On Sunday 9 September, the Becks pod will be transformed into a high-tech stage to host a landmark Beck's Fusions event: The Chemical Brothers and UVA unite for a spectacular and original multimedia performance which will be performed live to 9,000 people.

Opening this special event is rising Scottish star Calvin Harris, who will present his unique Fusion with artists Novak 3D Disco. Renowned DJ Erol Alkan will also perform a set to the Trafalgar Square crowds as part of this one-off live event.

Nitin Sawhney and his band, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, perform at the Trafalgar Square screening of the BFI's digitally-restored version of the Indian silent classic, A Throw Of A Dice.

The British Film Institute is collaborating with Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra to present a live accompaniment to a very rare silent film film called A Throw of Dice in Trafalgar Square on Thursday 30th August.

The film has been restored by the BFI. It is a splendid epic of love and loss where a woman's fate relies on A Throw of Dice.



Directed by Franz Osten, a German, it was filmed in India and is a very rare example of an early film made in India. Based on the pivotal gambling episode from the Mahabharata 'A Throw of Dice' is a lovely story that tells the story of Ranjit and nefarious Sohan, two kings with a passion for gambling and the same woman, Sunita.

It is also hugely entertaining and Nitin Sawhney's score (soon to be released on CD) makes for a very special experience.

William Gibson - live in London, August 28th BLACKWELL and SCI-FI-LONDON present a series of talks and lectures by some of the leading lights in science fiction, fantasy and cutting-edge literature.

You are invited to an "Evening with William Gibson" at the Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London.

To celebrate the publication of Spook Country, William will be in talking about his new novel, taking questions from the audience and signing copies of Spook Country. Chairperson tbc.



William Gibson is the revered pundit of post-industrialism and creator of cyberspace. It has been several years since Gibson has been to the UK, don't miss this chance to listen to this visionary author.

Hi all,

Wyclef Jean is hosting the launch party for his new album 'The Carnival II – Memoirs Of An Immigrant' next Tuesday 4th Sept at

Entrance is via guest-list only.

A face to face show of classic drawings and paintings by Andy Warhol set against the infamous graffiti work of Banksy.

The Hospital Gallery is delighted to present Warhol Vs Banksy; the first exhibition anywhere by the world’s two hottest artists today. Campbell’s or Tesco? Grace Kelly, Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Mick Jagger, Queen Elizabeth, The Beatles, Smiley Man police statue, Andy Warhol himself and others make for a potent cocktail of celebrity, satire and voyeurism. Upon contact opposing pictures are explosive for their contrast, even of the same subject.

Pollock Fine Art in association with The Hospital present the first exhibition anywhere, of over 40 mixed media works by Banksy and Andy Warhol.

Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974,but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.

A face to face show of classic drawings and paintings by Andy Warhol set against the infamous graffiti work of Banksy.

The Hospital Gallery is delighted to present Warhol Vs Banksy; the first exhibition anywhere by the world’s two hottest artists today. Campbell’s or Tesco? Grace Kelly, Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Mick Jagger, Queen Elizabeth, The Beatles, Smiley Man police statue, Andy Warhol himself and others make for a potent cocktail of celebrity, satire and voyeurism. Upon contact opposing pictures are explosive for their contrast, even of the same subject.

Pollock Fine Art in association with The Hospital present the first exhibition anywhere, of over 40 mixed media works by Banksy and Andy Warhol.

Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974,but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.

Edinburgh's West End Fair is Scotland's largest contemporary art, craft and design fair.

Situated in the heart of the historic festival city of Edinburgh and set against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh Castle, the West End Fair brings together some of the finest contemporary arts, crafts and designs from across the UK in one glorious open air venue.

With over 100 makers, the fair is full of unique stalls selling products you won't find on any high street. Enjoy a few hours browsing: you'll find stunning jewellery, furniture, tempting fashion, accessories and homewares beautifully crafted in glass, wood, metal, textiles as well as art, photography and much more.

After much speculation Led Zeppelin have announced they are to reform to perform at a one off concert at The O2 on 26th November. The concert will be a celebration of the life and work of Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records and much missed mentor to some of the greatest names in music.

Line up:
Led Zeppelin
Pete Townshend
Bill Wyman
Rhythm Kings
Foreigner
Paolo Nutini

Profits from this amazing show will go to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund which provides students with annual scholarships to universities in the UK, USA and Turkey. In addition, a music scholarship open to all will be established at Ravensbourne College in the UK.

The incomparable Led Zeppelin will headline the tribute to the man who founded Atlantic Records in 1947. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones will be joined by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham.

In addition, Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini, all touched by Ertegun’s guiding hand over the years, will play on the night. Paolo was the final British artist that Ahmet mentored.

