Monday October 1

Jeffrey Foucault

A young but age old voiced troubadour and picker steeped in midwest folk and blues, Foucault keeps his dark veined songs spare and simple as he mines the roots of Americana and its mythology of guilt, redemption and quests with images of  leaving trains, weary souls, dreams turned to dust, and ghosts of the past.

He’s not touring a new album this time around, but he is repromoting Ghost Repeater. Perhaps because he got wed during the writing period, it’s  a slightly more upbeat set than his norm, even containing a  couple of numbers, One for Sorrow and Tall Grass in Old Virginny, about weddings and marriage.

But it’s also still packed with his sharp observations and striking vignettes; the roots-rocky title track concerning America’s networks of identikit bland radio stations without any local presence, One Part Love relocating the familiar American roadsong mythology in the north east of England, and Americans In Corduroys picking up a recurring theme of travel. Well worth exploring, especially if he’s still including his melancholic stripped down cover of Creedence’s Lodi.

 Imagine a world weary blend of Steve Earle, John Prine and Harry Chapin, and you have a rough idea of how Nashville singer-songwriter opening act Stephen Simmons sounds. Raised in a conservative Church that banned musical instruments, his last album, Drink Ring Jesus dealt in themes of faith and redemption with a hefty dose of religious imagery. However, the follow-up, Something In between (Rounder) is more concerned with songs of the bruised heart (Go Easy On Me), broken relationships (Long Road), emotional uncertainties (Down Tonight) and men sitting alone in bars (Don’t Mind Me) and hotel rooms (Cloudy In LA), drinking or crying away their regrets.

Stained with melancholy, but with a muscular melodic edge forged by harmonicas, ringing guitars, and tumbling rhythms to go with his dust-throated vocals, they’re purpose built for reflective sorrow drowning and the occasional sprinkle of self-pity, at their strongest on the plangent New Scratches, the border cantina flavoured Down Tonight and the restless soul road song All The Time I’ve Got. Open a cold one and help sing away the pain.  8pm. £9.50. Tower of Song, Pershore Rd South, Kings Norton

Monday October 1

Amy Macdonald

With her guitar driven amalgam of Celtic tinged folk and indie and emotionally articulate songs, the Glaswegian singer-songwriter’s well positioned to win hearts of  Cranberries, Tunstall and Thea Gilmore fans alike. She’s out and about promoting debut album This Is The Life (Vertigo), a grow on you collection of bouncy, catchy melodies, sharp lyrics and that gutsy honey and gravel voice. Current single LA has been picking up airplay, building on the  buzz laid down by the rattling Poison Prince and the jangling Tikaram-like Mr Rock And Roll, and there’s plenty of equally potent material nestling here in the shape of a moody Dolores O’Riordanish strings-laden Footballer’s Wife, the confident swagger and uncertainly on Let’s Start A Band with its operatic soaring, the title track’s urgent acoustic chugging road song and the tinkling, rhythmically rippling, swellingly anthemic Run that could give Snow Patrol a run for their money. Watch her rise. 8pm. £8. Glee Club

Monday October 1

Lightspeed Champion

Formerly with defunct London new rave art punk noisenicks Test Icicles, Houston born Dev Hynes’ new solo career has taken a very different direction. Now into Gram Parsons-style acoustic country, he’ll be unveiling debut album Fall Off The Lavender Bridge next year, doubtless offering tasters tonight of such titles as Everyone’s Listening To Crunk along with new single, the not that country at all really but a bit indie pop with strings Midnight Surprise (Domino). It does come with a pedal steel version, but then again accompanying demo No Surprise is a touch Bright Eyes and The Flesh Failures is a reworked strummed alt-folk version of Let The Sunshine In from Hair. So, who knows what to expect, really. Except, no screams.  7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy

Monday October 1

The Stars

Montreal’s electro pop quintet haven’t been around these parts for four years, since which time a third album has come and gone and they now arrive with a fourth, In Our Bedroom After The War (City Slang). They still sound like an amalgam of Human League, New Order and Saint Etienne with hits of The Smiths and Broken Social Scene, but this is by far the most accessible example yet of their airy pop.

 Opening tinkling instrumental The Beginning Of The End sets the mood, romantic yet edgy, quickly consolidated with the contrasts between The Night Starts Here’s nocturnal, starry sky shimmer and the walking bass line New Order meets U2 The Night Starts Here with its diseased lyrics. It’s back to the bedroom eyes lounge for the whispery samba-tinged My Favourite Book  and Amy Millan’s whispery voice, but as Bitches in Tokyo, Midnight Coward and the lonely hearts ad of Personal all clearly demonstrate, affairs of the heart are not necessarily sweet and smooth sailing. But if you’re going to swallow bitter pills, these mellifluous bubbling tunes make them easier to slip down.  Big piano ballad Barricade even gives its end of love tale a wry twist by having the emotional cost of radical politics cause the break-up.

There’s some misteps here and there, the falsetto disco strut The Ghost of Genova Heights all rather ersatz Bee Gees and sub Prince, Life 2: The Unhappy Ending sagging under its cinematic imagery and the title track working a little too hard to be soaring romantic symphonic grandeur and lush strings in search of a Broadway musical, but a few too years too late for Rent. But, even so, they’re well coming out at night to admire the way they shine. 7.30pm. £8.50. Barfly

Monday October 1

The Checks

They’ve been compared to the Strokes, but this New Zealand garage beat pop rock outfit are far more in thrall to the early r&b days of the Stones and Manfred Mann. Having won over ears earlier this year, Ed Knowles’ brings his tumbling vocal rasp back to town with the rest of the guys to launch debut album Hunting Whales (Full Time Hobby).

As with the opening blue-soul wail of Mercedes Children with its Jagger slurs and Little Red Rooster groove, there’s no frills here, just your down and dirty squealing guitar riffs, throbbing bass, stomping percussion and vein-bursting harmonica. As the title track readily makes clear, Led Zep get a substantial bluesy look in too.

