The WoW Folk and World Music Festival returns and is a family friendly folk, roots, blues and country festival that has steadily grown this year headlined by Dreadzone plus talent from this region. Plus: Panic Room, Ultramagnetic MCs, Kit Downes Trio, Nordic Giants.

FESTIVAL The WoW Folk and World Music Festival returns to Woolsey Bridge Farm Fields, Burston, near Diss, on Friday (from 5pm) and Saturday (from 12pm). It's a very family friendly folk, roots, blues and country festival that has steadily grown and draws headliners from across the world but otherwise focuses on talent from this region. Friday night's bill is topped by hugely popular local funk six-piece Killamonjambo. The six-piece have built up a strong local following based on some fantastic live performances and an ability to involve the audience and get a crowd — whatever the size — moving. They will be joined by Twisted Piglet, Mojo Kings, Jo Bowley and Rob Huckfield, the Gathering Bees and Petra Bluesky. Then on Saturday the bill is topped by Dreadzone (pictured), who are celebrating 20 years of their eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, folk and rock with the release of their seventh studio album Escapades. Also performing will be Dr Clyde, Murphy's Lore, The Piratones, Mista Beat Coyote Wrecks and many more. As well as the music it has a market of locally produced arts, crafts and food. Tickets £10, £5 under-16s (Fri), £25, £15 under-16s (Sat), £30, £15 under-16s both days (more on the gate), under-5s free on sale at Claire's Sugarcraft, Norfolk House Yard, Diss and Sundown Guitars, Will's Yard, Chapel Street, Diss. Book on 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

www.wow-arts.co.uk

ROCK Swansea's Panic Room are one of British rock's best-kept secrets. Over the past few years they've built up a loyal following and gathered significant critical acclaim, including lead singer Anne-Marie Helder being voted Female Vocalist of the Year by readers of Classic Rock Prog magazine two years running. They are performing at Norwich Arts Centre on Friday (8pm) in support of their acclaimed latest album, SKIN, which was released last summer. Their music can best be described as 'Crossover Prog', incorporating mainstream rock, acoustic, ambient sound-scapes, folk, jazz and even eastern influences. They've variously been compared to everyone from Muse and Sigur Ros to Jeff Buckley and All About Eve. This eclectic scope is similarly reflected in their lyrics, principally penned by Anne-Marie, who explores futuristic dsytopian sci-fi worlds and Arabian Night fantasies as well as achingly honest love songs. Tickets £12 adv/£14 door, 01603 660352, www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

JAZZ International jazz artists and former pupils at Norwich School Kit Downes and George Crowley join forces with some amazing young local talent for a special performance at the Epic Studios, Magdalen Street, Norwich, on Sunday (7.30pm). Having been together since their first year at the Royal Academy of Music, the Kit Downes Trio have been playing together to huge acclaim since 2005. Their music walks a line between the improvised and the composed using an eclectic mix of influences. Their first album, Golden, was nominated for the Mercury prize in 2010, while follow up Quiet Tiger was voted number four in Jazzwise's Albums of the Year in 2011. For this special performance as part of Young Norfolk Arts Festival, Kit and George will be joined by talent from Norwich School, including county prize winner Finlay McEwen and the much-heralded Senior Jazz Band. Tickets £10 (£8 cons), 01603 727727, www.epic-tv.com

HIP HOP Ultramagnetic MCs hark back to the early heady days of hip hop having formed in 1984. The Bronx group's worldwide buzz started with Ego Trippin', a 12in single that was the first hip hop song to feature the 'Synthetic Substitution' drum break sample, while the follow up Traveling At The Speed of Thought, based on a Joe Cocker piano sample later used on Dr Dre and Tupac's California Love, became one of the most sought-after 12in singles of the time. The collective's subsequent nu-school classic album, Critical Beatdown, introducing many new sampling techniques and the pioneers are at Norwich Arts Centre on Monday (8pm) as part of their Critical Beatdown's 25th Anniversary Tour with a line-up boasting Kool Keith, Ced Gee, TR Love and DJ Cito. It's fair to say that without the group's primary producer, Ced Gee, the golden era of hip hop and sampling may have looked very different as he was among the first to use 'chopped' samples, rearranged and edited to change context. Tickets £15 adv/£17.50 door, 01603 660352, www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

