Former Pop Idol, Will Young has announced a new tour for November and December around the UK’s theatres.

The tour comes in support of Young’s forthcoming album, ‘Let It Go’, released on Monday 29th September. Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday, 4th July at 9am.

Sunday 16th November - Newcastle City Hall
Monday 17th November - Harrogate International Centre
Tuesday 18th November - Liverpool Philharmonic
Thursday 20th November - Glasgow Roayal Concert Hall
Sunday 23rd November - Manchester Apollo
Tuesday 25th November - Sheffield City Hall
Thursday 27th November - Oxford New Theatre
Friday 28th November - Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Sunday 30th November - Portsmouth Guildhall
Monday 1st December - Bristol Colston Hall
Wednesday 3rd December - Ipswich Regent Theatre
Thursday 4th December - Brighton Dome
Friday 5th December - Cardiff St. David’s Hall
Sunday 7th December - Birmingham Symphony Hall
Tuesday 9th December - Plymouth Pavillions
Thursday 11th December - Bournemouth International Centre
Friday 12th December - London Roundhouse

Massive “event” gigs currently seem to be in favour at the moment, with Live8, Live Earth, Princess Diana’s concert, and last night saw one of the biggest to date, and most worthy: 46664, to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday and also to raise awareness of his AIDS charity’s work.

You’ve probably heard about it in the press - the whole Amy Winehouse will she turn up / won’t she turn up situation, the issue over whether Nelson Mandela was even going to go himself. Then there was the impressively long list of stars attending: Gordon Brown (seen chatting to Nelson Mandela through Simple Minds’ frankly tedious performance - we would have done too, if we could have without shouting at each other), Will Smith, Quincy Jones and Lewis Hamilton actually turned up, whilst others could only be bothered to send a video (including Victoria Beckham, who got one of the most savage boo-ings known to man-kind).

In amongst the notable guests was some of today’s (and yesterday’s) best (and worst) performers, culminating in a show-stopping five song set from Queen that showed they still have what it takes to wow a huge audience. We also saw amazing performances from Amy Winehouse (who still has the power to wow with her voice after all she’s been through recently), Will Smith and Zucchero. A lot of artists were ones that we weren’t familiar with, however certainly opened our eyes up and featured a lot more variety musically than the rather biased Live8 and Live Earth events.

After the jump: a blow by blow account of the evening

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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

Last night I finished reading one of this year’s summer bestsellers, “This book will save your life”. It’s one of Richard and Judy’s reads for the summer, and is definitely a book to polarise opinions.

It follows reclusive Richard Novak through a break-down of sorts and then watches as he re-discovers the dysfunctional Los Angeles area, making friends with Anhil, the local donut shop owner and getting to grips with getting his life back on track. During this time Richard goes through a series of pretty unbelievable events one after another, making for an interesting read.

There were quite a few parallels to the film “Garden State” here for me, as Homes manages to take Richard on a voyage of discovery about himself and the people around him that both captivates and intrigues.

However, it does have its slower moments when I was tempted to put it down and not continue. Little things like the switches from first to third person (often mid paragraph) and the lack of chapters made it difficult to get on with, however it was quite a rewarding read come the end of it, even if most of it was pretty unbelievable and a bit slow to develop.