The day’s hand-picked programme represents the shared ambition to bridge the gap between different types of performance and open up new audiences to an array of diverse talent.

It’s all at The Camden Head, Sunday April 4, from 3pm – late, and Beyond The Curve tickets can be bought from We Got Tickets for £8, or £6 if you’re quick enough. Here’s that link again: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/74842

Now, breathe in as you take more than a cursory glance at the programme:

3pm: Lisa Wells Turner: ‘The Opposite of Waiting’
A one-woman  show pushing the boundaries between theatre and song, blending physical theatre and classical music, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009. “Thought-provoking” (ThreeWeeks), “an intelligent, thoughtful exploration of reality” (What’s On Stage).

3.45pm: Marcus Orlandi: ‘Never Better’
- The London performance artist and writer presents a time-lapse narrative choreographed to digitalised sound, premiered at Scenepool 2009 at Camden People’s Theatre.

4.30pm: Poetry, curated by award-winning poet Helen Mort (five-time Foyle Young Poet of the Year, winner of the Eric Gregory Award, and most recently the 2010 Cafe Writers’ Prize)
-  Helen Mort reads from her latest pamphlet ‘A Pint for the Ghost’, Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2010
-  New work from Ashna Sarkar, the sparky London performer nominated one of 21 Poets for the 21st Century
-  Kerri French, Best New Poet in the 2008 collection of the acclaimed US publication
-  The animal musings of Lizzy Denning (whose recent publications include The Times and The Rialto)
-  Dark fairytales from Rebecca Varley-Winter, reading from her forthcoming pamphlet
-  The lyrical stylings of Benjamin Morris

5.45pm: ‘Scenes From The City’ by Broken Glass Theatre Company
A short radio play from the critically-acclaimed London fringe company, accompanying a series of projections as part of an exhibition of Ben Lambert’s surreal illustrations for the short story by Vicky Flood, following a shifting perspective of city-life. The illustrations will also be displayed alongside original photography by David Reece, re-ordered and re-arranged throughout the exhibition to demonstrate the changing nature of the piece’s connections.

6.30pm: ‘I Dreamt I Was A Hammer And Everything Was Glass’ by The Monroe Transfer, animated video by Gemma Burditt
A 20-minute animation using photocollage, drawings and After Effects to visually interpret the slow strings, visceral intent and exhilaration of ‘I Dreamt I Was A Hammer And Everything Was Glass’. Gemma Burditt makes music videos for the BBC and EMI, and The Monroe Transfer produce meticulously crafted “fabulous waves of orchestral sound” (Drowned In Sound).

7pm: Short film
-  ‘57 Ways’ – a short film by experimental video artist Sharlene Bamboat, exploring disporia, queerness and the body
-  ShortsAmorpha – two short films accompanied by live music and found-sounds

7.30pm: Thom Ashworth
A solo set from Thom Ashworth, lead singer of dynamic post-rock savants Our Lost Infantry, using a combination of pre-recorded found-sounds with live instrumentation and a live voiceover. The pieces mix dark with light starkly, taking cues from Steve Reich, Tortoise and Godspeed! You Black Emperor.

8.15pm: Ruby Corset: Cellist, Singer, Serial Killer…
Theatre cabaret from a reclusive aristocrat with a penchant for Rohypnol. From the highest echelons of British Society comes a darkly comic set of beautifully gruesome songs and hilariously murderous musings.  “A true femme fatale”, Ruby Corset was nominated as one-to-watch in the Nivea Funny Women’s Award 2008.

9pm: Robin James
Finger-picked acoustic guitar, boundless despair and a fragile, peculiar falsetto mixing tenderness with extraordinary control form Robin James’ “helium-tinged Nick Drake” (God Is In The TV), a dark, sometimes oblique humour introducing personal anecdotes with the exposed honesty of Nick Drake.

9.30pm: The Peryls
Dark, lyrical and enchanting folk-noir is inspired by Russian animation, forgotten London crime figures, the British Empire and White Album era Beatles. The Peryls dress in their finest Victorian garb, concealing a sinister grin behind a respectable top hat and cane.

