 10cc and ELO called it a day.

The title track sets it off running with a huge summery bounce before first single Closest Thing To Heaven heads off into soulpop space sounding like a meeting between Oasis and Todd Rundgren while the likes of Call Me Mellow, Call Me Tangerine, the curiously Duran meets Bowie sounding Quiet Ones, the Killing With Kindness and the vintage McCartneyesque Secret World all billowing clouds of lush orchestral pop. And yet, oddly enough, the  best track is one of the two bonus numbers on the UK edition; devoid of all the extravagance, the breathily acoustic Pullin’ A Cloud summons not the duo’s familiar reference points but the summery tenderness of Simon & Garfunkel.

Since the crowd’s likely to be predominantly old fans looking to relive their youth, the show’s more likely to lean on old hits than the newer material (and you can guarantee they’ll be including Mad World in there), but this album is firm evidence that, if they can stay on friendly terms, the duo should be looking to the future not the past.

7.30pm, £27.50. NIA. Mike Davies

 CLICK HERE TO READ AN INTERVIEW WITH CURT SMITH

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Monday April 25

Brendan Benson

Big mate and collaborator of Jack White (the White Stripes covered Good To Me and the pair have just finished an album together), Detroit singer-songwriter Benson’s currently being touted as prime contender for the power pop crown. He arrives here in support of The Alternative To Love (V2), his latest collection of chugging four chord damaged love songs and some obvious career self-referencing that gets under way with Spit It Out sounding like the classic Cars collection and Feel Like Myself nodding to his obvious love of bubblegum and Brian Wilson.

The title track is a handclappy acoustic jog that somehow mutates into a harmonica wailing bluesy soul funk mid section before settling back in Partridge Family territory while Gold Into Straw mines the 60s psychedelic pop vault and Cold Hands Warm Heart is all swirly pop. He even turns in a wired up deliberately slightly off the beat Spector pastiche with The Pledge. 

It’s all very pleasant and summery, striking all the right current cred reference points but it has to be said that it never really sounds as though he’s feeling as bruised as the lyrics make out. Also, when you put him alongside other veteran power pop practitioners such as Matthew Sweet and Dwight Twilley who’ve never managed to make the real breakthrough you have to wonder if there’s enough substance here to see him past the current swell of  interest to sustain a long term career. For now, though the album keeps the benefit of the doubt firmly planed on his side of the divide.

7.30pm, £9. Carling Academy 2. Mike Davies

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Monday April 25

Million Dead

Following on from Living The Dream, the polemical Welsh-Australian hardcore outfit are now out on the road showcasing new album Harmony No Harmony (Xtra Mile), a stylistic progression that balances such blood curdling old school heavy battering aggressive numbers as Bread and Circuses (inspired by Alton Towers apparently) and the catchily titled Bovine Spungiform Economics with their more melodic (the emo poppy To Whom It May Concern with its gospel choir  and After The Rush Hour), complex (the metal goth classical Carthargo Est Delena) and delicate (Engine Driver and acoustic title track) sides. Indeed, once over the churning opening Father My Father suddenly breaks into a fully fledged choral number.

Mostly though this is still vein bursting stuff, weltering away on Plan B, getting throbbingly intense with Margot Kidder and coming over all Soundgardenish with Murder and Create while the lyrics explore themes of personal and political unrest, so the prospect of  the room being filled with AOR fans holding lighters aloft seems decidedly remote.

7.30pm, £8. Bar Academy. Mike Davies

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Monday April 25

The Hives

Tyrannosaurus Hives may not be quite as smart as its predecessors, but the Swedish retro garage rockers still have the motor running. Walk Idiot Walk retains their blatant Who obsessions but they’re also displaying a few more influences,  A Little More For Little You is handclapping bubblegum pop with a razor guitar for example with Diabolic Scheme jabbering fractured blues-punk, See Through Head a roiling blend of surf-punk and art rock that sounds like Devo after a few too many speed chasers and Too Timing Touch And Broken Bones slapping the Monkees’ Stepping Stone riff over a Stooges slab of dumb body crashing.  With anything that breaks the 3 minute mark, pretty much the band equivalent of an epic, you can be sure that this is going to fast, loud and very noisy.

  Which, John Spencer and the boys playing second fiddle for once, is a description that pretty much also fits support outfit Blues Explosion, though, lifted from current album Damage, new single Crunchy (Mute) is somewhat atypical, sounding like a Stones swaggerer with a more pronounced swampy rhythm n blues stutter.

