1 Skepta
2016 has clearly been the year of Skepta, which makes a change from 2015 which was clearly the year of, erm, Skepta. With the grime star’s ascent seemingly unstoppable of late, you can put your house on the fact that he will shut down Ally Pally with this gigantic end-of-year show.
Alexandra Palace, N22, Fri
2 Hinds
If you think guitar music is about as relevant as a Gangnam Style oral history dictated on to MiniDisc, make your way to the nearest Hinds show immediately. These four women make a clattering, freewheeling racket that sounds like the Shaggs covering the Shangri-Las, while unapologetically enjoying themselves in the process.
Manchester, Sat; Glasgow, Sun; Dublin, Tue; Bristol, Thu; London; Fri
3 The Lemon Twigs
While most teenage brothers are busy giving each other dead arms and a beating on GTA, Michael and Brian D’Addario have been busy channelling the likes of Supertramp, Big Star and Todd Rundgren. Their live shows – which involve an impressive amount of high kicks – have been leaving fans dazed but amused.
London, Mon & Tue; Birmingham, Wed; Leeds, Thu; touring to 5 Dec
4 Blossoms
Is swaggering northern indie on the rise again? Stockport’s Blossoms certainly believe so, conjuring psychedelic indie that’s somewhere between Arctic Monkeys and Echo And The Bunnymen on their recent debut record. They’re not ready for a tour in the shape of rabbit ears just yet, but watch this space.
Leicester, Wed; Hull, Thu; Manchester, Fri; touring to 14 Dec
5 PC Music
The London-based art collective find themselves at a tricky crossroads. Are they radical pop subversives? Or increasingly problematic art-school wallies? You suspect a degree of reinvention is needed if they’re to sustain their early hype, which could mean shaking things up a bit for this show, featuring AG Cook and Danny L Harle among others.
Heaven, WC2, Wed
