1 Bad Breeding
Stevenage doesn’t exactly scream “punk rock”, but Bad Breeding’s furious songs about boredom and an “age of nothing” could only ever emerge from a place situated away from the action. They’ll be playing the Pork & Beans NYE party, which also features piano-house sad lads the Rhythm Method and DJ sets from Palma Violets and Childhood.
Lock Tavern, NW1, New Year’s Eve
2 The Charlatans
If getting sweaty to some good-time underdog Britpop was good enough to see in 1997 then there’s no reason why it can’t be good enough for 2017, too. Also on the lineup at the Edinburgh Hogmanay will be Paolo Nutini, who’ll play the Concert In The Gardens, and – surely what everyone needs after the year we’ve had – a band who perform a fusion of Scottish folk and salsa.
Hogmanay Street Party, Edinburgh, New Year’s Eve
3 Fortuna Pop! Winter Sprinter
For seven years now, the Fortuna Pop! label has been offering hair of the dog to new year hangovers with its none-more-indie festival. This year will apparently be the last, but it’s going out with a politely volumed bang: Velvets-esque strummers Ultimate Painting, DIY rockers Martha and Derbyshire instrumentalists Haiku Salut headline a night each.
4 Robbie Williams
A Robbie Williams gig on New Year’s Eve might send you scurrying for the theatre listings, but come back! Robbie Rocks Big Ben Live will, if nothing else, be big and brash enough to live up to the grand London fireworks display it accompanies. Better still, it will be on BBC1, which means you don’t even have to leave the house to see it.
Westminster Central Hall, SW1, New Year’s Eve
5 Pharoahe Monch
Sadly the Queens MC will not be rapping Auld Lang Syne anywhere boozy but is instead doing a perfectly normal show to kickstart a sleepy 2017; whether your brain will have recovered the ability to handle his complex rhymes by then is anyone’s guess.
