The first Stag & Dagger festival was one of the successes of 2008 and, fittingly, it returns to London on Thursday 21st, for one evening's abundant entertainment. This year the festival moves on to Leeds (22nd) and Glasgow (23rd), with different bands on rotation. As before, the event takes place throughout Shoreditch's many pubs, bars and clubs -- 20 of them in total -- the beauty of it being that one wristband gets you access to any of the separate happenings (whether there'll be any room there when you arrive, is another matter). The line-up is seriously huge -- with a mix of bands and DJs, so your best bet is to check the website and plan your attack -- there's more than you could feasibly take in between 6pm, when the action starts, and closing time (much of the live music finishes at midnight, though clubs run later). Some highlights include: Cold War Kids, Evan Dando and others at Cargo; Andrew Weatherall, Micachu & The Shapes and others at Favella Chic; Everything Everything and Dananananaykroyd at Vibe Bar and Let's Wrestle, Tubelord, Times New Viking and others at The Old Blue Last.

When man finally landed on the Moon during the Apollo Programme, little did anyone imagine all that revolutionary scientific expertise and cutting edge technology would one day be seriously considered for the noble task of advertising Pizza Hut. Or that guys named Walt, Jeff, Gus and Rick -- space-mad kids during the moon landings -- would grow up to be space explorers themselves: not the conventional astronaut version, but "anarcho-capitalist space entrepreneurs" instead. Feeling abandoned by the closure of the Apollo Programme (hence the "orphans" tag) and doubting the chances of NASA's International Space Station project (20 years behind schedule), in 1999 the boys decided to get proactive and privatise space travel by leasing the soon to be decommissioned Russian Mir space station. The resulting MirCorp had all the ingredients for a Hollywood blockbuster movie: big business, boffins, mysterious multi-millionaires, rockets, Russian space stations -- and strenuous US government opposition. As one interviewee in this documentary puts it: "The US looks at anything that goes into orbit as a weapon" -- as far as "space tourism" goes, America was having none of it. Ultimately MirCorp collapsed and in March 2001 Mir burnt to a cinder re-entering orbit, leaving behind the newly sprouting seeds of the next generation of space entrepreneurs.

NB: Michael Potter, the film's director, will be present post screening for a Q&A. To attend this screening you need to rsvp by sending an email to events@super-collider.com.

Broad in scope and jagged in design, the works of Kentucky-born musician David Grubbs slither and slide from drifting country-rock to eerie experimentalism. With an astonishingly wide-ranging career as a pivotal figure in the US post punk scene, Grubbs has produced works that have touched on slowcore, math rock, alt country, discordant noise, spoken word, and even a fair few pop songs. Since founding legendary band Squirrel Bait in 1983, (who evolved into cult band extraordinaire Slint), Bastro in 1987 and Gastr del Sol (with Jim O'Rourke) in 1993, he has continued to deconstruct the forms and structures of rock music whilst championing conventional melody. More recently he composed the soundtracks for Angela Bulloch's installations Z-Point, Horizontal Technicolour and Hybrid Song Box 4, whilst occupying a position as an assistant professor of radio and sound art at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His powerfully fragile solo works, many of which he will perform tonight on piano and guitar, present an intimate, metaphorical world, daydreaming songs filled with a dazzling wordplay and striking imagery.

Kissy Sell Out may be the much more recognisable name here, but it's Fenech-Soler who will probably get people talking (among the muso wags at least). Enough has probably been said about Kissy's strange decision to embrace keytar pop over the rather tidy line he had going in electro fuzz, too. So bear in mind it's Kissy's live incarnation here, in case you have a weak stomach for that kind of thing. Moving on then, the very young trio Fenech-Soler manage to take in their stride the association with money-can't-buy cool French kids that being on Alan Braxe's Vulture label brings, despite being British after all. Turning in some rather catchy synth pop of their own, FS show an ability to lean into RnB and electro influences alike, suggesting they've got a bit more mileage than the average "now" sounding band. There's certainly an extent to which you could imagine them sounding a little bland, but for the moment they seem to be switching things up often enough to keep things interesting (we particularly like "Airbrushed" the b-side of their just released single The Cult Of Romance). Let's hope there's more Braxesque stuff like this still to come.

