Talking Tunes: The English are Coming, So Are the Shanghainese

We received some exciting news this week when we found out that British songstress Lucy Rose is set to appear in Beijing next month. The 23-year-old will perform at Yugong Yishan on Wednesday December 5. For the uninitiated Rose has been making waves in her native England after releasing her debut album Like I Used To in September. And for those who recognize her dulcet tones, she previously contributed vocals to Bombay Bicycle Club.

In other news, record label Robust Husband will stage a party entitled "Save the World: Only Rock 'n' Roll" on December 21 at Yugong Yishan. It will feature Hanggai, Casino Demon, Bian Yuan, Rolling Bowling, Power Powder and Go Chic of Taiwan. Still with Yugong Yishan, another Beijing label, Maybe Mars, will host its first winter show of the year on November 30 when P.K.14, Rustic and Skip Skip Ben Ben perform.

We're all set for a mini Shanghai invasion in the coming weeks. We mentioned previously how stoner rock outfit The Fever Machine were in line for a visit to celebrate the release of their new record on November 24 at Temple Bar. Now we're hearing another Shanghai act, Round Eye, will head north in the coming weeks. The punk rock group will play their first Beijing shows on Dec 1 and 2 with Streets Kill Strange Animals and The Last Three Minutes. The jaunt will be in support of their debut first EP which is set for release in a month.

To the coming week, Jamie Woon is making quite a name for himself in his native UK. After being nominated for a MOBO award last year, and being tipped for the top after a nomination for the oracular BBC Sound of 2011 award, the 29-year-old Londoner's star has been in the ascendency. Following a string of positive reviews for his debut album Mirrorwriting last year, he has embarked on a mini world tour. Said tour reaches these shores tomorrow night (Nov 9) when Woon plays MAO Livehouse.

Elsewhere, Boston ska punk legends Big D and the Kids Table perform at Yugong Yishan from 9pm tonight (Nov 8), and Swedish black metal group Dark Funeral take over MAO Livehouse on Sunday evening (Nov 11).

Finally, The Fray play Tango on Wednesday evening (Nov 14) and we managed to grab an exclusive interview with drummer Ben Wysocki. Check out that interview here.

To play us out this week, the quite brilliant Lucy Rose with her track "Bikes".

Have a great weekend.

Photo: Jamiewoon.com