Free Music and A Slightly Unfair Jibe About Dickon Edwards

We want to go and have a look at Peter Hujar's current show at the ICA. But we're a bit tired of photography exhibitions, for a few days at least. Our last two excursions have been excellent with both Nick Waplington and Jeff Wall showcasing some great stuff that made venturing out through the arctic winds almost worthwhile.

If you're trying to save some money in the run up to christmas, you could do a lot worse than head down to the Pure Groove shop in Archway for their series of deftly selected free gigs. This evening they hosted a gig from the horribly rubbish Emmy The Great, but the past is the past and their forthcoming gigs are much more promising.

Tomorrow evening, solo singer-songwriter Eugene Mcguinness (see above) will be down there with a christmassy (christmassy may not be an actual proper adjective) set to warm up his growing bunch of followers. Eugene's music can sometimes be a bit ponderous and, sure, he sometimes lapses into acoustic dullness, but he has a definite charm to him, a way with a tune and a charismatic stage presence. Also, it's fair to say that any singer who makes references to Neighbours in his songs is alright by us.

Later in the week sees gigs from Noah and The Whale, Beans on Toast and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly who is accompanied on the same evening by the ultra posh George Pringle (see gratuitous photo below) who we wrote about last month here.

All the gigs kick off at 6pm and the venue is located conveniently close to the brilliant Boogaloo pub where, if you're lucky, you may just bump into the ghost of christmas past, Mr. Shane Macgowan or if you're slightly less fortunate, the ex Orlando singer (EDIT: Apologies to Dickon who was actually the guitarist and lyricist as he states below) and famous-within-the-world-of-blogs fop Mr. Dickon Edwards.

Oh-and in response to comments below, here's another photo of George Pringle.

George Is Short For Georgina Apparently

In the absence of John Peel and Steve Lamacq, Radio 1 has felt increasingly pointless in the evenings. There is one glimmer of hope remaining though, in the form of Huw Stephens who partly fulfils the Peel remit of providing a forum to the type of lo-fi indie acts who wouldn’t get played anywhere else. As with Peel, you have to wade through a lot of crap to find the gems but it’s better than nothing and a million times better than Colin Murray playing theme tunes from TV programmes you liked when you were six.

Back in August, Huw started running a monthly band night at the Social on Little Portland Street to tie in with his radio show. artslondon haven’t been able to go down there yet, but the lineup for this month’s show on Thursday week may prove an allure too hard to resist.

George Pringle (see above) is half art school joke, half Black Box Recorder style genius. She also sounds unnervingly posh. She actually reminds us of Pulp spin off band Venini. The Guardian described her as “Shoegaze-pop, poetry and electronica”. Definitely worth having a look at. And headlining is Gideon Conn (see below) who may just be the most lo-fi alt-folk singer songwriter you’ll ever come across. Whch isn't a particularly complimentary way to describe someone but we're currently addicted to his myspace site and desperate to see him in the flesh.

The good thing about these nights is the opportunity to take a risk and see some new bands with the safety net provided by knowing they’ve been chosen by Mr. Stephens. It’s only £4, takes place in one of the West End’s cosiest venues and has to be better than staying at home and listening to this prick rap to himself for two hours. See you there.