Fresh from playing the NME Shockwaves tour, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have announced a massive 25 date UK tour for April and May.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, 22nd February at 9am. Catch them at:

Monday 21st April - Hull Asylum
Tuesday 22nd April - Loughborough Room 1
Thursday 24th April - Reading University
Friday 25th April - Coventry Warwick Marketplace
Sunday 27th April - Bournemouth Old Fire Station
Monday 28th April - Guildford Surrey Rubix
Thursday 1st May - Stoke Underground
Friday 2nd May - Coventry Kasbah
Saturday 3rd May - Tamworth Palace
Monday 5th May - Liverpool Academy 2
Tuesday 6th May -Newcastle Academy 2
Thursday 8th May - Aberdeen Tunnels
Friday 9th May - Glasgow King Tuts
Saturday 10th May -Bristol Thekla
Monday 12th May - Preston 53 Degrees
Tuesday 13th May - Oxford Academy
Wednesday 14th May - Leeds Cockpit
Thursday 15th May - Manchester Academy 3
Saturday 17th May - Sheffield Leadmill
Sunday 18th May - Birmingham Academy 2
Monday 19th May - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Tuesday 20th May - Brighton Concorde 2
Thursday 22nd May - London Scala
Sunday 25th May - Portmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Tuesday 27th May - Norwich Waterfront

Photo is taken from Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong’s myspace page and is copyright Dan Curwin.

iTunes have announced 10 days of gigs starting next Thursday as part of their iTunes Live series. All the gigs will be available to download from iTunes after the 10 day festival is over. Last year’s festival was a bit later in the year, but were a significant success - dare I say it, but this years gigs aren’t anywhere near as impressive - I mean, come on, Nizlopi headlining? Tony Christie? Really?

The gigs will take place from February 21 to March 2 at AIR Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London. The artists will play acousticcally for what is sure to be some very special evenings. Tickets cannot be bought, and are only available from the iTunes Live website as part of a ballot..

Thursday 21st February - Jose Gonzalez, Charlene Soraia, Julian Velard and Stephanie Dosen
Friday 22nd February - Nizlopi, Soweto Kinch
Saturday 23rd February - Alphabeat, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Sunday 24th February - Billy Bragg, KT Tunstall, Foy Vance, Leo Abrahams
Monday 25th February - Daniel Merriweather, Estelle, Tawiah
Tuesday 26th February - Charlie Winston, Natalie Clein, Tom Baxter
Wednesday 27th February - Laura Marling, Mystery Jets
Thursday 28th February - Jason Mraz, Ron Sexsmith
Friday 29th February - TBC
Saturday 1st March - Roisin Murphy, Tony Christie
Sunday 2nd March - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Spiritualized

Photo of Roisin Murphy is taken from her myspace.

The Cribs, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, Does It Offend You Yeah? and The Ting Tings have all been confirmed for the 2008 NME Awards 2008 Shockwaves tour. They’ll embark on a month long tour of debauchery, destruction and general childishness around the UK and Ireland throughout February next year.

Tickets are on sale now priced at £15.50 each, but are sure to sell out for most dates pretty quickly.

Tuesday 29th January - Belfast Mandela Hall
Wednesday30th January - Dublin Ambassador Theatre
Friday 1st February - Glasgow Barrowland
Saturday 2nd February - Manchester Academy
Sunday 3rd February - Newcastle Carling Academy
Monday 4th February - Lincoln Engine Shed
Wednesday 6th February - Birmingham Carling Academy
Thursday 7th February - Liverpool University
Friday 8th February - Leeds University
Monday 11th February - Sheffield Octagon
Tuesday 12th February - Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 13th February - Norwich UEA
Friday 15th February - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 16th February - Leicester University
Sunday 17th February - Oxford Carling Academy
Tuesday 19th February - Bristol Carling Academy
Wednesday 20th February - Cardiff University
Thursday 21st February - Portsmouth Pyramid
Friday 22nd February - London Brixton Academy

Looking for the 2008 Mencap Gigs? Click here. This page is about 2007’s Mencap Gigs!

Updates: I’ve just added the 20th November gig and the 26th November gigs, thanks to a comment from Kathryn below. This was originally posted on 4th October.

The brilliant Mencap have announced this year’s “Little Noise Sessions”, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs, which will take place from Tuesday 20th November to Wednesday 28 November 2007, at Islington’s Union Chapel in London. They’ll be hosted by Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley.

To get tickets you’ll have to register here to get tickets when they go on sale. Ticket registration opens on Tuesday 2 October and closes at 12.00 Friday 19 October. Those who have registered can then buy tickets online on a first-come-first-served basis from 9am on Monday 22 October. Tickets are £35 each.

The gigs will raise money for Mencap’s Arts Awards scheme which enables children and young people with a learning disability to take part in local arts projects.