AMERICANA Hardworking Norwich eight-piece The Vagaband, who constantly delight and surprise with a soulful mix of Americana, with touches of blues, jazz, rock, country and even Celtic folk, will perform at the Central Hall, Wymondham, tonight (8pm) as part of Wymondham Music Festival. Energetic and with a collective sense of humour, plus an astonishing array of instruments, the band has won a following on the festival scene. Tickets £10, £3 under-18s, 01953 601939, www.wymfestival.org.uk

INDIE Acclaimed as the stand out act of the 2012 John Peel Festival of New Music, Vuvuvultures return to Norwich to celebrate the release of their debut album with a headline show at the Open venue, Bank Plain, tonight (8.30pm). Formed in London in 2011, the band creates brooding, visceral music that is also infectious and compulsively danceable, complete with grinding guitar and whirling electronics. On stage they are a mesmerising watch, with singer Harmony Boucher blessed with the kind of stage presence for which deals with the Devil are made. Tickets £5, 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

ROCK When Mike Oldfield released his 1973 masterpiece Tubular Bells it required more than 30 musicians — including members of the Rolling Stones, Soft Machine and Gong — to perform it. Now in the 40th anniversary year of Oldfield's multi-million selling album two Australian musician friends, Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts, are playing the iconic, but fiendishly intricate music on two guitars in their internationally acclaimed show, Tubular Bells For Two, which comes to Norwich Playhouse on Friday (8pm). The boys haven't consulted Oldfield, although they secured the necessary permission from his publishers, but following a successful Edinburgh run they discovered an interview in a magazine where the composer said he thought their show was 'really cool'. 'That's only two words but we'll take it as an official endorsement,' says Roberts. Tickets £20 (£18 cons), 01603 598598, www.norwichplayhouse.co.uk

PUNK Famed for making ill-tempered music with a social conscience, Birkenhead band Half Man Half Biscuit, formed in the early 1980s and were quickly adopted by the angst-ridden youth of the times, who took their punk driven, lyrical rants and protests against all things celebrity and fake to their heart. They'll be playing their unofficial anthems of the underground at the Cambridge Junction tonight (7pm). Tickets £18.50, 01223 511511, www.junction.co.uk

ROCK Norwich band Standing Tall launch their second EP, Still Breathing, with their first headline show at the Waterfront Studio, Norwich, on Friday (7pm). The new EP takes the band in a different direction to the debut, Life Obsession Violence Emotion. Support from Searching Alaska, Broken Window Effect and Fenrir. Support from Searching Alaska, Broken Window Effect and Fenrir. Tickwets £5, 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

AMERICANA The Maverick Festival, one of the county's top country and Americana gatherings, returns to Easton Farm Park, near Wickham Market, Suffolk, from Friday to Sunday. The festival presents an array of world class musical talent, comedy, dance, film and workshops and show-cases more than 40 international artists across five stages, indoors and out. Among those performing will be Anna Coogan, Dan Raza, steel guitar maestro BJ Cole, while the Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers bass player Ina Dunlop will be in conversation with The Guardian's Tim Dowling on the Saturday. Tickets £45 (weekend), £15 (Fri), £30 (Sat). More details on www.maverickfestival.co.uk

INDIE/ELECTRONIC Hidden behind feathered masks, demonic looking costumes and effortlessly changing between many instruments, the mysterious cult that is Nordic Giants perform at The Birdcage, Pottergate, Norwich, on Friday (8pm). Influenced by the likes of Massive Attack and Cinematic Orchestra, the Brighton-based post-rock duo have already shared the stage with Lamb, Ratatat, Mogwai, Alt-J and supported God Is A Astronaut in their 10th anniversary sell out show in London. The dramatic duo perform live soundtracks to a backdrop of award winning short films which do not shy away from dealing with poignant and dark subject matters. Dreamy ambient swells, epic builds and huge moments of power have captivated audiences. Tickets £4, 01603 633534, www.thebirdcagenorwich.co.uk

WORLD Nigerian singer Funmi Olawumi, the founder of the Yoruba Women Choir, returns to Norwich Arts Centre on Saturday (8.30pm) with her 12-piece big band featuring the four-part harmonies of Naija Soul Sisters and a cracking eight-piece band. Together they mix afrobeat, juju, highlife and fuji to create a big sound that is faaji music. Faaji is a Yoruba word for having a good time and with the rich eloquence of the talking drums driving the music, expect explosive rhythms from one of the great names of Nigerian music. She will be playing from her new album, Funmi Ti De, described as an upbeat album that sounded even better live by respected Guardian world music reviewer Robin Denselow. Tickets £12 (£10 cons), 01603 660352, www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