7.30pm, £15. W’hampton Civic Hall. Mike Davies

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Monday April 25

Tokyo Dragons

Following in the steps of Young Heart Attack with their unabashed nod to the rifferama metal of AC/DC, the hairy Harrow four piece follow up High On Hate  with new single What The Hell (Island) sounding exactly what you might expect from a band who spend their lives steeped in nicotine, beer fumes,  old sweat and recycled Angus Young licks. Pity the record’s toss.

7.30pm, £5,  Little Civic. Mike Davies

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Tuesday April 26

Faithless

Probably still best known for 1998’s God Is A DJ, the trio - Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Dido’s brother Rollo -  have come a long way since then. Indeed, joined by reggae man LSK, No Roots (BMG), the album which forms the backbone of this tour, is a stunning fusion of dance, ambient chill and social politics themed around love (beautifully expressed on the title track on which Dido returns to fold), relationships, self-worth and how we live today.

Last year’s hit Mass Destruction is undoubtedly the best thing here with its fluid hypnotic groove and thoughtful commentary on personal, global and emotional politics but it’s only a shiver away from the swaying house vibe and wit of  Miss U Less, See U More, the club euphoria of I Want More Part 2 with its Nina Simone sample, the sensuous skank that is Bluegrass and the massive What About Love which is, basically, their equivalent to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

According to Sister Bliss, the album was originally intended to be their swansong, but they found so much inspiration they’ve decided to carry on with a renewed vigour. Something for which we should all be grateful. 

7.30pm, £21.50. NIA. Mike Davies

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Tuesday April 26

LCD Soundsytem

Essentially a vehicle for New York’s multi hyphenate producer James Murphy (expanded to quintet format for live shows), this is art funk punk electro dance with a thing for cowbells and, as Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, On Repeat and Too Much Love happily underline, a hard on for Talking Heads. 

Not that Mr Byrne and co are Murphy’s only true loves. The eponymous debut album (EMI) also cuddles up to a sheaf of other influences that embrace Eno (Great Release is a perfect pastiche), The Fall (Movement), assorted Krautrockers (Can loom large while Disco Infiltrator samples Kraftwerk), a little Suicide rockabilly (Tribulations) and, on the dreamy Never As Tired As When Waking Up, a hybrid between Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and the Beatles’ White Album.

It’s packaged with a bonus disc that features past releases Losing My Edge (a sort of Jonathan Richmanesque art disco producer’s rap wittily sending up self-aware hip dance floor dudes), Beat Connection (“the saddest night out in the USA”), Give It Up (think White Stripes meet Devo), and two versions of Yeah, a mutant disco Crass version and the eleven minute electro bleep Pretentious Version. It gets a bit too self-deprecatingly smug in places and you suspect there’s a major danger of the live set veering towards the indulgently self-absorbed, but there’s unlikely to be too much spare space on the dance floor here.

7.30pm, £12.50. Carling Academy 2. Mike Davies

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Tuesday April 26

Michael Weston King

Having recently discovered he and wife Lou Dalgleish are going to become a trio, Birmingham based Americana singer-songwriter King should be in especially sunny mood for this intimate little outing before he joins the Chris Hillman tour and Lou joins forces with the Brodsky Quartet.

Work’s continuing on preparing material for the follow up to A Decent Man, so chances are there’ll be a couple of try outs in the set alongside his back catalogue riches. It’s also a good opportunity to pick up a copy of Absent Friends, a live/rarities collection that, alongside a Glastonbury recorded Mother Tongue, an acoustic version of  the wistful Angels In The End and the rousing Celestial City, includes the all new ghostly ballad I Fall Behind, a song that you'd be forgiven for mistaking for a previously undiscovered Springsteen classic, and Mike and Lou doing  a perfect Gram and Emmylou on Reserved For Me And You.

 8pm, £10. Ceol Castle. Mike Davies

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Wednesday April 27

Mary Gauthier

Though oft compared to Lucinda Williams,  Louisiana born Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay) more accurately sounds like a female version of John Prine or Kris Kristofferson, spinning her half-spoken, half-sung world weary compassion stained country noir tales of  lives that ‘dangle 'tween hell and hallowed ground’, of losers, barflies, junkies, down and outs, bruised lovers and, inevitably, herself.

Now in her forties, she didn’t start writing until she was 35 by which time she’d survived a dirt stained world of  life battering experiences, filtering them back out through her albums Dixie Kitchen, Drag Queens In Limousines and Filth & Fire. A regular visitor to these parts, she’ll be digging deep into established favourites but also mining her fourth and best, Mercy Now (Lost Highway), where the opening slow desert blues Falling Out of Love with its lonesome guitar and harmonica adds thoughts of Daniel Lanois, Mark Eitzel and Tom Waits to the gold standard reference points.