Tuesday 20th November - Secret Headliner, Jack Penate, Laura Marling, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Wednesday 21st November - Athlete and The Hoosiers
Thursday 22nd November - Will Young, Newton Faulkner and Adele
Friday 23rd November - Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists and Young Knives
Saturday 24th November - The Pigeon Detectives and The Metros
Sunday 25th November - Snow Patrol and Cajun Dance Party
Monday 26th November - Kate Nash, Robyn, The Ting Tings
Tuesday 27th November - The Enemy + Special Guests
Wednesday 28th November - Keane, Rilo Kiley + Scouting For Girls

I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure when these tickets went on sale, but Joe Purdy has announced two rare dates in London to celebrate the release of his new album, “Take My Blanket and Go“.

The two nights at Bush Hall take place on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th December. The Wednesday night is sold out, however there are still tickets available for the Thursday night. Tickets are £10. Both nights will be filmed for a DVD release early next year - full details are available here.

Fresh from supporting indie pop royalty in the form of Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs and CSS, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have announced a string of headlining dates, meaning that they’re now playing virtually continuously until the end of the year.

Tickets are on sale now and are £6 each. Catch them at:
Sunday 2nd December - Leeds Faversham
Monday 3rd December - Cambridge Barfly
Wednesday 5th December - Yeovil Orange Box
Friday 7th December - Hertford Marquee
Saturday 8th December - Stoke Underground

Photo is taken from Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong’s myspace page and is copyright Dan Curwin.

Quite possibly some of this year’s hardest working bands, CSS, have announced a massive UK tour in December with Justice and Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong.

Tickets go on sale on Friday (5th October) morning at 9am, though a limited amount will be availble from CSS’ myspace on Wednesday 3rd.

Sunday 2nd December - Leeds University - with Justice
Monday 3rd December - London Brixton Academy - with Justice
Tuesday 4th December - Manchester Academy - with Justice
Wednesday 5th December - Glasgow Academy - with Justice
Thursday 6th December - Bristol Academy - with Justice
Friday 7th December - Birmingham Academy - with Justice
Saturday 8th December - Nottingham Rock City - with Justice
Monday 10th December - Dublin Olympia - with JLATJJJ
Tuesday 11th December - Oxford Academy - with JLATJJJ
Wednesday 12th December - Newcastle University - with JLATJJJ
Thursday 13th December - Stoke Keele University - with JLATJJJ
Friday 14th December - Brighton Dome - with JLATJJJ
Monday 17th December - Cambridge Corn Exchange - with JLATJJJ
Tuesday 18th December - Liverpool Academy - with JLATJJJ
Wednesday 19th December - Sheffield Leadmill - with JLATJJJ
Thursday 20th December - Portsmouth Pyramids - with JLATJJJ

“Tonight is all about something that doesn’t happen enough these days – Musicians helping each other” announced Tom McRae last night as the Hotel Café tour rolled into London after a year long tour of the USA. The feeling was great: a series of artists who are all too small on their own to undertake a full UK tour, but altogether they have the ability to sell out a venue in days.

Taking a revue style to the evening, Tom opened proceedings at 8:30, and we then witnessed an amazing 2 hours and 40 minutes of non stop music. No lengthy change over’s with houselights up, we’re talking one person walks off as the next comes on, with different people joining in on different tracks when they felt the urge to, before “we start to bump each to each other, drop guitars, and generally run headlong into chaos until someone makes us leave the stage”.

First song, Hawaii and the sound goes halfway through. No problem: he just keeps on strumming and talks to the crowd, explaining the tour and how the evening is going to work. One more song and he’s off, to be replaced by Steve Reynolds, who has a voice that sounds like he’s lived in a musty back-street pub for most of his life. Two songs from Steve, and he’s quickly replaced by Joe Purdy, who has, quite frankly, legendary facial hair (which leads to a comment from Tom that he “shaves once a month and if Joe doesn’t for an hour he ends up like this….”). Joe Purdy managed to be a skilled guitarist and harmonica player, a genius if ever there was one. Next up was Cary Brothers, who was one of the main reasons I had been to see the evening: his two songs “Ride” and “Blue Eyes” are some of the best around. He played “Ride” first then “Honestly”, both from his forthcoming album next year.

Then we had a very nice surprise: Aqualung. In the spirit of the real Hotel Café in LA, bands are quite welcome to turn up and play a few songs, or just sit around and get trashed with the other artists. Aqualung came and played a new song and then “Brighter than Sunshine” – just fab, and they stuck around to play keys on “Blue Eyes” later in the evening.

After this point things got a bit blurry: the artists came back on, joined each other, did different songs, until about 10:50 when Tom came back, did “Silent Boulevard”, “Boy with the Bubblegum” and “My Vampire Heart”. By this point everyone was in very high spirits, and things were getting a bit more ragged, but still very coherent, and had everyone in the crowd in exceptionally high spirits not seen since the Pipettes swept through the capital.

All in all an excellent evening of entertainment, well worth the money: not many bands this year put on 2 hours 40 minutes of non stop music: they’re playing at Kings College Student Union next week, so go and see Tom and the artistes of the Hotel Café: it’s well worth the money, and you will have one of the best evenings of the year.