Sunday Sing Along

If you’re looking for a fun night out with the locals then head for the “Duke of Kendal” pub at 38 Connaught Street, close to Marble Arch and Hyde Park.

Every Sunday round 8pm it’s sing along time with traditional English songs and Jennie on the piano (90 years old!)…. One of the few remaining “knees ups” in London! (Live music also most Saturdays).

Of course if you get hungry after all the singing, then there’s good value food too!

Don’t worry if you’re not in London over the weekend, you can always try “The Golden Eagle” at 59 Marylebone Lane, another pub that has live music on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Find your way to Duke of Kendal with our Britain Map.

“Happy Singing” and “Skål”

/Jackie

a-ha Says Farewell to UK – Ending on a High Note

If you haven’t already heard the word on the street, I’m sorry to be the one to bring you the bad news. a-ha, one of the most famous bands Norway has ever seen with hit songs such as “Take on Me” and “Hunting High and Low”, are ending their 25-year career!

Their songs bring back good memories from the happy 80’s, not mention their “Take on Me” music video, that’s when I and probably thousands of other teenage girl got a major crush on Morten Harket.

Fortunately, a-ha are not one of those bands that just retire without saying proper goodbye to their fans. I’ve been ‘Hunting High and Low’ for tickets for their concerts in Oslo, but unfortunately they’re sold out! However, they seem to love the British fans and they will be performing at 10 different venues across UK! So I just have to realize that I’ll have to travel across the pond to see my favourite 80’s band perform for the last time – which I don’t mind, at all.

Tour dates, venues and where to buy tickets can be found here.

/Siska

It’s all about jazz at London Jazz Festival

For the 18^th year in a row, the London Jazz festival is back for another year of amazing live performances and guest appearances by musicians from all over the world. Jazz lovers will be able to enjoy concerts from brassy big bands acts to intimate solo performances.

The festival has been known to bring the world’s best contemporary jazz artists to London and this year is no exception. Veteran saxophonist Sonny Rollins will be celebrating his 80^th birthday with a concert at the festival and other concerts this year will include flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía, Esperanza Spalding, Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman, Paolo Conte, Marital Solal and much more. For us Scandinavians, who would like to see some fellow countrymen perform, the festival has 3 Danish and 6 Norwegian acts visiting this year.

A must see if you’re into vocals, is Guy Barkers opening concert at the Barbican – Jazz Voice: Celebrating a Century of song. In this act a wide range of vocal stars from the worlds of jazz, rock and soul will be showcasing a programme of songs, films, singers and songwriters down the decades.

The London Jazz Festival takes place Friday 12 – Sunday 21 November 2010 at several venues around London. Tickets range in price, but if you want to go I suggest you hurry. Some concerts are already sold out. For further information and booking, please visit www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk.

If you can’t make it to the festival, View London has put together some great lists of jazz clubs and jazz bars in London for you to check out.

- Towe

British music festivals 2010

Summer is approaching and with it all the music festivals. Britain is probably the best place in the world for pop music festivals with several huge events during the Summer. Some of them attract over 100 000 visitors. Here are a few of my favorite festivals this Summer:

Rentless Wakestock – North Wales
When: 2nd – 4th of July
This is Europe’s largest wakeboard music festival. It’s announced that artists such as Wiley, Maxïmo Park, Tinie Tempah will be performing at the festival. Besides from listening to the music you can watch international wakeboarders from all around the world showing off their latest tricks.

Hyde Park, London

Glastonbury Festival – Pilton
When: 23rd – 27th of June
Massive Glastonbury, England’s largest outdoor festival, have revealed headliners for this year’s festival, which is so far topped by U2, Snoop Doog, Stevie Wonder, Muse, Ray Davies, and Mos Def.

T in the Park – Balado, Scotland
When: 9 – 11th of July
The Scottish festival T in the Park is in its 17th season and American rapper Eminem and Britain’s own Muse and Kasabian pops up as the features. Others lined up are the Echo and The Bunnymen, Babyshambles, Julian Casablancas, Florence and the Machine, La Roux, Madness, The Prodigy, Vampire Weekend and Wolfmother.

Eden Sessions – Cornwall
When: Series of one-day live music festivals in June and July
The Eden Sessions are held in Cornwall and the line-up includes Jack Johnson, Mika, Calvin Harris, Paolo Nutini and Doves.

Please note that all the line-up may change. Tickets tend to sell out rather quickly so hurry up!

- Siska

ABBA World in London.

Swedish pop wonder ABBA became world famous in the 1970s with hits like Waterloo, Dancing Queen and Fernando. After that, the band reaped success after success, and is still the second best-selling popular music group in the history of recorded music, with only the Beatles before them.

