Instasamka's London show was cancelled on 31 August, yet 14 November tickets are still listed: we checked 15 events, four did not match

Ticket listings keep events on sale longer than the events exist. We took a dozen or so upcoming events aimed at the Russian-speaking audience in Britain and checked each one against the venue’s own website. Four did not match.

Which events do not match what the listings say?

There are four mismatches: the Instasamka show on 14 November, an old Maxim Leonidov page still live on The Clapham Grand’s own site, a party on 16 October that is absent from Studio 338’s calendar, and a wrong venue address for the Verka Serduchka concert on 23 October.

The rest checked out. The Hardkiss on 5 November at Electric Ballroom is listed by the venue as “Thursday 5th November, 7.00PM, £40”. Secret FM with Maxim Leonidov on 8 November at The Clapham Grand reads “Sun 8 Nov • 7pm–9:45pm”, stalls £125.66, circle £103.00 — and the official agent shows exactly the same prices. Verka Serduchka, Kavabanga Depo Kolibri and the rest of the October programme are covered in our October listings for Russian-speaking London.

What is wrong with the Instasamka show on 14 November?

The concert was cancelled back on 31 August, yet several international platforms still carry it among upcoming events — on a date when the venue has a different event booked.

The sequence: on 31 August Meduza reported that the London club due to host the show had cancelled it. On 2 October the Russian outlet V1.ru wrote about the artist’s new Volgograd date and referred to London in the past tense: “she was supposed to perform in London on 14 November”.

At the time of checking, Trip.com still lists “INSTASAMKA – Club Show” for 14 November 2026 at “Emerald Theatre London”, and the same entry sits under upcoming events on the aggregator musicofourdesire.com. Check it against the venue: Emerald Theatre’s listings for Saturday 14 November show a different event — “Sun City Day Party | Westend”, from £10. The venue page on operator ATG’s site returns “We can’t find any shows for the selected options”, and London Theatre Direct shows nothing at that theatre before 2 December. There is no Instasamka concert in the venue’s programme.

Why does The Clapham Grand still show Maxim Leonidov on “2 Nov”?

Because it is a live page for a concert that happened years ago: the page carries no year, and in 2026 the 2nd of November is a Monday, not a Thursday.

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The venue’s own site serves a page titled “Maxim Leonidov: The Best of the Secret” dated “Thu 2 Nov”, with a BUY TICKETS button and no mention of a year or of the event being past. Thursday 2 November fell in 2023 — and that concert is marked “Past event” on the Russian-language ticket site Afisha.London, dated “Thu, 02.11.2023 19:00”. The buy link on the venue page leads to an address that will not open at all at the time of checking: the browser falls into a redirect loop.

The current outing of that same programme at the same venue is Secret FM on Sunday 8 November at 19:00. If you search for “Maxim Leonidov” and land on a page saying “2 Nov”, that is not your date.

Is the 16 October party in Studio 338’s own calendar?

No: the club’s own events page lists only 17 October for that month, while third-party services sell tickets for the 16th.

The Ukrainian party “100ЛИЦЯ В ЛОНДОНІ!” is advertised for Friday 16 October at Studio 338 on Boord Street, SE10 0PF. Karabas sells tickets at £30–60 with a 21:00 start. The organiser’s own Eventbrite page (Moisei Events) gives doors at 20:00, the show from 21:00 to 23:00, 18+, and states plainly: “No refunds”. Studio 338’s events page lists a single October date — 17 October. That does not mean the party is off: private hires often never reach a club’s public calendar. It does mean you cannot confirm it from the venue’s site, and the organiser promises no refund if it falls through.

Where is indigo at The O2, actually?

On Peninsula Square in Greenwich, SE10 0DX — not in Barking, as one listing has it.

The Verka Serduchka concert on 23 October itself is fine: The O2’s own page says “Friday 23 Oct 2026, Doors: 6:00 PM”, the official agent is AXS, under-16s must be seated with an adult and under-3s are not admitted. But the aggregator allevents.in gives the address as “indigo at The O2, indigo at The O2, Barking, EN, United Kingdom” and shows the event running 18:00 to 20:00. Barking is on the eastern edge of London, roughly an hour from the Greenwich Peninsula. And 18:00 is doors, not stage time.

Is there a Soviet Underground gig coming?

Still no new date — checked against the band’s profile, the venue calendar and the nights they put on themselves.

The London band’s official Songkick profile says in as many words: “Unfortunately there are no concert dates for Soviet Underground scheduled in 2026”, with 19 people signed up for alerts. The calendar of The Victoria in Dalston, where they played in September, is filled in through February 2027 and does not include them. The “Sounds of Soviet Underground” nights, which the band curates itself and invites other acts to, last ran on 6 March and 16 May in London and 13 June in Brighton — all in the past. As soon as a new date appears we will run it as its own story: our previous piece on their gigs was the most-read item of that week.

What should you do if you have already bought a ticket?

Claim from wherever you paid, and if the seller goes quiet, go through your bank.

In order. First, contact the point of sale: the venue owes you nothing if you bought from a reseller. Second, if there is no reply, a card payment entitles you to ask your bank to consider a chargeback — an event that never happened is the textbook “service not provided” case. Third, if the ticket cost more than £100 and was paid by credit card, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 applies: the seller and the bank are jointly liable, so you can claim straight from the bank. Money sent by bank transfer to a private person or through a messenger app comes back from nowhere. What else can be reclaimed in Britain, and how, is in our guide to refunds.

How do you check an event before paying?

Open the venue’s own website and find the event there, on that date.

Three minutes save you a trip and the money. Not an aggregator, not a newsletter, not a social post — the venue page itself: Scala, Brixton Jamm, Electric Ballroom, indigo at The O2, Studio 338, The Clapham Grand. Check four things: the event is in the venue’s calendar at all; it does not carry Cancelled, Postponed or Sold Out; the date and the weekday match (a date with no year is a warning sign); and the venue address matches what the listing claims. If even one of them fails, do not pay until you know why.

Where to go, already checked: our London listings and the rest of the country.