DANNY ROBINS' EVENTS GUIDE: 11TH NOVEMBER 2010

Cut a Shine Hoe Down Extravaganza

Barn dances have a bad rep but, honestly, what could be more fun than taking your partner by the hand?

Perhaps the Barn Dance will get a makeover thanks to Cut a Shine, who are organising Hoe Down Extravaganza, which they describe as a 21st Century Barn Dance. It's on Saturday 13th at the Old Finsbury Town Hall in Clerkenwell in North London - a really lovely old venue.

Cut a Shine are a group of musicians, singers and dancers whose aim is to keep folk music and dance traditions alive in modern Britain - they're part of that new wave of young folkies that seems to be growing ever more popular. For this event they're joined by The Destroyers a 14 piece band described as gypsy-swing-punk.

If you attend you'll be able to lay your hands on hot spicy cider and nice beer from the 'DIY affordable bar' - not sure if DIY means you literally help yourself, let's hope so...

So, grow a beard, put on your best dungarees and get ready to swing your pants and say 'yee-haw! As you hoe down in true mid-west fashion in the middle of trendy North London.

Ice Ice Baby

Who doesn't love ice skating out doors? It's romantic, it's good exercise, it's cold, it's embarrassing when you fall over and you might have your fingers chopped off by somebody else's skate... oh hang on....

This week or next seems to be when most of the outdoor winter ice rinks start opening up. These days there are loads across the country. Starting at the top of the UK and working down, here's a few worth mentioning (obviously there's many, many more so check out what's happening in your local area).

Edinburgh's got two rival ones this year - there's one at Ocean Terminal shopping centre organised by the Gilded Balloon festival venue, and it's more established competitor is in Prince's Street Gardens - so you can take your pick between the spectacular backdrop provided by the Castle at the Gardens or the warmth of the shopping centre - somehow going indoors feels like cheating to me.

In Newcastle, there's a rink in Times Square by the Life Science Centre. That kicks off on Sat 13th. They've doing specially rhyming nights - Skate With Your Mates and Skate With a Date.

York has got the slightly cheesily named The Ice Factor which starts on Sat 20th. Sadly they've moved it from a rather picturesque setting in town out to the York Designer Outlet warehouse shop out of town.

Stoke on Trent has one on the Trentham Estate by a lake - very picturesque. That launches on Fri 12th I think. They're having special 'Fire and Ice Evenings' on Fri and Sat - with people doing crazy stuff with fire out on the ice. Sounds like it could go two ways. And you'll be glad to know there's an ice disco every Wednesday in December.

London's got loads - The Natural History Museum and Somerset House by the Thames are two of my favourites. The NHM is open now, Somerset House opens on the 23rd.

And down in Cornwall, there's the Eden Project, which isn't strictly speaking outdoors as it's inside a bio-sphere, but I think we'll let them off.

Comedy jazz and dinosaurs

A couple of gigs to round up for you this week. Both involve music and funny people.

First off, the Horne Section. This is comedian Alex Horne (off of BBC 4's We Need Answers) getting a group of comedians together with a group of jazz musicians to create 'comedy jazz' - the idea is the two seemingly very different art forms interact with each other. It was a bit of a late night hit at the Edinburgh Fringe in the Summer.

You can see it at the Soho Theatre in London on Sun 14th and 21st. If you can't make either of those there's also a Horne Section Christmas Bash at the Union Chapel in Islington on Dec 13th.

14th November's line up is 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Tim Key, magician Pete Firman, great one-liner merchant Milton Jones, spoof dance troupe New Art Club, and Mat Ricardo the Gentleman Juggler and, of course, Alex himself.

21st November sees Tim Key again plus Miles Jupp, Phil Kay and the intriguing sounding London Vegetable Orchestra.

And apparently the jazz musicians normally tour with Madness and Girls Aloud (not at the same time I don't think).

From jazz to Indie now, my other tip was also at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer; it's a 2 man rock opera about dinosaurs called Dinosaur Planet.

It's the work of Indie-legend MJ Hibbert (of MJ Hibbert and the Validators - a favourite of Steve Lamacq). If you don't know his stuff, check out Hey Hey 16K and My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once.

Dinosaur Planet is MJ and a guy called Steve Hewitt. They perform all the parts in a story that takes you "on a journey through space, time, and East Anglia."

Apparently you can hear "such inevitable classics as 'Please Don't Eat Us', 'We Are The Giant Robots', and 'The Battle For Peterborough'."

Sounds like fun. Check out the trailer, a charmingly low-fi bit of work that whets the appetite.

It's happening on Saturday 13th at 2.30pm at the Victoria - one of Birmingham's best pubs.

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