Music Previews

GIG
Simply Red, The O2 arena

A quarter of a century after forming, Simply Red are calling it a day.

The masters of the easy listening love song who’s 1991 hit album Stars dominated the charts for almost two years do not intend to shuffle silently off the music scene.

The band released their anniversary greatest hits album last week and are embarking on a world tour finishing in mid-2009.

Simply Red turn up at The O2 arena on December 3 almost eight years after Mick Hucknall opened the Dome on Millennium Eve.

Expect all the classics including Holding Back The Years, Something’s Got Me Started, For Your Babies and Fairground. Latest single Go Now is out now.

The 2007 album Stay will be the band’s last but ruby toothed front man Mick – who released a tribute to blues artist Bobby Bland earlier this year – will be pursuing solo projects.

Dec 3, 6.30pm, £40-£50, rets only, 0844 856 0202, www.theo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

GIG
Barry Manilow, The O2 arena

Two dates are not enough for Barry Manilow who has had to add a third.

The US crooner is bringing his hit show Ultimate Manilow: The Hits... And Then Some to The O2 on December 4, 6 and 7.

Already an established sell-out show at the Las Vegas Hilton where it opened in 2005, Manilow’s spectacle has been tweaked to offer British fans a very special Manilow experience.

Audiences can look forward to singing along to timeless floor fillers Mandy and Could It Be Magic? alongside his mammouth classic Copacabana.

In a career that has spanned four decades Barry Manilow has sold more than 75million albums world-wide.

This year he notched up his 60th release with The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies.

He has bounced back from a recent hip operation to show that there’s still life in his evergreen career.

Dec 4, 6, 7, 6.30pm, £40-£70, 0844 856 0202, www.theo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

GIG
Estelle, Indigo2

Turning her back on the UK proved to be a good move for R’n’B singer songwriter Estelle.

Since relocating to New York in May 2007, the west London girl has seen her second album Shine nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and the single American Boy become the No.1 hit of this summer.

This month she is back on home turf, performing her only London date at the Indigo2 this Saturday.

Estelle first turned up on the mainstream hip hop radar in 2004 with her debut single 1980.

The biographical ditty talks about her childhood and features members of her family in the video.

She has since collaborated with Will.i.am, Kanye West, Wyclef Jean and Mark Ronson on her album which was produced by John Legend.

Her star is on the rise and this is a fine time – and venue – to catch her in action.

Nov 29, doors 7pm, £17.50, 0844 844 0002, www.theindigo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

GIG
Natalie Clein, Indigo2

The increasingly impressive Classic FM series brings another attractive name to Indigo2 – a far cry from the Urban Music Awards fracas.

Cellist Natalie Clein is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme that features Elgar’s haunting Cello Concerto.

Other pieces on the programme are Rossini’s overture from The Barber Of Seville and Dvorak’s Symphony No.9.

Natalie Clein won the Young British Performer of the Year in the 2005 Classical Brits and the Young Musician of the Year, aged 16, in 1994 and in the same year was the first ever British winner of the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw.

She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship by the Royal College of Music before completing her studies with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna.

Nov 28, doors 7pm, £5-£50, 0844 844 0002, www.theindigo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich