Remember those heady days back in the late 90?s when Feeder were good? Just a Day, Buck Rogers, stuff like that? Well, if you miss those brilliant pop-rock crossover tracks then look no further than Mute Math, a New Orleans fourpiece who manage to combine the pop-rock of Feeder with the strength and musicianship of Biffy Clyro into their live shows.

Playing last night at Monto Water Rats, Mute Math were the last to go on for what was meant to be a three band evening. Opening were South Africans The Parlotones, who sound like Fall Out Boy but without quite as many crowd pleasers. Ticking just about every box for clichés, they provided some fun pop/emo/indie mixture, and should please legions of teenage girls around the UK with their eye-linered lead singer, elaborate stage costumes, and crazy shapes being thrown from lead singer Kahn Morbee.

Next were meant to be Envy Corps, however after setting up all of their equipment it became clear quickly that Luke Pettipoole, their guitarist and backing vocalist, was not well. After much pointing to his cheek and grimaces through the set-up, it became clear that he had a numb cheek, was completely unable to drink or talk, and thus it was left to lead singer Brandon Darner to apologise for their inability to play, mentioning that an ambulance was on its way. All a bit of a shame for this Londonista, who was looking forward to seeing Envy Corps and their mix of Death Cab For Cutie / Arcade Fire sounds. Londonist sends its sympathies to Luke and hope he gets better soon!

Finally were the stars of the evening Mute Math, who we must admit were a bit sceptical about. A crowd of mostly boozed-up 20-something men (a few sporting baseball caps), and the stage crew duct-taping EVERYTHING down (yes, even the headphones to the drummer?s head) we couldn?t help but feel things were about to kick off, however were pleasantly surprised.

Whisking their way through a string of songs that sound like the lovechild of early Feeder and Biffy Clyro, they also showed that they have it in them to do an Arcade Fire with the main set culminating in drummer Darren King, lead vocalist Paul Meany and bassist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas all demolishing the drum kit and creating one hell of a noise by placing drums all over the stage and on things and then plain and simply whacking with rhythm? yet somehow it worked. Encore was ?Reset?, the one song that has a completely different sound ? far more electro, like Moby and 65daysofstatic on a drunken night out together?

All held together by the marvellous Paul Meany, one of the best front-men in a band this small we?ve seen in a while. With him at the helm, Mute Math will be on the way to the top ? and not quietly.

Blimey. It's as if the benevolent lords of music, film and free outdoor events put all their goodies into a bag, shook it up and tipped it out over Trafalgar Square.

On Thursday night, like on many nights so far in the India Now festival, hundreds of Londoners will be brought together for an Indian summer night. A huge number of cushion and rug and picnic-carrying people are expected to fill the square's space between the lions for either the classic Indian silent movie, the live performance by the London Symphony Orchestra, the specially composed score by Nitin Sawhney or the opportunity to enjoy a free outdoor event in the heart of town. Or all of those things combined.

A Throw of Dice is a classic Indian silent movie featuring two rival kings, one of whom loses everything to the other in a single throw of dice, including the woman he loves. Forced to work as a slave for the triumphant, corrupt king, everything seems to be going very wrong for the losing king but a twist of fate reveals the corrupt king's wrongdoings and he is driven to suicide, leaving the remaining king and the lady he loves to be reunited. Living happily ever after seems to be the expected outcome.

A specially composed score by acclaimed Asian composer Nitin Sawhney will be performed live by the London Symphony Orchestra. As we're having a pleasantly dry and sunny week so far, there should be a stunning sunset somewhere among the many delights of this unique evening.

A Throw of Dice, Live Orchestral Screening at Trafalgar Square, Thursday 30 August, evening. The Visit London website says it starts at 9pm while the A Throw of Dice website doesn't mention a start time anywhere... we recommend turning up and claiming a good spot fairly early. Don't forget the bottle opener!

After seven years of speculation and debate, London today finally unveiled its tribute to Nelson Mandela.

The 9? high, 1 tonne statue was unveiled by the man himself in the presence of an impressive cast of London?s ?great and good?, including Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Ken Livingstone and Lord Richard Attenborough. The proceedings were watched by a vast and cheering crowd, and overseen by Disraeli, Churchill, Lincoln and former South African leader Jan Smuts from their nearby plinths.