There’s a hint of Delta country to the stabbing chorus rousing Tired From Sleeping in much the same manner as Wild Horses, 60s beat shufffling Terribly Easy tips the wink to the first album days of Ray Davies, new single What You Heard stomps to a Black Betty riff, Where Has She Gone sways woozily in the cheap seats while the sidewalk prowling See Me Peter melds Dream Syndicate and the Doors. Sweaty, tattooed arm, beer-drinking stuff, but the lazy, languid blues Memory Talking shows they can caress as well as kick. You’ll be wishing you’d seem then now come this time next year. 7.30pm. £5. Little Civic, W’hampton

Tuesday October 2

Damien Rice

Moving up several notches on the venue league ladder, this brings the Irish self-confessed depressive back for his biggest tour yet. He’ll again be flagging up past classics such as The Blower’s Daughter and Delicate off his debut O alongside  melancholic gems from follow-up 9, such as raw piano ballad Babies, the aural nervous breakdown Elephant and the confessional Celtic soul anguish of 9 Crimes. Unfortunately, their relationship having ground to an ugly halt earlier this year, she’ll not be along to lend her aching voice to its account about foundering relationships. There’ll doubtless be a few samples of Rice’s more squalling side but, as with newly remixed single Dogs, it’s the foetal position most will be here to see him adopt. 7.30pm. £23.50. NIA

Tuesday October 2

The Puppini Sisters

Inspired by the harmony group of old biddies in French animated movie Belleville Rendezvous,  Italian former fashion student  Marcella Puppini put together the trio with college chums Kate Mullins and Stephanie O’Brien three years ago.

Recreating the harmony swing music of the 30s and 40s on songs like Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B), Mr Sandman and Jeepers Creepers, last year’s debut album, Betcha Bottom Dollar, not only became the UK’s fastest selling jazz debut but even took the No 2 slot on the US jazz charts.

Wary of being tagged an Andrews Sisters tribute act,  sophomore release, The Rise And Fall Of Ruby Woo (Universal), expands things, holding firm to the original musical premise on It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing but also teasing out new grooves. Not least the marriage of swing and hip hop on It’s Not Over (Death or the Toy Piano), the scat and Latin Soho Nights, a slinky Eartha Kittenish I Can’t Believe I’m Not A Millionaire and the cinematic torch of And She Sang, just four of the album’s self-penned contributions.

 Elsewhere, as they did with Wuthering Heights and Heart of Glass,  they put a personal stamp on a clutch of evergreens. Classics IV’s dreamy Spooky has the tempo upped to a  skittish itch,   The Bangles shuffling hit Walk Like An Egyptian is transformed with middle Eastern fabrics and yodelling and here they are purring over a gypsy violin textured Manilow’s Could It Be Magic, taking We Have All The Time in The World out on to the cafe streets of Paris and ripping the mazurka out of Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree.

Others have taken a similar route in the past and failed to sustain the impetus once the novelty value wore off, but hopefully this lot have the steam to keep those juke joints jumping. 8pm. £9. Glee Club

Tuesday October 2

Turin Brakes

Never more than a poor man’s whiny voiced Starsailor, misery soaked fourth album Dark On Fire (Source) paradoxically seeks to escape the rustic pop pigeonhole by toughening up some of the songs to give Stalker a dose of U2 but also throws in the towel with several tracks that sound just like, well, Starsailor. Except that is The Other Side which attempts to be Pink Floyd  playing Americana. It is quite as awful and boring as you might expect.

As with previous albums, there are saving graces. Here they come with the title track’s mournful, cello hued dark folk music, Last Chance’s punchy opening, and the rather lovely pizzicato arrangement of  the otherwise yawnsome and groaningly titled Bye Pod. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine even their most dogged fans cramming down the front demanding to hear these latest missives, and most certainly not the plodding dull Ghost or Timewaster which more than lives up to its title. And then there’s Something in my Eye which serves to reinforce the belief that new fathers should never be allowed to write songs about babies. If you’ve always meant to see them, I’d do it now. It’s unlikely they’ll be around for much longer. 7.30pm. £16. Carling Academy

Tuesday October 2

Jakobinarina

The latest name to emerge from the Icelandic rock scene, this lot are a rather different proposition to the familiar cinematic soundscapes. Which might be a good thing if you happen to be wondering what a Nordic Fall might be like. Actually, that’s a bit unfair. While they experiment with rhythms and tend to be a bit shouty,  The First Crusade (Regal) album is a more punkily melodic affair than most of Mark E Smith’s ever-chaging crew have managed. The guitars are snarly and urgent, the drums thump along and whiney singer Gunnar Ragnarsson has clearly boned up on English New Wave singers and their way of spitting out lyrics. But not all of the time. While His Lyrics Are Disastrous, Monday I’m In Vain (which begins with cascading guitar symphonics), 17 and This Is An Advertisement would have been at home in the peak days of the Vortex, End of Transmission No 6 is a surf rock jam, Sleeping In Seattle could be Iceland’s Boomtown Rats and I’m A Villain is all mockney ska-punk. Bright, angry, dive against walls noise for folk a little too fired up to be blissing out to Sigur Ros. 7.30pm. £5. Little Civic, W’hampton

Wednesday October 3

Ray Quinn

Blimey, is it really almost a year since Merseyside’s Bobby Darin was a bright eyed hopeful on The X-Factor. But while he’s taken his time, at least he’s finally getting out and doing the live thing while Ben Mills’ tour collapsed and cancelled and, holed away recording the album, Leona Lewis hasn’t been heard of since A Moment Like This was last Christmas’s No 1. Both released in March, Quinn’s self-titled album (BMG) also reached No 1, leaving Mills trailing two places behind and (unjustly) vanishing into the bargain racks.

 As was to be expected, it was packed with his interpretations of songs mostly made famous by either Darin or Sinatra. However, while Fly Me To The Moon and The Way You Look Tonight fare well enough, it also reinforced the fact that, at least on disc, he’s frankly too young and lacking in punch to sing things like That’s Life, My Way (particularly thin), Mr Bojangles and Summer Wind. Live, he’s got enough effervescent personality to sock them across and deliver an entertaining show, but if he intends to sustain a recording career he needs to find a sympathetic producer who can either beef up his vocals or find a way to disguise their shortcomings. 7.30pm. £23. Symphony Hall

Thursday October 5

Athlete

Three albums in since they broke big with Wires, and they’re not looking to change the blueprint of melancholic, downbeat lyrics, major chords and radio friendly melodies. Unfortunately, as listening to Beyond The Neighbourhood (Parlophone) attests, despite the promise of the title, they’re not looking to improve upon it beyond adding some new electronic clothing.

