XOYO

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Shoreditch

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Time Out says

Sat Jan 5 2013

Established in 2010, this excellent Shoreditch venue quickly cemented itself as one of the most tasteful gig and clubbing venues in the area, thanks to a booking selection that ignored genre and simply focused on quality. It continues to operate in a discerning way thankfully, with an enormously wide-range of the latest DJs, bands and producers all finding a home over its two floors.

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Venue location

Address:
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St
Old Street (station)
London
EC2A 4AP

Phone:
020 7354 9993
Website:
www.xoyo.co.uk
Transport:
Tube: Liverpool St
Map
1. XOYO
  - 32-37 Cowper St
    Old Street (station)
    London
    EC2A 4AP
  - 020 7354 9993
  - www.xoyo.co.uk
  - 51.525524,-0.085091

Categories:
Music. Dance. House, techno and electro. Disco. Drum 'n' bass and dubstep. Comedy. Cabaret. Clubs. Things to do
Occasions:
Trendy

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What's on at XOYO

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Simian Mobile Disco

Dance, House, techno and electro, Clubs

Critics' choice

Colourful techno duo Simian Mobile Disco are always a safe bet for a storming live show. As well as rolling out their immense and widely loved back catalogue, broadly covering glitchy electro and pumping dancefloor attacks that never get old, SMD are...

Sat May 18
– Sun May 19
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£12.50

Brooke Candy

Categories, Pop and rock

You may recognise Californian stripper-cum-rapper Jemina Parra, aka Brooke Candy, as the braided, metal-clad dancer in Grimes’s ‘Genesis’ video. Depending on your tastes, you’ll find her provocative, foul-mouthed pop-rap either incredibly irritating or...

Wed May 22
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£11

Dub Pistols

Categories, Pop and rock

Barry Ashworth’s perennially touring big beat commandoes take to the stage for the millionth time. They’ll be blending hip hop, dub, ska and punk as ever at this Big Beat Reunion.

Thu May 23
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£12

Machinedrum

Dance, House, techno and electro, Clubs, R&B, Garage, Funk, Soul

Critics' choice

One of the most innovative producers around today, Machinedrum excels in crafting everything from ambient garage (in his Sepalcure project), rave-dashed house and footwork under his solo moniker and choppy, soulful funk via his JETS collab with Jimmy...

Fri May 24
– Sat May 25
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£12.50 adv, MOTD

Durrr

House, techno and electro, Disco, Clubs, Nu-disco

Critics' choice

Daft Punk aren't the only French dudes to rock some stellar disco vibes – just ask Joakim, whose fast-paced, electro take on the genre is a guaranteed party-starter. Joakim's new project, Everyone, is a collab with fellow disco devotee Kindness, and they're...

Sat May 25
– Sun May 26
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£5 earlybird, MOTD

Soundwave Croatia Launch Party

Clubs

You might be looking forward to sunning it up at Croatia's Soundwave festival in July, but don't you think you ought to limber up first? Even if you're not going, get a taster at this all-dayer, which invites acts from the festival to prop up the line-up....

Sun May 26
– Mon May 27
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£10 adv, MOTD

Night Engine

Categories, Pop and rock

One of those rare bands with an entirely appropriate name, Night Engine make huge, funk-based indie rock tracks that keep on pumping all night long.

Thu May 30
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Akala

Categories, Pop and rock

Mobo Award-winning rapper Akala – Ms Dynamite's little brother – headlines with his soulful hip hop. He's unashamedly pro-intellect – his lyrics are riddled with Shakespeare references, and he's written for the Huffington Post and performed in the British...

Mon Jun 3
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Zebra Katz

Categories, Pop and rock

Critics' choice

Ojay Morgan (aka Zebra Katz) offers a weighty sing-speak, reminscent of Tricky, over bassy, electronic soundscapes. Check out his darkly minimalist break-out single 'Ima Read', and you won't be surprised by how quickly he got signed to Mad Decent.

Thu Jun 6
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Swiss Lips

Categories, Pop and rock

Synth-heavy rockers SL meld Killers keyboards and disco-worthy beats with a Mancunian accent. While their recordings are a little too polite, the party kicks up a gear when they play live.

Tue Jun 11
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Shout Out Louds

Alternative rock

Making a return this year with album number four, 'Optica', this Swedish outfit make beautiful indie pop.

Thu Jun 13
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Jagwar Ma

Categories, Pop and rock

Coming on like a baggier Dandy Warhols, this pair of Australians (including prolific producer Jono Ma) are all lanky grooves and undulating synths, although they've also been known to tap into a more Beatlesque vein of psychedelia.

Wed Jun 19
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£9

Glasvegas

Categories, Pop and rock

Critics' choice

With their bleeding hearts still pinned firmly to their sleeves, the Glaswegian alt rockers reappear. Their third album is called 'Later... When The TV Turns To Static' – which is a bit of a mouthful, but nothing compared to 2011's 'Euphoric /// Heartbreak...

Glasvegas

Thu Jun 20
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Night Slugs at XOYO

Dance, House, techno and electro, Clubs, Garage, Funk, Soul

Critics' choice

L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok's bassy, future-funkist Night Slugs label has become one of the most recognised and respected names on the underground, so a showcase from them is always welcome. Both label heads will be at XOYO to bust out their low frequency-delving...

Sat Jun 22
– Sun Jun 23
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£20, £15 before 10pm, £12.50 adv

Mayer Hawthorne

Categories, Pop and rock

Critics' choice

Lush and infectious, retro-modernist soul from this Ann Arbor native, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production...

Wed Jul 3
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£16.50

The Heliocentrics

Avant-jazz and free-jazz

Perhaps the true heirs of Sun Ra, The Heliocentrics – based in London – are a loose collective gathered around drummer Malcolm Catto and bassist Jake Ferguson. Their music is truly psychedelic, taking in transcendent jazz, fuzz-rock, James Brown's infinite...