Possibly due to the large numbers that packed into Room 2 to see the Apple Pips DJs last month, or maybe dubstep has finally jumped drum and bass in clubland's pecking order. Either way, the mighty Tectonic Recordings get handed the main room for this occasion, with the added honour of christening the club's brand-spanking-new soundsystem (let's hope it likes low-end bass!). During their four years of development in a saturated genre, the Tectonic crew have firmly established themselves as one of the scene's top three staples by constantly innovating and evolving dubstep's blueprint. Promoting the cause (and a new round-up compilation), boss Rob Ellis (aka Pinch) pulls together the label's extended family to form a line-up strong enough to spread across an entire day at Sonar. A-list, wobble-action comes from Distance, 2562, Dusk + Blackdown. Bristolian's Joker and Peverelist represent the label's West County roots, with the remaining time slots being filled by Jamie Vex'd, Cyrus, Moving Ninja and Hijak. Meanwhile, Warp Records' download store, Bleep, takeover Room 2 with a vast selection of hyped, rising talents including Paul White, Bullion and Rinse FM's afternoon anchor, Alexander Nut. Anybody still searching for even more will find, Origin FM's Future Thinkin crew spinning soulful d'n'b in Room 3.

Being in a duo with Erol Alkan must leave you with a lot of spare time given that the much revered Hero From Holloways has many other commitments. With this in mind, Richard Norris (the aforementioned other half of Beyond Wizard's Sleeve) must have got bored of watching "Swamp Thing" on YouTube to remind himself of past glories, and has decided to get involved in a suitably cosmic new night. Name aside (Magick Bus? Really, who decided on that?) any club night that lists Norris, Nathan Gregory Wilkins and Full Pupp bosses Prins Thomas and Espen Haa as residents is worth bookmarking on your iPhone calendar. Joining the residents for the opening night at new South London venture Cable are the vastly underrated Mungolian Jet Set, who will shockingly be making their first live appearance in London despite several years of awesome productions and remixes to their name. Added spice is present in the shape of Jarvis Cocker, flexing his DJ skills to highlight the release of a new album and the stupidly prolific edit king Todd Terje.

The art world is a changed place, despite a polarizing debate about whether or not art is actually above it all. The recession has left us cinching our purse strings and gazing at the decadent scraps of last year's great wave of art-thusiasm scattered about like spent party favours, with diamond crusted skulls tweeting about our spinning heads. Unsurprisingly, alongside optimistic, community driven terms that have been on everyone's lips in recent months (think Relational Aesthetics and Altermodern), there has been a revival of interest in the aesthetic values of Arte Povera, another more tangible -- even tactile -- model of art culture that doesn't require a gala opening or a crack team of frogmen to install. This weekend at Tate Modern is a vast and varied celebration of the social function of the artwork, which aspires to persuade the art-viewing public to get stuck into the exhibit itself. If climbing around in Bodyspacemotionthings is not your thing, try a utopian musical arrangement by Luigi Nono, or a whimsical walk by Michaelangelo Pistoletto. Also of note is a special performance and live film by Jennifer West on the Turbine Hall's ramp (involving ink, film and skateboarding) and House Of Fairy Tales which provides a sprawling array of workshops and corresponding events by emerging and established artists. Finally maestra of the absurd Paola Pivi will close the weekend's events with a performance in the Turbine Hall.

NB: runs from 22/05 till 25/05.

Empty foolscap pages surrounded by red ticks greet you on the first of Caragh Thuring's large linen canvases, implying perhaps that there is a right and therefore a wrong way to construct a painting. And it is pages that often spring to mind when taking in her abstract and figurative miscellenea: whether the thin rustley kind of architectural plans or the serendipitous bleed of ideas through sketchbook paper. Industrial and art historical motifs continue to dominate Thuring's energetic compositions. Painterly swatches and linear doodles of machines, people and the urban environment appear to meet in a rather non-committal fashion -- a flashcard collision of Golden Age and Modern imagery barely evoked as if to prompt the merest germy suggestion of a memory. There are open references in the press text to Corbusier's Cabanon and Delft painter Pieter de Hooch (Guston and Hockney are also ever present). Crucially, however, one is afforded enough referentially inconclusive space within which to consider the connective tissue between structures and ideas of the past, and the processes through which they are recycled into the present.

NB: runs till 23/05. Caragh Thuring's work is also currently on view at Sadler's Wells in the group show Objects In The Forsest which runs till August.