There are aspirations to the epic and portentous, as denoted by opening with a scene setting ambient instrumental, In Between 2 States and the fact that The Outsiders (a song about English complacency) would very much like to be Pink Floyd while Hurricane addresses global warming over a choppy sub-Sting groove If this hasn’t given you cause to worry, then try Best Not To Think About It, a  track inspired by the documentary about those who jumped from the WTC on 9/11 and featuring the chorus singalong line ‘it’s a long way down from here’. Mmm. And, oh dear, is that a stab at electro Samba on It’s Not Your Fault

There are bright moments; the driving beat and soaring skies of Tokyo, a delicate pulsing Flying Over Bus Stops, and the spooked frayed nerve Airport Disco which is far better than its meeting between Radiohead and Phil Collins would suggest. But, at the end of the day - and at the end of the album with the resigned This Is What I Sound Like - you can’t help but feel it’ll be the old neighbourhood sights audiences are going to want to revisit tonight. 7.30pm. £16. Carling Academy

Friday October 5

Brum Rocks

And so it is that finally, after what feels like an eternity of prevaricating, rebudgeting and political netball, the old venue finally reopens, renovated and refurbished and, one hopes, with much better acoustics. And what have we got to celebrate this auspicious occasion? Something to signify the forward momentum of the city’s burgeoning musical scene in all its multi-cultural dimensions. Er, well no, it’s a bunch of old Brummie popsters actually. Basically a tarted up retro night, there’s Bev Bevan’s Move  featuring old hand Trevor Burton though, unless ruffled feathers and lawyers hackles have been smothed, without any guest appearance by Roy Wood who, let’s face it, was the band’s driving force.

Then there’s fellow 60s outfit The Fortunes, a close harmony outfit whose You’ve Got Your Troubles and Here It Comes Again are minor pop classics. They’re still fronted by founding member Rod Allen but he’s the only one from the good old days. Then there’s the Rocking Berries who, with numbers like Poor Man’s Son, He’s In Town and What In The World's Come Over You, were once touted as the UK’s answer to the Four Seasons. Again, original singer, falsetto voiced Geoff Turton still does the honours (and occasionally pops up in The Fortunes too), but he’s the only link to the past. Also due to appear, but you’ll  note the ‘subject to availability’ proviso are Dave Pegg, Jasper Carrott and Robert Plant, with Steve Gibbons also likely to show his face. I daresay, it’ll be all jolly fun and there’s certainly some great songs in their joint repertoires, they may even have a communal knees up at the end. And it’s all for children’s charity, too. The reopening fest runs for two weeks with a diverse set of concerts and events with local talent emphasis, but really, you can’t help being all just a little underwhelmed. 7.30pm. £50. Birmingham Town Hall

Friday October 5

The Cribs

After four years and two previous albums, the Wakefield trio finally garnered wider attention with Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever and its a punky indie pop variously calling to mind the likes of The Jam and The Strokes, showing of their softer side on Shoot The Poets but generally characterised by the art rock likes of My Life Flashed Before My Eyes and Men’s Needs. They’ll be previewing the new single Don't You Wanna Be Relevant (Wichita), a non-album track that comes with bonus new material My Adolescent Dreams and Kind Words From The Broken Hearted as well as album favourite Our Bovine Public.

Support is eye-linered fringe cult hero Bobby Conn whose jazz, Latin, metal, pop, prog and glam cocktail album  King For A Day pokes a dig at the Paris Hiltons with Twenty-One, takes a nip at scientology with Anyone and features an eight minute instrumental that includes both birdsong and Latin chant while the sashaying Love Let Me Down is one for the weirder members of Mika’s fanclub. 7.30pm. £11. Carling Academy

Friday October 5

Laura Marling

A new teenage singer-songwriter from Reading way, the darkling-voiced Marling’s been making quite an impression on people in the few months since her name started getting bandied about. Jamie T personally invited her on tour as his support act, she’s guested on a track by The Rakes and is back in town  Sunday supporting the Maccabees.

Meanwhile, toting trusty guitar and piano, she’s getting the solo spotlight to unveil her new EP, My Manic And I (Virgin), a four tracker that evokes thoughts of Suzanne Vega, Dory Previn, Mary Hopkin, Tanita Tikaram and early Joni with its stripped down bluesy alt-folk. She’s a more than capable unsentimental writer and an even better singe; lead track New Romantic details a young girl’s jumbled thoughts about love and relationships while squeezing in a reference to Ryan Adams, the haunting Night Terror offers a spooked tale of nightmares and a protection, the title track takes an affectionate gypsy waltz through male doubt and delusion and, piano ballad Typical addresses arrogance, jealousy, heartbreak, love and the general nature of the human condition. Forget your Tunstalls, Meluas, and Norahs, if she’s got more up her sleeve like this, it’s Marling you’ll be still listening to in ten years time. 8pm. £5. Glee Club

Friday October 5

Jack Penate

Having shown his stripes to good effect with the rollicking Spit At Stars and twangy ska pop Torn On The Platform, the falsetto voiced South Londoner and grandson of Mervyn Peake is out on the road with equally breakneck single Second, Minute Or Hour and accompanying debut album, Matinee (XL).

Unfortunately, it’s here things come unglued as the songs tend to stick to very similar form, all of the cheery, upbeat, fast busking nature and ‘street’ vocal around which his live act’s built. Well, not all. Got My Favourite is a rather plodding funk attempt to marry Mike Skinner and Style Council with Weller’s cappucino soul getting another serving on Run For Your Life, stirred with a dash of Dexys. There’s ballads of sorts too on We Will Be Here, My Yvonne and lo fi strummed closing track When We Die, but they only make you want to push the skip button for another bit of Jack the lad’s breathless bouncing. Fine for a momentary diversion, but there’s nothing here to suggest a longer life. 8pm. £10. Irish Centre, Digbeth

Friday October 5

G Corp

If you can get a late pass, this witching hour gig serves to launch Dub Plates From The Elephant House Vol Three (Endulge), the latest work by homegrown production team Robert Cimarosti and Brian Nordhoff, previously of Electribe 101. It is, as the title might give away, a dub album, the duo working with reggae rhythm section Jaff and Conrad Kelly and guitarist Robert Mullins as The Mighty Three. Assorted guest vocalists also contribute, most effectively Flash on the skankingly hypnotic Freedom Or Death,  Ninety with Demon and Steel Pulse’s Selwyn Brown who lends his voice to People Dub.

 A highly accessible - and at times spacy - fusion of electro and reggae that stands comparison with the best of the Wailers, Sly & Robbie and U-Roy, it steams up a sweet smoke atmosphere on limb twitchers such as Wish You Were Here, Almighty Flood and the head-expanding The Avatar of Cyber Bar. For those into the music or willing to open the veins to its infections, this is quality groove. Even better, it comes with a book of yard style recipes from the Tree’s own mamas, some of which will be served up prior to the set. Midnight. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Friday October 5

The Decemberists

Stepping up into major leagues, the Oregon quintet have crafted their best work yet with The Crane Wife (Rough Trade), a stunning collection of electric  folk-rock and enthralling literate storytelling punctuated by bluesy Zep stomps (When The War Came), psychedelic blues (The Perfect Crime # 2) and a 12 minute three part style hopping epic of 70s prog-folk-rock-blues about rape and murder in the shape of The Island that conjures a collaboration between Jethro Tull, Dream Syndicate and ELP.

