June is literally busting out all over with a whole rack of big festivals and open-air concerts all due to commence during the coming week. Pick of the bunch are Download, Isle of Wight (sold-out) and RockNess, as well as the beginning of the big-name Forestry Commission Live series and Ray Davies' cracking Meltdown. Many acts such as Pendulum, Jeff Beck and Def Leppard are playing festival warm-ups, whilst Enrique Iglesias, Ryan Adams (and namesake Bryan), Gomez and more begin tours of varying interest.

All prices are exclusive of booking fees.

This week:

• Tours
• Festivals
• Theatre, Comedy and Arts

Tours

The Aussie rock 'n' bass boys are back with a string of massive festival shows at Glasto, Eden and SW4 - but before all that, there's just time for Download and a warm-up show the night before. Newcastle is the lucky city on Thursday and surprisingly there are still a few tickets left at £22.50.

Tonight (and for four nights only) he'll be loving you - From Nottingham on Wednesday to Wembley on Sunday (Capital FM Summertime Ball appearance), via Cardiff and Glasgow, you can still pick up tickets for all of them except for that London day-fest.

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

The sibling multi-instrumental country, blues and rock 'n' roots trio (plus guests) continue to keep it in the family with a full UK jaunt, starting with Portsmouth on Tuesday and continuing to Glasgow, Nottingham etc until London's Dingwalls on 21st June. Tickets are £10 (Exeter is £8!).

Ben Ottewell returns from solo duty to drive Gomez' next UK tour and album for 2011, starting in Bournemouth on Thursday and ending at the Roundhouse in Camden on 21st. Expect new songs from "Whatever's On Your Mind" and ticket prices of around £17 - £20.

The Canadian alt-country rock singer is gearing up for a trip to the UK later in June, but prior to this he will play in Ireland, beginning with Cork on Tuesday (€44.20) and a sold-out gig in Dublin on the following night. Out of the UK dates, only Brighton on 22nd is still available (£24).

More siblings, though this time of a more straight-up country-rock persuasion. Not surprisingly for a much-touted act, they've sold out many dates on their imminent tour, but Edinburgh, Nottingham and Birmingham are still up for around £10.

Building up to their Glastonbury appearance later this month, the Wu begin a short UK tour on Saturday with two gigs in London at the Forum, followed by Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester - tickets are £29.50 (£32.50 for the capital).

The Queen of reggae (and who are we to disagree) and former Bob Marley singer begins a UK tour on Friday, beginning in Glasgow, followed by big city stops, until 17th June when she arrives in Falmouth for a rare piece of Cornish history! £12 - £16.

Spin, spin, spin the wheel of justice, sang Vic Reeves on his TV show many years ago - Yo La Tengo have adopted a similar idea for song-title selection for their Wheel Spin shows, starting in Edinburgh on Monday and finally ending up at the Meltdown Festival at the end of the week. From £15.

Fans of this influential and melodic Liverpool post-punk outfit will be able to hear brand new material for the first time in 20 years when the band perform a handful of shows from Glasgow (Tuesday) to Liverpool (Sat). Tickets are £12.50 - £17.50.

We recently told you about Ash's plans to play a quartet of new shows on the UK mainland during July, including Sheffield's Tramlines Festival. Prior to that, Dublin, Antrim and Belfast shows take priority from Monday onwards.

Currently an unknown quantity around these parts, Allen is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has knocked out a few decent albums, none more so than the recent "Sweet Defeat" album. His tour starts in Oxford on Wednesday and ends in Brighton on the 23rd. Tickets cost £10 - £12.50.

The return of the Dutch remix master begins with two club appearances in Blackpool (Fri) and Edinburgh (Sat), followed by a Gatecrasher appearance on the 18th. Tickets vary in price but start at £10. Don't forget that you can also catch Luke at South West Four during the August Bank Holiday.

Joining the techno-rodent for a full-on dance-fest in Victoria Park on Saturday will be Mark Ronson, Calvin Harris, Zane Lowe (all on DJ duties), Modestep, Netsky and many more - tickets still up for £42.

Sheffield's steely rockers are all set to warm up for Download, playing two shows with Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy in Belfast (Tues) and Dublin (Weds) - tickets for both shows are still available, priced from £41.50 (or €59.50 for Dublin.

Also taking place next week are further warm-up shows for Download from Black Stone Cherry in Leamington (Tues) and Cardiff (Thurs) and CKY in Cardiff (Weds) and Nuneaton (Thurs) and an Isle Of Wight Festival show in Bournemouth for the legendary Jeff Beck (Saturday), as well as two massive sold-out shows for Arctic Monkeys (weekend) and rare UK dates for acclaimed alt-country songwriter, Gregory Alan Isakov (Brighton and London).