Sadistic nurses, cruel ballerina-birds and grinning teddy bears are part of the terrifying menagerie that populates the descending spiral of composer Modest Mussorgsky's alcoholic delirium. Sadler's Wells, who brings the best of dance to London, unite forces with the ambitious Young Vic to create a hybrid dance/theatre biopic of an unknown classical music genius who drank himself to death. Pictures From An Exhibition starts on a dominant narrative note, introducing us to Mussorgsky's troubled childhood and confused coming of age in Russia, gradually plummeting to unforeseen levels of surreal violence. Directed by Daniel Kramer, known for his work on Angels In America, this show is an assault to the senses. By combining longing music with the vital energy of a surprising company of dancers, whose various strengths complement, Kramer creates a genre-defying spectacle. Inn Pang Ooi's fluid grace contrasts beautifully with Vinicius Salles' brute strength whereas Margarita Zafrilla Olayo's disquieting nude bogey woman is a perfect counterpoint to the vital energy of Kath Duggan's performance. This insight into creative madness is truly a disturbing and memorable experience, the likes of which one rarely encounters.

NB: runs till 23/05.

[no.signal] presents the second edition of the one-day festival celebrating improvised silence and noise. The event takes place at state51, ideal for the curatorial intent to separate the performances in two distinct spaces: a resonant one with acoustic-led performances and an amplified one, with a noisy yet subtle atmosphere. The loudest stage will see the duo of guitarist Alan Licht and tape manipulator Aki Onda (who have released a debut Everydays). Young Italian saxophonist Valerio Cosi -- in his first UK appearance -- will be doing an improvised set with drummer Steve Noble. Noble also performs with his trio N.E.W. -- on guitar and John Edwards on double bass. Skullflower's Matthew Bower presents yet another side project Voltigeurs (with Sam Davies) and Family Battle Snake (aka Bill Kouglias) opens the evening's loud section. In the larger resonant space, expect some entertainment with the adventurous sound provocation from Lee Patterson joined by Benedict Drew, along with solo set by Seymour Wright on saxophone followed by John Butcher on sax with Sound323's Mark Wastell on the tam-tam. A packed day for some exciting sounds to discover.

Darren Johnston is an artist and choreographer from the bleeding edge, whose past work has thrilled audiences with stormingly surreal imagery mixed with experimental electronica, with an unerring sense for the live-wire in the event. His collaboration pedigree involves the likes of Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham, Jamie Liddel and Cristian Vogel. Ren-sa, a Japanese-horror themed installation -- with audience driven in a blackened-out bus to the secret venue -- was an award-winning hit in Edinburgh a few years ago. He's been in residence at the Roundhouse this year and gives birth to his new creation Underdrome in a lightning flash of three gigs only this week, a piece devised in response to the architecture of the venue. It promises 360-degree projection all around a standing audience giving a full-on immersion into a torrent of video art, together with an ensemble of 30 dancers, and a soundscape mixed live by Zan Lyons that's a mash-up of Warp Records' finest, a 100-strong choir and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Utterly unique and quite likely unmissable.

NB: Underdrome is performed at the Roundhouse on 22/05, 23/05 and 24/05.

To describe Blind Loves and do it justice requires a smorgasbord of uplifting adjectives, ripe for quoting on poster and DVD covers alike. Heartbreaking, beautiful, contemplative, riveting, surprising, endearing -- every positive and deeply human emotion you can feel in what is in reality a short and potentially slight documentary. Debut writer/director Juraj Lehotsky's film is chaptered into four clear parts, each presenting a slice of the lives of blind or partially sighted Slovakians in their quests for love, and the varied obstacles, insecurities and prejudices that threaten to deny them. Built around a screenplay (co-written with Marek Lescak), the actors play themselves in a beguiling blend of fact and fiction that leaves the finished article somewhere between feature and documentary. Captivatingly shot, Juraj's approach builds a more affecting exploration of the actors' darkened lives than either filmmaking style could have managed -- perhaps this augmented reality is the closest we can come to understanding and appreciating the world of touch, sound and imagination that they all inhabit?

NB: Blind Loves screens at the ICA from 22/05 till 07/06. Other films of note are Mark Of An Angel, Awaydays, Objectified and Pierrot le fou.

