Laid Blak to Jethro Tull: Oxford's best festive nights out

Forget Silent Night, if Christmas and New Year are good for anything (aside from peace and goodwill to all), it’s the chance to go out and let your hair down and make a racket.

With that in mind, we’ve trawled our favourite venues, bars, backrooms and basements to come up with our definitive guide to help you celebrate Yuletide in raucous style.

Yule ‘prog’

Prog-rock fans will be in their element tonight when Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson returns to Oxford for a night of bygone favourites.

The frontman is famed for fusing folk and alternative rock, and over 45 years has played 54 countries and sold more than 60 million albums.

Ian Anderson and friends

Tonight Anderson and a clutch of special – and secret – friends pitch up at St John the Evangelist Church for a fundraising show.

Acknowledged as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, Anderson is a terrific entertainer who has been delighting audiences since the late 60s – and still delights fans with his trademark one-legged balancing stance while blasting away on his instrument.

Formed in the North of England in 1968 from the amalgamation of blues-based John Evan Band and McGregor’s Engine, his band has a back catalogue of 30 studio and live albums to dig into.

As well as the flute, Anderson plays whistles, acoustic guitar and mandolin, providing the folk-flavoured acoustic texture for which his band is loved.

Proceeds from the show will help fund repairs to the roof of the church, which is attached to St Stephen’s House. The venue’s concert organiser Sally Doyle said: “We are delighted Ian is coming and it is really kind of him to do this. We are trying to mend the roof, which needs re-leading, and we are thrilled he is doing this fundraising concert for us.”

The concert comes as Anderson prepares to go into the studio to begin work on a new concept album, to be recorded early next year and released around Easter. It also follows the award of a Prog God Award at this year’s Progressive Music Awards, recognising his role as a rock pioneer.

He defines his new work as ‘folk-prog-metal’ with heavier, less acoustic guitar sounds and more flute. And fans at SJE may well be in for a taste of it tonight.

He says: “After winning the Grammy for best hard rock/metal album back in 1988, this seems like an opportunity to justify that strange and misplaced accolade with a new album to celebrate the more forceful, full-on rock credentials which are found in many of my songs over the past 45 years.

“It’s not an end to the acoustic and gentler moments, but more of an emphasis on the louder aggressive flute style which marked me out from the earliest days of Jethro Tull.”

The Prog God Award is designed to celebrate the innovators of rock and those who have inspired future generations.

Of the accolade, Anderson says: “The innocent voyage of restless souls: that’s prog rock. Sometimes bombastic, self-indulgent and worse, it is also an honest, gut-felt reaction to the often simplistic and repetitive nature of much of pop and rock.

“It was, indeed, an honour to receive the award and to dwell in such lofty heights among the good and the great of the last 40-plus years. I remain very happy to inhabit the progressive rock world, as both performer and listener. And where else could a self-taught, mediocre but extremely loud flute player make a decent living? Not in country and western, I would suppose. But, hey, if the boots fit and the buckskin-fringed coyote crooner calls, then count me in.”

Jethro Tull play Saint John the Evangelist Church, Iffley Road, Oxford, tonight. Tickets have sold out.

A Reggae Christmas

As strange as it may seem, Oxford has a long tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve to the bass-heavy sound of reggae.

For years the honours were provided by the inestimable Mackating, but latterly dub duties have been shared by a dream team of visiting artists. This year it’s the turn of Laid Blak, above, who top a bill boasting our very own ‘Count’ Aidan Skylarkin’ – who joins Laid Blak’s DJ Bunjy and MC Joe Peng on the wheels of steel.

Laid Blak

Bristol reggae heavyweights Laid Blak are an impressive live spectacle and come baring bass-heavy gifts from their new album Red and Blak – which is right at the top of our Christmas list here at Guide Towers.

Expect a night of what Aidan assures us will be “big and bouncy reggae, dancehall, hip hop and drum & bass... til the small hours.”

Read our interview with Laid Blak's DJ Bunjy. Click here...

If reggae is your thing, and it should be, you also won’t want to miss tomorrow’s show by veteran reggae selector Earl Gateshead’s Festive Throwdown at the Hi-Lo Jamaican eating House. The Trojan Sound System legend will be joined by the aforementioned Count Skylarkin’ on the decks, for a night of roots, reggae, rocksteady, ska and rub-a-dub.

* A Reggae Christmas takes place at the O2 Academy Oxford, on Christmas Eve. 9pm-3am. Tickets are £8 from ticketweb.co.uk

* Earl Gateshead plays The Hi-Lo Jamaican Eating House, Cowley Road, Oxford, tomorrow. 9pm-3am. Entry is £3. You are advised to get there early. For table bookings call 01865 725984.

