Gypsy woman told my momma, before I was born/You got a boy-child comin', gonna be a son-of-a-gun

Friday 11 January – following a feverish exchange of some, frankly, psychedelic messages, we finally plumped for a visit to the Roman Bath, without knowing who would be playing. Talk about pot luck! It turned out to be the Pete Gilgan Band, a five piece Rock/Blues and R&B (from the '50s and '06s, not the modern rubbish) outfit with a keyboard player that sounded like Jon Lord himself. I don’t have much information about the band except they come from the Whitby/Teeside area and have played the Darlington R&B Festival, Whitby Music Port Fringe Festival, and the Guisborough R&B festival.

Back to the music and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t recognise most of it although they did songs by; Peter Green, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Muddy Waters’ Hoochie Coochie Man, and Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (made popular by The Animals in 1965.) It was excellent stuff and I thoroughly recommend everyone to see this band. In case ‘Cool Cat’ Ian is reading this, we were blessed with the presence of the Family Sparnenn, and you missed Livvy in her thigh-high boots.

As my usual source of Roman Bath gigs appears to have dried up, I took along some post-its and a pencil and scribbled down some forthcoming dates for your diaries:

• Friday 18 January – Generator (a band from Sheffield)
• Friday 25 January – Cop Out (recommended by a lady before her husband dragged her away)
• Saturday 26 January – Freeway (don’t miss these guys, especially you ‘Cool Cat’)

New Boots and Panties – well, the first of my 2008 purchases actually. They were 2 for £10 in HMV so I couldn’t really go wrong, one was an album I’d been meaning to buy anyway, and the other I had heard of and wanted to give them a try.

First up was Massive Attack’s 2006 singles collection, Collected. Yes, I know it’s trip-hop, but even I have heard and liked half of these tracks. Good Buy.

• Safe from Harm (featuring Shara Nelson)
• Karmacoma (featuring Tricky)
• Angel (featuring Horace Andy)
• Teardrop (featuring Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins)
• Inertia Creeps
• Protection (featuring Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl)
• Butterfly Caught
• Unfinished Sympathy (featuring Shara Nelson)
• Risingson (Containing excerpts from The Velvet Underground song I Found a Reason)
• What Your Soul Sings (featuring Sinéad O'Connor)
• Five Man Army (featuring Horace Andy)
• Sly (featuring Nicolette)
• Live With Me (featuring Terry Callier)

My second purchase was A Beautiful Lie the second studio album from Thirty Seconds to Mars. TStM are an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, featuring actor Jared Leto as the lead vocalist and playing rhythm guitar, his brother Shannon Leto on Drums, and Tomo Miličević on lead guitar. What an excellent album, highly recommended to those of an alt/indie/grunge persuasion.