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FRIDAY 14th May – SUNDAY 16th May 2021

Sex, drugs and disco
Ewan McGregor is…. Halston. Yes, the much-anticipated first season of Netflix’s new docu-series tracing the fabulous career of US designer Roy Halston Frowick is available to stream from today. Famed for dressing the likes of Greta Garbo and Bianca Jagger, his designs were permanent guests inside the glitzy Studio 54. Memorable Halston highlights include: Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat, Liza Minnelli’s entire wardrobe (basically) and the ultra-chic Halston-branded carpeting.

In this new series, executive-produced by Ryan Murphy [Pose, American Horror Story], everything is dialled up to 11 as we witness Halston’s career quickly rise before spinning out of control faster than those Studio 54 disco balls following a series of bad business deals, outrageous spending and excessive drug use.

Stream Halston series 1 on Netflix now.

Not a knock-off DVD van in sight
While you will have to wait until Monday for the country’s major museums and exhibitions to re-open, you have the opportunity to get ahead on expanding your art collection this weekend. The Art Car Boot Fair is an annual event that involves hundreds of artists donating a piece of work to be sold across the two-day event at very reasonable prices. This year will be an all-digital affair which, when it comes to perusing large quantities of art in a short space of time is probably to your advantage. This year’s invitees include the likes of Jeremy Deller, Mat Collishaw and Gavin Turk, plenty of names to add to your wish list.

Find more info here. 

Next step up from glamping
Working their way around the slight issue of gigs still not being allowed to take place, Brighton’s The Great Escape Festival has taken its line-up online this year via a wealth of online streams.

Ending today (14th), there’s still plenty to get your teeth stuck into. Famed for championing nascent global talent, stand-out names this year include PVA, Yard Act, Sinead O’Brien and Lime Garden (all New Music Monday alumni). Yes, we know it’s not the same as when you’re not enjoying it from the middle of a sweaty pit of limbs, but it’s still bloody good.

See the full line-up and ticket info here.

Sonic attraction
Dubbed the ‘ploughman of magnetic fields’ by Marcel Duchamp, Greek artist Panagiotis Vassilakis (known as Takis) was one of contemporary art’s most curious and innovative names. Two years after he sadly passed away, his pioneering work is being celebrated at White Cube’s Bermondsey outpost.

Having started to form his craft in the 1950s crafting bronze sculptures inspired by ancient Cycladic figurines, it was a decade later that Takis’ synonymous practice of using magnetism took shape; using magnetic energy to set his sculptures in motion. Within the White Cube space, huge wrecking ball-like spheres orbit in poetic silence, while suspended metal rods charged by an electromagnet twitch as they hit a guitar string plugged into amplifiers, generating random cosmic sounds that draw to mind Thurston Moore’s sound experimentation. It’s the best gig we’ve been to in ages.

Takis runs at White Cube Bermondsey 12th May – 27th June 2021.

Let’s skip the night out and go straight for the grub
There’s kebabs, and then there’s kebabs. Le Bab offers the latter, the kind of meaty wrap that you can’t help but gobble down, and then pine for its return. With Michelin skills, they work their magic on shawarma (including a mouth-watering pepperoni pork version), shish and adana to create the best kebabs this side of Europe. With current restaurant outposts in Soho, Covent Garden and Dalston, a fourth space is on its way that pays homage to the British kebab shop tradition: opening next week in Old Street with an extra-late licence allowing it to stay open until 5am – ideal for early hours debauchery.

Find more info on Le Bab here.