The composer and filmmaker Phil Niblock brings his brand of post-Feldman histrionics to the most appropriate of London venues, Cafe Oto. Reviving as it does a kind of beatnik spirit in London's East End, it perhaps ideally reflects the paradox that has seemingly occupied most of Niblock's career; namely how the act of fetishising the original spirit and aesthetics of one artistic movement can give rise to a whole new movement on its own. So whilst aesthetically his work invokes and directly references many core structural elements of American avant-garde and minimal music of the '60s, it knowingly fuses them together to create a post-modern rite of its own unique making. Given the London setting, it's no surprise to find that this approach also finds a degree of expression in cafe Oto stalwart Mark Wastell's own music, and the "New London Silence" movement he helped foster and continues to champion from his shop and record label, installed backstage at Cafe Oto.

Bugged Out! continue to take advantage of the multiplicity of bank holidays with a Sunday evening face off betwixt Mad Decent and rowdy Italian duo Crookers. Mad Decent are so hot right now as they have major blog muscle on the forthcoming Major Lazer (aka Diplo + Switch) album and Diplo has heavy support here in the UK from Fake Blood (aka Theo Keating aka Touche aka half of The Black Ghosts). Keating is so good that everyone has forgiven him for the godawful Wiseguys. Support comes from wunderkind Boy 8-Bit and Skream who will no doubt hope that no one asks him to play that La Roux remix. The Crookers trademark sound may have seeped into the mainstream with remixes for U2 and Miss Spears but their DJ sets remain to be big dumb fun and they have the latest batch of Italian midget house alongside them in Riva Starr (recently responsible for upsetting The Doors label with an illicit remix) and Nic Sarno with support from London's own batty bass specialist Hannah Holland. Those that tweet watch out for the funny updates from Wes Diplodocus as the party progresses.

Believe it or not, before the release of Pierrot le fou at the height of the New Wave in 1965, director Jean-Luc Godard had become disillusioned with cinema, feeling that "there was nothing left to do." Afterwards, he had a change of heart: "I no longer feel this" he said, "everything remains to be done". With its collaged style, comic-book action, and playful allusions to mainstream Hollywood movies, all in glorious tricolore, Pierrot le fou was explosive proof of cinema's latent potential -- and, for Godard at least, opened up a big can of worms. Plot-wise, TV executive Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) ditches his bourgeois existence for his capricious babysitter Marianne (Anna Karina). Together they hit the road for Tahiti, to hook up with Marianne's gun-running brother, and live blissfully by the sea a la Robinson Crusoe. It's a film about film, and Ferdinand and Marianne tirelessly recast themselves as fictional characters -- there's a homage to Renoir's La Chienne, scenes filched from Film Noir classic The Lady From Shanghai, and even a nod to Laurel And Hardy. Ironically, this "story of the last romantic couple", as Godard called it, marked the beginning of a new phase in his career, but the end of his marriage to Karina. C'est la vie.

NB: Pierrot le fou screens at the BFI Southbank from 22/05 till 04/06 and is part of the BFI's Nouvelle Vague season (19/05 till 04/06). Other films of note are Mark Of An Angel, Blind Loves, Awaydays and Objectified.

Pegged as The Catcher In The Rye with switchblades, Kevin Sampson's adaptation of his 1998 cult novel Awaydays casts its fledgling hero smack bang into the most explosive period in Scouser history. It's 1979, Thatcher has entered Number 10, Liverpool are top of the league, and Bunnymen and The Teardrop have just released their first-ever singles -- yes, Merseyside's kids have got something to shout about (cue doom-laden bass line). Nineteen-year-old Paul Carty lusts after "The Pack", a ruthless gang of blade-toting football hooligans with a killer sense of style -- specifically, a Fred Perry shirt, Lois jeans, and a pair of Adidas Forest Hills. Then he meets the sultry Elvis, member of the gang and, as it turns out, his long-awaited golden ticket. A series of awaydays ensue, day trips to away matches for supporters, fresh-faced and floppy of fringe, with homebrew in their bellies and fire in their hearts. An over-romanticised picture? Sampson thinks not -- the riots were driven, he says, by "an uprising of style" rather than knives and anarchy, and, when they're set to Magazine's "The Light Pours Out Of Me", we're inclined to agree. See this for the soundtrack to die for, the captivatingly beautiful lost boys, and the "Casual" story which had to be told.

NB: Awaydays is released in London on 22/05. Other films of note released on the same day are Mark Of An Angel, Blind Loves, Objectified and Pierrot le fou.

