Festival
 

  • TRUCK
  • Hill Farm, Steventon

  • Friday-Saturday

  • Weekend camping tickets are £78.15 incl booking fee from truckfestival.com
     

It’s not just Oxfordshire’s best festival of rock, pop, country and alternative music, but one of the best-loved music events in the country. Truck has been a fixture in the diary of local music scene fans since the late 90s, and continues to attract the cream of national, as well as local, talent.
This year’s event starts tomorrow at Hill Farm, Steventon, and features one of its strongest-ever line-ups, with space-rockers Spiritualized, Essex garage rock band The Horrors, former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes, soulful country-rockers Treetop Flyers, Patrick Wolf, The Joy Formidable, Subways, Dry the River, Ash, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Rolo Tomassi and Public Service Broadcasting.
Among those representing the ‘hood are Oxfordshire acts The Epstein, Gunning for Tamar, Lewis Watson, The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, Swindlestock, The Shapes, Empty White Circles, King Of Cats, Von Braun, Duchess, Ags Connolly, The Gees, The Heavy Dexters, Duchess and Nairobi. A highlight will be the traditional set by musician brothers Robin and Joe Bennett, who started the festival all those years ago, and who will be playing with their country-rock band The Dreaming Spires. Joe will also appear with sublime Americana act Co-Pilgrim.

For more on Truck festival - including our tips for the weekend - click here...

 

Punk
 

  • BAM MARGERA
  • O2 Academy, Oxford

  • Sunday
  • Tickets £15 from ticketweb.co.uk
     

Jackass Star Bam Margera is a familiar face to viewers of the madcap show and silly spin-off Viva La Bam, and fans of the improbably daft progr-ammes will be pleased to learn he is bringing his live punk rock show to Cowley Road. The show features live music and anarchic antics,  after sold-out tours of Australia, Canada and the US, and memb-ers of brother Jess Margera’s band CKY.

Metal
 

  • HEADBANGERS BALLS
  • O2 Academy, Oxford

  • Sunday

  • Tickets £10 from ticketweb.co.uk
     

Reign of Fury vocalist Bison Steed celebrates the fifth anniversary of his recovery from testicular cancer with scorching metal from his own band and Aethara, Divine Chaos and Furyborn.

Folk-rock
 

  • TWO GALLANTS
  • O2 Academy, Oxford

  • Tonight (Thursday)

  • Tickets £12.50 from  ticketweb.co.uk
     

Melodic duo Adam Stephens (guitar) and Tyson Vogel (drums) have been making music together since the age of 12. Both are now in their early 30s, and have seen their reputation spread way beyond their native San Francisco. Explosive and restrained, their fury is balanced by eloquent, often beautiful, songwriting. They come armed with new album The Bloom and the Blight. It’s a corker.

Vocal spookiness
 

  • SPOOKY MEN’S CHORALE
  • Oxford Town Hall

  • Saturday

  • Tickets £12.50 from  ticketweb.co.uk
     

Australia’s weird and wonderful Spooky Men’s Chorale are a choir — but not like anything you’ve seen before. Theatrical, weird, macho and, well, spooky... this burly bunch from the Blue Mountains are blessed with voices of angels. They hold a special pre-gig Sing Like a Bloke workshop at 3pm. Support comes from Oxford’s Vox-Steady choir.