Due to the anticipated overwhelming demand for this concert, tickets will be available by ballot only. All tickets are priced at £125.

Ian Brown will embark on his largest UK tour for some time this autumn in support of his new album which will be released to coincide with the shows.

Fri 30 Nov: Carling Academy Brixton
Ian Brown (Late show)

Over 18's only - ID Required

8pm-2am

The Hospital presents the first ever exhibition showcasing the work of Warhol and Banksy side by side. It's a chance to view the work of these two iconic artists and explore the relationship between their works. An exhibition of either artist would be an exciting prospect so this show is a must-see.

The exhibition is showing over 40 works of mixed media by the two artists. It will show Warhol's classic drawings and paintings side by side with the ground-breaking graffiti art of Banksy.

Sci-Fi-London (The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film) and Blackwell booksellers present this forthcoming Spook Country promotional event: An Evening with William Gibson at the Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London.

To celebrate the publication of Spook Country, William will be in talking about his new novel, taking questions from the audience and signing copies of Spook Country.

William Gibson is the revered pundit of post-industrialism and creator of cyberspace. It has been several years since Gibson has been to the UK, don't miss this chance to listen to this visionary author.

This venue, in the basement of the Trades Union Congress headquarters building is the same one at which William Gibson gave a reading from, and signed copies of Pattern Recognition in 2003.

Hi all,

Ok, so we are cooking with gas now. Loose arrangements for tomorrow evening are as follows:

Apéritif - Kemia Tea Bar - 7ish (take your time it’s Saturday – relax. Hopefully the weather will be good and we can sit outside)

Dinner - Momo – 7:30 – 9:15pm

Digestif - Milk & Honey - 9:30 – 10:40 pm

More Digestifs – Absolute Ice Bar – 11pm – 11:40

Night cap – Kingly Club - 12 onwards

Alternatively we can have dinner and just mooch around. If the weather is good we can pop by The Trafalgar’s roof top bar area.

Best and looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow.

Helicopter ride over London

A helicopter sight seeing tour is one of the best ways to see the sights of London. To truly appreciate London, jump in a helicopter and see our Capital city from the air. The helicopters used for these sight seeing tours are renowned as being amongst the world's most comfortable and reliable aircraft and, as you might expect, the views through the cabin windows are excellent.

The Thames
The Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading and Windsor.

The river gives its name to the Thames Valley, a region of England centred around the river between Oxford and West London, the Thames Gateway, the area centred around the tidal Thames, and the Thames Estuary to the east of London.

The River Thames is the second longest river in the United Kingdom and the longest river entirely in England, rising at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flowing into the North Sea at the Thames Estuary. It has a special significance in flowing through London, the capital of the United Kingdom, although London only touches a short part of its course. The river is tidal in London with a rise and fall of 7 metres (23 ft) and becomes non-tidal at Teddington Lock. The catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and Western England and the river is fed by over 20 tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, and having both seawater and freshwater stretches supports a variety of wildlife.

The river has supported human activity from its source to its mouth for thousands of years providing habitation, water power, food and drink. It has also acted as a major highway both for international trade through the Port of London, and internally along its length and connecting to the British canal system. The river’s strategic position has seen it at the centre of many events and fashions in British history, earning it a description as “Liquid History”. It has been a physical and political boundary over the centuries and generated a range of river crossings. In more recent time the river has become a major leisure area supporting tourism and pleasure outings as well as the sports of rowing, sailing, skiffing, kayaking, and punting. The river has had a special appeal to writers, artists, musicians and film-makers and is well represented in the arts. It is still the subject of various debates about its course, nomenclature and history.

Vauxhall Bridge
Vauxhall Bridge is a steel arched bridge for road and foot traffic, crossing the River Thames in a north-west south-east orientation, between Lambeth Bridge and Grosvenor Bridge, in central London.

On the north bank is Westminster, with Tate Britain and the Millbank Tower to the north-east, and Pimlico and its tube station to the north and east.

On the south bank, Vauxhall Cross, site of Vauxhall station and the headquarters of MI6, lies immediately to the south-east; Kennington is to the east, Vauxhall to the south-east and Nine Elms to the south west. The River Effra, one of the Thames's many underground tributaries, empties into the main river just to the east of the bridge on the south bank.The current bridge was designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, with modifications by Maurice Fitzmaurice, to replace a previous cast-iron structure. It was built by Petwick Brothers.