The album title stems from an old  Japanese folk tale, providing inspiration for not just the opening acoustic warbling marching beat folk of a rueful The Crane Wife 3 but also a symphonic 11 minute The Crane Wife 1&2 that rises to a cresendo before giving way to the rousingly anthemic jogalong closer Sons & Daughters.

This would be incentive enough, but Colin Meloy and his crew have even more diamonds in their mine; visiting the American Civil War with the wondrous Laura Veirs duet Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then), weaving an unsettling lullaby about urban murderers Shankhill Butchers, and trawling through love and death on Summersong and the Romeo & Juliet tragedy unfolded on the perkily poppy O Valencia.

Pain, murder, pillage, blood, rape, drowning, greed, betrayal, death and good tunes, what more can you ask from a night out! 7.30pm. £12.50. Wulfrun Hall, W’hampton

Saturday October 6

Maps

Shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, breathy-voiced Northampton bedroom synth genius James Chapman may not have walked away a winner but being nominated  certainly hasn’t harmed sales of debut album We Can Create with its electro-pop wander through the landscapes of Flaming Lips, Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Sufjan Stevens, Jesus & Mary Chain, Sigur Ros and My Bloody Valentine.

Working as a quartet for live shows, they’ll be offering more beefed up incarnations of such summertime skitterings as So High, So Low, You Don't Know Her Name, Lost My Soul, the trip-hoppy It Will Find You and new single To The Sky. Euphoric on disc, it’ll be interesting to see what changes stage flesh and blood wring. 7pm. £7. Carling Academy 2

Saturday October 6

John Foxx

It’s 27 years since the former Ulrtravox singer released his debut solo album, Metamatic, which, with its synths and rhythm machines pioneered the whole genre of industrio-futura electronic music - or ‘late 20th Century urban blues’ as he described it - with such tracks as Underpass, He’s A Liquid and Metal Beat.

Retiring from pop in the mid 80s, Foxx turned attention instead to graphic design (under his real name of Dennis Leigh), a capella ambient music and, later, excursions into trip hop and dance. Resurfacing a  decade ago for a new approach to his synth pop, he’s been making regular live appearances and solo and collaborative albums, a project with Robin Guthrie due to surface next year.

He’s also decided to revisit his groundbreaking influential masterpiece, an album now cited as visionary by The Klaxons, reissuing it via Edsel with a bonus disc featuring debut single Burning Car,  B sides, previously unreleased alternative takes (including the poppy Like A Miracle from The Golden Section), and reconstructed versions of  two 1979 cassette recordings, Cinemascope and To Be With You.

On top of which, he’s taking the album out live for a full performance of both it, the singles and  B sides for the first and, most likely, only time. And yes, those sculpted cheek bones are still as sharp as ice. 7.30pm. £8.50. Barfly

Saturday October 6

Fightstar

Driving a further nail into the coffin of any Busted reunion rumours, Charlie Simpson’s post-split outfit resurface from major label fall-out with a second album, One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (Gut). Unlike Grand Unification, this is pointedly personal, much informed by the collapse of his seven year relationship but, as the opening flurry of 99, We Apologise For Nothing and piano laden stadium ballad Floods ably illustrate, it’s also a lot more melodic while remaining at the harder end of the indie rock spectrum.

Not that catchy melodies are always uppermost, Deathcar has them but it also has hammer through the skull hardcore yowling too. Bleeding ears are also on the cards with Amaze Us, Tannhauser and H.I.P. (Enough) which, if they loom large in the live set, is going to keep audiences on their toes.

Simpson’s not convincing enough to be invited to audition for Napalm Death though, and it’s inevitably the relatively softer numbers that give the album its substantial kick, the gentle, pained loss of Unfamiliar Feelings, a swelling One Last Common Ancestor, and the radio friendly  emotionally urgent I Am The Message all solid testament to the fact they’re looking unswervingly forward and most definitely have a future in their hands.

 Support comes form rising Surrey emo boys You Me At Six, launching debut single Save It For The Bedroom. 8pm. £11. Sanctuary, Digbeth

Sunday October 7

Annuals

Big music merchants from North Carolina, the quintet sail close to the likes of Flaming Lips, filtering in Beach Boys, Polyphonic Spree, Radiohead, Arcade Fire and even Aphex Twin on their Be He Me (Virgin) album. It’s an odd beast, musically packed with lush melodies but also liberally laced with left field jokiness, antic arrangements and all manner of style grabs that turn the songs into mini sonic adventures.

It can, as Chase You Off, the tropical/African jazz/prog hued The Bull And The Goat, and the jumbles of weirdness that are Sway and Bleary-Eyed, prove an exhausting listen, even something as relatively straightforward as the cosmic pop of Mama defying you to even attempt to sing along.

But then, just to catch you completely off guard, current tumultuous single Brother comes with a bonus track of them doing a rather fine backporch gospel swaying version of the old hymnal chestnut Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. They deserve to be huge. 8pm. £7. Barfly

Sunday October 7

The Maccabees

A rescheduled appearance for the Brighton art rock outfit, but by now chances are they’ve missed the bus with the realisation that debut album In Colour (Fiction) is all rather samey with track after track pumping out with nervy guitars, urgent vocals and flurried chorus. Even the slow paced Good Old Bill reverts to type by the time it reaches the end.

They do have some moments that live up to the Jarvis Cocker and Ray Davies references and, individually, Tissue Shoulders, O.A.V.I.P., and Happy Faces are naggingly catchy rompers. But you can only take so many similar exuberant jangles at one go before feeling the need to find something with more shadings. The acoustic calypso lilt Toothpaste Kisses, shows they can vary the diet if they feel like it; if they want to hang around they should have the feeling more often. 7pm. £10. Carling Academy

Monday October 8

Don McLean

Although Vincent may run it a close second, some 36 years after is release, American Pie remains the song by which McLean is defined. Few would also disagree that, while later albums may have individually memorable tracks, it’s the first two, Tapestry and American Pie, that contain his best work with such songs as Castles In The Air, Magdalene Lane, And I Love You So, Empty Chairs, Winterwood and The Grave.

