So what in the world's come over you/And what in heaven's name have you done

Thursday 24 July – It’s all right, for all the wrong reasons. Yes, it’s a school night and I shouldn’t be out, but I am. No, I don’t like dance music, but we’re off to see the acid house/country fusion that is Alabama 3 down at The Duchess. Have the wheels finally come off?

We didn’t have tickets for this gig so I had to queue up before the doors opened on the offchance that I would be able to get some of the "limited numbers of tickets available at the door". Luckily I managed to get three and left A and H’s names at the door so that they could get in. How cool is that? Yer name is on the list, come on in!

I took the opportunity to snaffle some advance tickets as soon as I reached the bar area, lots of hard-earned cash flowing across the counter as I sipped on my John Smith’s. That was actually a bit of a faux pas. If I’d gone through to the main bar area I could have had a pint of Theakston’s XB.

Support for A3 was from two local chaps who normally play in Hijak Oscar, Tim Fox on harmonia and vocals, and Carl Hetherington who normally plays keyboards but tonight was playing acoustic guitar. Now I like Hijak, when the whole band are playing, but this was a bit dismal. Both remained seated for the entire performance, and Tim had his head permanently down so all we could see was his hat. The harmonia playing got a bit tedious after a while, it just sounded like the train that was a comin’ down the track was never going to arrive. Sorry guys.

The Duchess then really started to fill up in anticipation of the headline act. For the uninitiated, A3 are a British band, founded in Brixton in 1989, mixing rock, dance, blues, country, and gospel styles. The band are particularly notable for their fusion of styles, lyrics full of ironic intent, and their deliberately humorous personas; "Larry Love" (Rob Spragg), "The Very Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love" (Jake Black) etc.

Even a non-dance (especially acid house) person like me recognised some of the tracks so that must speak volumes for their fame. Woke Up This Morning (off their debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane) for instance, was used over the opening credits of the TV series The Sopranos. I was also singing along to U Don't Danse 2 Tekno Anymore (off the same album) and had flickers of recognition with Lockdown and Loaded (off M.O.R.) and Let The Caged Bird Sing (off Power in the Blood). I throughly enjoyed the performance and was definitely swaying and bobbing up and down at one stage. I was a bit preplexed at one of the songs they performed for their encore until it struck me that it was a cover of John Prine’s Speed of the Sound of Loneliness substantially different from the original and played with a heavy drum 'n' bass feel. But it worked.

A fantasic night was had by all as evidenced by the slick of sweat left on floor which we noticed as we were leaving. Highly recommended.

How many hangings under the red moon

Friday 18 July – I awoke on Saturday morning with a small platoon of ants spitting formic acid at my lower lip. It flipping well hurt! Then I really woke up. Let that be a lesson to people who think it’s clever to drink four pints of John Smith’s Cask in one evening.

So, it was a pretty good week, not least of all because I was on holiday and basically taking it very easy. Then on Thursday we got the brilliant news that The Duchess in York were granted the variations needed for their licence, so it’s full steam ahead for what looks like an exciting time for York’s music scene.

We were spoilt for choice on Friday; Miracles & Wonders at The Roman Bath, The Station Club at Fibbers, Freespirit at Speakeasy, The Naked Flames at Stone Roses, and The Mothers at The Terrace. Then The Druid discovered that Hazzard County were playing at The Old White Swan. Game on!

I arrived slightly earlier than usual but needn’t have worried as the Hazzards were a long way from starting. They were also playing in a different bar that seemed a lot more cramped then their usual position. On the plus side, the Swan seemed to have a pretty impressive display of beers on tap, although I chickened out and stuck with my usual John Smith’s.

This particular incarnation of the Hazzards was a bit of a surprise, Simon Snaize, NZ Dave (aka Dave Keengan), Country Jon, and the double bass player who was playing a real bass guitar tonight! They were sharing drumming duties on a single snare drum. The reason it was a surprise? Well, NZ Dave was supposed to be playing at The Habit, and Simon was supposed to be on Syntan Barge at Kings Staith as part of the Festival Of The Rivers. Hmm, so much for my contacts.

Of the music. Well there were some old favourites, California Style (can’t remember who did this, notes not available), Hey Jude (Beatles), You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones), Shot in the Arm (Wilco), and stuff from Steve Earle (that’s Earle with four e’s), and Robert Johnson (I know him, he’s dead). It was Okay, but they will insist on playing tracks that even our collective heads don’t recognise.

So a fairly enjoyable evening then. Puncuated on the way home by a horrendous downpour with accompanying light show which meant that A and I were forced to take shelter in a shop doorway. Pity The Druid, he was cycling home to Haxby! When we finally made it to the parting of the ways we managed to while away another half an hour discussing the Dwain Chambers ban, finally agreeing to dis-agree. And so I rolled in-doors about a quarter to two in the morning.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now/And this bird you cannot change

Friday 11 July – The Druid and I are in The Roman Bath checking out a band that we’ve not seen before, Scandal. Quite how they’ve slipped under the radar I’m not sure. Their website claims to have been first put up in 2000 and their gallery has pictures dating back until 2005. Anyway, the band play rock/blues covers and consists of: Ian Mann (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ady Ingleby (bass), Alan Hopwood (drums), Jamie Reynolds (lead guitar), and Paul Hopwood at the helm of the light show.

I can’t remember all the covers they did, indeed, there were a good many that I either didn’t know, or only half recognised, but here is a selection that I recall: Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama. Freebird), ZZ Top (Gimme All Your Lovin’), Cream (White Room), Hendrix (All Along the Watchtower, Hey Joe, Voodoo Chile), Willie Dixon (Hoochie Koochie Man), Gary Moore (Cold Day in Hell), and stuff by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Healy. You get the idea.