10.30pm – late: Muso’s Guide DJs
Muso’s Guide DJs will be playing a variety of songs to keep you on your toes until the bank holiday Monday rises, along the lines of Electrelane, The Radio Dept., M83, Lykke Li, and Memory Tapes.

We’ll see you there!

Youthless

Muso’s Guide favourites Youthless are getting a name for themselves over in their home country of Portugal, with radio DJ Henrique Amarro inviting them in for four days on his show, Portugali, to do a series of acoustic covers of some of their favourite songs.

You can hear them from March 8 – 11 at 3pm on Antena 3 and on the station’s podcast after those dates. They’ve also covered The XX’s ‘Islands’, to be aired later in March. Not only is their employment of a synth killer, but their music taste appears to be similar.

The covers include Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’, T-Rex’s ‘Debora’, Sonic Youth’s ‘Sugar Kane’, Iron and Wine’s ‘Jezebel’ and The Beatles’ ‘Jezebel’. Woah there, right? You can hear their own stuff at the MySpace.

Now here’s their version of Wild Beasts‘ ‘Hooting & Howling’ in advance of the show…

Hooting and Howling (Wild Beasts Cover) by YOUTHLESS

And here’s their brand-new video for scratchy disco-starter ‘Good Hunters’. Watch it, love them:

Los Campesinos!

How exciting, that Los Campesinos! are now big enough to play Shepherd’s Bush Empire. How brilliant.

And how great that it’s going to be happening! Tickets go on sale Monday 8th March at 9am, hot on the heels of their sold-out Koko show very recently.

Bookmark this, yo’.

R. Kelly

We’ve just found out that the incredible R.Kelly has announced dates where he’ll hit the UK for the first time since 2002, taking on Manchester, London (twice!) and Wolverhampton.

His first UK shows were at the Hammersmith Apollo way back in 1992, and it’s where he’ll be again come April. It’s a revisiting of his peak, through shows that’ll hopefully blow our minds.

Think about a 20-year career taking in such heights as ‘She’s Got That Vibe’, ‘Bump ‘n’ Grind’, ‘Ignition (Remix) and the frankly barking Trapped In The Closet series and we’re pretty sure you’ll find yourself in a tizz about the whole thing.

Here’s when it’s all a-go:

5 April Manchester  Apollo

11 April Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Just visit here for tickets, innit.

Errors

Those lovely folks at Eat Your Own Ears have given us a pair of prize tickets to give away for this fantastic triple-bill of a gig, headlined by post-electro band Errors, formed in Glasgow in 2004. The gig’s on March 4 at the Scala in London, and also features Race Horses and So So Modern.

To win, just answer the following question:

What was the name of Errors’ 2008-released debut album?

a)    It Is Something But It’s Not Like Um, I Haven’t A Clue Mate

b)    It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever

Send your answers along with your full name, contact number and address to musosguide <AT> gmail <DOT> com

Good luck!

Our Lost Infantry

Muso’s Guide favourites Our Lost Infantry, who opened our last spectacular show at The Lexington at the tail end of January, have announced details of an upcoming tour.

You should go.

Also, there’s a date not on there – they’ll be supporting Grammatics on March 12 at, once again, The Lexington.

They’ll be hitting the cities of London, Blackburn, Accrington, Leeds, Bracknell, Southampton and their home-town of Aldershot.

(it’s a well pretty poster too)

Instead of being seven kids who met at a summer camp, they’re actually MG favourite Jeremy Warmsley (interviewed here) and Platform Editor Elizabeth Sankey. The Stool Pigeon revealed the news unashamed, simply detailing Summer Camp’s line up.

Here’s hoping that now we’ve passed this hurdle, there’ll be gigs to come…

My Bloody Valentine, Air France, Yo La Tengo, Memory Tapes, The Ronettes, Air, New Order, The Shangri-Las, Neon Indian, Vivian Girls, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Summer Camp, Beach House, TV On The Radio, M83, The Knife, Iggy and The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, The Radio Dept, No Age and more.

The PR has this bit of parodial wankery so we’re sticking it in here too:

woo. [wu?]
interj & n & vb
A less sycophantic and more authentic version of its descendent, ‘woo!’.

Do come.