London

Around Town | Art | Books | Comedy | Dance | Film | Gay & Lesbian | Kids | Music |Classical | Nightlife | Social Club | Sport | Theatre

'Space Age' at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Around Town
The Big Draw
Events at 60 venues in the East End, linked by a special bus. No money required – the entrance fee is a drawing.
Sept 30 - Oct 31 in east London.

‘Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007’
Fabulous shots of all creatures great and small the world over.
Oct 27-Apr 2008 at the Natural History Museum.

‘Sleeping and Dreaming’
Featuring works by Ron Mueck and Goya, an alarm clock that fires a pistol to wake you up and a bed in which visitors can lie to listen to traditional lullabies. Sweet dreams…
Nov 29-Mar 10 2008 at the Wellcome Collection. Feature continues

'Weapons of Mass Communication' at IWM

'Space Age: Exploration, Design and Popular Culture’
Out of this world: books, comics, film, design and toys looking at our fascination with space.
Nov 24-Apr 6 2008 at the V&A Museum of Childhood.

Video Games Live
Big scores from iconic games, no longer tinny but played by the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Oct 22 at the Royal Festival Hall.

‘Weapons of Mass Communication: War Posters’
The evolution of the poster as a tool of protest and counter-culture, from 1914 via the Spanish Civil War to the demos against the Iraq war.
Oct 4-Mar 30 2008 at the Imperial War Museum.

Art
Frieze Art Fair
The international art world descends upon London to see who’s hot and who’s not among the artists showing with the 150-plus galleries on display.

Frieze Art Fair (image by Adrian Paci)

Satellite art fairs include Zoo, Bridge and Year 07, alongside a host of related exhibitions and events.
Oct 11-14 in Regent’s Park.

Louise Bourgeois
First major UK survey of the French-born artist featuring more than 200 works from her 70-year career including large-scale installations, sculptures, prints and drawings.
Oct 11-Jan 20 2008 at Tate Modern.

‘Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now’
Two thousand years of sex in art from erotic frescoes to explicit photographs, sculptures and paintings by artists including Egon Schiele, Nobuyoshi Araki, Francis Bacon and Tracey Emin. Over-18s only.
Oct 12-Jan 27 2008 at the Barbican Art Gallery.

Matthew Barney
Freemason, fauns and Freudian holes - this autumn sees the launch of the first major show in London of the the much celebrated USA-based artist Matthew Barney. Ahead of the show we present an A-Z of everything you wanted to know about his strange, strange world.


Books
‘Exit Ghost’ by Philip Roth
Roth’s final Zuckerman book finds Nathan returning to manic, media-saturated New York after 11 years of living an isolated writer’s life in New England.
Published on Oct 4 by Cape at £16.99.

‘Re-make/Re-model’ by Michael Bracewell
This might look like a straightforward biography of art-rock pioneers Roxy Music. But in the expert hands of ‘England Is Mine’ author Bracewell, it becomes a heady, mesmerising account of Messrs Ferry and Eno’s bold attempt to refashion pop music as a ‘state of mind’.
Published on Oct 18 by Faber at £20.

Wimbledon Literary Festival
Featuring William Boyd, Sandi Toksvig, Michelle Paver, Tony Hawks, Martin Jarvis, Penny Vincenzi, Kate Williams, Victoria Hislop, John O’Farrell, AS Byatt, John Humphrys and many more.
Oct 8-14 (www.wimbledonbookfest.org).

Bill Bailey

Comedy
Bill Bailey
Three years after ‘Part Troll’, the hirsute musical noodler and star of TV’s ‘Black Books’ returns to the nation’s larger stages with a new comedy spectacular, ‘Tinselworm’. Warm-ups at the Riverside Studios precede his Wembley dates.
Sept 22, 23, 28, 29 and Oct 5, 6 at Riverside Studios; Nov 29, 30 at Wembley Arena.

Lyric Comedy Nights
The Lyric theatre hosts a new season of stand-up comedy in Hammersmith, where the impressive series of Sunday night line-ups (Harry Hill and Phill Jupitus on October 7, ‘The Thick of It’ star Chris Addison on October 21) will be programmed and compered by Richard Herring.
Weekly from Sept 30 at Lyric Hammersmith.

41st Best Stand-Up Ever
Stewart Lee returns with his first show since the now legendary ‘90s Comedian’ show, to take pot-shots at Tom O’Connor and at the public who recently voted him just outside the Top 40 greatest jokers of all time.
Nov 13-Dec 22 at the Soho Theatre .

Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company (image © Paul Kolnik)

Dance
Michael Clark Company
The group completes its three-year ‘Stravinsky Project’ residency at the Barbican with ‘Mmm…’. Great music redefined with new edge.
Oct 31-Nov 11 at the Barbican.

Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company
This new company starts its transatlantic life with a bang. Twenty exceptional dancers and a full orchestra. This is life at the top.
Sept 19-23 at Sadler’s Wells.

Robert Hylton Urban Classicism
A radical glance over a classic with ‘Swan Breaks’. How will today’s audiences connect to this legendary tale?
Oct 11 at the Laban Theatre.

Film
‘Control’
The finest band ever to come out of Macclesfield, Joy Division, get their own biopic helmed by esteemed rock photographer Anton Corbijn.
Opens Oct 5.

