MUSIC Suede. Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Wan Chai. Tonight, 8 pm. Only $100 restricted view tickets available. Urbtix 2734-9009.
The music industry can be fickle. The boys from Suede were blasted off the stage in their early days by everyone from record companies to journalists. Then suddenly, they were hailed as the most daring, mysterious, perverse band since The Sex Pistols and their debut album rocketed to the top of the charts in 1993, going gold on the second day. Singles Metal Mickey, Animal Nitrate and Stay Together all did well in British charts. Their latest album, Dog Man Star, a mixture of moods and messages, was released in October. The concert is sold out apart from restricted view seats.
James Taylor. Hong Kong Coliseum, Hunghom. Friday, 8 pm. Tickets $480, $380, $280. Urbtix.
Singer-songwriter Taylor is a seasoned performer of 25 years who claims the streets of London were his first stamping ground. You've Got A Friend (by Carole King), Mockingbird (a duet with wife Carly Simon) and Handyman were three of his 1970s classics but throughout the '80s he continued to tour and work at his craft. He describes his songs as autobiographical, 'the navigation through life by self-expression', and his '90s album, New Moon Shine, features Down In The Hole, about a rocker comparing depression to life underground and (I've Got To) Stop Thinking About That, a rhythm and blues elegy to love lost.
THEATRE The Circumcised Mastodon. Nestle Dairy Farm Theatre, The Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central. Thursday to Friday, 8 pm. $100 ($75 members). Reservations on 2537-1482. In English.
Director Steven Lloyd is no stranger to playfulness and this bizarrely titled production is based on two plays from the absurd school of theatre. Ionesco's The Lesson is a comic drama about an elderly professor who's rather too fond of his pupils while Tom Stoppard's The 15-Minute Hamlet exposes the Great Dane, cuts out the boring bits and turns the Bard into a laughing stock. The evening is presented by Two Doots And A Grunt. Don't go without a vivid imagination.
Die Fledermaus. Acadamy Drama Theatre, Academy For Performing Arts, Wan Chai. March 23, 24, 25, 29 (7.30 pm); March 31 (8 pm). $110, $70; $90, $60 for APA members; $40 for students. Urbtix. In German with Chinese and English subtitles.