Where were you when Barca ripped through Madrid recently? Or when Milan went through six minutes of madness against Liverpool? Great footballing moments can on occasion be themselves milestones in our own personal history. May 26th is coming up; time to jump in that old TARDIS for a trip back to 1989, the day that the Gooners -- against all odds -- stole the league. Given the current dysfunction in the Arsenal ranks, it's rather nice to take a trip down memory lane to Anfield, and remember what grit was about. Back then unless Arsenal could conjure some magic, with a 2-0 victory, Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool was once again going to take away the crown. Following the disasters of Heysel and Hillsbourough, it seemed unlikely that the Southerners would walk away with any thing going to the cauldron that is Anfield, let alone a last gasp Michael Thomas victory. This moment is immortalised in Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. At the Offside Bar, complete with an '80s soundtrack, beer prices, decor, Highbury history buffs and Gooner know-it-alls, not to mention The Observer's own Amy Lawrence (in 1989 a Gooner fanzine writer), we can travel back in Gooner time to relive yet again that great triumph.

NB: Amy Lawrence will be speaking with broadcaster Tom Watt, Arsenal historian Jon Spurling, Liverpool historian John Williams and author Jason Cowley. Kick off is at 8:05pm. Tickets will sell fast so buy yours by calling 020.8802.3499 or clicking here.

Any gig at the Union Chapel feels like something special. Listening to amazing music can almost be likened to a religious experience, and what better a place to delight in the pleasure of melody than this beautiful church. The enchanting stained glass combined with the high ceilings and ethereal acoustics enhance every band lucky enough to play there. Seeing Final Fantasy is a special event in itself, so a performance in this venue promises a night not to be missed. Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett's one-man-band of haunting, silly, soulful, touching tunes will echo around the chapel. Having studied classical violin since childhood, Pallett composed his first piece of music age 13 and has since gone from strength to strength composing for and playing with the likes of Arcade Fire, Beirut, The Last Shadow Puppets, Grizzly Bear and recently even the Pet Shop Boys. With "special guests" still to be announced, this night is set to be anything but ordinary.

A plane is crashing into a giant Lincoln Memorial, which is mounted on the wings of an eagle, which has the head of Jesus, and claws that are gripping a burning city. What the hell is going on here? Icons are clashing and history is getting mangled but it all hangs together with confusing completeness. The fuming Twin Towers have become a Jacob's Ladder and Adam and Eve are being chased across the back of a Stegosaurus. Wolfe von Lenkiewicz's exhibition of pencil drawings The Descent Of Man staged by AVA is full of hybrids and dreamy, jarring juxtapositions. There is no safe ground in this world; it's shifting under our feet and flip-flopping from dimension to dimension. The final level of strangely meaningful contrast is the venue itself. Using a found space is risky as it often ends up detracting from the thing it is trying to aggrandize, but here in a Victorian bank (designed by Arthur Beresford Pite) off Euston Road the lavish rooms add another layer to the anachronism and oddness of it all. There's a feeling of a dedicated aesthetic course being developed in isolation from the wider world, only taking the very tip of our oversaturated visual culture and splicing it to build another reality. A bit nuts and very funny!

NB: runs till 31/05.

Mercurial seer and thoroughly decent chap Alan Moore and the mighty Kevin O'Neil, are set to discuss the latest instalment of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, entitled Century, with that great champion of design, art and cultural life Sir Christopher Frayling. Moore and O'Neil were at the vanguard of the then new wave in comics, working on 2000 AD together in the early '80s. Brain-drained to DC, their challenging and groundbreaking styles gained exposure to a global readership. Each delivered trenchant and illuminating critiques, Moore reconstructing the origins of the superheroes he tackled, affording him latitude for metaphysical musings; O'Neil, with sharp, sardonic satire, well, killing them off with hero-killer Marshal Law, his motto: "I hunt heroes; I haven't found any yet." For us at least, these two men represent the very pinnacle of comic-book fiction; Moore for Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Miracleman and O'Neil for Nemesis, Torquemada and the magnificent Marshall Law. With its impending release on 27/05 those of us who take their comic book fun seriously have the chance to hear these groundbreakers, now keystones of the comic book world, discuss their latest work. Get your book signed afterwards... and see you there.

NB: this event is close to selling out so buy your tickets now. Also of note at the ICA is the talk with two French comic book writers, Emile Bravo and Emmanuel Guibert along with Paul Gravett on 20/06 (6:30pm).

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