The Killers: It has been almost exactly a year since we last saw The Killers on these shores, bowing out of the UK with a standout performance at the Reading Festival after a summer that saw their chart-topping debut, Hot Fuss, top the million sales mark in the UK (they've done half that again since, and global sales currently stand at a staggering five million).

They'd played arguably the standout performance at Glastonbury (sticking to their penultimate slot on the Pyramid Stage rather than take the headline slot vacated by Kylie. They're saving that for another year...); they'd been nominated for a clutch of Grammies and two Brits; and they'd provided one of the great moments at Live 8...

The Killers return with new single, When You Were Young on Monday. The single is taken from the band's upcoming second album, Sam's Town, itself due for release on October 2. The boys from Las Vegas have additionally confirmed a string of low-key UK dates for this November, and tickets go on sale at 9am today. Rock and roll.

The Killers, Manchester Apollo, Monday November 20. Tickets £22.50, ring 0870 401 800.

Our Fold Our Fold return to Bolton after their recent city-hopping with one of the biggest gigs this town has seen all year. Not only are the controversy-courting indie boys headlining, but support comes from Liverpool's The Benz well on their way to blagging, stealing and cheating their way to the top; indie pop perfectionists Yerba; tighter-than-Russell Brand's-trousers The Drainpipes and new kids on the block Endorse. And if that's not enough, you can boogie till the small hours with the after-show DJ set. Hurrah!

Our Fold, The Soundhouse, Friday September 29. Admission £4/£3. Doors open 7pm.

Arab Strap After six studio albums, three live albums and countless gigs, Arab Strap are to split up. A book-end compilation album and a celebratory farewell tour will mark the end of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton's ten year relationship. The Last Romance, released in 2005, will remain their final studio offering.

"There's no animosity, no drama. We simply feel we've run our course," explains Aidan. "The Last Romance seems the most obvious and logical final act of the Arab Strap studio adventure. Everybody likes a happy ending."

Titled Ten Years Of Tears (a nod to the critics who frequently pegged Arab Strap as Falkirk miserablists'), the compilation is by no means a traditional Best Of' collection. Comprising B-sides, demos, remixes, new recordings, live tracks and Peel sessions, it's a handpicked selection designed to give a full picture of this unique band.

Acquaintances on the Falkirk scene, Aidan and Malcolm became friends in 1995. They soon began making music together, telling twisted tales of messy sexual encounters, rubbish jobs, titanic drinking sessions and the twisted chemistries of human relationships.

And it wouldn't be the same without a farewell tour, ending appropriately at the venue where the Strap played their first gig.

Arab Strap play Manchester Academy 3 on Wednesday November 29. Tickets £10, ring 0161 832 1111.

Dirty Pretty Things You may be, ahem, wondering, when Dirty Pretty Things will be back on tour (well actually, as it's only five minutes since their last one, you're probably not, but we're going to tell you anyway). And if you can't even wait that long, you'll be thrilled to know that the DVD, Puffing On A Coffin Nail, Live At The Forum, will be released on October 16. It includes a 12-song set from the band's Kentish Town Forum shows filmed in May this year, 17 other live recordings from various locations across the world and a host of exclusive DVD extras. Hurrah. Tickets for the tour go on sale at 9am today.

Dirty Pretty Things, Manchester Apollo, Wednesday, November 29. Tickets cost £15, ring 0871 220 0260.

Ay Carmela!

When vaudeville comedy act Carmela and Paulino are captured by Franco's troops during the Spanish Civil War, they are told to put on a show for the fascist army. As they rehearse their unusual material - music, songs, flamenco dances and bizarre comedy sketches - their own intriguing story unfolds in a riot of black humour.

Ay Carmela! is a darkly humorous and poignant testimonial to the brutal futility of war and reveals the failure of the living to learn from the dead. Funny, moving and relevant, Steve Trafford's new translation brings Sinisterra's text vividly to life.

The two-hander production features Octagon favourite Robert Pickavance (seen earlier this year in Broken Glass), and Olivier Award nominated Elizabeth Mansfield, last seen at the Octagon in 2003 in her entertaining tribute to Brecht and Piaf, Portraits In Song.

Ay Carmela! is presented by York Theatre Royal, who collaborated with the Octagon on popular productions including East Is East.

Ay Carmela!, The Octagon, Thursday October 5 and Friday October 6. Tickets cost £10/£8 concs, ring 01204 520661, go to www.octagon bolton.co.uk or visit the Octagon box office.