LiveNation Present:
Tuesday 6th May. £9.50 adv.
**6.30pm-10pm. 14+**
TOPMAN NME NEW NOISE TOUR
FEAT.
CRYSTAL CASTLES, FRIENDLY FIRES, TEAM WATERPOLO & WHITE LIES
Crystal Castles are from Toronto and have been described as "the most exciting and original band in the world right now". Crystal Castles consist of multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. The band is named after the Crystal Castlefrom the She-Ra franchise.
Crystal Castles have toured Europe and the USA numerous times in the last 2 years, they played at the Reading and Leeds in August 2007 and also headlined Vice Magazines's UK tour in November 2007 called Unitaur, which also featured These New Puritans and The Teenagers.
Crystal Castles use unusual instrumentation such as placing an Atari 5200 sound chip inside a keyboard in order to produce a sound that has been described as having "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast pierce [the] skull with sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever".
Friendly Fires lie somewhere between the poppiness of Snap!, the funkiness of rince, and the electronic dance-iness of Daft Punk Friendly Fires were the first unsigned band ever to play Transmission on Channel 4 which aired on 9th November 2007. Signed to Moshi Moshi they are a band subject to much media frenzy as evinced by the following quotes:
Friendly Fires are a classy prospect" NME May 07
"The band to look out for next year" Vice
"Purveyors of the finest funk-punk known to modern music" Clash
Team Waterpolo
There are numerous bands currently subject to an A&R frenzy, and Team Waterpolo despite only forming in July 2007 are possibly the band most of the commotion is over. Team Waterpolo claim their influences as Deftones, Beastie Boys, Muddy Waters, the Beatles, the Avalanches, System Of A Down, A Tribe Called Quest, At The Drive-In, Howlin' Wolf, the Beach Boys, Incubus, Wu-Tang Clan, Rage Against The Machine, Weezer, Radiohead and the Go! Team.
Team Waterpolo create harmony-drenched, sampladelic power pop
White Lies are being hailed as the next Great White Indie Hope. They play epic U2, Bunnymen-esque anthems.Signed to Fictionthey are currently working on their debut album due out in 2009. Mark Ronson, Morrissey and Nick Cave have all checked out White Lies live. Their music has been described as cinematic and has been polished and perfected by name producers Ed Buller and Max Dingle.

Inside Track Music Present:
Thursday 8th May. £10adv
EZIO

**EARLY SHOW 7pm-10pm**
Saturday 10th May. £10adv
JESSE MALIN
+
Dave Bielanko (of Marah) 
Jesse Malin played in a number of bands like the seminal hardcore band Heart Attack and glam-punk act D Generation and is currently a solo recording artist.
His first album ‘The Fine Art Of Self Destruction’ was produced by his friend Ryan Adams and acclaimed by the UK press as one of the year’s best. Malin's most recnt album ‘Glitter In The Gutterwas released in 2007. IMalin has announced that he will be releasing a covers album in April, 2008 entitled ‘On Your Sleeve’.

Monday 12th May. £11adv
JENS LEKMAN
+ JAYMAY
Jens Lekman is a Swedish indie-pop musician. His music is guitar-based pop though he also uses samples and strings to create a fuller, mure luxuriant sound. The lyrics are wry,witty, romantic, and melancholic. Jens Lekman’s material is reminiscent of such stellar songswmiths as Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, Jonathan Richman, and Belle and Sebastian
Jens Lekman self-released most of his music until 2003 when Swedish label Service Records released the EP ‘Maple Leaves’, Service Records still release his material in Sweden. He signed to US label Secretly Canadian who released his first album ‘When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog’ in 2004 and his subseqent albums worldwide
Live performances by Lekman have differed in style; at times he has performed alone with only a guitar and a CD player, sometimes doing a capella versions of his songs, while on other occasions he has been accompanied by a choir and string quartet.

www.thegigcartel.com Present:
Wednesday 14th May. £15adv
ROBIN TROWER
+ Aynsley Lister
Robin Trower is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procul Harem during the 1960s, and then again as the leader of his own Hendrixesque power trio.
Perhaps Trower's most famous album is Bridge of Sighs. this album, along with his first and third solo albums, was produced by his former procol harum bandmate, organist Matthew Fisher

Thursday 15th May. £14adv. 8pm
THE ORB

Friday 16th May. £15adv
WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY PILGRIM ORCHESTRA
w/ very special guest HOWE GELB

this is a very special one off tour with WGC including the following players:

Robert Fisher- vocals, acoustic guitar
Malcolm Lindsay- acoustic piano, acoustic guitar
Chris Eckman- second keyboard and guitars (acoustic and electric), vocals
Josh Hillman- viola /violin
James Youngblood-viola
Dennis Cronin- trumpet, vibes, accordion, vocals
Tom King- percussion (drum kit)
Erik Van Loo- bass (double bass and electric)
John Songdahl- Trombone, keyboards, vocals
Yuko Murata- Keyboard, Mellodica

Formed in 1995 in by Robert Fisher and Paul Austin, the band operates as a collective, with vocalist Fisher the only permanent member. Up to thirty other musicians occasionally contribute to the band, both in the studio and during live performances. WGC are currently signed to the independent label Glitterhouse Records, having previously released on Rykodiscand Kimchee Records.
Fisher's voice has been compared to Johnny Cash’s. .
Howe Gelb has been called one of the most resilient and consistently inventive American artists of the last two decades. Howe has served as front man for Giant Sand, been a member of OP8 and owned a record label. All the while amazing, entertaining, confounding and influencing fans and critics alike.