On Thursday 12 June, Old Fire Station in Oxford plays host to Alexander The Great: A Folk Operetta, the ambitious “audio-visual odyssey” created by Huck & The Xander Band. Mixing up theatre, music and drama, the event promises “a raucous and outrageous rite of passage, exploring youth, sex, drugs, gods and monsters”. Phew!
The excellently-named ‘Grief Fest’ takes place on Friday 13 June – the spookiest of all dates – at The Jericho Tavern in Oxford. Hopefully it won’t be too grief-drenched; there’s certainly a stellar line-up of local talent on offer, with the transcendental Flights Of Helios supported by complex hard-rockers Masiro and experimentalists Lee Riley and John Grieve.
Inspiring stuff at Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford on Saturday 14 June: the RAP, or Rhythm And Poetry workshop, offers the opportunity to try out new instruments, learn how to rap and to create beats, using some of the museum’s real objects to help create sounds. The work that’s created will be showcased at a separate Pitt Rivers event on 12 July!
Celebrating up-and-coming Oxford music is OCM Open on Sunday 15 June. This year’s event takes place at Oxford’s Gloucester Green, and sees Oxford Contemporary Music teaming up with Pegasus Theatre, Oxford City Council and BBC Introducing in Oxford to curate a line-up of good stuff. It’ll feature The Harcourt Collective, Julia Meijer, Be Good, The Balkan Wanderers and Robot Swans. What’s more, it’s free!
Follow up the OCM Open fun (which ends at 5.30 pm) with a gig at The Cellar, Oxford that’s also taking place on Sunday 15 June. The comedic folkish tunes of Jeffrey Lewis & The Jrams is on the bill, along with the soothing melodies of The Cooling Pearls. A most agreeable way to end the weekend.
Oxford promoters Pindrop have a long history of bringing good stuff to this town, and continue this on Tuesday 17 June. They’re bringing Alexis Taylor, of pop experimentalists Hot Chip as well the ‘improvised/non-improvised music project’ About Group, to The Art Bar in Oxford. Support comes from Oxford’s Be Good.
Those seeking some heavy, heavy bass vibrations should get themselves to The Cellar, Oxford on Thursday 19 June. Late-night club Deep Cover is presenting The Bug, aka Kevin Martin (formerly of many things including GOD and Techno Animal), along with grime pioneer Flowdan. Should be pretty intense…
Over the weekend of Friday 20 June to Sunday 22 June, the Hill End Outdoors Education Centre in Farmoor hosts the first Tandem Festival. This ‘pan-European music festival with a strong eco ethos’ has a huge selection of musicians and bands on offer, along with what promises to be a friendly, unique atmosphere.
Full details of these and loads more gigs can be found in the events calendar.