The Stargreen blog thing

• Irish National Lottery winners the SAW DOCTORS are at SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, on Friday 05 December. "There has to be a dark side because there's a dark side to life. We see that, but we're kind of cynical optimists, I suppose."

• CLUTCH: metal at the ISLINGTON ACADEMY, Saturday 30 August. 'Personally I'd characterise a good proportion of their lyrics (the humorous ones) as "entertaining scifi/fantasy themed shaggy dog stories"', writes an anonymous Wikipedia contributor. Fair enough.

• Natalie Renee McIntyre (better known as MACY GRAY) appears at INDIGO 2, Thursday 31 July

• G LOVE (the G stands for "Good") and SPECIAL SAUCE at ELECTRIC BALLROOM, Tuesday 01 July

• Extra date for THE COURTEENERS: SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, Friday 24 October

• GO WILD IN THE COUNTRY: snakes in the grass may not appeal, but how about Bjork, Soulwax, Foals, Pendulum, Battles, Hercules & Lova Affair, Sasha, 2manydjs, Danny Tenaglia, and Richie Hawtin on the stage? Saturday, 5 July

• TAKING BACK SUNDAY on THURSDAY. ASTORIA, 21 August

Plus day tickets for DOWNLOAD, HOOSIERS (on sale 9am), OMD (9am) and yet anoter night for ONE NIGHT ONLY

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Peter Doherty left prison early on Monday, after serving one third of a 14-week sentence for breaching probation. Reportedly he's "looking forward to spending time with his cats" but if you were looking forward to seeing him: BABYSHAMBLES at the Forum, 13th May (that's next Tuesday), also his rescheduled Albert Hall solo gig is now set for 12th July.

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We have more tickets for the V FESTIVAL 2008! The promoter's released another allocation - if you missed out the first time round, this is your second chance to get hold of some.

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• "There is no underground anymore," says THE TWILIGHT SAD's front man James Graham. They play CARGO on Tuesday 17 June - if he turns out to be right, at least that part of town is well-served by buses.

• GAVIN ROSSDALE plays the UNDERWORLD on Wednesday 11 June

• MIYAVI, Jaanese solo rock artist, guitarist, and shamisen (a three-stringed instrument played with a plectrum) player appears at ASTORIA 2, Wednesday 25 June

• FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM play two dates at the SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE: AD MORTEM on 12th and AD VITAM on 13th July. Yes, that's Latin.

• PAUL HEATON (formerly of the Beautiful South and the Housemartins) at ISLINGTON ACADEMY, Monday 7 July

• SEAL getting a little bit crazy at SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, Monday 21 July - on sale 9:30 am

• SUBTLE at CARGO, Monday 21 July

• ALKALINE TRIO "characterized by dark lyrics, catchy choruses, fast tempos and recurring subjects of love, alcoholism, depression, fire, drugs, blasphemy, and death" - all novel subjects for songwriting - are at KOKO, Wednesday 20 August

• THE UNHOLY TRINITY TOUR (PARADISE LOST, MY DYING BRIDE, ANETHEMA) at the FORUM, Friday 19 September

• Acid jazz from Ealing - BRAND NEW HEAVIES at INDIGO 2, Thursday 16 October

• WHITE LIES describe themselves as "Alternative / Indie / Soundtracks / Film music". Find out if they're right at THE ICA, Tuesday 07 October

• Just as the weather gets warm, tickets for the HERE AND NOW CHRISTMAS PARTY go on sale. INDIGO 2, Thursday 18 December

• THE MARS VOLTA are at LONDON ROUNDHOUSE, Thursday 17 July. Do not confuse with "Mars Volta", previously a name used by a group of European techno artists

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The Fratellis will open this year's Summer Series concerts at London's Somerset House.

The Somerset House Summer Series of open-air concerts is back for 2008, running from 10th July to 19th July. The spectacular Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court has played host to some exciting innovative artists over the past six years, and 2008 promises to be no exception.

• 10th THE FRATELLIS
• 11th JUSTICE
• 12th UNKLE
• 13th THE BLUE NILE
• 14th LUPE FIASCO
• 15th WE ARE SCIENTISTS
• 16th THE ZUTONS
• 17th THE FEELING
• 18th DUFFY
• 19th ADELE

These are open-air concerts: the Department of Stating the Obvious advise us that this means you will get wet if it rains. The stage is covered so the gig will go ahead anyway, but the audience area is not.

Tickets on sale here on Wednesday morning: buy online or visit us in person (and save on postage).

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Sticky and sweet. No, we're not talking about Chinese food this time. MADONNA'S tour hits Wembley Stadium on 11th September 2008 and we have tickets (we have tickets to sell to you, obviously - we're not keeping them all for ourselves) from 9am Friday

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• BOWLING FOR SOUP never prepare setlists for their gigs, we're told. "We talk about relationships, beer, things that are important," says frotnman Jaret Reeddick. See them making it up as they go along at the ELECTRIC BALLROOM, Monday 7 July

• CALEXICO appear at the FORUM, Saturday 11 October:

  Do you think your music helps people escape reality or become more aware of it?
  
  Joey: That's a good question. Maybe a little bit of both.

• ENTER SHIKARI: 2nd-4th November, ASTORIA
• SEBASTIEN TELLER at SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, Thursday 2 October
• Take the LONGVIEW: HOXTON BAR & KITCHEN, Tuesday 16 September
• BILLY OCEAN at SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE, Sunday 12 October

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THE WOMBATS are described by Wikipedia as "a three-piece Anglo-Norwegian band from Liverpool, England.", which we think is a bit like describing Crowded House as "an Australo-American-New Zealandish band from Melbourne". But anyway. Probably more famous for tracks like "Let's Dance to Joy Division" and "Backfire at the Disco" than for the cameraphone videos on Youtube showing them cover Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do" at record shop appearances, but the latter are worth a look too if you like that kind of thing. 15th November at Matter (in the O2 complex) and 16th November at the Coronet

GARY NUMAN: 7th September at Indigo 2. Perhaps he'll be driving here in his car - it's the only way to live.

THE OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW: "Heartbreaking, plunky ballads and unfastened fiddle tunes charged with youthful vigor" at Shepherds Bush Empire, 6th September

Drum and bass group PENDULUM's new album In Silico was released two weeks ago, and they play Brixton at the end of the year: two nights, 4th and 5th December.

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Interesting report in The Guardian about the recent Which? report on ticket agents.

Which? editor Neil Fowler said: "Airlines have taken a bashing recently for adding sneaky extra charges to the cost of tickets, but they're not the only ones - we found ticket agencies hiking the cost of tickets by nearly a third with various fees and postage costs. These charges only become apparent when people are well into the buying process - they should be made clear up front so that people can compare prices properly."

The report called for charges to be included by agents in their advertisements and at the start of the online booking process.

We think this is a great idea - in fact, we're going to start doing it for all our concerts, effective ten years ago.

Uh. Yes, that's right, ever since Stargreen Box Office have had a web presence we've advertised the Total Ticket Cost: all prices are inclusive of booking fees and VAT. We don't make you struggle halfway through the order process before telling you about additional booking fees, convenience fees, sales tax, credit card handling fees, service charges, administration costs, baggage surcharges, airport tax, legal costs or winter sports cover.

(Postage fees are shown separately - but on the same page - because we charge those once per order, not per ticket: if you buy three tickets we put them all in the same envelope. Or if you buy over the counter at our shop in Central London you don't pay postage at all)

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This is your early warning that tickets for COLDPLAY's O2 Arena gigs on 14th and 15th December go on sale Friday. That's Friday as in tomorrow.

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