The bass was mixed a bit loud, my internal organs vibrating on the low notes is always a bit of a giveaway! In contrast, the lead guitar could have stood being turned up a notch, but overall it was a strong, solid and professional performance.

In a rare display of helpfulness, a lovely lady provided members of the audience with slips of paper printed with the URL of the band’s website. The same lady also took our picture, to appear on the gallery of said website.

They are definitely a band worth watching. Their forthcoming gig list currently has them appearing at the Speakeasy on 3 October and back at the Bath on 8 November.

Times were good, She never thought about the future, she just did what she would

Friday 4 July – The York music scene is in crisis. Melodramatic? Well maybe. It all started to go wrong 3-4 years when York's premier venue, The Barbican, closed. We were no longer able to host the big names in music and the situation is no better today. Tim Hornsby and Michelle Hodgen at Fibbers kept the flag flying for us, but even they stalled on 13 August 1997, the day before celebrating the tenth anniversary of the York live music bar. Barfly came to the rescue and Tim and Michelle stayed on managing the venue which continued to benefit from their contacts, enthusiasm and uncanny knack of spotting a potential good gig.

In June of this year it seemed as if things were actually going to get a whole lot better. Tim and Michelle had bought the old Stonebow Snooker Club and were planning to open a 500 capacity music venue called The Duchess. The opening was first delayed from mid-June until 3 July, and then, the bombshell. Barfly had retained a top legal team to try and prevent The Duchess from opening. A full enquiry will now be taking place on Thursday 17 July and all the booked gigs are now in jeopardy. Tim has Temporary Event Notices for, I think, Saturday's gig and Friday's sell-out with Shed 7 and Chris Helme. After that? Well it all depends on the outcome of the enquiry. There was a post on the Duchess website to solicit support but even that has now been taken down following receipt of a solicitor's letter.

It might be legal but it seems terribly heavy-handed of Barfly to be acting in this way. There is plenty of room for both venues in the city and I for one would be perfectly happy supporting both venues in the future. I don’t want my choice to be restricted by a big corporation.

The Duchess has a page on FaceBook where you can register as a friend, and you can always email Tim with your support.

So that's what's going on, but what is the venue actually like? A and I were there for the, delayed, opening night on Friday 4 July. Access was via a nondescript door set into the side of the Stonebow building and you we descended into the venue proper. There are two bars. The first is in a quiet-ish, chill out area with tables and chairs and a flat screen showing the stage. Through an arch-way and you enter the main area. Off to the right is another area of chairs and comfy sofas, ahead and to the right are the toilets, straight ahead is the second bar, and ahead and left is the stage. There are also little nooks and crannies with table football and quiz machines. The stage itself looks about the same width as that at Fibbers, maybe a bit deeper. The staff are familiar faces and we received warm welcomes at both bars.

The line-up tonight was a bunch of bands that we'd never heard off. This was a charity gig for Mike J, a bloke that has supported local bands above and beyond the call of duty, producing DVDs and generally just being a solid geezer. A selection of local bands decided to get together as a bit of a "thank you", but Mike wanted all the profits to go to charity. Top bloke.

I arrived just after 8 o'clock and a bit adrift and too late to catch the first band, the Gilligans. Sorry chaps. The second band were Fist Full Of Yen (in reference, I guess, to the film Kentucky Fried Movie which contains a short film spoofing Enter the Dragon which is titled <>A Fistful of Yen, instead of ...Dollars). The band consists of Kirk Barley (bass and vocals), Laurie Caudwell (drums, backing vocals), and Oliver Pitt (guitar), their combined age was probably less that mine. As the front man was the bass player, they had a very bass-led sound. The songs seemed at first to be broken and disharmonious, a bit like Philip Glass plays indie. As I listened harder they were actually using an incredible number of time signature changes and were a pop version of Mastodon or Porcupine Tree. Not my tea of Yorkshire tea, but I could certainly appreciate their musical skills.

By this time A had acquired a set of ear defenders, it certainly was loud, but then we were quite close to the stage. Next up were Dinosaur Pile-up billed as the lo-fi indie pop project of Matt Bigland from Leeds who plays lead guitar and sings. Drum and bass were provided by either 2 Toms or a Tom and Steve. I'm not sure which. Sorry guys. Vocally, Matt sounds like Caleb Followill of The Kings Of Leon. Musically the band have a Nirvana grungy sound. I liked these.

The last band were Hot Recruit who consist of Luke Beddows (vocals), Alec Wright (bass), Dave Rax (drums), and Tom Warden (guitar). I think that Luke had brought his own little fan club with him as there was a little knot of 4-5 guys, arms around each other's shoulders, jumping up and down and singing along. After a couple of songs the power to the stage died. The bars and some other areas remained lit so I assume it was a fuse-type problem. After about 5-10 minutes power was restored and the band played on. Like so many indie bands, they played like The Jam on speed although I have to confess that they managed to incorporate some terrace-chant choruses that most of the crowd seemed know.

Overall I was extremely impressed by the venue itself. The evening was great value, £4 entrance fee and there was at least one band that I would certainly like to see again.

On leaving The Duchess we stopped off at the Old White Swan where a band had been playing, not sure who, but they were just packing away so we continued on our travels and stopped off for a final beer at The Roman Bath. I couldn't make out who had been playing and we only caught half of their final song. We were both a bit down about the whole Duchess scenario. Oh well, roll on the enquiry and I really hope that it's good news for Tim and Michelle.