Midlands gigs to catch this week

Everybody get ready to hit the floor and bob your head in a cool, nonchalant manner – what a line-up we have for you this week.

Tonight, hip-hop royalty Professor Green – or Stephen Manderson, to his mum – will hit the stage at the O2 Academy with new kids on the block Rizzle Kicks, who caused hysteria on the dancefloor with their brilliant debut single Get Down With the Trumpets. The show is sold out.

Meanwhile, in the Academy 2, Ordinary Boys make their return to the stage five years after announcing their split after jumping on the reunion bandwagon.

But – unlike the phenomenal success of Take That – frontman Preston insists he has will not make any money from the tour, and in fact stands to make a loss.

"It's so expensive to tour, you have to pay for the hotels and the travel. I've paid for the rehearsals," he revealed.

"It's actually just a self-indulgent nostalgia trip for me. I've wanted to do it for a while.

"I was the one that decided to ignore adulthood and reality and initiate the reunion."

And he promised he has grown out of the swaggering, offensively arrogant on-stage persona he portrayed in the group's short-lived heyday.

"Now my priorities have changed. I'm an adult now. I've matured into a grown-up man with responsibilities," he said. "I'm going to limit myself to a few drinks before I go on stage and try not to swear. That was unnecessary."

Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are £12.

Also at the Academy 2 this week, playing tomorrow, are80s American alt-rock outfit The Lemonheads.

Playing 1992 album It's a Shame About Ray – the record that marked their rise from college rockers to mainstream stars – the popular four-piece have managed to sell out the show.

Then, on Thursday, Stourbridge's own rock heroes The Wonder Stuff take to the stage to mark the 20th anniversary of album Never Loved Elvis by performing the whole thing for the first time.

Featuring original members Miles Hunt and Malcolm Treece, plus Mark McCarthy, Erica Nockalls and the recently-recruited Fuzz Townshend, the group have seen a revival of sorts in recent times, even headlining the Avalon stage at Glastonbury in 2009. Support comes from folk-punk heroes The Levellers.

Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are £20.

And rounding off the week with what is fast becoming a Christmas tradition, Only Men Aloud return to Birmingham Symphony Hall on Thursday.

With a repertoire stretching from the 17th Century right through to modern pop and rock songs, the Welsh male voice choir have sold out their three previous tours and tickets are in short supply for this one.

The show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from www.thsh.co.uk