Entertainment

By David Morin I am often asked why I continue to busk when I have access to so many opportunities to play in venues and I understand why people are perplexed. Most people may think it's a low-brow form of entertainment, and in all honesty they are partially correct, but mostly I think, incorrect. I quit my job in 2010 to play music full-time. If it wasn’t for the cold hard streets, I wouldn’t have the fans, the amazing team,...

By Declan Roberts (@DeclanMR) Peace Happy People Columbia 09/02/2015 Where do you begin with Peace? A band out of Birmingham with no fear and no idea of their ‘future success’. It’s a mystery question. Firstly, the fact that the resurgence of indie-pop is a secure mantelpiece for them to play for. Secondly, Harry Koisser is a superb songwriter. He knows every little detail for a perfect pop tune that turns into a gig anthem when played live. It’s enhanced with...

By Dan Gleabals Cut and Paste VJ renegade Eclectic Method has put together this mental mash-up he calls Meta Hip Hop - and it's going viral - have a watch and let us know how many Hip Hop classics you spot! There's over a hundred clips painstakingly put together. We lost count a long way before 100 though! Eclectic Method (aka Jonny Wilson) started off as a digital outlaw splicing together music, TV and film, influenced by Brian Eno, Underworld, cut...

For those looking for a taste of outsider art the unthemed festival VAULT is a standout in the London musical calendar. From January 28th to March 8th expect everything from subversive stand-up comedy, leftfield musical acts from around the world and, in one case a roadkill taxidermy cabaret show. It is here we find Scottish duo Pumajaw preparing to unveil their song-cycle, the deliciously dark Song Noir, to a London audience for the first time. This collection of Noir classics,...

By Daniel Mackenzie (@EkcaLiena) Cafe Oto, 23/01/15 Walking through the early Friday night mess-about-to-happen of Dalston, I'm listening to a French black metal (ish) band so at odds with Room40's curatorial style it's almost amusing. This band deal in truly hellish atmospheres that sit awkwardly above brutal drum and guitar noise attacks. They really aren't so different. If you swap out hell for heaven and pull the aggression out so that it jettisons transients, things seem to overlap. It may...

By Helen Duff An instinct we’ve all felt at some time, whether tripping over the flat-as-a-pancake pavement – “must be something wrong with my shoes. No, seriously, these shoes have been playing me up for ages. It’s got nothing to do with the way I walk; I walk well, better than most, in fact. These shoes are just clinically defective” – to revealing something far too personal to the family dentist – I’ll let you fill that gap in for...

We all know that the One Direction fan base can be an intense lot, but who knew they could be so generous? On the eve of the British Asian Trust’s Annual Dinner, taking place on February 3rd at the  Banqueting  House, Whitehall, London, One Direction fans have raised over $10,000 for the British Asian Trust in honour of its ambassador Zayn Malik's 22nd birthday. Hitan Mehta, Executive Director of the British Asian Trust, said: "We thank One Direction fans for their generous contributions. We are honoured...

Jack Peat reviews Truth, Lies, Diana at Charing Cross Theatre. On the night princess Diana died I was driving home from a family holiday in France. Most people know where they were when the tragic news started filtering through the media, the memory fixed in our minds in the same way people recall their whereabouts when JF Kennedy was assassinated. And like the gunshot on the grassy knoll that has implicated 82 assassins and 214 people in conspiracy theories, the...

By Grant Bailey (@GrantDBailey) As I'm sure any successful band will tell you, standing out in your music scene is tough. But with the discerning crowds of instrumental prog fans on the hunt for the latest band to blow their minds it can be even more challenging. Alright The Captain have had no such trouble, hitting their stride with 2011's debut release SNIB and causing a major stir among technical rock fans. Ahead of the release of their highly anticipated second album 'Contact...