Alvarez Kings Claiming the crown as South Yorkshire's premier indie band, the Kings are a great live band and after support slots with The Enemy, Kooks and Little Man Tate its looking like 2009 will be their year which the guys get off to a flying start by headlining Koko, London in early January.

The first Shuffle of the year throws the spotlight over to those unsung heroes of Plug, the residents. The bastions of dependability behind the stars, it's the consistency of these Djs that keep the musical selection bubbling at Plug, ensuring it remains one of the best clubs to party at in the North of England.

With 7 charity events and over £20,000 raised Uprising are once again gathering the cream of the northern hardcore community to help give a little back to 2 charities that do nothing but give and expect nothing in return.

All the DJ's & MC's are donating all of their wages and in these hard and uncertain times of the recession/credit crunch where else are you going are to get such a top quality night out for such a small price so please help us raise as much money as possible for The Sheffield's Children's Hospital and The British Heart Foundation.

The Brute Chorus have been combining garage, blues and folk music with a scatology of Biblical stories, nursery rhymes and fairy tales since March. They've been taking it to the people with sets at The Secret Garden Party, Danny McNamara's The Aftershow in Manchester, and a monthly residency at Camden's infamous Hawley Arms pub and became MySpace front page featured artists along the way. They live together in a flat in Whitechapel formerly inhabited by Bow Wow Wow, so they claim.

The band's first release was a charming offering of psyched-out garage-folk put out on the Hawley Arms backed Bumpman records. The ltd edition AA side 7" sold out in no time- and is currently available for download.

 

The second weekend of the month sees Plug welcoming an old friend back over to party for some house focused Shuffle goodness. One of the legends of the Northern House music scene with a history steeped across the region, it's the return of Krysko to the Shuffle Decks.

The main event at every Reflective show is Martin Leverton, the charismatic front for the Sheffield scene and the owner of the Reflex. The scene's figurehead, his super smooth mixing combines with microphone patter to create an unstoppable party vibe. This insider knowledge guarantees a complete level of up-to-date musical knowledge, which when coupled with an archaic sense of history for the scene means he can effortlessly slip from upfront promos to good time classics.

Planet Zogg blasts off in Neutral for an all night trip through hydperdelia. Now into its ninth year, the technicoloured party joins the dots... from trance... to techno... to psy... in a full on cosmic visual environment!!

Orange 38 (formerly Paddy Orange Project) have been causing quite a stir locally of late, playing with Supergrass, Reverend & The Makers and Alabama 3. Just take a look at this video from when they graced the Plug stage supporting Reverend & The Makers at our 3rd birthday party in September. With new band members and a new sound it looks like big things are round the corner for this gang.

Shuffle's second resident party of 2009 sees a delightful theme creating a diversion away from the barren winter months. This gives the chance for people to don their tuxedos and adopt a licence to kill policy as Plug becomes draped as the Casino Royale.

Pray silence for the Headphones Disco. Everyone gets a pair of wireless headphones... Two DJs play on two dedicated channels of the headphones competing for your attention.

January has thrown up five whole weekends, but with one coming a mere three days after NYE it's meant that the party bonanza has been cut short somewhat. As the end of the month flutters through Plug work to remedy this ailment, delivering the revelation that there are two main guests taking a starring role at Shuffle. Double the trouble means extra value, and at a time when we're all penny pinching and covering up in the winter period, who can begrudge that?

North London's Chipmunk has taken the grime scene by surprise. With mentoring from MC Wiley, Chipmunk has released mixtapes working with Maniac & Bless Beats, Wiley, Danny Weed and DVA. In a successful year, he has been named Best UK Newcomer at the 2008 MOBO awards.

Kathryn Williams' ability to take an everyday observation, the kind of thing that might attract anyone's attention for an instant before we're distracted by all those Desperately Important Things we're busy with, and grab it from the ether, bring it down deep into herself, boil it down to its essence, and then send it back out, in a song that breaks your heart, with a voice that instinctively understands the power of restraint, of intimacy, of melody that drifts like thought, of lyric that pricks like a needle, or conscience, probably both.

Its time for the Soulful dons to return to Detonate and Plug with another scintillating Hospitality party. The label behind the kaleidoscopic deebee manifesto rock up with their mafia to ensure another journey through the outer reaches of liquid jungle musical manoeuvres.

Little Lost David is a rare breed. Teamed with Alan Smyth (Artic Monkeys, Pulp, Reverend and The Makers), the 26 year-old singer/songwriter - AKA David Roch - is a pure, powerful musician who ‘s nailed the tone of modern life with his serrated songs of love and loss.

 It's the return of the kingpin to Sheffield and Shuffle. Turkish rave demi-god Erol Alkan is back at Plug, and boy is that something to get excited about. In these times of financial dire straits and constant doom and gloom, dance music needs its enigmas to raise us from the depths of depression and back to that euphoric point from which it began for us all. And if anyone can do it, it's that man Alkan.

Mongrel. A coalition of the willing. A force of nature based on musical artists who want to say something about the world they live in and be free of the merry go round of make record release make record release. Attached to the old fashioned notion that its cool to care about the world you live in made popular by the punks and the 60's counter culturalists before them we got together and made a record from our own pockets to make a stand and put our sword in the dirt.

Given the length of time Emmy The Great has been a leading light of the anti-folk (/nu-folk /new-wave-female-singer-songwriter) scene in the UK, its surprising to hear she's still only 23 years old.

Formed from the ashes of previous bands in and around southend, Essex, Baddies are 4 friends on a mission to make you listen, and listen you will. Theirs is a sound that flits effortlessly through Talking Heads / QOTSA and classic 70's UK Punk.

 Following the sold out hotter-than-hot party that was Friday night's Wonky Pop's Xmas show at Matter, the Wonky team are pleased to announce a 17-date rotating headline tour across the country featuring three of 2009's biggest tips: Boy Crisis, Dan Black and Master Shortie. From the end of February and through out March 2009, the Wonky tour will be hitting the party to all the best venues across the UK and Scotland.

Dublin-born singer Imelda May is a last minute addition to next week's Later...with Jools Holland (BBC2 Tuesday 10pm & Friday 11:35pm). Imelda will be performing 2 songs from her current album ‘Love Tattoo'. First up is the foot-stomping riot of Johnny Got A Boom Boom, a rip-roaring affair bursting with hi-energy, lust for life that has had crowds rocking across the UK.

The Dodgems are a four piece Rock and Roll band from Sheffield consisting of Phil Goodwin (Guitar/Lead Vocals), Tommy Goodwin (Piano/Keyboard/Organ/Backing Vocals), Chris Murray (Bass Guitar) and Eric Miller (Drums and Percussion).

One of the most critically acclaimed guitarists and the youngest musician to be named in Rolling Stone's list of the Top Hundred Guitarists of All Time, Derek Trucks has completed his much anticipated sixth studio album with The Derek Trucks Band, entitled "Already Free," available January 13, 2009 on Sony/Legacy.

After last year's epic gig at Plug, Tinchy is returning to Sheffield via popular demand. Anyone who saw that gig will know why he is so highly rated and now one of grime's top solo artists. Tinchy, who hails from Bow in East London, came to prominence first in 2003. Since then he has been very busy, collaborating with almost every major artist in the genre.