A PRE-Christmas concert party at the Alban Arena next Saturday, November 28, will keep the audience dancing until midnight. Boogie Night will star The Real Thing, Ultimate Earth Wind and Fire, George McCrae and Odyssey on stage and the disco will continue

A PRE-Christmas concert party at the Alban Arena next Saturday, November 28, will keep the audience dancing until midnight.

Boogie Night will star The Real Thing, Ultimate Earth Wind and Fire, George McCrae and Odyssey on stage and the disco will continue after the live show is over.

The Real Thing were the biggest-selling black UK group of the seventies with such hits as You To Me Are Everything, Can't Get By Without You, Feel the Force and many more.

Ultimate Earth Wind and Fire are a 12-piece band with a great rock pedigree who perform a show laced with all the hits and classic album tracks such as Boogie Wonderland and Let's Groove.

George McCrae shot to fame with Rock Your Baby in 1974 and followed it with hit after hit which resulted in two platinum singles, two platinum LPs, 14 gold records and top music awards from all over the world.

Odyssey are a New York-based dance music band best known for the 1977 hit Native New Yorker. The band, which grew out of the talent of the Virgin Islands-born Lopez sisters, totalled five Top 10 hits between 1977 and 1982 including Use It Up and Wear It Out and Inside Out.

The evening gets underway at 7.45pm and tickets are �27.50, available from the box office on 01727 844488 or go to www.albans-arena.co.uk

This year's Edinburgh Fringe star Stephen K Amos has sold out his Arena show next Sunday, November 29, but fans have another chance to see the comedian on Thursday, February 25. Tickets are now on sale.

l Film buffs can look forward to movies old and new next week as well as the latest sing-a-long opportunity.

Next Tuesday, November 24, will be a chance to see Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as the eponymous heroines in the culinary movie.

Julia Child and Julie Powell - both of whom wrote memoirs - find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space both women are at loose ends until they find the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter.

Directed by Nora Ephron, who was behind When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia can be seen at 12.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets for the matinee are �4 and for the evening showing �6.

The following night, Wednesday, November 25, the Arena is offering a rare opportunity to revisit Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life on the big screen.

On Christmas Eve in Bedford Falls, guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers) is assigned to convince the desperate George Bailey (James Stewart) not to take his life after an error that really wasn't his fault.

The matinee is at 1.30pm and the evening showing at 7.30pm.

Sing-along-a Hairspray is the invitation next Thursday evening, November 26.

Set in Baltimore in 1962, it is the ideal opportunity for big-hearted Tracy Turnblad to indulge a passion for dancing.

The film of the smash-hit stage show stars John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah and there will be a live host at the Arena to lead the audience through the lyrics which will appear as subtitles.

Fancy dress is recommended although not obligatory and the performance gets underway at 7.30pm. Tickets are �14.50 and �11.