Essential gig guide

Kate Walsh

London, The Slaughtered Lamb, 1 March (supporting Stephen Fretwell)

Related articles

• In The Attic: A website with lofty musical ambitions
• Why Yorkshire's Harrisons aren't interested in any music scene
• The Fall: On the rise again
• What's in store for independent music retailers?
• The Natives, Trinity, Harrow
• Cold War Kids, Shepherds Bush Empire, London
• Day In The Life: Julie Weir, founder and director of Visible Noise
• Sholto Byrnes: Talking Jazz
• Record Label PR File: Cooking Vinyl
• Fionn Regan, Dingwalls, London
• An audience with Maximo Park's front man
• An exclusive preview of next month's album releases
• Is Nigerian singer-songwriter Nayo the new Sade?
• Metric, Scala, London
• Today's club hits are an exuberant collision of styles
• Music And Me: Tim Burgess of The Charlatans

Still in her early twenties, Brighton-based singer-songwriter Kate Walsh is a disarmingly natural talent. Her fine bel canto voice and girl-next-door stage manner mark her out as the missing link between Joni Mitchell and Katherine Williams. Forthcoming debut album, Tim's House, released on Walsh's own Blueberry Pie label, has at least three songs that will break your heart.

Explosions In The Sky

London Koko, 1 March

Those who believe the last word in rock instrumentals was Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross" would do well to check out Explosions In The Sky. This Austin, Texas-based quartet continue to weave extraordinary post-rock lattices, their use of dynamics second to none. Appropriately enough, cinematic new album All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone conjures aural fireworks, the group's Jeckyll-Hyde guitars on a slow-burning, but dependably conclusive fuse. Catharsis? Yes. Sing-along choruses? No.

Charlotte Hatherley

On tour 1-6 March

We know her best as lead guitarist on huge indie hits as Ash's "Burn Baby Burn", but these dates find Charlotte Hatherley promoting her second solo album, The Deep Blue. A diverse, pleasingly ambitious work tipping the hat to Kate Bush and Mercury Rev, it is a true coming of age record.

The Kaiser Chiefs

On tour 2-10 March

Three Brit Awards in 2006; two million-plus sales of debut album Employment; "I Predict A Riot" covered by Girls Aloud - such are the details that see this lot return to the fray as household names. New song "Everything is Average Nowadays", bemoaning the supposed mediocrity of the Kaiser's indie guitar peers, has irked The View and Arctic Monkeys, but flagship single "Ruby" - the first of four planned singles from new album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob - suggests the Leeds' lads have lost none of their wit or brio.

Inspiral Carpets

On tour 2-10 March

While Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses stole most of Madchester's headlines, the Inspirals' choice psychedelic pop made them the more consistent singles act. These dates, in support of B-Sides and rarities compilation Keep The Circle, feature the classic line-up. Expect a suitably trippy light show, Clint Boon's ghostly Farfisa organ, and big hitters such as "This Is How It Feels."

Leon Jean Marie

London Proud Galleries, Camden, 8 March

There are those who hold that Leon Jean Marie gave Mika "Grace Kelly" Penniman a run for his money when they toured together recently. What's clear is that this St Lucia-born, East London-based 24-year-old is a major new talent, his funky, Prince-meets-Beck sound irresistible on debut double A-side single, "Scratch/ Make It Right."

Archie Bronson Outfit

Sheffield Leadmill 19 March, Brighton Audio 20 March, London Scala 21 March

Britain's answer to Kings Of Leon, beardy Wiltshire trio the A.B.O. have gone from strength to strength since Domino label boss Laurence Bell discovered them at his Putney local. Behind their face fungus lurks a sex-legged groove machine, as "Dart For My Sweetheart" from last year's Dedang Derdang album ably attests.

Tinariwen

On tour March 19-31

Bands don't come more committed than Mali's Tinariwen, a nomadic collective whose music was an issue-raising, liberating force for the Tuareg people of the Southern Sahara in the early Nineties. As Robert Plant has observed, their impassioned, highly politicised sound is one of the most stirring experiences world music has to offer. Word is the final mix of current album Aman Iman: Water Is Life was approved by the Tuareg tribal elders after band percussionist Said Ag Ayad ferried it to them by camel. How cool is that?