The ceremony was poignant for a number of reasons, quite apart from the decades of hardship and apartheid that it represents. For one thing, two of the people who were at the core of the project died before seeing it come to fruition: Donald Woods, who instigated the idea of the statue in the first place, and Ian Walters, the sculptor. Londonist actually felt a lump in the old throat when it read the following quote from Mr. Mandela?s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, pertaining to a visit to London:

?When we saw the statue of General Smuts near Westminster Abbey, Oliver (Tambo, fellow campaigner) and I joked that perhaps someday there would be a statue of us in its stead.?

But Londonist is a bit embarassed about all the hoo-ha surrounding the statue in the first place. London is pretty good at most stuff, like parades and protests and art and theatre?well, the list is endless. But sometimes it is not very good at making decisions, and the fact that it took seven years to get this tribute sorted amid petty argy-bargy and nationalist tirades is farcical.

Londonist is also slightly tickled by the irony of the Mandela statue, a beacon for liberty and free-speech, being erected in Parliament Square, where currently protestors are far from free to protest.

Impressively timely image courtesy of zefrog?s flickr stream.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to Win-nie, Happy birthday to you!

Londonist would like to congratulate Winnie Langley for reaching the precious age of 100 years old today. To put this in context, this means she's seen two World Wars and no less than 19 different Prime Ministers. Wow, that's a lot of stuff to see in a lifetime.

So how is Winnie, from Croydon going to celebrate her birthday? By having a fag, that's how. Apparently she's been smoking since infant school (around the time of the First World War) and has no intention of stopping now.

Winnie has been smoking 5 a day since she started, which at todays prices would, (if our maths is right) have cost Winnie around £50,000. Think of the size of the birthday cake you could but with that. Winnie might have to, she's got to pull all of those candles somewhere.

Have a great day, Winnie!

Flickr image taken from Got Brimmed's Photostream.

Yes, you did read that right. Yesterday an undisclosed number of Zombies swarmed Leicester Square to break yet another world record.

Now, to break the world record, this implies that there must have been a record in place already. Indeed there was. Last year a total of 894 Zombies descended on Pittsburgh last year.

Unfortunately, these Zombies aren't real. Sorry to disappoint. No, as convincing as some of them were, it's really just people just dressed up with fake blood on their jeans. Sorry to shatter the dream. But we do know that there was a Zombie Elvis and cheerleader in the midst. Spotted near the cinema.

Londonist would love to report and tell you if we now hold the strangest world record we've heard of this year, but try as we might, we can't unearth the truth. Did these wannabe undead break the record? Please tell us so that we can congratulate them.

Hopefully they'll be in the same place next year. With all those half asleep zombie people walking around, it's somewhat fitting that they used Leicester Square.

Flickr image from Clearly Ambiguous' photostream.

In part two of our follow up to last year's article on which player's our Premiership clubs should buy we cover Tottenham, West Ham and Fulham. Click here to see yesterday's piece on Chelsea and Arsenal.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

What was the problem position?

Left wing.

What did the club do about it?

Like rivals Arsenal over their goalkeeping situation, not much. Indeed, Spurs eventually sacrificed England world cup winger Aaron Lennon to the ol' cutting-in-on-his-shooting-foot strategy with sporadic success, but that's not what Lennon's game is about. He burns left full backs with his pace and balance down the right to set up others. What is it about football managers that when they find a player's best position they proceed to use him almost exclusively in another, less effective role? Anyway, Spurs hung their noses over Atletico Madrid's Martin Petrov before he jumped to Sven's pacesetters at Manchester City and they're still casting about.

What happened to the guy we suggested?

Jobi McAnuff had an injury troubled season at Championship mid-table Crystal Palace, but still grabbed five league goals from midfield in 34 games and eventually left for Watford this summer, costing an initial £1.75m. Hornets manager Adrian Boothroyd knows a good thing when he sees one:

I have been after him for a long time. He is two-footed, can shoot, can cross, can make goals and can score goals.

Precisely, Aidy. But you tell Martin Jol that, and he just doesn't listen. Still, Palace are apparently due another quarter of a million smackers if McAnuff helps Watford to promotion, so we may yet see him on the big stage before long.

Who are we suggesting this year?