Although, save for the early 90s reissue of Pie,  he’s not troubled the charts in over 25 years, he’s continued to turn out albums on a regular basis, albeit several of them either being Christmas or covers collections. Compilation permutations regularly surface too, and it’s on the back of the latest, The Legendary Don McLean (EMI), that’s he’s here now.

 If you already own the similarly titled Legendary Songs Of, there’s not a huge point adding this to the pile since the track listings almost identical, save that, among the expected favourites, this includes In A Museum, a new track that shows he’s still in good voice and still capable of making relevant socio-political comment.

Of course, the songs included also point up his tendency to the sentimentally twee on something like Wonderful Baby and, while Crying was a deserved chart topper, his ability to turn other evergreens such as Everyday and Your Cheating Hearts into utter dirges. Doubtless the album will also provide the bulk, if not all, of the set list though hopefully he might find room for Superman’s Ghost, a much overlooked tribute to the late George Reeves. However, given the somewhat self-satisfied interview that’s included on the accompanying in concert DVD, let’s also hope he keeps the between song chat to a minimum. 7.30pm. £29.50/£22.50. Symphony Hall

Monday October 8

Mary Gauthier

A welcome regular visitor to the venue, this time she’s back with new album Between Daylight and Dark (Lost Highway), a piercingly intimate affair about letting go of the past and finding the strength to endure the present and embrace the future, a hard won wisdom born of both bitter and tender experiences.

But unlike some of her past work, here the light shines through the cracks. Can’t Find The Way’s aching story of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath talks of the determination not to be beaten down by the odds, I Ain’t Leaving has her defiantly standing her ground and looking firmly in the face of adversity while Same Road sees her reach out to a friend falling into the darkness she once suffered but finding the courage not to be dragged back down too.

She’s not afraid to expose her vulnerability either, the rippling acoustic Please finding her on the road, yearning to be back with her lover.

 Less autobiographical numbers trace the path between despair and devotion, from the suicidal woman on Snakebit to Thanksgiving’s dust coated story of families that return year after year for prison visits.  It may just be one of the finest, most moving songs she’s ever written.

Time and the need to include old favourites means she’s unlikely to allow her to showcase more than a few songs tonight, but be assured you’ll be taking them home in your hearts.   Highly enticing support’s provided by Emily Barker, Australian born singer for Cambridge’s Americana outfit The-Low-Country, who’ll be picking choice cuts from her solo album,  Photos. Fires. Fables (Artswa). A melancholic affair with hints of the Cowboy Junkies and Gillian Welch to This Is How It's Meant To Be and On A Train or Emmylou on Reason For The Rain, there's also old school backwoods acoustic folk country in evidence on things like the ripplingly lovely Blackbird and banjo accompanied folk ballad, Fields of June. If she elects to include unadorned five minute aching folk blues If Love Could Save, you’ll easily understand why many have her on their year’s best lists. 8pm. £14. Glee Club

Monday October 8

Thomas Dolby

Known to his birth certificate as Thomas Robertson, son of an Oxford University Classics professor, Dolby was a leading pioneer of 80s synthpop, perhaps best known for the Magnus Pyke sampling She Blinded Me With Science, a track that cracked the US  Top 5 but only struggled into the Top 50 here. Rather less know is the fact he was the keyboard player on Def Leppard’s Pyromania and was responsible for the synth intro to Foreigner’s Waiting For A Girl Like You. Mercifully, it’s unlikely he’ll be reliving either of those glories here.

He pretty much dropped out of the music scene after 1992’s Astronauts & Heretics, only resurfacing last year, playing his first solo show in 25 years in January. He also embarked on the Sole Inhabitant tour of America, and its likely the set list here will be much the same, featuring Windpower, Hyperactive, One Of Our Submarines, Leipzig Is Calling and the underrated classic Europa and the Pirate Twins.

There should even be a smattering of fresh material since ‘comeback’ EP Live at SxSW, includes wittily catchy new electronic funk pop number Your Karma Hit My Dogma. Be great if he could also be persuaded to resurrect The Jungle Line, the tribal drum heavy Joni Mitchell cover he recorded back in 1981  as Low Noise.  7pm. £12.50. Carling Academy 2

Monday October 8

Kula Shaker

There wasn’t exactly much wailing and gnashing when the band split back in 1999, leaving behind a mixed legacy of cod-psychedelia in the shape of  hits like Tattva, Hey Dude, Govinda (sung, you’ll recall in Sanskrit) and their cover of Hush but also a career that nosedived in the wake of Crispin Mills blathering about mystical swastikas saw them hauled across the tabloids and the much delayed second album, Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts spluttered and died.

However,  with solo ventures hardly setting the world alight, they got back together (minus original keyboard player Jay) three years ago, prompting Mills to finally call a halt to his resoundingly forgettable new outfit The Jeevas, junking a less than anxiously awaited third album mid-way through.

Doubtless due to it sounding not unlike an ELO outtake, the fan frenzy greeting the comeback propelled first single Second Single to the dizzy heights of 101 in the charts while the album, Strangefolk, soared to the bottom end of the Top 70.

It’s actually not a bad noise, the band displaying a tougher edge than before with some hefty riffage on things like Out On The Highway, Super CB Operator, the bluesy Die For Love  and the folk dervish rock Hurricane Season while Fool That I Am take son the Magic Numbers at the Mamas and Papas harmonies game. They even take a stab at social comment with songs saying war and oppressing people aren’t nice things.

But when Narayama and the spoken word title track sees Mills revisiting his Eastern dilettantism you tend to throw up your hands in despair while tongue in cheek glammed rock n roll romp Great Dictator of the Free World begs you not to take them seriously. It’s entertaining to have them back, but no one’s going to be begging them to stick around. 7.30pm. £.15. Wulfrun Hall

Tuesday October 9

Foals

The self-described ‘Korean pop afro-beat minimalists’ (that’s basically bleepy art pop electro to you and me, and actually they come from Brighton ) follow up debut single Hummer with the rather more impressive Mathletics (Transgressive), a solid dose of Bloc Party dance floor clubbing that should get punters jerking around, in a good way. Having recently finished the debut album, due out next March, they’ll be checking to see what moves it has live too. 7.30pm. £6. Barfly

Tuesday October 9

David Ford

The former  quivering voiced frontman with Easyworld, made an auspicious solo debut two years back with  I Sincerely Apologise For All The Troubles I’ve Caused, an album fuelled by his experiences in the business and drenched in the radio friendly vitriol and bitterness of things like I Don’t Care What You Call Me and What Would You Have Me Do?.

Now he’s back with Songs For The Road (Independiente), this time rooted in  the American touring experiences that ensued. He’s not much happier, though. Either with those he met or himself.

