Don’t forget, the clocks go forward this Sunday, meaning summer is just starting to come into sight. We’re ready for it.

To the Batcave
A haven of sonic noir, Soho’s iconic 80s Batcave club was the goth hangout, populated by the likes of Nick Cave, Siouxsie Sioux, Lydia Lunch, Steven Severin and the Cure’s Robert Smith. (Cobwebs lined the ceilings, black bin-liners decorated the walls and to enter you had to walk through a coffin with the bottom taken out.) British photographers Derek Ridgers and Mick Mercer were also regulars, on hand to capture the heavy eyeliner, DIY outfits and jet black rigour. Now, 40 years on, the Batcave’s dark flair returns to the city courtesy of a new Museum of Youth Culture exhibition showcasing Ridgers and Mercer’s photography. Wear your blackest clothes – and don’t you dare crack a smile!

Batcave will run at The Museum of Youth Culture until March 29th, more info here.

Speaking of Nick Cave…
The Bad Seeds frontman has manifested his treasure trove store Cave Things IRL at Dover Street Market and it’s a bright pink haven of kooky trinkets. First launched in 2020, the collections consist of apparel, books, homeware, prints and limited edition recordings – including red right hand pendants, disturbing tea towels and devilish milk jugs. Bringing back several sell-out items from their archive alongside a new range of products created exclusively for DSM – you can also purchase Cave’s second kid’s book The Little Thing is Sad, which believe us, is just as entertaining for so-called adults.

Cave Things runs at Dover Street Market until April 20th, more info here. 

Not so sweet
With her deceptively angelic, youthful sensibility, Mia Goth plays an excellent horror protagonist. And in Ti West’s twisted new film Pearl, Goth goes full deranged teen!

Offering an origin story to Goth’s iconic villain of Ti West’s incredible movie, X (another must-watch), we meet Pearl trapped on her family’s isolated Texan farm. Despite spending her time tending to her ill father as her overbearing devout mother watches on, she has big dreams and sets her sights on movie stardom. But things get a little more bloody first. A technicolour ode to old Hollywood, imagery and language pays homage to classic films and cult horrors in this brilliantly thrilling joyride.

Pearl is out in cinemas now.

On stage
In spite of the harrowing tale told in Hanya Yanagihara’s 800 page novel A Little Life, the work has become a critically acclaimed modern classic. Now adapted for stage by Ivo van Hove at the Harold Pinter Theatre, James Norton, Omari Douglas, Luke Thompson and Zach Wyatt star as the four main characters whose lives unravel and rebuild through a series of turbulent events as they arrive in New York City as graduates.

Previously Yanagihara has been known to turn down a string of adaptations due to her desire to remain as close to the plot as possible, meaning this one is bound to be special. Opening this weekend, A Little Life is ultimately a study of human endurance, the lasting effects of childhood trauma and unconditional love – brace yourself.

A Little Life runs at the Harold Pinter Theatre until June 18th before transferring to The Savoy from July 4th – August 5th, more info here. 

Wait, what’s that over there?
Guts Gallery’s latest exhibition from New York-based artist Larissa De Jesús Negrón is an exploration of the distracted state we find ourselves in every day. Meditating on time, the artist articulates moments of obsessing over past scenarios and becoming engrossed in future possibilities, all while being stuck in the here and now. De Jesús Negrón envisions the messiness of modern life and the chaos of one’s own mind in a series of surreal and saturated paintings refashioning mundane scenes or objects from day-to-day life.

Distraída: Larissa De Jesús Negrón runs at Guts Gallery until March 31st, more info here.

Triple threat
Skulk down to Hackney’s Paper Dress Vintage on Saturday for a trio of stellar live acts. Kicking off with Honest Work, a supergroup consisting of members from some of the best in the UK music scene, Manchester’s Pyncher join the bill with their driving alt-rock, before House Arrest dial up the raucousness to ‘off the chain’. Stressful week? Lose yourself in the eye of a moshpit.

Buy tickets here.

Transportative
Following the success of his Southwark-based eater Bala Baya, chef Eran Tibi opened Kapara in February on Soho’s Charing Cross Road. This time around taking inspiration from Israeli cuisine, the menu offers up classics such as hummus plates, prawn baklava and borekitas paired with Tibi’s experimental dishes. The names are just as cryptic as the plates themselves, ‘Wasted?’ is a squid ink and yolk pasta with prawn bisque, saffron and cod’s head fillets while ‘Gramps Cigar’ is a dessert consisting of brick pastry, pistachio, passion fruit curd and chocolate soil fashioned to look like an actual cigar. The culinary influence is also mirrored in the decor as marble furnishings, dimly lit basements and open-plan terraces transport you to a rooftop bar in Tel Aviv.

Kapara is located at Ilona Rose House, 111-119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DU, more info here.