Festivals

Meltdown 2011

This year's curator has lined up the usual eclectic array of artists for this South Bank annual bonanza - Ray Davies appears with The Fugs, Madness, Wire, Alan Price, Lydia Lunch and more from Friday onwards - tickets vary in price.

Forestry Commission Live Music 2011

The busy open-air season gathers apace with Status Quo, Erasure, Simple Minds and Sophie Ellis-Bextor all appearing at various beautiful green spaces around the south of England, with Thetford Forest and Bedgebury Pinetum being the first forest areas to open their gates.

Big names descend on East Molesey's grand erection (ooer missus) with Bryan Adams kicking off this annual gathering on Weds, followed by Jools Holland, James Blunt, Don McLean and more. Tickets for all shows are now in short supply, with Bryan's gig only offering Picnic tickets at £70.

The first huge metal and rock festival in the most famous location (Donington) begins at the weekend with Linkin Park, Def Leppard, The Darkness, System Of A Down and Avenged Sevenfold all swishing hair against the mic for your enjoyment. Weekend tickets are available at £145 (or £75 per day) - selling fast now!!

Head to Scotland for a cracking three-day line-up of Kasabian, Chemical Brothers, The Cribs and Paolo Nutini (and loads more), all presented in the splendid Loch Ness area and priced at 3149 for weekend tickets.

A perfectly packaged pubescent parade of pop-stars (J-Lo, Jessie-J, LMFAO, Nicole Scherzinger, Example etc) are all set to entertain a screaming hoard of fans at Wembley on Sunday, although the event has now sold-out, as indeed has the Isle Of Wight Festival 2011. You could also consider heading to the dance-fest called Glade at Houghton Hall, Manchester's The Parklife Weekender 2011, Swansea's Escape into the Park 2011 (and the Championship!), featuring Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder, Eddie Halliwell, Yasmin, and the perennial WOMAD Festival 2011 in Wiltshire.

Clapham Common will once again vibrate to the sound of thousands of stamping feet, pumping fists and top bands such as Razorlight, British Sea Power and The Cribs (around thirty bands in total). Tickets are still up for £35 and proceeds help The Big Issue

Theatre, Comedy and Arts

To help celebrate the 100th birthday of the influential American writer, Tennessee Williams, the Jermyn Street Theatre will host a world premiere production of the controversial play, "Cavalier For Milady". Running from Tuesday until 25th June, tickets cost from £12.

Heading across to the fringes of West London, we have the Finborough Theatre's presentation of the Anthony Newley musical, centring on the British class system. Tickets for the show, running from Tuesday until 2nd July, cost from £13.50.

London's Vaudeville Theatre will host this hilarious acrobatic show from four entertainers who are not brothers, can't fly and aren't Russian. Their kilted musical and juggling performances will play from Thursday until 10th September and cost from £39.

With all the hoo-hah surrounding Simon Cowell on rival show, X Factor, BGT audiences on the TV show showed their true feelings by booing him. C'est la vie. The touring version of the show will just feature the key performers from this series, with all dates still available apart from (somewhat ironically), Newcastle (work it out).

Worcester's Commandery Gardens presents a unique adaptation of Shakespeare's hilarious comedy from Tuesday onwards until 18th June. Tickets cost £11.25, not bad for a production full of sneaky plotting, unrequited love and cross-dressing (it says here).

This British series of books has, in the past few years, turned into a funny yet informative TV series, aimed at presenting kids with a bit of history with all the yucky, snotty and gory bits left in. It's not quite Blue Peter - and who cares!! Oxford's New Theatre hosts the next leg of the tour (about the Romans) from Tuesday onwards - tickets cost from £12.

Puccini's iconic opera will begin a 6-week run from Tuesday until mid-July. Tickets for the Royal Opera House performances start at £14.80 and £31.70, rising to (cough) £219.50 (all are still available).

The home of the English National Opera, the London Coliseum, will begin presenting Verdi's rarely-performed Simon Boccanegra from Wednesday onwards. The shows take place on various different days of the week until 9th July and tickets cost from £15 upwards.

If swinging your hips and feet lightly to "Rhapsody In Blue" or "An American In Paris" sounds like heaven, head to the Royal Albert Hall for a series of Strictly Gershwin shows from Thursday till 19th June. Show and film tunes performed by over 100 dancers and full orchestra all comes at a price - £31 upwards.

Droll, dry but never dull, master of the one-liners, Stewart Francis will be performing with Sean Hughes and Kevin Eldon as part of the Time Out Laugh Out Loud show on Monday (£18.50), before heading off to Swansea for, not one but, two nights - both still available at £13.

Happy clicking!