The opening track is slowly soaring self-lacerating ballad laden with chamber orchestra strings, sporting the title Go To Hell and a few numbers later he’s coming over all maudlin with 0I’m Alright Now, slipping into early Dylan (borrowing from Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall before erupting into a squall of drums and harmonica) for Requiem’s biting condemnation of political apathy, and painting caustic portraits of southern rednecks (St Peter) and doomed drunks on the bouncy Nobody Tells Me What To Do.

 He’s probably not the life and soul of the party, but fortunately he is a very talented songsmith and singer, mining faltering emotion with Waitsian piano ballad Song For The Road, reaching for fragments of hope and redemption on the Eagles-like Train and leaking compassionate understanding at a friend’s suicide for the closing And So You Fell. Probably not the cheeriest, most uplifting musical evening you’ll have this year, but you couldn’t ask to share misery, anger and self-recrimination in better company. 8pm. £8. Glee Club

Wednesday October 10

Stephen Fretwell

The distorted vocals and drunken, slouching carnivalesque boom chicka boom beat of Coney, the opening track of  new album Man On The Roof (Polydor) may well scare off the casual listener checking out reports that the Scunthorpe lad’s a rising star on the ruminative acoustic singer-songwriter scene. It’s certainly likely to turn Nick Drake devotees pale. But slip over to the following Darlin’ Don’t and it’s immediately obvious why he’s been earning all these plaudits.

The follow up to Magpie, it sports the same blend of dreamy, sometimes Lennon-esque pop (She), jazzy folk (Dead), slow burn Celtic soul (Funny Hats) and skittering shuffles (Scar). Gradually building anthemic piano ballad Now might also send shivers down Coldplay spines.

Lyrically, it explores well trodden ground about troubled relationships, the need for emotional redemption and self-searching but still manages to touch new nerves, notably so on the starkly acoustic The Ground Beneath Your Feet and the brief drowning at the bottom of a dark well spare bluesy mood of Saturday. And how can anyone resist a song titled William Shatner’s Dog, especially when it’s such a battered and bruised reflection on an old flame.

It’s not clear whether this is a solo gig or if he’ll have a band, but either way, full or stripped back, these are songs which, in tandem with first album nuggets such as   Bad Bad Me Bad Bad You  and Run, will have you singing his praises from, well, the roof. 7.30pm. £12.50. Barfly

Wednesday October 10

Maximo Park

Going from strength to strength, the Geordie boys are back in town following the release of piston pumping staccato Girls Who Play Guitars, the latest single lifted from Our Earthly Pleasures (Warp) with its melody laden synth and guitar songs dealing with the downers of modern life.

They might, at some stage, contemplate trying something more with the slower pace of Sandblasted And Set Free, but for now the crowds should be out in force to pump along with the likes of Our Velocity, Books From Boxes and  A Fortnight’s Time. This is Park life lived to the full.

Support comes from electro post punk artrock outfit GoodBooks who’ve finally got round to releasing debut album Control (Columbia) after a string of such middling singles as Leni’s dull mix of Bowie and Supertramp. There’s some sighs of relief here with anti-war English dance floor pop action Passchendael, the choppy literate funk of The Curse of Saul, the Oriental tinkles to Violent Man Lovesong and the hurry along Alice with its English life insights, but at the end of the day their ambition to be a sort of Talking Heads meets Pet Shop Boys doesn’t prove to be a page turner. 7.30pm. £16.50. W’hampton Civic Hall

Wednesday October 10

My Alamo

Moseley (by way of Wales), this is  big, noisy guitar muscle flexing alt rock and vocals. Debut single, 1994, swirled thoughts of Foo Fighters, an association that, throwing in several Nirvana nods, rears its head again on their eponymous album (Seventh Star) where guitars variously snarl, chug, circle and clear their throats on the likes of  a stabbing angular My Friend Said, the hammeringly driven Pornography, a corrosive I’m Not The Enemy with its Cobain vocal inflections, and the hard but melodic indie pop flavours of Arabella’s Dying and The Undisguised. There’s bristling energy here that promises to explode on stage. It may, ultimately, be meat and potatoes modern rock, but it’s made from best steak and King Edwards. You’ll remember the Alamo. 7.30pm. £6.  Little Civic, Wolverhampton

Thursday October 11

Guillemots & CBSO

One of the real highlights of the mostly stolid Town Hall reopening celebrations, this brings together Birmingham’s finest, revisiting tracks from acclaimed debut album Through The Window Pane and a sprinkling of newer material in the company of backing musicians the CBSO. Other than the chance to perhaps hear Made Up Love Song # 43 and Trains To Brazil in full orchestral flood, the evening also offers the tantalising prospect of them collaborating on songs chosen from Fyfe Dangerfield’s list of personal favourites and the world premiere of a new specially commissioned Dangerfield composition. 7.30pm. £20/£17.50. B’ham Town Hall

Thursday October 11

Just Jack

Sometime DJ and occasional Ian Dury wannabe, Allsopp’s found a new lease of life on the back of  the public taking to  Lily Allen, Jamie T, and The Streets and their  urban indie dance, rap, rock and electronica fusion songs about working class life. Tying in with the release of  the new live vibe version of clattery jazz funk Curtis Mayfield throwback No Time, he’s back again for another serving of material off current album Overtones (Mercury), swirling together jazz, Latin, hip hop, ska, funk for things like a Jamiroquai-like I Talk To Much and the flamenco flavoured Hold On. Who knows, he might even throw in his cover of The Cardigans Lovefool that he recorded for the Radio 1 40th anniversary album.

Opening act is  Acton trio Scouting For Girls, looking to quickly capitalise on bouncy debut single It’s Not About You with radio friendly syllable stressing choppy pop She’s So Lovely and their self-titled album (Epic). Trading in upbeat Norf Larndan rock n roll roll with a collision between Supergrass and Pulp influences, they manage to earn a merit badge for the lovelorn breezy Britpop of I’m Not Over You, Keep On Walking, The Airplane Song, I Need A Holiday and Elvis Ain’t Dead, with its suspiciously Supertramp style intro. That they also a love song to Michaela Strachan suggests they don’t take things too seriously, possibly a good idea since, while energetic bouncy fodder, there’s ultimately nothing here that suggests they’ll be earning any Baden Powell awards for pop in the near future. 7.30pm. £12.50. Carling Academy

Friday October 12

Funeral For A Friend

Having taken time off for his excellent Americana side project  The Secret Show, Matt Davies gets back with his Welsh band buddies for their biggest UK tour yet in service of the excellent Tales Don’t Tell Themselves album. Standout numbers such as the chiming Into Oblivion, the New Order rhythmed On A Wire, yearningly anthemic Walk Away and swelling ballad The Sweetest Wave should loom large. But the set list is also likely to call attention to the fact they’re releasing a new mini-album, headed up by The Great Wide Open (Atlantic) but also featuring live versions of all the songs from their first two EPs, among them 10.45 Amsterdam Conversations,  Red Is The New Black, She Drove Me To Daytime Television and The Art Of American Football. Without anyone noticing, they’ve quietly become one of the country’s best band.

