Yes: Cambridge has a new live music venue! And I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I find that severely f*cking exciting. The COCO’s club has been bought out on the grounds that it was working as well as a whorehouse in heaven, and the new owner is keen to host live music as well as the old DJ nights. He’s installed a flash new sound system and everything. Re-dubbed The Soul Tree the venue’ll be 300/400 capacity, and the first rock night takes place on Wednesday the 22nd and features The Rocks, who promise “thrilling, dirty, raucous, punk/rock/dance mayhem”. Which sounds good to me. Get down there and help the launch go with a bang – doors are at 9pm and the cost is but £5. Further details and future events can be found on website of the Club Rocker promoters.

New venue! Hurrah!

‘Nyways, back in the world of the already known and loved we find Strawberry Fair. Yes, it’s finally Time – this Saturday (the 4th, for those who haven’t been keeping track) will see Midsummer Common swamped once again by hippies, drunkards, rock’n’rollers and random tramps. Fun for all the family! Come on down!

By the way, they still need stewards. Get yerself down to the Common on Thursday the 2nd at 7pm, make your way to the crew tent and volunteer. Bring a friend and ask to work the same shift: if there’re two of you on together, it’s far more enjoyable. Litter picking help on the days after the event would also be much appreciated… Oh, go on. Do it for me, do it for the fair, do it for the sake of your eternal soul, do it for King and Country and apple pie like Momma used to warm up in the microwave. You will be loved for it.

What else, what else… what other events can I conjure from the ether in order to tempt you out of the house? How about …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead at The Junction on Sunday 19th, for only £11? How good is that! This gig comes courtesy of Greenmind, who’re also hosting Beats Capri and The Resistance (go see the Resistance. Do It. They are fantastic) at The Portland Arms on Thursday 9th. This will cost £5 and is a benefit gig for the venue to help towards the cost of the sound system which was stolen by some festering fuckwit a short while back. Also from Greenmind, we have Neil’s Children supported by the warped punk-delicate of The Violets on Monday 13th, which will cost £6. You might also want to go to the Portland on Wednesday 15th for the 30-second electro-meanderings of Um, who is supporting someone called Ariel Pink, an intriguing-sounding bloke from Los Angeles. Don’t ask me, I just work here.

R*E*P*E*A*T Fanzine are breaking out of the Portland for a night to host a gig at the basement of CB2’s. Featuring sharp tongued high energy social surrealist rebel poet Attilla the Stockbroker and David Rovics, lauded as the last American protest singer, it’s on Friday the 10th and tickets are £6.

Over at the Man on the Moon there’s glam-grunge from She Makes War (ex-The Bardo/White Trash) on Friday 3rd. And on Monday 30th the venue hosts Litmus, Mr Zed and The Khe Sanh Approach at a gig which has been mainly billed as “space rock”. Which could either mean extra-terrestrial or merely rather roomy. Best take a cat to swing, just in case...