Now, almost 40 years later, the group back with a bang in the new exhibition ABBA World . The exhibition opened a couple of weeks ago in London, Earls Court. Since their first glory of fame with Waterloo in Liverpool 1974, London is the first city to show this multimedia experience.  Find 25 rooms filled with videos, pictures, accessories, clothes and off course music, music, music! 3D holographic illusions gives you the chance to perform together with the famous group, and there are lots of other exciting things to see and do. The exhibition is held at Earls Court, Warwick road and closes the 28. March 2010.

We have been getting a lot of question on how and where you can buy the tickets to the exhibition, so we decided to make it easier for you and blog about it. See links to the booking sites below:

Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland

When you book, be sure to choose London as city and leave the rest open.

Thank you for the music!

Cathrine

Gorillaz are back!

The English virtual band Gorillaz was created in 1998 by Damon Albarn, singer in Blur, and the comic book artist from Tank Girl, Jamie Hewlett. The band’s got four fictional members, but in fact, Gorillaz is a collaboration between various musicians from different genres with Albarn being the only permanent musician and Hewlett their master puppeteer.

Since the beginning Gorillaz has made numerous successes, one of them being entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful virtual band.

Now the band is back with a new album – Plastic Beach, which is due to be released in the UK on 8th of March and here in the Nordics on 10th of March. But already today you can listen to the new single ‘Stylo’ or see the freshly released video on You Tube.  I just saw the video and it’s got really cool effects as usual. Follow the group of four in a high speed car chase and see what unfortunate event happens to poor Cyborg Noodle in the new vid.

- Towe -

iPhone app to Londons night life

Going clubbing in London or just want to know which restaurant to go to and you have no idea on where to start? Then I have the perfect tool for you. Time out Guides and Magazine has developed an iPhone app together with Smirnoff and it actually works really well. Every week Time Out editors pick their favourite of London gigs, events, restaurants, club nights and essential film releases. Today for example, the app told me that Paul McCartney is playing at the O2 or that I can see Peter Pan on West End theatre. So if you’re going to London, check it out.  Since I’ve only tried it from home, send me feedback if you use it.

Merry Christmas,
Towe

More Christmas fun in London! Carols and theatres!

I’m happy to see that so many read our post about Christmas Markets in London. Here you’ll get some more good ideas about what to do and what to see when visiting London in December!

For the first time ever the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London will be open during Christmas and New Year.  From the 22:nd December to 3:d January, this beautiful Victorian open theater will have a show with a mixture of music, theatre and circus – all in the spirit of Shakespeare!  The show is 2 times 30 minutes and though it’s an open air theater you can keep warm by having a nice cup of mulled wine or other warm drink or food  during the break.

A visit to England in Christmas time should always include a Christmas Carols concert! You can visit the daily concerts at Trafalgar Square with different choirs singing, and sometimes dancing, around the huge Christmas tree.

If you prefer indoor concerts, the famous church St. Martins in the Field can offer several fantastic concerts all guaranteed to get you in that special Christmas festive feeling. Especially the Glory of Christmas by candlelight concerts the 10:th and 18:Th December is worth a visit. On the 15:th there is a Family Carols by candlelight and on the 23:rd, Händels “Messiah” is on the program.

Another choice is St. Paul’s Cathedral which have wonderful carol concerts. If you visit London the 15:th of December you can attend the special atmospheric  Celebration of Christmas Concert.

Christmas pantos is a fun British tradition which I love.  You’ll find shows that the whole family will enjoy like The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre or the Life & Adventures of Santa based on the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The traditional pantos, more suitable for adults and teenagers, are Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre and Cinderella at the Catford’s Broadway Theatre. They both mix magic, comedy, adventure and romance,- truly British! Both theatres are situated in the outskirts of central London and can be reached by local trains.

Enjoy!

Cathrine

Robbie Williams is back on stage!

After three years of silence, one of Britain’s biggest entertainers is back. Robbie Williams, the young boy from Stoke-on-Trent, became famous through the boyband Take That in the early 90s. He then retired three years ago, to many young girls sorrow, including mine. But now he is back in London for one exclusive concert!

On October 11 his new single “Bodies” is released and then the CD “Reality Killed The Video Star” in November. No tour is planned, but this one exclusive concert will be given in London on October 20. This concert is already sold out unfortunately, but instead, BBC will broadcast the concert live in 200 cinemas around Europe.

Tickets will be released for sale on Friday 9th October. All four Nordic contries will have cinemas to visit. Find out where you can see the concert on this link.

- Towe -