What's On: Entertainment previews

GIG
Girls Aloud, The O2 arena

Living proof that the world of talent show wannabes can make a whole heap of money for those running it, the girls bring their bombastic pop barrage to North Greenwich this weekend.

Who can tell what the future holds for this quintet of singers as the celebrity profile of Cheryl Cole, pictured, swells and expands beyond all reasonable limits?

Will she become too big for the band? Will they be re-branded Cole's Girls?

Or will she trip up, fall out with Simon Cowell and slowly sink into Wag obscurity, dragging the rest of them down with her. Perhaps she'll get together with Peter Andre.

May 23-24, 6.30pm, £35, 0844 856 0202, theo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

GIG
Beyonce, The O2 arena

Fiercely successful, Beyonce, no longer Knowles, has made a real go of going solo.

And thanks to the relentless application of tireless self-promotion, punchy production and solid business practice, few can see a time when the empire she has built up with her husband Jay-Z might start to crumble.

Now, at 27, she has already positioned herself as a fresh Madonna, likely to go on re-inventing her image when necessary and coming back again and again.

This time she's Sasha Fierce. But it's anybody's guess who she will be next year or even next month.

May 25-26, 6.30pm, £49.50, 0844 856 0202, theo2.co.uk, Jubilee: North Greenwich

TALKS
Clive James, Greenwich Theatre

An author, critic, expatriate Australian (possibly second only to Rolf Harris in the popular psyche), unorthodox lefty, friend to Princess Di and poet, Clive James is certainly not a man short in the CV department.

Here members of the audience will have the opportunity not only to see him in the flesh, but also to hear him attempt to avoid plugging his latest book by talking about all kinds of other stuff.

Apparently he is even happy to take questions from the floor. Billed as a feast of opinion, some of it is surprisingly sane apparently.

May 22, 7.30pm, £17.50 (£12), 020 8858 7755, greenwichtheatre.org.uk, DLR: Greenwich

EVENT
Terrace Sessions, THAT

In the summer time when the weather is hot it's probably best to leave the sweaty dancefloor and head outside.

But sadly, at the majority of venues, this means leaving the music too.

Not so at THAT in North Greenwich. For the club is just about to launch its Terrace Sessions, which will run until October.

So if your idea of fun is bopping to the crazy rhythms of Ibiza resident Jonathan Ulysses and the appropriately named Space with a mass of 700 other people, this could be the clubbing event for you. Expect dirty beats and uplifting house.

May 24, 2pm-4am, £20 (£15) 020 8293 6669, thatclub.com, Jubilee: North Greenwich