'The Darjeeling Limited'

‘The Darjeeling Limited’
Another witty, postmodern comedy from Texan übergeek Wes Anderson – this time about a trip across India made by three brothers.
Opens Nov 23.

London Film Festival
Catch new work from Cronenberg, Haneke, Herzog, Broomfield, Korine and more than 30 films in the Time Out-sponsored Cinema Europa strand.
Oct 17-Nov 1.

Gay & Lesbian
‘And Then He Was a She’
A free exhibition of paintings of Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn by Sadie Lee.
Oct 1-Nov 11 at the The Drill Hall Gallery (www.andthenhewasashe.com).

Extreme Kissing
Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens lead a workshop exploring ‘Love as Art’, including a two-hour public Kiss-In on the Kings Road.
Sept 22 at 12noon in the Kings Road and at the Chelsea Theatre (www.loveartlab.org).

Yoganu
Weekly nude yoga class for men in Islington. Courses last six weeks and start regularly.
Sept 25 and Oct 2 (www.yoganu.com).

Kids
Launchpad relaunch
New! Bigger! Even more fun! Elbow the grown-ups out of the way and have a ball discovering the wonderful world of physics in the Science Museum’s revamped interactive gallery.
From Nov 24 at the Science Museum.

London Children’s Film Festival
Aimed at four-to-11-year-olds, the festival showcases the best new films from around the globe, focusing on young people’s stories from other places and other times.
Nov 17-25 at the Barbican and ten other London venues.

‘War Horse’
Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s moving novel, which follows the adventures of a horse on the WWI battlefields.
Oct 17-Feb 8 2008 (previews from Oct 8) at the National Theatre.

Music
Artful festival
The self-styled ‘Costa del Thames’ plays host to the capital’s biggest and broadest festival of alternative arts. For the whole of October, the Deptford triangle is transformed into a mini-city-state of bands, films, visual arts, drinking and dancing.
Oct 1-31 (www.myspace.com/artfulmtb).

BBC Electric Proms
After the success of last year’s Electric Proms, which featured the inaugural performance from The Good The Bad & The Queen, the BBC’s licence fee-funded live music project enters its second year. Although the 2007 line-up is yet to be finalised, some of the early events on the calendar include a show from Mark Ronson and the BBC Orchestra, and Jamie Cullum collaborating with Japanese world-funkers Soil & Pimp. Paul McCartney has been added to the bill.
Oct 24-28.

Led Zeppelin
The original dino-rockers return for a one-off performance at the O2 in November. If you somehow manage to get a ticket, expect to hear all your favourite hits, including the ‘Theme from Top of the Pops’ and ‘Theme from Twat at the Guitar Shop’. It’s all for charity, which might make paying the £10,000,000 eBay price per ticket a bit easier for you emotionally.

Classical
‘Carmen’
Film director Sally Potter tackles Bizet’s cigarette girl who can damage your health.
From Sept 29 at the London Coliseum.

‘Ring Cycle’
Two complete cycles of Wagner’s massive tetralogy. Bryn Terfel has backed out, but with Sir John Tomlinson stepping in, who’ll notice?
From Oct 2 at the Royal Opera House.

Sibelius Unbound
Esa-Pekka Salonen marks the Finnish giant’s anniversary with the LA Philharmonic.
Nov 1-10 at the Barbican.

Together at Turnmills

Nightlife
Fabric Birthday Weekend
The superclub turns eight this year, and it’s still getting better. This three-dayer kicks off with an Adventures in the Beetroot Field special on Thursday, boasting nine bands and heaps of DJs.
Oct 18-20 at Fabric.

The Scratch Perverts Beatdown
The DMC mixmasters host their annual mash-up from D&B to hip hop and fidget house with a great mix of veteran spinners, cutting-edge producers and Pendulum live.
Nov 9 at Fabric.

Together at Turnmills
François K, Ewan Pearson and Heidi (Get Physical) guest DJ, while Oz’s Sneaky Sound System makes its UK live debut at the monthly mash-up.
Sept 29 at Turnmills.

Social Club
‘International Woman of Mr “E” ’
Jonny Woo’s first solo show.
From Oct 16 at Bistrotheque.

Lucha Britannia presents the Night of the Dead
There’ll be men in gimp masks wrestling, dark-side cabaret and glamorous punters.
Nov 2 at SeOne.

Smoking Cabinet Film Festival
A festival showcasing early burlesque and cabaret cinema from 1895-1933.
Dec 7-9 at Curzon Soho and other venues tbc.

Sport
NBA Basketball
Top-class hoops from the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the NBA’s Europe Live tour.
Oct 10 at the O2.

NFL American Football
More than half a million tickets for this showdown between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants were requested online in just 72 hours – further proof that American sport is enjoying a resurgence this side of the Atlantic.
Oct 28 at Wembley Stadium.

Race of Champions
The world’s most fearless drivers go head-to-head on parallel tracks to find who’s quickest.
Dec 16 at Wembley Stadium.

Theatre
‘Casanova’
History’s most scandalous lover gets a sex change courtesy of poet Carol Ann Duffy.
Nov 6-24 at the Lyric Hammersmith.

‘Othello’
Ewan McGregor takes to the stage playing Iago to Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Othello.
From Nov 29 at the Donmar Warehouse.

‘Women of Troy’
Experimental director Katie Mitchell will be giving Euripides’ tragedy a radical makeover.
From Nov 28 at the National Theatre.