It was completed in 1906, and opened on the May 26 by the Prince of Wales, and was the first bridge to carry trams across the Thames. It measures 80ft wide by 809ft long, has five steel arches mounted on granite piers, and its most striking feature is a series of bronze female figures on the bridge abutments, both upstream and downstream, commemorating the arts and sciences. The four upstream figures are by F. W. Pomeroy, the four downstream by Alfred Drury.

MI6
Vauxhall Cross is the site of the central headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (more commonly referred to as MI6), which occupies offices built between 1989 and 1992 and commonly referred to as Vauxhall Cross. More recently, a large complex of apartments and offices has been built to the south of Vauxhall Bridge.

The MI6 building has featured in several James Bond films, initially filmed without permission but then condoned by then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook with his memorable "After all James Bond has done for Britain..." quip. It is seen in GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough (wherein it suffers a fictional terrorist attack that prefigured a genuine incident) and Die Another Day. The latter featured a fictional London Underground station, Vauxhall Cross, a supposedly closed stop on the Piccadilly Line now employed by MI6 as an extension to its HQ. In fact, the Piccadilly Line does not come south of the river at all; only the Victoria Line passes anywhere nearby, and the secret entrance to the station shown in the film is on the east side of Westminster Bridge some considerable distance down river.

Helicopter ride over London

A helicopter sight seeing tour is one of the best ways to see the sights of London. To truly appreciate London, jump in a helicopter and see our Capital city from the air. The helicopters used for these sight seeing tours are renowned as being amongst the world's most comfortable and reliable aircraft and, as you might expect, the views through the cabin windows are excellent.

Your flight experience will last approximately thirty minutes, depending on air traffic, and provides you with a full view of London as soon as you take off. Lifting off from the helipad your experienced pilot will follow the River Thames flying at approx 1500ft, providing you with excellent views of London, including: The Thames Barrier, London City Airport, the O2 Millenium Dome, Greenwich, Isle of Dogs, Canary Wharf, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, The City, St Paul's, Trafalgar Square, The London Eye, Houses of Parliament and MI6 building.

Houses of Parliment
Where Parliament now stands has been a centre of authority for over a thousand years. Once the home of the royal family, and still officially a royal palace, the buildings that now make up the modern Houses of Parliament have developed through design, accident and attack.

Westminster Hall is the oldest part of Parliament. The walls were built in 1097 and the hall is one Europe’s largest medieval halls with an unsupported roof. It was extensively rebuilt during the 14th century.

Once used as a law court, the hall has held several notable trials, including that of Sir William Wallace (1305), the Gunpowder Plot conspirators (1606) and King Charles I (1649).

Today the hall is often used for important State occasions such as the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and the lying-in-State of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, both in 2002.

Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster, Middlesex bank, and Lambeth, Surrey bank in what is now Greater London, England.

For over 500 years, the nearest bridge to London Bridge was at Kingston. Proposals for a bridge at Westminster had been made as early as 1664. These were opposed by the Corporation of London and the watermen. Despite further opposition in 1722 and after a new timber bridge was built at Putney in 1729, the scheme received parliamentary approval in 1736. Financed by private capital, lotteries and grants, Westminster Bridge, designed by the Swiss architect Charles Labelye, was built between 1739-1750. It was only the second bridge crossing to be built across the Thames below Kingston when opened.

Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views of London (Westminster, the South Bank and London Eye to the west, the City of London and Canary Wharf to the east) from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot at ground level.

The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of 120 feet (36.6 m) span, separated by double Grecian-Doric stone columns and was 2,456 feet (748.6 m) long, including approaches. Before its opening it was known as 'Strand Bridge'. It was nationalised in 1878 and given to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it. Serious problems were found in its construction and the new owners reinforced it. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and English Impressionist, John Constable.

Helicopter ride over London

A helicopter sight seeing tour is one of the best ways to see the sights of London. To truly appreciate London, jump in a helicopter and see our Capital city from the air. The helicopters used for these sight seeing tours are renowned as being amongst the world's most comfortable and reliable aircraft and, as you might expect, the views through the cabin windows are excellent.

30 St Mary Axe is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London. It is widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin", and occasionally as a variant on The Swiss Re Tower, after its previous owner and principal occupier. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London, after Tower 42, and the sixth-tallest in London as a whole. The building's name is its address — St Mary Axe being the street it is on.

The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Lord Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden between 2001 and 2004. However, despite Foster taking complete credit for the design, industry insiders advise that Shuttleworth, who later founded his own design studio, MAKE, was the primary source of the radical and innovative design of the structure.

Formed in 1981, the Beastie Boys are one of the most influential hip hop groups in the world. Their experimental musical style has made them one of the most diverse bands in history and their new record 'The Mix Up' is sure to surprise us again. Don't miss them live this September at Carling Academy Brixton.