Our weekly round-up of Oxfordshire's best gigs

Indie-rock

  • BABYSHAMBLES
  • O2 Academy, Oxford
  • Tomorrow (Friday)
  • Tickets £25.87 from ticketweb.co.uk

Former bad boy of British indie-rock, Peter Doherty has had a rough ride over the years, which has only served to obscure the man’s talent as a poet, musician and performer. The adopted Parisian is back after a six year absence with probably his finest album since The Libertines. That record, Sequel To The Prequel, is out this week, with Babyshambles playing Oxford’s Cowley Road tomorrow. Expect great things.

What took Babyshambles so long to write their latest album? The band talk abouttheir experiences. Click here.

Jazz-pop

  • CARO EMERALD
  • New Theatre, Oxford
  • Tuesday
  • Tickets have sold out

The multi-platinum-selling Dutch beauty celebrates the success of her second album with a show at the New Theatre. Considering she has already sold out gigs at the Royal Albert Hall and the O2 Arena in London, it will come as no surprise to learn that tickets have sold out. The new album The Shocking Miss Emerald, the follow-up to the Top 10-selling Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor, sees the Latina singing star delving into the golden age of the suitably glamorous Paris fashion scene.

Pop

  • JANET DEVLIN
  • O2 Academy, Oxford
  • Saturday
  • Tickets £8.50 from ticketweb.co.uk

One of the smartest and most intelligent names to have emerged from the performing circus of X Factor, Janet Devlin drops into the O2 Academy to play self-penned tunes from her eponymous debut album. A world apart from the usual TV talent show dross, the Tyrone-born 18 year-old is a genuinely talented singer-song-writer. She will be playing deeply personal, and even dark, tunes with barely a cover among them.

Blues

  • THE LAURA HOLLAND BAND
  • The Jericho Tavern, Walton Street, Oxford
  • Monday
  • Tickets £12 from wegottickets.com

The Famous Monday Blues continues with a night of cool blues which sounds straight out of Chicago. Fronted by power-fully-voiced Laura Holland, this British seven-piece play Chess and Stax-era blues with grit and swag-ger. Join the fun for a night of slick and dynamic music from a band busy reinventing their genre. n WHEN staff at East Oxford’s Ultimate Picture Palace decided to mark the completion of the venue’s four-week refurbishment, they came up with the perfect celebration of cinema and music.

Ambient

  • Roger Eno
  • Ultimate Picture Palace, East Oxford
  • Tomorrow (Fri)
  • Tickets are £12 (£10 concs) from uppcinema.com

Tomorrow the venue screens a silent movie consistently listed as one of the best of all time, but will bring it to life with a stunning soundtrack played live by composer Roger Eno.

The muso, brother to the world-famous Brian, will perform live his own music for the 1928 classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Joan is a stirring and emotive soundtrack by the BAFTA-winning ambient soundsmith and perfectly accompanies the moving film.

UPP owner Becky Hallsmith says: “The Passion of Joan of Arc, as one of the most moving films of all time, is a natural fit with Roger’s music. The experience of viewing this powerful film on the big screen accompanied by a live performance of what is bound to be an evocative, poignant score is guaranteed to enthral the audience.”

Jazz

  • Alice Francis
  • Cornerstone, Didcot
  • Tomorrow (Fri)
  • Tickets are £15, which includes a glass of fizz on arrival plus a piece of Cornerstone fifth birthday cake. For details call 01235 515144 or visit cornerstone@ southoxon.gov.uk

IT’S hard to believe, but it has been five years since Didcot’s Cornerstone opened its doors to the public, finally putting the South Oxfordshire railway town on the artistic map.

This weekend the venue celebrates the occasion with two days of music, drama and fun. For music-lovers the highlight promises to be tomorrow’s show by jazz artist Alice Francis. The singer recreates the age of the Great Gatsby with a 1920s-flavoured night of sultry jazz — but with a modern bass-heavy twist.

One minute femme fatale, the next girl rapper, Alice is the living link between prohibition jazz and 21st century r’n’b — with pop, hip hop, electro and Latin sounds thrown in to flavour the mix.