LIVE MUSIC
Glastonbury festival
(Wednesday to Sunday, Worthy Farm, nr Shepton Mallet)
There’s only one thing that’s predictable about Glastonbury these days, and that is the outcry when the main stage headliner is revealed to be a hip-hop artist. It’s possible to draw some unhappy conclusions from this. Equally, perhaps it’s a postmodern joke: festivals were once a protest as well as a celebration, and we now rouse ourselves from decadent stupor only to protest the headline act. But, really, it’s missing the point of what Glastonbury can still offer: it’s unlikely that you will ever be able to wander – so peaceably and in such good company – off the path of what you thought that you liked and into the realms of something new. And be warned: that might even be Kanye West. John Robinson
Full coverage of Glastonbury 2015
The rest of this week’s live music
COMEDY
Kevin Bridges: The Story Continues
(Wrexham, Leeds, Liverpool)
There’s a familiar complaint about footballers rushing out autobiographies while they’re still in their 20s. Kevin Bridges is only 28, and he’s already brought out his own doorstop of a book telling of his rise to stardom. But Bridges has more than enough material to fill the pages, having managed to pack more success into his brief career than many comics twice his age. Such is his popularity – especially in his native Scotland – that it’s become a cliche to compare him to Billy Connolly. In truth, they’re quite different propositions: while Connolly’s a loud and colourful force of nature, Bridges is a creature of vivid monochrome. He really lives up to national stereotypes about dourness, with a gravelly deadpan manner that makes him seem wise beyond his years. James Kettle
The rest of this week’s comedy
Read our interview with Kevin Bridges
TV
True Detective
(Sunday, 2am & Monday, 9pm, Sky Atlantic)
Nic Pizzolatto’s critically fawned-over anthology drama returns for a second series, inheriting nothing bar a heavy weight of expectation from those who were won over by its portentous tone and intellectually heavyweight conversation. This time it all takes place in the arid LA city of Vinci, and stars Vince Vaughn (never before seen in highbrow form), Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, with the plot sparked by the murder of one of Vaughn’s business associates. RA
Full coverage of this week’s TV and radio
TALKS
This New Noise
(Heffers Bookshop, Cambridge, Tuesday)
It often seems like the only nation that doesn’t want a public broadcaster as respected as the BBC is the only nation that has one. With a charter renewal looming and new culture secretary John Whittingdale famously sceptical about the Beeb’s funding model, the future seems fraught for the beleaguered broadcasting corporation. Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins’s This New Noise: The Extraordinary Birth And Troubled Life Of The BBC explores how the institution got to here, how it engendered such a wide variety of feelings among the British public, and measures the level of affection for dear old Auntie today. As the official historian of the BBC, Jean Seaton is expertly placed to join Higgins here to discuss the book. Mark Jones
ALBUM
Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
London foursome Wolf Alice have been a buzz band for nigh-on three years, with this week finally marking the release of their debut album My Love Is Cool. Originally a folky acoustic duo, they then expanded into a hard-rocking guitar band before settling into their current melodious alt.rock groove. Wolf Alice’s former selves make themselves heard on the album, too – a record that is by turns introverted and electrifying, and one that should certainly cement the band’s position as the most exciting new(ish) band of the year. Rachel Aroesti
Read our interview with Wolf Alice
Read a review of My Love is Cool
FILM
Mr Holmes
Where Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlocks were all lightning intellect and superheroic sleuthing, McKellen’s is considerably more sedate, verging on the doddering. But even in his country retirement, this 93-year-old Holmes has unsolved emotional cases to crack, though his greatest adversary is now dementia. Steve Rose
FILM EVENTS
Everyman Music Film festival
(London, Birmingham)
Combining new releases with special guests and live sounds at events across the Everyman chain, this new festival features world premieres of two Vice-made documentaries: Hip Hop In The Holy Land, in which Mike Skinner meets Israeli and Palestinian rappers; and The Redemption Of The Devil, in which Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes makes a surprising change of direction towards the priesthood. Skinner and Hughes will both give Q&As, as will ex-Beta Band member John Maclean after his feature debut Slow West. SR
The rest of this week’s film events
EXHIBITION
Barbara Hepworth
(Tate Britain, London, SW1)
Barbara Hepworth will forever be tied to the Cornish landscape that inspired her. This major survey however (the first in London for 50 years) aims to draw out the Romantic’s engagement with international art and politics. She was no stranger to global forces, from her early travels honing her stone carver’s craft in Italy, to the interwar Hampstead years, where her circle included the likes of Piet Mondrian and Naum Gabo. The show underscores how her pierced and paired curving forms were an optimistic vision for building a better world, not simply a reflection of the local scene. Skye Sherwin
The rest of this week’s exhibitions
THEATRE
Hoard festival
(New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme)
In 2009, a man called Terry Herbert discovered a hoard of gold in a farmer’s field. Now known as the Staffordshire hoard, it was the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found. The New Vic’s artistic director Theresa Heskins celebrates the find and what it meant for those involved in the Hoard festival, a series of new commissions that belie the notion that regional theatres can’t create daring work in new forms. The season includes a documentary play, Unearthed; a series of five-minute monologues by roving storytellers; and new pieces from rising young artists Caroline Horton and Francesca Millican-Slater. Lyn Gardner
The rest of this week’s theatre
CLUBS
Pride Of Gombe
(The Paperworks, London, SE1 & Corsica Studios, London, SE17, Sat)
Not sure whether the people of Gombe, Nigeria, are indeed proud of this barnstormingly wonky all-dayer, but someone should be at least. It’s another outing for a loose collective of like-minded UK producers who care not for hi-fi gloss or genre tags, but champion dance at its most digitally psychotropic. Berlin-based techno expat BNJMN has, like so many of late, gone analogue for new label Brack, with truly stunning results. In support are cosmic bloke Mr Beatnick, neo-trip-hop producer Kelpe and Lukid. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
