Our pick of the best forthcoming live music events in Oxfordshire-ish!

Festival

  • READING FESTIVAL
  • Little John’s Farm, Reading
  • Today-Sunday
  • Tickets have sold out

Big, bad and messy, Reading isn’t everyone’s idea of a relaxing weekend, but it remains the most impressive showcase of rock and new music on the planet. More than 300 bands and artists will pass through the riverside site over the course of three days of non-stop racket, with highlights set to come from Alkaline Trio, Biffy Clyro, Eminem, Skrillex, Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, Phoenix, Azealia Banks, Haim, Green Day, Funeral For A Friend and Foals.

Festival

  • TOWERSEY FESTIVAL
  • Towersey, near Thame
  • Until Monday
  • Tickets £125 adult for weekend. Day tickets available. Go to towerseyfestival.com wsdf.com

Think of this as the anti-Reading, if you will. While the Berkshire bash is all about blood, sweat and noise, this rural retreat concerns itself with acoustic harmony and family values. Up to 10,000 people will hear sets by the likes of Show of Hands, Martin and Eliza Carthy, The Unthanks, Martin Simpson, Mama Rosin, Nidi d’Arac and Spiers and Boden — with Wootton melodeon player John Spiers. Our tip for the weekend is another Oxfordshire band — Brickwork Lizards, who evoke the sultry spirit of the Mediterranean with gypsy fire in their souls.

Jazz/ swing

  • POKEY LaFarge
  • O2 Academy, Oxford
  • Friday, August 30
  • Tickets £12.50 from ticketweb.co.uk

Bringing the music of the rolling Mississippi to the Thames Valley, this St Louis-based singer is a captivating life spectacle — if one who appears to have been born a century too late. He is joined by Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra.

Metal

  • SKELETOR THE NEW BREED #2
  • O2 Academy, Oxford
  • Saturday, August 31
  • Tickets £7 from ticketweb.co.uk

Skeletor, Retribution, Ignite the Sky, Crows’ Reign, Mordecai, Minamata, Convulsion and Evavoid all means a mighty dose of thrash metal-induced ear ache.