Singer-songwriter
Lucy Mair
Blackfrog Studios, 9 Jefferson Way, Thame
Friday
Tickets £3 from ticketsource.co.uk

Notable local recording studio hosts the launch of the debut single from 17-year-old singer-songwriter Lucy Mair. As well as performing the single, The Fool, she will treat listeners to tunes from her forthcoming EP. 

Orchestral pop
Polyphonic Spree
O2 Academy Oxford 
Saturday
Tickets £17.50 in advance, or £20 on the door, from ticketweb.co.uk

Dallas-based, robe-loving choral and orchestral-rockers stop off as part of their 15th anniversary tour, to perform album The Beginning Stages of… in its entirety, as well as more songs after. Still fronted by vocalist Tim DeLaughter, the Spree are as uplifting to the eyes as the ears, with a 10-member choir, two keyboardists, percussion, bass guitar, flute, trumpets, trombone, violin, French horn, theremin, pedal steel, and an electronic effects wizard. You’ve heard nothing like it before.

Singer-songwriter
Ian Brennan
Blackwell’s Bookshop, Broad Street, Oxford
Saturday

Grammy-winning record producer Ian Brennan launches his album Sometimes It Just Takes That Long in the intimate surroundings of this atmospheric bookshop.

Over the years, Ian has worked with artists as diverse as country star Merle Haggard, filmmaker John Waters, Green Day, Tinariwen, Flea, the Malawi Mouse Boys, Nels Cline (Wilco), and the Vienna Boys Choir. He is also an avid traveller, discovering and producing groups who went on to be the first internationally released acts in their own languages – such as Kinyrwanda (Rwanda), Luhya (Kenya), Acholi (Uganda) and Juba Arabic (South Sudan).

The songs serve as a narrative journey to his often difficult life, and are companion pieces to the publication of his first novella, Sister Maple Syrup Eyes, which he will sign on the night.

Big Band
Radio Days Big Band
Exeter Hall, Kidlington
Saturday, September 19, 8pm-midnight
Tickets £20 from various outlets in Kidlington or maureen.morris@h4hcounty.org.uk

Expect big brassy high notes from an accomplished bunch of musicians who headline the Help for Heroes dance and supper.