Martha Wainwright has announceda string of dates for this October and November around our fair shores in support of her new album, “I Know You’re Married, But I Have Feelings Too”

Tickets are on sale now for all dates, priced at £16 except for London which is £20 a ticket.

Saturday 18th October - Portsmouth Pyramid
Sunday 19th October - Sheffield Plug
Monday 20th October - Bristol Colston Hall
Wednesday 22nd October - Edinburgh Picture House
Thursday 23rd October - Middlesbrough Empire
Friday 24th October - Warwick Arts Centre
Saturday 25th October - Liverpool St. Georges Hall
Monday 27th October - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Tuesday 28th October - London Roundhouse
Thursday 30th October - Liverpool Symphony Hall
Friday 31st October - Belfast Grand Opera House
Monday 3rd November - Nottingham Rock City
Tuesday 4th November - Oxford Town Hall

Everyone’s favourite pop-opera guy Rufus Wainwright has announced a tour in October (well, lets face it, who hasn’t announced an October tour??). He plays:

Saturday 13 October - Gateshead The Sage
Wednesday 17 October - Liverpool Philharmonic
Thursday 18 October - Manchester Apollo
Friday 19 October - Sheffield City Hall
Sunday 21 October - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Monday 22 October - Cardiff Millennium Centre
Thursday 25 October - Birmingham Symphony Hall
Saturday 27 October - Harrogate International Centre
Tuesday 30 October - London Apollo Hammersmith

Tickets are 9am Friday.

Photo taken from Stinco di Porco’s flickr stream.

Epic and beautifully orchestrated, dark at times and playful at others, Rufus Wainwright’s fifth studio album “Release the Stars” is further proof of how he deserves his burgeoning popularity. However, if his voice irritated you in the first place (like me), or you prefer his covers to his original songs, this is most certainly not your sort of album. For lack of better albums (that I’m aware of on a very quick scoot through Amazon), this is my album of the week.

I can recognise that Rufus is a one-in-a-million talent, and that this album is his best one to date, however personally I’m not a big fan. His voice grates against me, and I find him whiney at times, but that shouldn’t detract from his skill. My boredom is another’s excitement, and vice versa.

Opening with “Do I Disappoint You?” it conjures up imagery of a fantastically vivid stage show journeying through a jungle, such is the vibrancy of it, with full orchestral sounds evolving slowly.

“Between My Legs” is my personal highlight of the album, joking, camp, livelier than many of the other numbers and quite possibly one of the most chart friendly songs on the album.

“Not Ready to Love” is one of the most melancholic songs since Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’, slowly moving into “Slideshow” which brings the tempo up again.

Overall, a mixed bag for me – genius and innovative, yet grating and a bit too classical for my liking, Rufus is undoubtedly back with a big (camp) bang, but don’t expect me to be going to see him live. Great, but not for me.

The ever brilliant Eden Sessions have been announced, featuring many of this years biggest acts. The sessions have been moved forward from throughout August to now throughout July, which probably won’t make much difference to most people.

Monday July 2nd - James Morrison
Tuesday July 10th - Rufus Wainwright
Tuesday July 17th - Amy Winehouse
Wednesday July 18th - Lily Allen
Saturday July 21st - Bright Eyes
Sunday July 22nd - Pet Shop Boys

None of the bands are particuarly shite, but there aren’t any that I’d make the effort to drive for four hours for.

Tickets are on sale for all dates now, with the exception of Pet Shop Boys who go on sale at 6pm on next Tuesday, April 24th.

Wow, a busy ticket related day.

First up, The Bravery return to play:

LIVERPOOL Carling Academy - Tues 10 July
NEWCASTLE Carling Academy - Wed 11 July
BIRMINGHAM Academy - Mon 16 July
CAMDEN LONDON The Electric Ballroom - Tues 17 July
BRIGHTON Concorde - Wed 25 July

Tickets on sale 9am Monday 16th April

Damien Rice adds four new summer dates to his tour dates. These are all on sale now from here.

New Theatre Oxford - Thursday 21/06/2007
Reading Hexagon - Tuesday 10/07/2007
Carling Academy Bristol - Wednesday 11/07/2007
Brighton Dome - Saturday 14/07/2007

These are on top of the already announced dates in October at:
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena - Monday 01/10/2007
Birmingham National Indoor Arena - Tuesday 02/10/2007
Glasgow S.E.C.C. - Thursday 04/10/2007
Nottingham Arena - Friday 05/10/2007
Wembley Arena - Saturday 06/10/2007
Plymouth Pavilions - Monday08/10/2007
Bournemouth Int’nl Centre - Tuesday 09/10/2007
Manchester Evening News Arena - Thursday 11/10/2007
Cardiff International Arena - Friday12/10/2007

McFly add another date to their theatre tour, on sale on Saturday 14th April at 10am

LONDON Astoria - Thurs 8 May

Rufus Wainwright has added another date to his Residency at London’s Old Vic theatre. He’ll now play Sunday 27th May , Monday 28th, Tuesday 29th, Thursday 31st and Friday 1st June. Tickets on sale here.

Thirteen Senses have announced a mini-tour in mid-May, allh of which are on sale now from here. They’ll play:

SOUTHAMPTON Joiners - Mon 14 May
NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms - Tues 15 May
LONDON KCLSU - Wed 16 May
NORTHAMPTON The Soundhaus - Fri 18 May
BIRMINGHAM Bar Academy (Dale End) - Sat 19th May.