What's On Entertainment Previews

GIG
Little Feat, The Indigo2

Despite the loss of founder member Lowell George to the ravages of a rock'n'roll lifestyle, cult band Little Feat have continued to tour since re-forming in 1988.

This week the funk, country, blues rockers grace North Greenwich with their presence and if you're after something influential, a trip to the peninsula could be well worth it.

Hailed by critics and musicians alike, the band's failure to make the same commercial impact as their contemporaries is a measure of their complexity and reveals a penchant for variety, experimentation and risk.

May 8, 7pm, £25-£30, 0844 844 0002, theindigo2.com, Jubilee: North Greenwich

COMEDY
Al Murray, The O2 arena

Not a British pub landlord but an Oxford graduate, Al Murray is one of the most successful comedians currently performing in this great country today.

Having played such roles as Harry Hill's big brother Alan ("If it's too hard I can't understand it"), Murray finally won the Perrier Award in 1999 (his fourth consecutive nomination) and proceeded to take the nation by storm.

But unlike Steve Coogan and Alan Partridge, Al seems content to keep going with his phenomenally lucrative beautiful British publican. More blockbuster tours and TV shows surely await.

May 8-9, 6.30pm, £25, 0844 856 0202, theo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

COMEDY
Paul Merton, Hackney Empire

If you're looking to hear Merton in full improvisational flow this is not the show for you.

Paul Merton's Silent Clowns is all about the comics who took moving pictures by the scruff of the neck and shook bucketfuls of laughs out of each frame.

Featuring Buster Keaton's Seven Chances as well as clips from the works of Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, the show is a celebration of the work of comic visionaries who transformed thedelivery of their art.

Merton, who will introduce the clips, is joined by pianist Neil Brand who will add music to the films.

May 10, 7pm, £14.50 (£12.50), 020 8985 2424, hackneyempire.co.uk, Rail: Hackney

STAGE
Tess Of The D'Ubervilles, Greenwich Theatre

A passionate tale set in the Dorset countryside, probably Thomas Hardy's most well-known yarn, is freshly adapted here for the stage.

Double standards, premarital sex, lust, rape, seduction, alcoholism and paganism all feature in the novel, which the company claims to have recreated with fine attention to period detail.

Now hailed as a classic, the story was originally serialised in a newspaper and received something of a lukewarm reception as it was perceived to be somewhat out of line with Victorian morality. On stage, you'll have to make your own minds up.

May 12-14, various times, £15 (£12.50), 020 8858 7755,
greenwichtheatre.org.uk, DLR: Greenwich