The Heliocentrics

Tue Jul 9
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Mikky Ekko

Categories, Pop and rock

Louisiana-raised Ekko – known to the taxman and his mum as John Stephen Sudduth – is a singer-songwriter and producer who got catapulted to fame when he featured on Rihanna's single 'Stay'. His debut album is still in the works, but to judge from the...

Mikky Ekko

Tue Jul 16
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£12

We Are Scientists

Indie rock

Critics' choice

Keith Murray, guitarist and vocalist for these sharp indie rockers, was born in Williamsburg, New York City in 1977. That makes him the spiritual big brother of a whole generation of Brooklyn hipsters, but his group – including bassist Chris Cain and,...

We Are Scientists

Thu Jul 25
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP

Capital Cities

Electronica

Adding a Tupac sample to a Pink Floyd cover version is pretty ballsy, but fortunately Capital Cities' original songs stand up too. In the studio they're a electronic twosome, but on stage the Los Angelinos expand into a full band with guitar, bass and...

Capital Cities

Thu Sep 19
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£7.50

Tamikrest

Blues, roots and country, African music, Folk

Critics' choice

Hailing from Mali, Niger and Algeria and singing in Tamashek – the language spoken by the nomadic people inhabiting the Saharan desert – this Tuareg seven-piece play dynamic, hypnotic and uplifting desert blues ahead of their third album.

Tamikrest

Thu Oct 24
XOYO 32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£13.50

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Comments & ratings

(20 ratings)

XOYO great venue but needs work, enjoyed my night was really packed but the security and staff where helpful and polite you could see they handle the whole crowed situation very well i give the a hands up as its not there fault, the female security has been the best iv meet yet very stern and polite at the same time and dose her job well, shame about the smoking area would be nice if it was bigger. overall i'd go back.

Emma Patterson Tue Mar 22 2011
Rated as: 3/5
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All the comments on here seem to be so negitive but i always have a great time at XOYO. Yes when they first opened there were some teething problems but all new clubs have to change things around after they see how the venue works with people inside. Ive been to see Live gigs there and been to see the DJ's at weekends and the sound is always fantastic. All of the staff seemed really freindly and the security were some of the nicest ive ever met. Cant wait to go back to XOYO

XOYOisthebest Thu Jan 20 2011
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This is one of the worst venues I've been to in London. The whole place feels like an office block that has had some toilets and a couple of stages / bars quickly thrown together. There is no where that you can chat to your friends without shouting other than the tiny smoking area. And the disco bloodbath night we went to, everyone suddenly decided it was time to leave at 2am and a massive queue was formed for the main cloakroom that extended all the way downstairs. From the back to the front took 35mins! Awful way to end an awful night which is a shame as the DJs onboard should have been quality. Avoid this place!!

xoyosucks Mon Nov 8 2010
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This is the worst venue I have ever been to in London - EVER. And all I do is go to gigs! I will not go to anymore gigs here is is so bad!

tjhatesxoyo Thu Oct 28 2010
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One of the worst venues in the city, in fact probably the very worst in terms of the ratio of venue quality to act quality. Firstly, the layout is terrible - the stage is located immediately next to the (lone) entryway, meaning that as people filter in they end up at the front of the crowd rather than the back, and then just stay there, resulting in a room that's jam packed in some sections and empty in others. The shape of the thing's all messed up as well - a long rectangle with a narrow stage pushed nearly to a corner, leaving large portions of the room with only a steeply angled sidelong view of the stage. Then there's the inexplicable location of the bars - facing the stage so that the crowd eyeing the gig ends up backing up against the crowd eyeing the booze. There's so much dead space to either side of the room, why they couldn't work out a way to put the bars there is a mystery to me. The ventilation system is about as effective as a dead asthmatic, and the flimsy ducts rattle something awful during loud gigs, as well. Why aren't there any vents located directly above the densest portions of the crowd? The mind boggles. And if the heat gets to you and you'd like some fresh air, you need to make your way up to the minuscule smoking area, except it's so tiny - i've seen bigger bathrooms - that it's invariably rammed with smokers standing nose-to-armpit and puffing away. So then you think, alright, they've given me this nice XOYO stamp on my hand, why don't I just go out the main door for a bit and come back in? Except no, get to the front door and you find that there's a strict no readmissions policy (so why the stamp?) being doggedly enforced by a bouncer with the IQ of a used postage stamp. Then, when the gig's is over, do they open up an extra exit to help disperse the crowd quickly? Nope... it's more of their charming staff telling you that there's only one way out. I can only hope promoters will see sense and scratch this place off their schedules posthaste - unlikely, considering the people behind it. I hate when this kind of crap is accepted just because it's trendy. I don't care if a venue's corporate and unfashionable, it can be sponsored by Asda for all I care, as long as it doesn't suck donkey danglers the way XOYO does.

somethingmissing Thu Oct 28 2010
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Really shoddy venue. I could hear the band on downstairs over the band I'd come to see upstairs. Venue was insanely hot, but air conditioner was too noisy to have on during the gig. Bar staff tried to charge for 2 cokes when they used one bottle to pour into 2 cups. Had to point out that I wouldn't pay £6 for one coke. Real shame because it looks nice inside and is in a really great location.

Vix Tue Oct 26 2010
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Was not impressed by being short-changed last night at the bar, the bar staff admitting their mistake but then refusing to give me my money back. Very bad attitude towards customers, and I certainly won't be going back.

Tom Sun Oct 10 2010
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Massive disappointment! Over priced tickets! Over priced drinks! No crowd! Music on and off all night! Random searches while smoking a fag! Not impressed!

Dave Mon Oct 4 2010
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