It starts in stunning form and just gets better, slipping into the title track, a plea for ‘the hand of grace’ to end the suffering of family, church and, in a rare pointed political comment, a country where ‘people in power ... do anything to keep their crown’.

Bundled together midway, the album strikes another rare note in featuring both collaborations and covers. The former’s repped by the jaunty but bitter travelling song Prayer Without Words with its desperate need to find roots and peace, the Prine-like bittersweet inherited traits of  I Drink (re-recorded from 1999) and the spare broken relationship loneliness of Empty Spaces while the latter sees her slow waltzing her weary way through Harlan Howard’s She’s A Rhymer with producer Gulf Morlix on harmony and Fred Eaglesmith’s enigmatic burned and bruised lament Your Sister Cried.

 Elsewhere Gauthier casts her cinematic storytellers eye on New Orleans Mardi Gras and its celebratory approach to death with a sultry funky Wheel Inside The Wheel where ‘Marie Laveau promenades with Oscar Wilde and big funky Stella Twirls her little red umbrella’ while she closes up the album on the hole inside the heart  missing you honky tonk waltzer Drop In The Bucket and, to strike a defiant, I will survive note, the Dylanish, growling electric guitar and organ swirling It Ain’t the Wind, It’s the Rain where, weather-beaten by  life she declares ‘when the storm clouds are building, when the deluge takes aim I know what's coming, I know the rain.’  Go get yourself drenched.

  8pm, £13. Ceol Castle. Mike Davies

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Wednesday April 27

José González

A Swedish-Argentinean singer-songwriter with a sweet voice,  finger picked acoustic classical guitar  and a rising reputation back home for his hushed, intimate confessional balladry pop  that embraces influences as diverse as John Martyn, Joy Division, Nick Drake, flamenco and bossa nova. Signed to Peace Frog, he’s over here for the UK release of both his Veneer  album and Crosses EP, serenading prospective punters with the likes  of the hynal Deadweight On Velveteen, the stark personal relationships dissecting Hints, an uplifting Heartbeats and the delicately quiet Storm. Worth checking out.

8pm, £5. Glee Club. Mike Davies

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Thursday April 28

The Waifs

An Australian Americana outfit comprising  singer-songwriter guitarist sisters Donna and Vicki Simpson and Josh Cunningham, the Waifs return to remind folks of  their bluesy folk-pop album Up All Night.

A collection of road songs, stained by the dust, warmed by the sun and cooled by night under open skies,  it's unfussy but accomplished stuff, the sisters  twangy soulful vocals clearly having spent some time soaking in the glow of Nashville but without feeling the need to actually pretend they were born there.

  London Still, where they talk about wandering round Camden and buying old Motown records will undoubtedly strike a chord with Aussie ex-pats, but you don't have to come from the land Down Under to appreciate the sentiments of aching barroom ballad Nothing New or the 'you don't know me' notes of  Flesh And Blood. 

Cunningham delivers two tracks, the semi-spoken Since I've Been Around, which suggests he's a bit of a Dylan fan, and the heavy-lidded six minute title track that surely owes a nod to Tom Waits,  but it's clearly the sisters out there leading the assault. Well worth a look

7.30pm, £13. Wulfrun Hall. Mike Davies

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Saturday April 30

NFD

Goth rock lives, or at least gargles. Put together by Fields Of The Nephilim founder member Tony Pettitt and Simon Rippin from quasi spin-off The Nefilim, NFD  mine the familiar  musical darkness of their former outfits and like-minded combos such as Sisters Of Mercy and The Mission while adding a dose of dance beats and the sort of metal and industrial that ensures they’ll always have an audience in Germany. 

Here winding up their slot as support on the Mortiis tour, they’ll be plugging debut album No Love Lost (Jungle), a fog of flour and dry ice, growled guttural vocals, grinding guitars, relentless rhythms, acoustic webs and surging black gloom on such typical epic length titles as Lost Souls, Enraptured, Darkness Falls, Hold On To Life, Blackened and a two part Awaken. If you’re not already a signed up devotee of the genre, it’s probably not the best place to begin but for those who keep their hooded cowls in the closet along with the rubber batwings and leather raincoats, it’ll be party night all right.

7.30pm, £10. Carling Academy. Mike Davies

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