Music: book now to see Jane Birkin sing Serge Gainsbourg songs reinterpreted through Arabic music

Ten years ago Jane Birkin recorded a live concert at Paris’s Olympia Theatre. She was singing songs by Serge Gainsbourg naturally enough (he was her mentor, producer and late ex-husband), but what made the concert and subsequent album, Arabesque, so legendary was her reinterpretation of the songs through North African folk music as it, in turn, met new age exotica. The concert has gone down in music history, and the album is much acclaimed, so we can’t wait to hear Birkin celebrate its decade anniversary by performing here in London. Joining her in this reinterpretation of Gainsbourg through Maghreb rhythms and Eastern harmonies, is the virtuoso violinist Djamel Benyelles and his band Djam & Fam. We know the concert isn’t till November, but we urge you to book tickets now as seats are already going super-fast, and the last time Birkin was here in London her concert sold out months in advance.