BAT AID
DIY label and occasional promoters Stranger Songs have compiled a collection of tracks under the name For The Bats, with all profits going to the Bat Conservation Trust. The album is a limited run of 100, with all copies in lovingly handcrafted packaging. With a general folky theme, some of Brighton’s finest contribute exclusive, alternative and live tracks, among whom can be found Birdengine, The Great Park, Animal Magic Tricks, Diamond Family Archive and Kristin McClement. At only six quid a copy you can do your bit for the bats and get something pretty special in return, so everyone’s a winner.

DON’T FANNY ABOUT
If you have an eye for a sure-fire, vagina-based modern art investment then this could be right up your street. Brighton artist Jamie McCartney is part way through an already infamous piece, The Great Wall Of Vagina, which is a wall sculpture featuring 280 plaster casts of ladies’ front bottoms. Shares are £250 each, with the dividend based on the eventual sale price -you can imagine this would be way more than £7,000. It sounds like a winner to us, go to jamiemccartney.com for more info and a sneaky peak.

ROUND THE HOUSES
How we loved the Artists Open Houses this summer, traipsing dog dirt through people’s homes and snooping through their stuff. Oh, and we contemplated a load of top art as well. So we’re pleased to see there’s another three weekends of it before Christmas; one you’ve just missed, 5-6th and 12-13th. It’s a good opportunity to get your hands on some unique Christmas gifts – ceramics, jewellery, lighting, stuff like that – while supporting upcoming talent and simultaneously thumbing your nose at corporate capitalism. Go to aoh.org.uk for venues.

ARTISTIC INDULGENCE
Very little says exciting, original, fresh and unique to us less than Duran Duran, so it’s with a presumed post-modern irony that the Guerrilla Art Market opens its Hungry Like The Wolf exhibition on Saturday 12th at the Brighton Media Centre. If you’re in the mood for some art this Christmas, either as a gifting opportunity or just some selfish indulgence, this is a good place to buy from the artists themselves at knockdown, pre-gallery prices. And making a festive nuisance of yourself with the mulled wine they thoughtfully make available, of course.

WINTER WONDERLAND
The Brighton Centre might ordinarily inspire something less than actual festive cheer or indeed joy in any shape or form, but Sunday 20th will change all that. The ice rink is opening on the same day as Brighton Christmas Market – which promises a Santa grotto, a pampering zone for lady shoppers (presumably while the downtrodden men put up shelves or something), carol singing and a general festive overload as a backdrop to you parting with your hard-earned. There’s a great array of stalls booked in, so it should be good.

ECO CHRISTMAS
If you’re looking for Christmas parties to gatecrash while appeasing your carbon guilt, then Jingle Bells and Eco Tales could feasibly be for you. ‘As seen on TV’ apparently, it has sustainable gifts, Santa’s Green Living Grotto, eco Christmas trees and free range turkeys. Entertainment comes in the shape of the mayor and the leader of the Green Party (with brand new, edgy stand-up sets) and someone called Daniel Hill, delivering a festive talk on construction waste. It’s all going off at Tiger, The Old Gas Works on Sunday 13th.

RETURN OF THE MACC
We always like it when a local band gets props nationwide, so it’s with a smug glow that we report The Maccabees are headlining the 2010 NME Awards Tour, which comes to the Dome on February 15th. It’s been a good year for the band, with the Wall Of Arms album going down great everywhere. Here’s to bigger and better things next year.

ESCAPE TO SPRINGTIME
If the winter is getting you down, why not suck a thoughtful tooth and picture where you’re going to be next May, when Spring is sprung and Summer’s on the horizon. Why, The Great Escape of course! Brighton’s fifth festival of up-front music is now open for band registration and early-bird tickets for just 35 quid – escapegreat.com is the place you need to be at.

WORDS BY IAN CHAMBERS, NICK COQUET