Our weekly guide to Oxford's best gigs...

Indie-pop

  • SECRET RIVALS
  • The Cellar, Oxford
  • Tonight (Thursday)
  • Tickets £4 from wegottickets.com

OXFORD has produced no shortage of great bands over the years, and the latest to start pricking up ears way beyond the city’s dreaming spires are synth-pop four-piece Secret Rivals.

Long a hit on the local scene, they are now expected to break out with the imminent release of their album, Just Fall.

Such is the depth of support for Clouds, Jay, Andy and Reece that fans have supported recording with pledges. The result is a sparky, exhilarating and feel-good piece of work enlivened by an electrifying interplay of boy-girl vocals by co-frontman/woman Jay and Clouds. It will be released on the Jericho-based Standard Tandoori label later this month. To celebrate, the band headline a launch party at The Cellar, Frewin Court, tonight. Present will be Standard Tandoori founder Nathan Pyle, who described the album, with typical understatement, as “[expletive deleted] ...amazing!”.

Support comes from Beta Blocker and the Body Clock, and King of Cats.

Rock

  • DON BROCO
  • O2 Academy Oxford
  • Wednesday
  • Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk

Bedfordshire based Don Broco come to the Academy riding a wave of success. Their punchy brand of British alternative rock saw them reach the top of the UK rock charts last year and they have bagged the coveted iTunes Best New Rock Act.

Expect heavy guitars, raw vocals and catchy lyrics that will stick in your head long after your ears have stopped ringing.

Rock

  • FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS
  • O2 Academy Oxford
  • Sunday
  • Tickets £10 from ticketweb.co.uk

The Diamonds & Disgrace tour is the first for these guys as headliners, but they’re no strangers to being on the road. A successful stint on the Kerrang! Tour seems to have generated a buzz of excitement around this band whose dark sound, and even darker image is intriguing.

The boys might not be vampire killers but they’re sure to live up to their fearless name.

Folk-pop

  • KING CHARLES
  • O2 Academy Oxford
  • Tomorrow (Friday)
  • Tickets have sold out

King Charles is extraordinary, his music is as distinctive as his wild hair and immaculately styled moustache. Citing his influences as Afro-beat, rock and roll, glam, folk, hip-hop, and country, there are few more intricately unique sounds out there.

A joyous explosion of pop shoots through everything he does and the infectious Love Lust won him the International Songwriting Competition. The tour follows the release of his debut album LoveBlood.

Steam Punk

  • THOMAS TRUAX
  • Modern Art Oxford
  • Saturday
  • Tickets £8 (£7 concs) modernartoxford.org.uk

Touring with his self-made instrumental contraption the ‘Hornicator’, Thomas Truax returns to the UK from his native America. Half musician, half vaudevillian inventor Truax is poetic, evocative and entirely original – and he can claim Jarvis Cocker as a fan.

Eccentric though he may be, Truax is an accomplished musician and the innovation used to make his instruments is phenomenal.

Nu-jazz

  • Horndog Brass band
  • The Cellar Oxford
  • Tomorrow
  • Tickets £6 from wegot tickets.com

The eight-piece brass and drums ensemble from Edinburgh bring their high energy street funk sound to the Cellar’s jazz-world dance night. A mix of originals, covers and jazzed-up classics has proved to be a winning formula for the band who are festival regulars. Don’t miss the chance to be a part of a dancefloor extravaganza.

Folk/rock

BETH ORTON

  • O2 Academy Oxford
  • Saturday
  • Tickets are £20 from ticketweb.co.uk

Blending folk and dance music to create what has been described as ‘folktronica’, Beth Orton is a genre-defying artist of singular talent.

Collaborations with her old boyfriend William Orbit, as well as Chemical Brothers and Andrew ‘Screamadelica’ Weatherall, saw her dreamy vocals enrapturing a generation of music-lovers more at home with dance beats and indie-rock.
Her engaging new album Sugaring Season follows an absence of six years, during which she has been busy writing and having two children. And it is worth the wait.

Read interview with Beth here

Local folk

  • SPIERS AND BODEN
  • Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall, Uffington
  • Tuesday

  • Call 01367 820282 for tickets

Dynamic folk duo Spiers and Boden leave their bellowhead mates behind for a slimmed-down set aimed at exploring local folk heritage. And for their Uffington gig, they want YOU to give them suggestions of local tunes, dances and tales. To submit a song suggestion, go to backyardsongs.com

Read our interview with Jon Boden about the tour here

POP

  • The Hollies
  • New Theatre, Oxford
  • Sunday
  • Tickets are £22-£27 from atgtickets.com

The sixties survivorsbring their sunny pop to the New Theatre on Sunday.
Expect such enduring hits as Bus Stop, The Air That I Breathe, and He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother.