Oh God said to Abraham kill me a son/Abe said man you must be puttin me on

Friday 22 May - and we are at a different venue tonight, The Grand Opera House in York to see one of my all-time guitar heroes, Johnny Winter. The problem I have with the GOH is the fact that it's an all-seated venue so this is starting a bit strange and I realise that I'll probably be in for a 'numb-bum' by the send of the session. Still, we are in the Dress Circle so should get a good view. Support was from Ian Siegal a British blues singer/guitarist very much on the roots side of the genre. He has a voice like Tom Waits and writes lyrics with a strong sense of humour. Currently touring with Andy Graham (bass) and Nikolaj Bjerre (drums) I think everything he played/sang were his own compositions as I didn't recognise a single song. The lyrics were a bit indistinct, possibly due to the acoustics of the GOH, I've not sat in the Circle before, but I certainly enjoyed the Mortal Coil Shuffle off his 2007 album, Swagger.

During the interval The Druid and I caught up on recent music purchases while 'A' wandered around the building admiring the architecture. Then it was on to the headline act, John Dawson Winter III, the cross-eyed albino Texas blues legend. We kicked off with an instrumental by Johnny's band; Paul Nelson (guitar), Scott Spray (bass), and Tony Beard (drums) which was very well executed. Then Johnny himself came on stage and I have to say that my heart went out to him. He looked every day of his 65 years, barely able to shuffle onstage unaided. Apparently he suffered an injury to his hip back in October 2000 following a fall. The damage was severe enough that he had to undergo surgery to correct the problem, but he seems to be suffering the effects of that injury to this day. He performed the entire set whilst sitting on a chair and using a vintage dew drop-shaped 'headless' Steinberger guitar switching to a 1963 Gibson Firebird V for the encore. For me, the Firebird has a much nicer tone, the Steinberger sounded very shrill.

He has an exquisite voice but the lyrics were once more lost in the acoustics of the GOH. To be brutally honest he didn't really seem to hit his stride until about half-way through the set when he played Hendrix's Red House. After that things definitely improved with his own Mojo Boogie, Derringer's Rock 'n' Roll, Hoochie Koo, Ray Charles's Blackjack, Larry William's Bony Moronie, The Rolling Stones' It's All Over Now, and finally Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. As was pointed out to me later "so we've just heard an old bloke play a bunch of covers?" and I guess that's about the size of it, but it's the manner of his playing that makes it special, It's All Over Now was practically unrecognisable.

It almost seems like sacrilege but we left the GOH and immediately headed across town to the Roman Bath where Storm were playing and just kicking off the second half of their set. Storm are a 4-piece rock covers band from Huddersfield whom we've seen before. They played; Van Halen (Jump), The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Darkness (I Believe In A Thing Called Love), Prince (Purple Rain), Bryan Adams (Summer of '69), Wilson Pickett/The Commitments (Mustang Sally), Madness (Baggy Trousers), Whitesnake (Here I Go Again), Lenny Kravitz (Are you Gonna go my way), Green Day (Basket Case), and Alvin and the Chipmunks (Let's Do The Time Warp Again). The last being their nadir, a song where they insist on a female in the audience naming a rude body part for us to "put your hands on...". I really wish they would drop this from what is otherwise a pretty decent act.

She's quite the mediator/A smoother operator you will never see

Friday 15 May - Sorry, I'm starting with a rant (skip rant). Just what is it with MP's expenses? I travel to work, at my own expense. I feed myself, at my own expense. I don't expect my employer to shell out for either, or to subsidise a second home nearer my place of work. OK, MPs effectively have two jobs, one in their constituency and one at the Houses of Parliament, and for some MPs these are a significant distance apart. But if I was going to another part of the country on company business, I would get travel and a hotel paid for. It's not rocket science. Parliament should designate a boundary within which the MPs constituency and the Houses of Parliament are considered 'local' i.e. no expenses are paid at all. Outside of that boundary 'remote' MPs get travel expenses between their constituency and London only. Parliament already has a canteen, so there's no need for meal allowances. There should be an apartment block (run like a hotel so they book in) for remote MPs to stay in. For those MPs who want a meal or a drink (at their own expense of course) the apartment block could be equipped with restaurants and bars and the profits from these could be used to offset the cost of the apartments. These guys and gals are clever enough to be running the country; they should be able to sort this out. Rant over.

So, Friday night at the Roman Bath and it's heaving with the detritus of the York racing crowd, blokes in their suits and women in their big hats and bigger heels, all blathered and falling over. We, on the other hand, are here to see Scandal, a covers band but one that we really like. The band are: Ian Mann (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ady Ingleby (bass), Alan Hopwood (drums), Jamie Reynolds (lead guitar), and not to forget Paul Hopwood working the lights. Scandal are, IMHO, one of the very best covers bands I've ever seen and I throughly recommend them to anyone who gets the opportunity to see them.

Dedging through my memories on Saturday morning I managed to note down the following list of tunes I heard (at least in my head): Dr. Feelgood (I Can Tell), ZZ Top (Gimme All Your Lovin', La Grange, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Sharp Dressed Man, Tush, Pincushion), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama), Cream (Badge, White Room), Hendrix (Hey Joe, Voodoo Chile, Purple Haze, Red House), Bob Dylan (All Along the Watchtower), Willie Dixon (Hoochie Koochie Man), Stevie Ray Vaughan (Look At Little Sister), BBM (Can't Fool The Blues), Gary Moore (Cold Day in Hell), Bob Seger (Rosalie), and Thin Lizzy (Cowboy Song, The Boys Are Back in Town). The Bob Seger one was a surprise to me as I always thought that it was a Lizzy song, but I live and learn.

