From major art exhibitions to tiny comedy nights, London culture-hound Tristram Fane Saunders chooses the best the city has to offer for the week of Friday April 21 – Thursday April 27. If you have a recommendation for Tristram, tweet it to him at @TATFS.
Music: Record Store Day
Downloads are dead: long live the LP. Vinyl sales are at a 25-year high, with more than three million wobbly black discs sold last year alone. That resurgence can partly be put down to the success of Record Store Day, now in its tenth year. Each April, hi-fi fans descend on London’s two dozen participating stores, to wrestle for limited-edition releases.
This year’s must-haves are two sunken treasures from David Bowie’s (né Davey Jones) locker: the spreviously unheard triple-album Cracked Actor (Live in Los Angeles 1974), and Bowpromo, a forgotten 1971 demo with alternative takes of tracks from Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust.
Other highlights include a new EP from Mercury-nominated jazzers The Comet is Coming, and the ultimate blues box-set in Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection, as well as – for unbeatable kitsch – a reissue of Aqua’s Barbie Girl on pink vinyl.
For live music, swing by the excellent Flashback Records on Brick Lane (E2 7DG), where London shoegazers The Duke Spirit will be making a racket at 6pm.
There’s a special treat for anyone who picks up a copy of electronic pioneer Tristram Cary’s soundtrack to Quatermass and the Pit, the 1967 Hammer horror classic in which Martian remains are found in the London Underground. That record gets alien-hunters free entry to the film’s boozy 50th anniversary bash at the London Transport Museum, from 6.3opm-9.30pm.
Sat, all day. Info: recordstoreday.co.uk
Sport: The loneliness of the long-distance runner
The London Marathon @ The Gipsy Moth
You only have to look at a marathon runner to see how unhealthy they are. Bulging eyes, tortured lungs, forehead dripping with sweat. These poor wretches will probably start to lag around the six mile mark of the London Marathon, just where the track passes this beautiful Grade I listed pub, with its lovely view of the Cutty Sark. It’s the perfect place to stage an intervention. Sit by the window with a cold pint, a Sunday pork roast (£13) and a beatific smile. Catching sight of you as they wheeze past, the fools will realise the terrible mistake they have made.
Sun. 10.00am non-elite marathon starts (and pub opens). Address: 60 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Nearest tube: Cutty Sark (DLR). 020 8858 0786; thegipsymothgreenwich.co.uk.
Museum late: Silent disco with dinosaurs
After-school Club for Grown-Ups @ Natural History Museum
If you never had a school trip to the Natural History Museum as a child, tonight is your chance. In this celebration of kidulthood, you’ll be sorted into a school house by a ‘Headmaster’ before heading off on a range of activities, including plant-growing, face-painting and sculpting your own clay mammals. Unlike a standard school trip, this one has gin and tonics. It’s followed at 10.15pm by a silent disco, where you can shake a tail feather amongst the taxidermy.
Fri, 7.00pm-1.00am. £30 event / £22 disco / £48 both. Address: Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD. 020 7942 5511; nhm.ac.uk
Books: Mud-wrestling with words
Bang! Said the Gun @ Bloomsbury Theatre
London’s most raucous poetry night makes a long overdue return. This cult spoken-word showcase has an atmosphere unlike any other, with its eclectic line-ups and quirky homemade props (including milk-jug rattles, to be shaken as an alternative to applause). The promoters describe the general vibe as “mud-wrestling with words”. Tonight, special guests Jess Green and Tim Wells join a handful of regular hosts including award-winning poet and comedian Rob Auton. If you’re feeling brave, you can compete to win a Golden Gun trophy in their Raw Meat Stew poetry slam.
Thu, 8.00pm. £15. Address: 15 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH. Nearest tube: Euston Square. 020 3108 1000; thebloomsbury.com
Art: Roald Dahl’s heroes at 100
Quentin Blake @ British Library
To mark the late author’s centenary, Quentin Blake produced a charming new set of portraits featuring the best-known characters from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s stories. This free exhibition is now in its final weeks, and guaranteed to raise a smile: for these new artworks, Blake says he tried to paint The BFG, Matilda et al “as though they were real people – which, of course, to many of us they are”.
Until May 21. Free. Address: 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB. Nearest tube: King’s Cross St Pancras. 01937 546546; ww.bl.uk
Music: A new spring for The Four Seasons
Frankie Valli @ 02 Arena
The boy with the golden falsetto may now be in his eighties, but Frankie Valli’s doo-wop hits have found a new generation of fans with the Broadway musical (and now film) Jersey Boys. This rare London appearance from the Four Seasons singer is sure to be “supremely entertaining”, according to our chief rock critic Neil McCormick, who adds: “Grease is still the word”.
