A blues guitar big-hitter plays at The Bullingdon, Oxford on Monday 29 April. Buddy Whittington grew up listening to the music of the Beatles, Stones and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and now he not only plays solo but has since 1991 been part of Mayall’s band!
Interesting stuff is afoot at the O3 Gallery in Oxford on Tuesday 30 April: the Kymmata one-day ‘sound exhibition’ they are hosting promises sound pieces by five diverse contemporary practitioners, both established and up-and-coming. Get along if you can, it’ll be something out of the ordinary.
Even more out of the ordinary events are taking place as part of the Digital Is Dead three-day ‘festival of post-digital music practice’. They’ve secured some superb talent as part of their plans, including Tim Hecker and Mountains at Modern Art Oxford on Thursday 2 May and Oval with Ex-Easter Island Head and Simon Scott, at the same venue, on Saturday 4 May.
The charity fundraiser festival Wittstock has its 2013 outing over the weekend of Friday 3 May, Saturday 4 May and Sunday 5 May at The Railway Inn in Culham. The free event – which raises money through donations, raffles, t-shirt and CD sales and the like – has a huge number of local acts involved, including Agness Pike, Peerless Pirates, Von Braun, X-1, Welcome To Peepworld, Undersmile and The Goggenheim. That’s naming only seven – there really are a lot of other bands and musicians taking part!
If you need any more evidence of the good stuff that’s going on in Oxford’s music scene, why not check out Johnny Payne (of Deer Chicago), Noé And The Pastel Frontier and Sweet William at Port Mahon, Oxford, on Friday 3 May – with an excellently-named ‘Night Of Loud Bands Playing Quietly’.
Want even more? Go on then – ex-Supergrass legend Gaz Coombes will play O2 Academy 2, Oxford on Saturday 4 May, with his handed-picked local supports Candy Says (ex-Little Fish) and Vienna Ditto. You’ll be so bowled over by the gig that you’ll even want to take advantage of free entry to the Propaganda club afterwards…
Down on the farm – that’s Cogges Manor Farm in Witney – there will be an afternoon of music on Monday 6 May. As part of the Witney Music Festival, there’s music in the idyllic rural setting for several hours, including sets by Matt Midgley, Samuel Zasada, Welcome To Peepworld, Stem and Ags Connolly.
Anybody interested in Oxford’s music scene should be out at the Nightshift Punt on Wednesday 8 May. The legendary annual showcase of new talent, run by the even more legendary Nightshift magazine, takes place across several venues and includes gigs and performances by twenty of the best that Oxford has to offer right now.
Full details of these and loads more gigs can be found in the events calendar.