DANNY ROBINS' EVENTS GUIDE: 18TH NOVEMBER 2010

Crunch Art Festival in Hay on Wye

There aren't so many festivals at this time of year, but here's one that looks interesting. Crunch is a new art festival in Hay on Wye, the home of the famous literary festival, it's been going for a couple of years now, growing each time, and is organised by a group based in Hay called The Institute of Art and Ideas.

It's running from Fri 19th to Sun 21st.

Basically, the festival's aim is to get a lot of clever and interesting people together in one place to debate the big and unanswerable question "what's the point of art?" Thankfully, it's not just a lot of debates, they also have some rather good bands playing. Laura Marling will be there, along with Man Like Me, Lulu and the Lampshades and friend of Björk, Mr Fogg.

The debate comes from the likes of Paul Morley, Martin Creed, Brian Eno and Bianca Jagger along with plenty of high-brow art critics. So, if you like to mix your thought-provoking discussion with some cracking music, this could be for you. And, as an added bonus, how about a bit of pyromania? On Friday and Saturday night there's going to be fireworks and big burning fire structures in a nearby field. And what goes perfectly with fire? Morris dancing of course! Perfect.

Mexican Wrestling and Jim Bob from Carter USM

Sadly these two things are not connected - wish they were. The Mexican Wrestling is courtesy of Lucha Britannia. They've been organising events in London for a few years now, and have done some festivals too. They combine masked Mexican wrestling with strange and twisted cabaret and a club night. It's definitely an experience whether you like wrestling (which I do) or not. The night is full of interesting types in amazing costumes and there's something pretty amazing about a club night with a wrestling ring in the middle of the dance floor.

Their next event (and I think the last this year) is at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green in East London on Friday 19th. It's called 'November to Remember'.

I've also noticed they are now running classes for aspiring Mexican wrestlers (NB you don't have to be Mexican) every Wednesday night at the Resistance Gallery. Only £10 for a two hour session! Tempted? Check out the Facebook page.

And JimBob... Not wrestling sadly, but singing, backed by a 24 piece orchestra at Dingwalls in Camden Town on Wednesday 24th. You may not know but this summer the former Carter USM front-man took part in a comedy musical called Gutted at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was very good. This is an evening featuring performers from the musical and some of the songs from the show. Jim Bob will be headlining with accompaniment from the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, the baby of Martin White - one of the creators of the musical alongside stand up Danielle Ward. Wonder if he'll be doing any old Carter songs?

Tribute Bands

Every week when I look though gig listings I always spot loads and loads of listings for tribute acts, so this week I thought I would pay tribute to the tributes. I've always had a soft spot for this scene. I know it has a reputation for being really naff, but you've got to love the names they come up with...

This weekend alone we have The Rolling Zones (Hastings Rock Asylum at Phoenix Arts Club - Fri 19th) - featuring their front man Mick Jogger, Think Floyd (Sevenoaks The Stag Theatre - Fri 19th), Fred Hot Chili Peppers Swindon The Vic - Sat 20th) and Still Marrillion (Swindon The 12 Bar - Sat 20th), along with the less pun-tastic The Bon Jovi Experience (Southhampton The brook - Fri 19th), Dressed to Kill - The Kiss Tribute (Swindon The Furnace Sat 20th) and Nervana - hey they've just changed one letter! (Nuneaton Queens Hall - Sat 20th, plus other dates round UK).

Three of those gigs are in Swindon - all at different venues. Swindon seems to be a bit of a Mecca for tribute acts for some reason. Can anybody tell me why?

Another hot spot for tributes is The Venue in New Cross in South London. They've got a Kings of Leon tribute act on on Fri 19th brilliantly called... wait for it... Kins of Leon. See what they did there?

Kings of Leon tributes actually seem to be a bit of a growth industry right now - as well as those guys there's Blings of Leon who bill themselves as 'the official kings of Leon tribute' whatever that means and The Kings of Lyon (Oxford O2 Academy Sat 20th) - who I was really hoping would be performing Kings of Leon songs in French but are sadly English and called Baz, Dawson, Knocker and Moggy. The least imaginative of the crop names-wise is Kings ov Leon - come on you can try harder than that!

There's even a thread on one of the forums on Indie website Drowned in Sound all about the Kings of Leon tribute band names!

The things I most love about the tribute scene though is how careful they are to state on the posters that it is a tribute, just in case you were fooled into thinking that your stadium rocking heroes were actually performing in a pub in Birkenhead.

Long live the Tribute!

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?