They share the night with Glaswegian quintet The Dykeenies whose debut album, Nothing Means Everything (Lavolta) has been picking up some unfathomable rave reviews. There’s nothing exactly wrong with it, indeed those wishing The Killers had remade their first album instead of taking off in new directions, will be more than happy with the likes of The Panic, Waiting For Go, Lose Ourselves and new single Stitches. There’s punchy rhythms, singalong choruses and energetic melodic flurries, as short and sharp efficient as the In & Out track itself, but the jury’s going to have to remain out on staying power until the next album. 7.30pm. £10. Barfly

Friday October 12

Rush

A frightening thought for many, a vision of paradise for prog metal excessives as Geddy Lee, Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson return to the fray with soaring pomp flying at full mast. The trio made their name in the mid 70s with albums featuring lengthy epics full of virtuoso solos and lyrics drawing on fantasy, sci fi and socio-politics and spectacular live shows involving revolving drum kits and assorted pyrotechnics.

Although they fell from grace in the prog-rock backlash, it’s now generally agreed that such album opuses as Fly By Night, 2112, A Farewell To Kings and Permanent Waves have proven influences on names like Metallica, The Smashing Pumpkins and Dream Theatre.

After a lengthy hiatus, they resurfaced five years ago with Vapor Trails and now arrive with follow-up Snakes & Arrows (Atlantic), an album that apparently draws its influences from a mix of Buddhism, Hamlet and the Snakes & Ladders board game with Peart’s lyrics focusing on his reflections on faith during assorted bike trips across America.

Harking back to their late 70s sound, though with mercifully only three tracks breaking the six minute mark, it’s the usual mix of the portentous (Malignant Narcissism,Spindrift), the pretentious (Armor & Sword, The Way The Wind Blows) and the pop (Working Them Angels, Bravest Face), all of which, spiced with old favourites such as Spirit of the Radio, Tom Sawyer and Distant Early Warning should have the faithful in raptures. 7.30pm. £45/£30. NEC

Friday October 12

Happy Mondays

Having collapsed in 1992 amid a welter of internal conflicts and the albatross of Shaun Ryder’s drugs and drink addictions that at one point seemed likely to add him to the rock and roll casualty roll call, I doubt anyone would have put money on any reformation. But then, Black Grape having soured, in 1999 Ryder and Bez briefly resurrected the name with a new line up only to fall apart again in the face of public indifference.

 Then, after a failed solo career, in 2004 Ryder took another stab, again with Bez and original member Gary Whelan among the new roster. Surprises all round then as, three years on with Ryder apparently now cleaned up, they’re still going strong on the back of the well received Uncle Dysfunktional (Sequel) album dragging old and new fans back on to the dance floor. Certainly memories of  Kinky Afro, Step On and Loose Fit are well served by the dubby dirty slinks of Jellybean and Deviants, the Stonesy narcotic groove In The Blood, psychedelic acid double act Dr Dick and Weather  and the slippery, greasy spine-curving electro-funk pop of Rush Rush and the title track. It’s not yet restored their chart fortunes, but it’s certainly putting life back into the clubs. 6.30pm. £25. Carling Academy

Friday October 12

Puressence

Fronted by  choirboy voiced tenor James Mudriczki, the Oldham quintet were once hailed as next big things and the new Simple Minds  in the wake of their self-titled debut album. Unfortunately, no one actually bought it or any of its five fine. Things looked up with the arrival of  1998’s Only Forever, first single This Feeling providing their Top 40 debut. But then, despite Walking Dead providing a third Top 40 single, 2002’s Planet Hopeless sank without trace, leading to the band parting company with Island.

Five years on, now signed to the reactivated Reaction label but minus original guitarist Neil Macdonald, they return with Don’t Forget To Remember, their big swelling sound now having found public favour via the likes of Snow Patrol and Coldplay. 

A fine noise they make too,  burning smouldering heat on the nervy Life Comes Down Hard, circling the rafters on the Minds-like Bitter Pill and the vaulting flamenco stadium rock Burns Inside, throbbing across the early U2 radar for Moonbeam and Drop Down To Earth and wringing out the emotions of softer open-veined numbers Sold Unseen and the title track. Their time is long overdue, but hopefully this is finally their moment to shine. 7.30pm. £10. W’hampton Civic Bar

Friday October 12

Seth Lakeman

Alongside Kate Rusby,  the fiddle and guitar playing Devonian’s one of the few of the Britfolk pack who’s managed to squeeze through the cracks into more mainstream audiences.  Last year saw him opening eyes with his Freedom Fields album marriage of folk tradition and rock sensibility and he’s back on the road now with new EP, Poor Man’s Heaven (Relentless) offering a taster for next year’s album of the same name.

The title track’s a steamrollering chunky rhythm groove of rock guitar riff and fiddle, joined by the gutsy, violin driven Race To Be King, a blistering live version of How Much, and, for the softer touch, trad ballad style ghost song Lillywhite Girl. Appetites should be considerably whetted.  7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall

Friday October 12

Fortune Drive

With My Girlfriend’s An Arsonist, Recent Advances Vol II, and Sparkle having paved the way, the Bristol quintet are busy plugging debut album A Modern Question. Other than how closely From Start To Finish resembles The Smiths, there’s no major surprises here, just solid riffing rock n roll swaggerers about drink and sex.  At times (as with To The Rye) they veer close to routine hard rock while Clown Factory is a lumbering closing time swayalong, but if they put their energies into the Oasis tinged Sparkle,  up and running Said It All and pub rumble punching Girl In Stripes, they shouldn’t have any trouble keeping the crowd happy. 7.30pm. £5.50.Little Civic, W’hampton

Saturday October 13

Editors

OK, with their massive wall of sound and deep vocals, the gloom enshrouded Birmingham based champions sound exactly like a fusion of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, But since when has that been a problem? Having already provided one of the year’s finest singles with the Atmosphere-like Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, And End Has a Start (Kitchenware) is positively bursting its banks with similarly swelling, skyscraping guitar melancholic anthems in the form of Escape The Nest, The Weight Of The World, Bones, Spiders and the momentous title track.