Look. Martin. We'll try this one more time. Three years ago we saw this relatively unknown Norwegian left winger give a torrid time to the Australia defence in a friendly at Craven Cottage. You could see exactly why a Premiership club had recently shelled out £1.5m for him, though he had been struggling at that level in the three months since the transfer. He's still at the same middle-ranking club and last season registered a handy six goals and an awesome twelve assists, bettered only by Cristiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas. If Tottenham are really serious about this Champions League lark, isn't it about time they marched purposefully up to Ewood Park and refused to leave until they'd persuaded Blackburn to part with Morten Gamst Pedersen?

WEST HAM UNITED

What was the problem position?

Attacking central midfielder.

What did the club do about it?

By various interesting ways and means they acquired an old-fashioned inside forward who inspired them to last day survival with many a piercing run at the opposition defence. At times, though, he played more like an NFL "committee" running back, repetitively grinding out the yards, but in sore need of a big guy to convert the possession to scores inside 20 yards. Carlos Tevez flattered to deceive somewhat as he doubled his non-penalty goal tally with three in the final 180 minutes of the season while at least three other Hammers matched his trio of assists.

What happened to the guy we suggested?

Newcastle United struggled, too, but midfielder James Milner still grabbed three goals and six assists in 35 appearances. Having been on the brink of a permanent move to Aston Villa last summer he was surprisingly recalled by the Geordies, offered regular chances to play and has been handed a new four year contract by incoming manager Sam Allardyce at the start of this season. He was rumoured to be in Steve MacLaren's thinking for the recent Germany friendly, but notched up a record 29th appearance for the Under 21s instead.

Who are we suggesting this year?

Given that none of their strikers has scored a league goal in three games and Kieron Dyer looks to have picked up a very nasty leg injury, not unlike Dean Ashton last year, we can't blame West Ham for showing an interest in Inter Milan's 25 year-old Brazilian Adriano (pictured), who's available on loan, though another player with a troubled past may not be ideal. Another lively forward who is currently out of favour with his club after persistent battles with injury is one Harry Kewell of Liverpool FC. A short term move to the East End to join recent team-mate Craig Bellamy might suit all parties. If, however, Hammers fans think they already have one Merseyside cast off too many they might go out on a limb and consider unsettled Serbian international striker Danijel Ljuboja. The twenty-eight year old has fallen out with both Stuttgart, his owning club, and Hamburg, the club he was loaned to last year, though he has shown enough in his career that Gordon Strachan was interested in him for Celtic a year ago and Real Betis, Marseille and Siena are said to have enquired after him in recent weeks.

Picture of Adriano being welcomed during a January 2007 friendly by a Bahraini fan who unwittingly caused the match to be abandoned via Leo Heart's rather excellent Flickr stream.

FULHAM

What was the problem position?

Playmaking midfielder.

What did the club do about it?

Claus Jensen returned, but couldn't take on the mantle of Steed Malbranque as he left for Tottenham, Fulham struggled and manager Chris Coleman paid the price. With former Chelsea man Alexei Smertin and Papa Bouba Diop in central midfield now they have plenty of power, but are still lacking in game winning subtlety.

What happened to the guy we suggested?

Dwight Yorke left Terry Butcher's Sydney FC for Sunderland and was a key member of their Championship winning campaign. He's featured in three of their four Premiership outings this season.

Who are we suggesting this year?

One of the few areas that new boss Lawrie Sanchez has not reinforced is central defence and he's just agreed to sell Saturday's own goal scorer Zat Knight to Villa, which we happen to think is good business. Curtis Davies was one of a group of excellent youngsters in a buccaneering Luton promotion side that provided six of the members of the PFA's 2004/5 League One Select XI. He stepped up to Premiership West Brom and performed impressively again in a sadly relegated side before picking up England Under 21 honours, another PFA selection in their Championship XI for last season and one of those pesky metatarsal injuries that cut short his campaign. This summer he's had three transfer requests rejected and no club has so far matched the Baggies' valuation of him at somewhere not far south of £10m. With the Zat Knight money in his back pocket Sanchez might have just the reserves of cash necessary to bring the 22 year old from Leytonstone back to the capital.

• BAA are cutting 2000 airport jobs. Because the major problem with Heathrow and other pull-out-your-hair-ports is the unwieldy number of staff clamouring over each other to help you at check-in and baggage reclaim.
• New trains are too heavy for their tracks. Or is it that new trains are overcrowded with far more passengers than they were designed to carry, thus causing the damage? And it's only the trains to the south. Everyone knows that south Londoners are, to a man, overweight. Otherwise, how do you explain this?
• August is fricking awful for news stories.

