Patti Smith, Roundhouse

Punk rock royalty Patti Smith once said: "I want to be around a really long time. I want to be a thorn in the side of everything as long as possible". She got her wish; age cannot wither her. Four decades after her debut, Smith still struts around on stage, gnashing her teeth and delivering her gnarled poetry like some Delphic priestess; all while the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten's sells Country Life Butter. 
This Halloween, you can can catch Patti Smith live at Chalk Farm's Roundhouse. Smith will perform her epoch-defining 1975 debut album Horses in full: an record often hailed as one of the greatest in music's history. At East London's Field Day Festival the reaction to Smith's Horses set was nothing short of rapturous, with five stars from the Guardian, Independent and NME and not a dry eye in the field.
Even if punk isn't your thing, you need to book this gig, just to see one of  the coolest people in the world from up close. 
Smith emerged in the 70s and became one of the key figures New York's underground scene. She hung out with Blondie and the Ramones, and  lived in the infamous Chelsea Hotel with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith's best-selling, multi-award-winning memoir Just Kids documents this turbulent period. 
Horses came out in 1975, a fusion of poetry and rock music; a landmark recording, that has been described as the birthplace of punk. From its opening line, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" to its thrashing finale, a ramshackle cover of The Who's My Generation, Horses is is an empowering, misshapen masterpiece
This album was just the beginning, Smith went on to release 9 further records, several poetry collections and a memoir. But Horses remains her most astonishing work, and the decades have not diminished its strength.