Jungle jubilation

What better way to see in the New Year than to the floor-trembling sound of drum and bass. As one might expect, the O2 Academy brings out the big guns for its New Year’s Eve spectacular, with jungle legend Shy FX topping the bill in the downstairs main room for its Switch NYE spectacular. Also taking to the decks are Stamina MC, Rossi B + Luca, Lazcru + B-ILL and others.

With a career spanning more than two decades, Shy FX is without doubt one of the original pioneers of the Jungle and drum and bass scenes. This set follows his recent carnival-themed performance at the MOBO Awards with Ms Dynamite. Expect him to drop his biggest tracks, ranging from his remix of Oxford-based DJ Fresh’s Gold Dust, to his classics Original Nuttah and Shake Your Body. This one can be predicted to blow all other NYE parties out of the water!

Shy FX plays Switch at the O2 Academy Oxford on New Year’s Eve. 10pm-4am. Tickets are £10 from ticketweb.co.uk

Jurassic lark

We are used to going back in time at Oxford’s biggest indie club night, but this is taking the Mickey. For their NYE party, our friends at the O2 Academy are transporting revellers to the time when dinosaurs stalked the earth. And we’re not talking Slade or Wizard.

The venue’s Propaganda and Trashy nights join forces upstairs for a Rock and Roll Party of epic pop, glam club classics and good old indie-rock.

The venue’s manager Joe Roberts, who assures us he hasn’t been drinking, tells us it’s going to be a monstrous night. “Propaganda will be transporting party-goers 200 million years into the past to rave with the cast of Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time, while taking Trashy along for the ride,” he says.

“If you’re brave enough to venture into this prehistoric party you can proudly say you spent two different years partying with Pterodactyls, doing shots with Pachycephalosaurs (try saying that one after several tequilas) and dancing with a Stegasaurus!”

Battling it out on the decks, Propaganda’s resident T-Rex will be providing the best indie anthems, while Trashy’s resident Velociraptor will throw a few guilty pleasures into the mix.

“We all know it’s basically the biggest melting pot of the greatest pop tunes ever made!” adds Joe. “This night will be churning out the dirtiest pop, cheesiest classics and coolest indie tracks to keep you dancing til the early hours of 2014!”

Punters braving the Jurassic shenanigans will receive a special NYE wristband giving them free entry to every Propaganda club night in Oxford, and around the country, for the whole of January. Bargain.

Trashy vs Propaganda takes place at the O2 Academy Oxford on New Year’s Eve. 10pm-3.30am. Tickets are £10 from ticketweb.co.uk

Winter Warmer

Shake your Rudolf antlers to some serious riffs at Witney Winter Festival. The night, at Fat Lil’s, will see Deer Chicago, The Black Hats, Nudy Bronque and The Scholars busting out the power chords in their Christmas jumpers.

Witney Winter Festival is at Fat Lil’s, Witney, on Sunday. Tickets are £3 on the door

Black Hats

Open house

There will be more dancefloor trembling at our favourite subterranean venue tonight, when The Cellar gets taken over by the Bear on a Bicycle crew for their Christmas party.

Spinning high-end house and garage will be Bear On A Bicycle DJs (Daisybeard) and Wolfing Hour. NVOY and Salvation Bill – an artist better known for his singing and songwriting abilities, but who also happens to be a mighty fine DJ.

NVOY have been tipped as Skream and Benga’s “one to watch” on their Radio 1 show and come fresh from a sold-out headline show in Poland. Behold the future of dance music; catch it while it’s still underground. Literally.

The Bear on a Bicycle Christmas party takes place at The Cellar, Frewen Court, Oxford, tonight. Tickets are £5 or £4 NUS with free entry to the rest of the night at the Cellar. Buy at bearonabicycle.co.uk or on the door.

Slay bells

It ain’t festive, but if the endless renditions of Crosby, Como and even Lily Allen are driving you to distraction, treat yourself to a fix of metal.

Presenting a night of skull-crushing rock are Skeletor, who have laid on a most-un-Christmassy night of riffage courtesy of God Speed, Invocation, I Cried Wolf, Visionfall, Zaos and Overlord. Ear plugs (or a couple of leftover hard caramel Quality Streets) are recommended for the faint of heart.

Skeletor takes place at the O2 Academy Oxford on Saturday. Tickets are £7 from ticketweb.co.uk

New Year Luck

Pull on your glad rags and hit the dancefloors for more garage-flavoured grooves this time at The Bridge, where DJ Luck and MC Neat play a Garage Love post-Christmas/pre-New Year party. Treat it as a way to build up your stamina for the big one.

The Garage Love party takes place at The Bridge, Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford. 10pm-3am. Tickets are £8 in advance.