Image courtesy of nevermorepro via the Londonist flickr group.

Clouds were billowing over Park Royal yesterday afternoon when a blaze broke out in a warehouse. The fire took hold quickly and spread to two neighbouring companies, triggering the widespread evacuation of the area. It took 20 fire engines and over 100 firefighters to bring matters under control, and the area was still smouldering and pretty much sealed off this morning.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it is believed to have started in a hair product factory. The two other businesses destroyed are apparently food manufacturers. Mrs. Haddad of the Lebanese bakery Dina Foods (a few doors along from the blaze) spoke to us this morning:

"BBC TV and London Tonight arrived at the scene around 3:00pm and took shots of the blaze. The BBC wanted to speak to one of the unit?s owner that was on fire, but he was too distressed to speak to them.

The area was sealed for the rest of the day and until today, which has caused tremendous traffic all around the A40/Park Royal. There were 10s of fire fighters, they had their operation room in Asda car park across the road and were working throughout the night to put out the fire. It was under control by the early hours of this morning, but there is a very strong smell of fire and we could feel the heat inside the building."

Now Park Royal is a sort of black hole in London?s industrial landscape ? most Londoners know it is there, and can even pinpoint it vaguely on the map, but the major transport routes skirt around it, and only a very few of us actually venture inside? It is of course an important part of London?s economy ? between the wars its proximity to several railways and major roads out of London led to commercial growth and at one stage it was the biggest industrial zone in Southern England. It is now no longer a viable site for major industry ? it is completely surrounded and there is no room for expansion. And so over the last twenty years the area has changed. Attracted by low prices and proximity to central London, hundreds of smaller outfits, many of them importers, most of them non-English, have made Park Royal their base: the area has become the workshop and store cupboard for many of the capital?s immigrant communities. It is actually a fascinating place, and for the initiated, a terrific place to source rare and exotic bargains.

Londonist is upset about this fire (although we are very happy that no-one was hurt). It has not affected a comfortably insured, big corporation, but has, rather, devastated the livelihoods of at least three small companies struggling to get a foothold in the commercial maelstrom that is London. Most Londoners are hardened to the sound of sirens or the sight of smoke on the horizon, but it is as well to recall that behind every incident lies a complex chain of consequences.

Image courtesy of CTRL-5?s flickr stream.

The groovy Young Vic is offering £10 tickets to the previews of its new season production "The Member of the Wedding".

Opening on 7 September the show is a revival of a Carson McCullers play set in deep South Georgia in 1945 and follows the small town dreams of 12 year old tomboy Frankie, her maid Berenice and little cousin John whilst the world changes irrevocably around them.

The redeveloped Young Vic theatre has recently been nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize for contemporary architecture; a fitting tribute to the glorious mashup of new and shiny with rough and ready that's heating up the middle of The Cut. So grab this deal and not only can you culture yourself up with a bargain slab of modern classic drama but also hang out in one of the coolest theatrical establishments in town. We'll see you there!

Previews run from 7-17 September. Call the Young Vic on 020 7922 2924 and quote "preview offer" to get your £10 tickets.

Image of the Young Vic courtesy of toxophilite's Flickrstream.

Everyone remembers the tragedy that was 7/7. In 2005, 4 suicide bombers killed 52 people. A further 800 were injured. Whilst it's still resonant to us, it's even more so for the survivors who today launched legal proceedings after the Home Office refused to hold an independent public enquiry.

Lawyers have said that the group of survivors involved want the hearing to 'ensure lessons were learnt in the future'. Oury Clark Solicitors feel the government has not engaged with their clients.

The Home Office, instead of responding a letter written by the group by the deadline of 24th August, it replied saying it would respond by September 7th. However, the deadline for judicial review proceedings was 30th August and the group were forced into litigation proceedings. In plain English, this means legal action.

The group have said that they will stop proceedings if the public enquiry is launched. They think that the more public interest there is, the more chance of people really finding out what happened that day.

It seems that whilst London has moved on in some ways from these tragic events, those directly involved need to know more about the events leading up to the bombing so they can attempt to put the past behind them.

Flickr image of St Pauls cathedral bombing memorial taken from Annie Mole's photostream.