Exhausting stuff, so the closing simple spare piano ballad Well Worn Hand comes as a welcome chance to take a breath and calm down. A guaranteed explosive evening, even more so if they can be persuaded to lighten up and include their Radio 1 cover of  The Cure's Lullaby. 7pm. £15. Carling Academy

Saturday October 13

The Thrills

Their debut album, So Much For The City, was drenched  in a 60s California vibe, drawing on such influences as Neil Young, the Beach Boys, Nilsson, The Band,  and The Byrds for their tales of  broken love, lost friendships and small town melancholy. Then came Let’s Bottle Bohemia, repeating the trick with songs of  regret, loss, rejection and failure couched in breezy falsettos, chiming guitars, sweeping strings and flourishes of brass.

However, for their third album, Teenager (Virgin), the Dubliners are sounding more 80s while there are clouds misting across the sun. As the title might suggest, it takes adolescent angst and issues as its theme. So, memoirs of first jobs, first loves, first drinks, first heartbreaks and confused hormones a go go then, dressed in trademark woozy countrified pop with its warm harmonies, jangling guitars and lush melodies.

This Year, I Came All This Way and The Midnight Choir get the jaunty ball rolling, I’m So Sorry takes a leaf out of the Born to Run book while the title track and Should Have Known Better sway around clutching regrets and missed opportunities. Indulge your melancholic reveries, envy lost youth along with singer Conor Deasy, and raise a glass and sing along to those happy days of backseat fumblings and optimistic innocence.

Kindred spirit support comes courtesy of  Crash  My Model Car, another bunch with a  fondness for 60s California to judge by In Dreams (My Dad), lead track off their single taster for the upcoming debut album. Throw in the alt-country shaded jog of Walking Sideways and Tip Toe’s moody, end of tether atmospherics, and you should be making a point of arriving early. 7.30pm. £14. Wulfrun Hall

Sunday October 14

The Coral

With songs drawn on real experiences (mostly relationships and affairs of the heart), the Scousers take to the tour bus in belated support of  Roots & Echoes (Deltasonic), an album firmly grounded in the retro sounds of the psychedelic and beat 60s. They get off to a good start with Who’s Gonna Find Me, a fine piece of swirly summer of love fuzzy pop that calls to mind a marriage of Love and the Isleys and variously proceed to conjure 60s thoughts of Dave Berry, Jim Morrison, Paul Jones, Scott Walker, Lee Hazelwood, Glen Campbell, Roy Orbison, Noel Harrison and Burt Bacharach.

James Skelly’s in excellent, warm and yearningly bruised soulful vocal form, the returning Bill Ryder-Jones dashes of some glistening guitar while the songs themselves are easily among the best, most melodic and haunting they’ve yet written.

From the jazzy-blues shuffle of Remember Me that sounds like it should be in some 50s beat noir movie and the rain-splashed broken hearted streets of Fireflies (shades of Brel here) through the jangling Merseybeat balladeering of Put The Sun Back and Jacqueline to the hustling early Stones of  In The Rain and the country flavours of Cobwebs, they deliver time after time. There’s a classic feel to the album that suggests it’ll sound just as good in 10 years as it does now, hopefully the band will still be around to bask in its glory. 7pm. £16. Carling Academy

Sunday October 14

Fink

The Bristol disc spinner turned musician made an impressive move from behind the decks with debut album Biscuits For Breakfast that saw him plying a similar soulful folky blues to John Martyn gilded with Jack Johnson mellowness and Devandra Banhart fragility.

And now here he is again with follow up Distance And Time (Ninja Tune), another collection of mood piece numbers about wounded relationships streaked with narcotic smoke and delivered in that chill out blues voice.

If anything he’s actually pared things back,  the songs slowly seeping into the bloodstream rather than knocking you on the head. But while they may not be instant they are insistent; the heavy lidded shrug This Is The Thing from the Mastercard ad, Trouble’s What You’re In’s prowling flamenco menace, the acoustic soulfulness of If Only and Make It Good, the lovechild of Massive Attack and Jeff Buckley, all take up residence in the brain and refuse to budge.

Comparisons to Jose Gonzalez are inevitable, but there’s more funky spirit in Fink’s groove , ably demonstrated on the  pulsating skanking beats and dub of Blueberry Pancakes or the ghostly summer dusk blues of current single Little Blue Mailbox.

Intimate and hushed with a keen understanding of musical tensions, he’s got the potential to become a very important name indeed and, if you get along to the gig, insist that he does his acoustic percussive interpretation of Alison Moyet’s All Cried Out. You’ll be blown away. 7.30pm. £5. The Yardbird, Paradise Place, B’ham

Sunday October 14

The Enemy

They’re basic, they’re rowdy and the Coventry guitar boys have such a big thing for The Jam that he Richard and Judy namechecking Away From Here sounds just like them and album title track We’ll Live And Die In These Towns basically recycles huge chunks of  Going Underground.

 So, what’s not to like. They’ve bashed out the songs from the debut album (Warner) on several occasions over the past few months, but really you can’t get enough of throwing yourself around to the likes of Had Enough, You’re Not Alone, the whirling dervish It’s Not OK, 40 Days And 40 Nights and their marvellously clunky stadium swayer dead end town dreams ballad This Song. Best live noise of the year, quite possibly.

They’re joined on the road this time by The Wombats who’ll be showcasing the upcoming album and serving reminder of current single, the rowdy punk pop and girlie chorus of  Let’s Dance To Joy Division. Also along is current name to drop on the rap and grime beats circuit, Lethal Bizzle with his sampling happy Back To The Bizznizz (V2). I’m no expert or particular fan of his chosen musical genre, but it’s hard to deny that the Ruts sampling Babylon’s Burning The Ghetto, his flurried rap across the Clash’s Police On My Back and collaborations with Babyshambles on the rockabilly drum and bass skittering vocal athletics of Boy and Kate Nash for Look What You Done’s machismo and bling bling riposte are urgent, infectiously thrilling slabs of urban rockrap.

They also point up his sharp lyrics too, certainly something like Selfridge’s Girl On My Space or  the brooding soul Reflecting are far more barbed and insightfully observed than The Streets.

My Eyes suggests he shouldn’t stray near earnest balladry too often, but judging by what else is going down he really should set loftier ambitions than  getting on the cover of NME.  7.30pm. £13.10. W’hampton Civic Hall (+ Sat Oct 20 7pm, £12.50. Carling Academy)

Monday October 15

K T Tunstall