AMERICANA Texas-born, New York-based songwriter Jarrod Dickenson returns to Norwich following his support slot for David Ford & his sold out Arts Centre show earlier this year, to perform at The Birdcage, on Pottergate, on Sunday (8pm). His slightly spooky melodies and lyrics invoke a mid-Western post-war America, featuring human stories of lost love, sudden fortune, and abiding mystery. Special guests will be Norwich favourites Graham Horne and Rory Hill. Tickets £5 adv, 01603 633534, www.thebirdcagenorwich.co.uk

JAZZ The latest monthly Milestones Jazz Club sees the return of club favourites The 3B's, who will again bring their blend of styles that ranges from jazz standards and blues to electric fusion to the Hotel Hatfield, Lowestoft on Sunday (8.30pm). Featuring charismatic and intensely soulful Reg Webb (vocals/keyboards), with longstanding sparring partners Lincoln Anderson (bass) and Andrew Dowding (drums), the band performs everything with a driving sense of urgency that has won them plenty of admirers. Tickets £7 (£6 cons), 01502 568684, www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk

METAL Funeral Witch Promotions will be presenting a night of occult doom metal weirdness at the King Edward VII, Aylsham Road, Norwich, on Sunday (7.30pm) featuring the slow and primitive metal of Horse Latitudes, a trio who hail from Helsinki. Hard to fit into just one genre, the band is influenced by doom metal, black metal, sludge and punk among others and have released two albums, Gathering and 2012's Awakening. Support comes from Norwich doom-metal merchants Consecration and London-based S&M, previously known as Sunday Mourning, whose dark, slow and experimental music takes in metal, experimental and folk tinges. Tickets £3 adv/£4 door, 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

AMERICANA Described by Maverick Magazine as 'Americana at its best', Anna Coogan has been carving out a niche for herself with multiple tours across the US, UK, and Europe. In the region to perform at the Maverick Festival, she finds time for a solo date at the Bicycle Shop, St Benedict's Street, Norwich, on Sunday (8pm), accompanied by Danielle Fiaschi. Coogan walked away from a promising career singing opera for a wholly different style of musical expression. Tickets £8 adv/£10 door (£9 cons), 01603 625777, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

ROCK After London dates that sold out in record time, Maryland four-piece Clutch, who deal in an intoxicating mix of stoner, blues and southern rock charm, visit the Waterfront, Norwich, on Monday (7pm) as part of a return to the UK on a headlining tour. The band has been churning out reliable rock'n'roll for more than 22 years but have previously been consistently overlooked. However, that seems to have suddenly changed with the band's tenth studio album, Earth Rocker, which seems to have converted to the band's infectious blend of blues-based anthems into a winning formula of rave reviews and a new audience. Support comes from Sons Of Icarus and General. Tickets £15, 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

INDIE Fronted by a Half-British, Half-American vocalist and influenced by the likes of Thrice, Fall Out Boy and Senses Fail, Underline The Sky kick started their career by winning Road To V 2009 competition and opening the 4Music Stage at both sites of V Festival that year. Soon after, the band was chosen as the 'Best of BBC Introducing' for Suffolk. After extensively touring this first EP and a handful of self released demos, the band prepare for their debut full length album with a date at the B2, Sprowston Road, Norwich, on Monday (7pm). Support comes from Paper Cages and Lost At Seven. Tickets £4 adv, 01603 508050, www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk

JAZZ Norwich Jazz Club, meeting at The Cottage, Thunder Lane, welcomes Martin Eaton (tenor/vocals) and the Simon Brown Trio on Tuesday (8.30pm). Tickets £10, £5 under-25s and after 10pm, 01603 614169, www.norwichjazzclub.co.uk

INDIE Originally from Texas but now resident in LA, Caddywhompus are a duo of two talented friends who have managed to create music that could variously be described as noise, pop, experimental and psychedelic. Currently working on their next album, the follow up to 2010's Remainder, they will be performing at The Birdcage, on Pottergate, Norwich, on Wednesday (8pm). The double-bill also includes Kill! Kill!, a duo based in the south of Spain, who have self-released two EPs and recently recorded a follow up. Tickets £6 on the door, 01603 633534, www.thebirdcagenorwich.co.uk