Keep your eyes on the road/Your hands upon the wheel

Friday 8 May - and in a slight change to the norm, we are off tonight for White Beer and Stealer down at The Terrace. Bit of a cock-up on the beer front, White Beer no longer available, have to settle for the John Smith's Cask, suits me anyway. Actually, bit of a cock-up on the Stealer front because I only recognised Tivvy, the drummer that looks like Mick Aston from Time Team, from the line-up we'd seen before.

Nil desperandum, they look the biz and indeed sounded the biz as they churned out a bevvy of heavier-than-usual rock covers. I have to confess that when they stopped at half-time for 10 minute break, we legged it to The Roman Bath to check out The Players, who we hadn't heard before. Imagine our surprise to see a bloke on some decks and a bunch of 'ladies' doing The Conga. Needless to say we didn't get more than three paces inside the door before turning tail and dashing back to The Terrace.

So, onto the exciting bit where I exercise my drink-fuelled memory and try to dredge up a list of the cover tracks Stealer played, in-complete naturally: The Kinks You Really Got Me, Robert Palmer Bad Case Of Loving You, Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama, The Who Won't Get Fooled Again, AC/DC High Voltage Rock And Roll and Whole Lotta Rosie, Neil Young Rocking In The Free World, UFO Too Hot to Handle, The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter, RainbowAll Night Long, and The Doors Roadhouse Blues. For the last one I have to apologise to 'A' as he was sure The Doors did it but I brow-beat him into believing it was Status Quo. In fact The Doors wrote and released it as a single from their 1970 album Morrison Hotel. Status Quo covered it on their 1972 Piledriver album. Oh well, I learn something new every day.

And we kissed, as though nothing could fall/Nothing could fall

Sunday 3 May - It was a busy weekend. Yesterday we had a suit fitting for my youngest daughter's wedding, an opportunity for me to strut my stuff in jeans and an Edwardian frock coat. Very fetching. Then we took lunch at The Happy Valley Chinese café, the best Chinese food in York, and ended up at mine to watch "School of Rock" as we frittered the remainder of the day away. Sunday was bookended with bacon and eggs for breakfast and a Sunday roast for nine people for dinner (that's tea if you're not as posh what I am). Then I kicked everyone else out of the house, because tonight we had a full turn out down at The Duchess for "A Night For Heroes" a charity event in aid of Angela's Gift in memory of Howard Sparnenn who died aged 55 at 2pm on Sunday 4 May 2008 of a brain tumour.

Six bands, all of which Howard had been involved with, had come together in a celebration of his life, and there were a fair few faces in the crowd that were familiar as well. The event kicked off with Smart Move, a band set up by vocalist and guitarist Dave Smith and Howard shortly before he fell ill. In fact SM seem to consist of mostly Mojos, with John Greenwood on bass, and Andrew Bone on vocals and lead guitar. Non-Mojo Steve Jackson was on drums and I think another Mojo, Mark, was on Keyboards. They turned out a short set of classic covers such as: Genesis Turn It On, Dire Straits Sultans of Swing, Queen Tie Your Mother Down, Whitesnake Here I Go Again....

Next up were a band that we'd seen on a couple of occasions, initially when Howard was drumming for them, Freeway. These played a heavier set, stuff like: Thin Lizzy Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town, Black Sabbath Paranoid, UFO Doctor Doctor, Judas Priest Breaking The Law, and a Deep Purple medley of Hush, Strange Kind Of Woman, Black Night, and Woman From Tokyo.

Apparently Howard's favourite band were Free, I thought he raised his daughters on a diet of Thunder but hay hoe. Anyway, another band that Howard was involved with was Free Spirit who consist of Garry Barrett (vocals and guitar), John Simpson (lead guitar), Gavin Paradiso (bass), John Halder (drums), and Simon Waggot (keyboards). These played covers by Free Wishing Well and Stealer, Bad Company Running With The Pack, Seagull, Bad Company, and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, and Frankie Miller Jealousy. There were others but the pints of Landlord were beginning to rot my brain cells.

Back in the 70s, when Howard first met his wife-to-be, Jeanette, he was drumming for a band that he co-founded called Flight. The original line-up then consisted of Mick Adamson (vocals), Pete Martin (guitar), Kevin Nickson (bass), and Howard (drums). After two singles they changed their name to Bulldog Breed and Howard was supplanted by Steve Roberts. So for our fourth band of the evening Flight had re-formed, for one night only, and played some of their original material, including the 1974 singles What Am I To Do With You and It's Only Money, plus some of the Bulldog Breed material.

As a drummer Howard contributed to a number of bands including Flight, Rocket 3, Freeway, Inivitro, The Occasional Band, Free Spirit, and sometimes Breathing Space whose lead singer is his daughter, Livvy. BS were fielding a few substitutes in their line-up tonight; Livvy and the brothers Jennings were joined by Andy and Bryan from Mostly Autumn, and Gary "Harry" James from the legendary Thunder on drums. They were also joined by Anne-Marie Helder on flute for The Gap Is Too Wide. My daughters insisted that I got a picture of Harry (Thunder is our favourite band) but for all my efforts all I managed was a shot of him wiping his face with a towel. Such is life.

The headline act was Mostly Autumn who interrupted their current tour (2 May Holmfirth, 8 May Lincoln) to be here tonight and provided a full hour from their current tour set. They gave an impressive and powerful performance ending with Heroes Never Die. By this time my legs were aching from having been standing for over six hours. There was no encore but the audience were asked to move back a bit and a screen was put into position. The evening was concluded with a clip of film from the 80s showing Howard performing a drum solo lasting over 5 minutes. A great end to a great evening.