Sun, 7.30. Sold out; resale tickets from around £60. Address: Peninsula Sqaure, SE10 0DX. Nearest tube: North Greenwich. www.theo2.co.uk
Cinema: The Bard in Barbados
A Caribbean Dream @ Shortwave Cinema
The London Independent Film Festival is on all weekend, so why not take a punt and support some rising talent? One highlight of the programme is this promising adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which relocates the action from Shakespeare’s Athens to a sultry festival night in Barbados. It’s the solo feature debut from Barbadian director Shakirah Bourne, and stars Ruby Wax’s daughter Marina Bye as unlucky lover Hermia.
Friday, 9.15pm. £5. Address: 10 Bermondsey Square, SE1 3UN. Nearest tube: London Bridge. 020 8358 6845; shortwavecinema.com. London Independent Film Festival info: liff.org
Exhibition: Larkin’ about with the blues
Larkinworld @ National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre
This tiny but lovingly assembled exhibition revives the ghost of Philip Larkin through the things he loved, from cricket to Dickens. It may come as a surprise to any Telegraph readers who remember his stint as our sternly anti-hippy jazz critic in the Sixties, but the buttoned-down poet was a fan of Bob Dylan. Here, Larkin’s own unpublished blues lyrics are on display, alongside his records, favourite books, and even a calendar of pin-up girls. Dotted between them are new artworks created by the show’s curator DJ Roberts as a response to the poems: Larkin’s “enormous yes” is spelt out in neon.
Until April 28. Free. Address: Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX. Nearest tube: Embankment. 020 7960 4200; poetrylibrary.org.uk
Museum late: Nighthawks at the RA
America Dreaming @ Royal Academy
A late-night chance to explore Royal Academy’s blockbuster exhibition America After the Fall, free cocktail in hand. The show reveals the exhilarating range of American art in the Thirties, from Edward Hopper to Jackson Pollock via Georgia O’Keeffe – but tonight’s event isn’t just about the exhibits. As well as the food and drink, there’s an after-dark drawing workshop, live music and an immersive installation inspired by Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic, here shown outside the States for the very first time.
Sat, 7pm – 11pm. £35. Address: Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD. Nearest tube: Green Park. 020 7300 8090; roylacademy.org.uk
Festival: Get medieval for St George’s Day
St George’s Festival @ Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
While tourists flock to Trafalgar Square for the thoroughly modern St George’s Feast celebrations, the Vauxhall Trust is hosting its own celebration of Olde Englande, with the emphasis firmly on the Olde. Expect falconry, Morris dancing, men wandering about in chainmail, and – in the evening – armed combat by torchlight. There’s plenty of medieval grub and traditional trinkets on sole. As well as a pop-up zoo rabbits and donkeys, and a Punch & Judy show to keep the little ones entertained. To cap it all off, there will be music from medieval folk group Princes in the Tower (their slogan: “party like it’s 1555”).
Sat, 12.00pm-10.00pm; Sun, 12.00pm-6.00pm. Free. Address: Vauxhall Walk, SE11 5HL. Nearest tube: Vauxhall. 020 7926 9000; vauxhalltrust.org
Theatre: A sweet Caroline revenge saga
The Cardinal @ Southwark Playhouse
Of course, the kind of Falstaffian frolic described above would never have got past Oliver Cromwell. His puritans closed the playhouses in 1642, but one of the last plays to be produced before they did was James Shirley’s The Cardinal, a sharp revenge-tragedy with plenty to say about the ruthless pursuit of power. Almost four centuries later, this Caroline gem has been pulled out of the archives and is finally back onstage in London, with Stephen Boxer in the title role. It’s directed by up-and-coming talent Justin Audibert, who earned a rave from our critic Dominic Cavendish with his recent RSC revival of The Jew of Malta. Preview tickets for Wednesday and Thursday are only £12.
Wed – May 27, 3.30pm / 8.00pm. £12-£20. Address: 77-85 Newington Causeway, SE1 6BD. Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle. 020 7407 0234; southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Last chance to see:
Theatre: Joyce, Tzara and Lenin walk into a bar
Travesties @ Apollo Theatre
The Old Vic’s revival of Rozencrantz and Guildenstern has had more attention (thanks to the casting of Daniel Radcliffe), but you’re planning to catch a Tom Stoppard comedy this week make sure it’s Travesties. Not only fiendishly clever, but also surprisingly moving, it’s set in Vienna in 1917, when a dazzling roll-call of artists and radicals rubbed shoulders in the city’s cafes: Lenin was leading a revolution, James Joyce was drafting Ulysses and Tristan Tzara was cutting up books to make his Dada poems. But the hero of Stoppard’s story is dull civil servant Henry Carr (the fabulous Tom Hollander) who’s determined to take Joyce to court over the cost of a pair of trousers.
Until April 29, 2.30pm / 7.30pm. From £26.00. Address: Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EZ. Nearest tube: Piccadilly circus. 0330 333 4809; tickets.telegraph.co.uk
