I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about them. However, Matchbox 20 have announced a five date UK tour in early May, playing arenas (so they must be fairly popular…)

Tickets are available at 9am tomorrow morning (Friday 1st February). Catch them at:

Wednesday 30th April - Cardiff international Arena
Thursday 1st May - London Wembley Arena
Friday 2nd May - Birmingham NIA
Sunday 4th May - Glasgow SECC
Monday 5th May - Manchester Apollo

Simple Plan have announced a six date UK tour for mid April .

Tickets reportedly go on sale on Friday (1st February) at 9am.

Sunday 13th April - Norwich U.E.A
Tuesday 15th April - Glasgow ABC
Wednesday 16th April - Manchester Academy 2
Friday 18th April - London Astoria
Sunday 20th April - Nottingham Rock City
Monday 21st April - Bristol Academy

The Kills have announced a string of dates around the UK at some small cinemas. The duo, whose new album ‘Midnight Boom’ is out on March 10, will hit the road in the run up to the release date.

Tickets are £10 and are on sale now, though are selling out very quickly.

Friday 29th February - Glasgow Stereo
Sunday 2nd March - Nottingham The Art
Monday 3rd March - London ICA
Tuesday 4th March - Bristol The Cube
Thursday 6th March - Brighton Duke of York
Friday 7th March - Dorset Electric Palace

Isn’t it nice when a band not only manages to blow you away when you see them live, but also manage to blow themselves away? That was just the case tonight at London’s Koko, when Stars commented “y’know, I think this might be one of the reasons we love London so much” grinned frontman Torquil Campbell. You can tell he wasn’t lying either, each of the members looked generally pleased, shocked, and amazed at the response they got at the sold out venue.

Let’s rewind first a couple of hours to when the second support came on, Stars’ labelmates Apostle of Hustle. At first glance they looked like a bunch of mechanics on a night off having a good time down the pub, however quickly showed us otherwise, having some incredibly strong tunes and missing a brain cell or two to make them quite so brilliant. They seemed to genuinely get along with Stars, so much so that they came back and joined Stars for their encore.

Soon enough Stars came on, opening with my favourite, Ageless Beauty, before launching through a collection of songs that crossed their full back catalogue, however the focus was (understandably) on their latest release, In The Bedroom, After the War. Sounding amazing live, their homely stage setup complimented perfectly their stories of domestic violence, broken relationships and general debauchery.

Relatively untalkative for the start of their set, Torquil went on to comment towards the end that “We’ve been playing London for a long time - probably before some of you started masturbating!! (to Amy Millan) Remember when we played the Purple Turtle? Ahhhh”

Ending off their main set with the title track of their latest album, Amy Millan and the rest of Stars seemed genuinely shocked at the response they were getting.

The only song missing from the set was my favourite from “After the War”, the bittersweet “Barricade”, however it was understandable - it would have just been too depressing to have squeezed it in as well. All together though, Stars proved that whilst they’ve taken the best part of a decade to get to headlining an impressive UK tour, they have deserved it, and look set to achieve greater things in the coming years.

After the jump: Large photos. Email me if you want more, or larger versions of pictures. Thanks.

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Sometimes when you go and see a band you have the mis/fortune of seeing a support act who are actually just as good as the band you’ve paid out to see – tonight at Oxford’s Carling Academy was just that, when Alphabeat eclipsed Palladium’s headlining set.

My first night back at the Carling Academy since its costly refurb, I was impressed at just how nice it had turned out – no more whiffs of the loo if you’re near the front of the stage. Still, the nicer surroundings didn’t help the first band up sound any better, The Anydays. Sounding like a reasonably competent Battle of the Bands winner, they were reasonably strong, however had a sensation of going through the motions, and frankly, not that memorable.

Next up were a band I’d been waiting to see for a considerable length of time, Alphabeat. The Danes who I profiled at the weekend didn’t disappoint, putting in a fine showing, even though the crowd was rather meagre. Performing as if their lives depended on it, what they lacked in words they more than made up for with their enthusiasm. Rattling through the majority of their self-titled debut album, they managed to get everyone humming along, even the drunk guy behind me conceeded at the end that “they’re pretty f***ing good”. Indeed they were Rory, indeed they were.

Finally came the big moment, Palladium. I’d previously seen them support the Thrills last summer, and had a series of brilliant songs, which still are brilliant. However, the rest of their album material does sound very much like filler to go between such pop-greats as “High 5″, “Happy Hour” and “White Woman”. Peter Pepper was distinctly untalkative, and the rest of the band seemed a bit hurt at the low attendance, but if we’re honest, it’s a Monday night in January - is it really going to be packed? Ending with a new song wasn’t their brightest idea, instead penultimate “Happy Hour” was my personal highlight, and one that almost got the whole crowd going. Well, some people take some warming up, others were so drunk they danced all the way through.

They’re certainly ones to watch, but after tonight Alphabeat are a better bet for me.

After the jump: More photos.

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Not content with announcing their own NME show and a series of support shows, The Kooks have announced a string of shows for April and May around the UK in support of their new album, Konk.

Tickets go on presale on Thursday (31st January) at 9am from this page on gigsandtours, and you can preorder their CD from Amazon here

Tuesday 22nd April - Manchester Apollo
Wednesday 23rd April - Swindon Oasis Centre
Thursday 24th April - Newport Centre
Friday 25th April - Hull Arena
Sunday 27th April - Birmingham Academy
Monday 28th April - Sheffield Academy
Tuesday 29th April - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Thursday 1st May - London Brixton Academy
Friday 2nd May - London Brixton Academy
Saturday 3rd May - Plymouth Pavillion

New Yorkers Vampire Weekend have announced their own NME show at ULU, and five new UK tour dates.

Tickets reportedly go on sale tomorrow, Tuesday 29th January.

Thursday 21st February - London ULU (Shockwaves NME Awards Show)
Friday 22nd February - Wolverhampton Civic
Saturday 23rd February - Oxford Academy
Sunday 24th February - Brighton Audio
Wednesday 27th February - Manchester Academy 2
Thursday 28th February - Glasgow Classic Grand

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced three UK dates and a date in Dublin for early May. The band, whose new album “DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!” is released on March 3rd, and sees the band embark on a full European tour for two months after the release of the album.

Tickets reportedly go on sale this Friday 1st February at 9am.

Saturday 3rd May - Dublin Castle
Sunday 4th May - Glasgow Academy
Monday 5th May - Birmingham Academy
Wednesday 7th May - London Hammersmith Apollo

Lethal Bizzle has announced a string of UK dates come April and May.

Tickets are on sale now, priced between £9.50 and £13.50 each.

Friday 11th April - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
Saturday 12th April - Newcastle Carling Academy
Sunday 13th April - Stoke Sugarmill
Tuesday 15th April - Norwich Arts Centre
Wednesday 16th April - Oxford Carling Academy
Thursday 17th April - Birmingham Carling Academy 2
Saturday 19th April - Cheshunt Wolsey Hall
Monday 21st April - Brighton Concorde 2
Monday 23rd April - London Indigo O2
Thursday 24th April - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Friday 25th April - Hereford Jailhouse
Wednesday 30th April - Cambridge Junction
Friday 2nd May - Cardiff The Point
Saturday 3rd May - Sheffield The Plug

They’ve been off recording for much of the past 18 months or so, but one of my favourite bands, the slightly Keane / Thirteen Senses-esque Longview have announced a string of three UK dates for late March.

Ticket links are below, though London’s tickets haven’t gone on sale yet I believe.

Thursday 27th March - London Garage
Friday 28th March - Birmingham Barfly (Tickets)
Saturday 29th March - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (Tickets)