Our pick of Oxfordshire's best gigs

  • Country
  • CHARLIE DORE AND OXFORD GIRLS’ CHOIR
  • St Michael’s Church, Lonsdale Road, Oxford
  • Sunday
  • Tickets £10/£12 from charliedoreontour@bigcartel.com

Best known for her 1979 hit Pilot of the Airwaves, Charlie Dore is one of those talented singer-songwriters who deserve to be better known. Perhaps her problem is that most of her songs have been recorded by other artists — with Sheena Easton, Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Paul Carrack, UB40, Jimmy Nail, Joe Brown and even George Harrison getting the credit for her craft.

On Sunday the composer returns to Oxford for a show in the unlikely surroundings of St Michael’s Church, Summertown — supported by a dozen singers from Oxford Girls' Choir, led by Richard Vendome.

  • Jazz
     
  • Clare Teal
     
  • Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
     
  • Tomorrow (Fri)
     
  • Tickets £14.50, £13 (concs) from cornerstone-arts.org
     

She is known as Britain’s First Lady of Swing - a talented singer with a string of hit albums and radio shows. Clare Teal is the country’s leading jazz vocalist who has done more than any singer to keep the sound of American big bands of the 1930s and ‘40s alive and kicking.

Tonight she plays a show which pays homage to her musical heroines. Called The Divas and Me, the concert will feature tunes by such greats as Judy Garland, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee - as well as a few songs of her own. She appears with her own big band led by pianist and musical director Grant Windsor.

Read our interview with Clare Teal. Click here...

  • Caribbean fusion
  • FIMBER BRAVO AND ALEXIS TAYLOR
  • Pegasus, Oxford
  • Tonight (Friday)
  • Tickets £6-£12 from pegasustheatre.org.uk or call 01865 812150

In what is surely one of the most interesting, if bizarre, collaborations seen for a long time. Electronic music pioneer Alexis Taylor of the band Hot Chip teams up with Trinidadian steel pan legend Fimber Bravo for a night of Caribbean-crossover music at East Oxford’s Pegasus theatre.

Bravo and Alexis have produced Con-Fusion — a remarkable body of work, fusing slick indie-pop and tropical warmth. The standout song is The Way We Live Today — Alexis’s sweet vocals gliding over Bravo’s gently rippling steel rhythms.

  • Festival
  • OXJAM OXFORD TAKEOVER
  • Various venues
  • Tomorrow (Saturday)
  • Tickets £10 from wegottickets.com

It's not often that gig-goers can go out, listen to some great bands, have a drink or two, and know we are doing it all for a great cause. This Saturday, however, Oxford hosts an event which allows us to do precisely that. Called the Oxjam Oxford Takeover, it sees 40 acts taking to the stage in seven venues — most within a short hop of each other in the city centre.
Best of all, the hip urban festival, which is played largely by Oxfordshire-based artists, raises funds for Oxfam.

Since being founded in 2006, Oxjam has raised millions for the charity. Our own event, which began three years ago, has already chipped in with a respectable £10,000.

Organisers Victoria Smith and Katie Herring, from the O2 Academy, are determined to smash last year’s total, and have pulled out all the stops to present the biggest yet.

To accommodate more bands they have increased the number of venues and widened out the range of music — staging metal at The Wheatsheaf and acoustic and folk acts in New Road Baptist Church and St Michael at the North Gate. Music also takes place at the Turl Street Kitchen, The Cellar, and The Purple Turtle. The O2 Academy itself takes a leading role, holding the official after-party, with Radio One’s Huw Stephens (the only non-Oxfordian taking part) digging into his record box to host the club’s Propaganda clubnight.

ARTISTS PLAYING
Jordan O’Shea, Adam Barnes, Dubwiser, Alphabet Backwards, Deer Chicago, Mutagenocide, Toliesel, Swindlestock, Sweet William, The Black Hats, The Scholars, Dance à la Plage, Listing Ships, Duchess, Empty White Circles, Chris Ryder, Joshua Gilbert, Alex Lanyon, Jasmine Hill, Bright Works, Jenny Bracey, Ed Templer, Stroke of Luck, Red Crow, Ellie Rees, Desert Storm, Olly Thomas, Jess Hall, Cooling Pearls, Urora J Young, Freada, Caandides, Go On Do It Jump, Dublings, Jabroni Sandwich, Bricks & Mortar, Ragged Claws, Samuel Zasada and Pixel Fix.

  • Country-rock
  • THE ABC OF CANADIAN MUSIC
  • Brasenose Arms, Cropredy
  • Monday
  • For tickets call 01295 750244

Three of Canada’s best roots musicians unite for a show which is destined to give the maple leaf nation the recognition it deserves. There will be sets by Po’ Girl star Awna Teixeira, Brandy Zdan (formerly of Twilight Hotel) and Cara Luft (from the Wailin’ Jennys).

  • Acoustic
  • LOUISE JORDAN
  • Cafe Tarifa, Cowley Road, Oxford
  • Tuesday, 8.30pm
  • Free

Talented solo singer-songwriter Louise Jordan plays the lovely Cafe Tarifa to promote her second album Florilegium. Widely tipped as the next big thing, Louise performs a haunting and engaging mix of original material, rearranged traditional material and sets literature to music. As well as singing, she plays guitar, piano and cello.