Well, the Coalition is in place, the ash-cloud has sort of settled back down again and the sun appeared 'live' earlier this week. Does this mean that summer is hovering around the corner? Could be, and with our updated Festival guide, thoughts are surely turning to open-air madness! Mind you, concert halls, venues, nightclubs and music-pubs are also busier than ever and, looking at this week's Fat Friday (should that read Fab Friday?) it's not hard to see why. Cop a load of this lot (all go on sale at 9am unless stated):

Gorillaz

Everyone's favourite animated scamps get real and get physical with a welter of gigs in September, including a double-dip at the O2 Arena on the 14th and 15th. The magnificent seven dates are sure to be the hottest tickets of the week, especially as the only other way of seeing Damon Albarn and his monkeys is at the Secret Garden Party in late July or at Spain's Benicassim Festival! This UK jaunt is called the "Escape to Plastic Beach Tour", roughly coinciding with the recent similarly-named album released last month and a further single-release.

Ellie Goulding

This young lady has already chalked up two milestones with a Critics Choice win at the BRITS and top of the Sound Of 2010 poll on the BBC, and it looks like a third milestone is on the horizon - Most Festival Appearances By A Solo Artist Award. I make it nine so far and to prove the young vocalist is deadly serious about the music career, she is playing double that amount of headlining gigs across the country from 28th October (Newcastle) to 28th November (Belfast) - tickets are around £17 - £19. Her new single "Guns and Horses" hit the shops on Monday.

LostProphets

Pontypridd's famous sons are set to play the Reading and Leeds festivals later this year - what a set that promises to be. Their recent single "For He's A Jolly Good Felon" was their 15th, surely reason enough to wheel out a singles-collection. Funny you should say that, because their label has already earmarked a 'best-of' for later this year, which may explain the excitement surrounding two new dates announced for Glasgow during August (23rd / 24th). Does this mark the start of a tour, we wonder? If you cannot wait that long, there are a few tickets left for their Wolverhampton date this Friday (21st).

Funeral for a Friend

More hefty Welsh rock, this time from FFAF. In fact, faffing is something the band hasn't been doing - they've been working on their new album and recruiting a new guitarist since the departure of Darren Smith earlier this year. The band are certainly looking forward now that their 'best-of' album has had its run (entitled "Your History Is Mine", it stalled at #86 - I guess their fans have it all already). Two July gigs have been confirmed, one in Cardiff on the 22nd and one in Shepherd's Bush on the 23rd with possibly more dates to be announced as soon as the new axe-man is installed (unless they are turning into a synth-pop band - yeah, right).

Imperial Never Say Die! Tour 2010

If you prefer to see a big pile of upcoming bands under one roof then check out the above shindig. Promising to be a riot of noise provided by bands from all over the world, including Aussie-metallers Parkway drive, Californicators Bleeding Through and Canadian hardcore outfit Comeback Kid, the tickets are dirt cheap at around £14 - and that's for several bands on the bill. C'mon!

Limp Bizkit

Ah, it seems like only yesterday that the dulcet tones of Fred Durst were wafting across the radio-airwaves with the classic(!) "We're rollin'-rollin'-rollin'-rollin'-rollin'". The band really 'was' MTV for a while and now they return, armed with a new album (called "Goldcobra", due in the summer) and the original line-up (baseball-caps back to front, natch). The new set could be a return to their early "Three Dollar Bill" and "Significant Other" releases in the late 90s - we'll have to see, the new single is called "Douchebag". The band are playing Leeds Festival, Dublin and now Glasgow on 26th August - surely a potential sell-out.

Feeder

Masquerading as the band Renegades doesn't seem to have damaged Feeder's chances of creativity. In fact, the boys have been working on a possible pair of albums for release later this year, with "Renegades" due to appear in June. Seeing as we have a swathe of October tickets going on sale this Friday, I suspect that next album might just appear at around the same time. They play from 21st October (Leeds) until 31st (Southampton) (the former, plus Bristol and London are on sale now). Check below for the full monty. "Call Out" is expected to be a single-release on 14th June, by the way.

Bowling for Soup

"Girl All The Bad Guys Want" is one of Bowling For Soup's most popular songs, as is "1985". But if you want lyrical genius (am I being a little sarcastic here?) you have to select "My Wena", for obvious reasons. Right now in 2010 though, you need to get a grip (pardon the pun) because BFS return to these shores with a dozen or so dates from 7th October (Bristol) to 20th October (Liverpool), via Shepherd's Bush on the 12th. With new material currently being worked on by the lads, you'll be assured of a few new numbers throughout the evening plus a few favourites sprinkled on top. In fact, you can catch them at Wireless (2nd July), a short stint of July dates followed by the Relentless NASS Fest in Somerset on the 9th July.

And Finally

Doctor Who Live

Apart from Foals heading out on tour (already covered in an earlier article this week), there are some memory-joggers on offer as well with the already-mentioned The Psychedelic Furs, the warlock of psychedelia Julian Cope and a heap of extra dates for the Queen spectacular, "We Will Rock You". But the one tour that will have you screaming and hiding behind the sofa for is (cue fearsome whiny music) the "Doctor Who Live" stage show. Our Stewart wrote about it earlier this week (he even wore a special scarf and hat to do it) - make sure you don't miss out on the good seats. I wonder if they are installing sofas ...

Happy clicking!