So pack your shoes and bring you bags to my house

Thursday 28 February – and highlight of the month is taking place tonight at Fibbers, it’s Four Day Hombre. The first support act is Lights aka Ben Leftwich, that’s him in the spotlight, losing his religion. Well, actually he’s on acoustic guitar and, although his material is good, it suffers somewhat my not being presented in a more robust format. Even with a friend playing on acoustic bass for about three quarters of the gig, it still needs a bit more oomph. Which is a shame, I like Ben.

Second support comes from New Adventures who, frankly, I’ve never heard of before. But by crikey they’re good. Songs like, How I Got My Devil, It’s In Our Hands, A Million to One, Something Amazing. The band are; Jez (Vocals), Steve (Guitar), Raph (Bass), Helen (Keys), and Nick (Drums).

Then, it’s the band we’ve all been waiting for, and as 4DH take to the stage, we surge towards the front and I mentally cross my fingers hoping that the gig won’t be spoilt be people chatting over the music. Tonight 4DH are showcasing a lot of new material from their forthcoming album. One track sounded a bit like Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill and the band segued into Solsbury Hill rather tongue in cheek, not really being able to remember the words. The crowd loved it. We also get some old favourites; Mr M, Don’t Go Gently, 13th of the Month, The First Word is the Hardest, complete with homage to Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill. I forget just how good this band are. Can’t wait for the new album.

Friday 29 February – a day that summed up the Yin and Yang of the universe perfectly. My car was in for its three year service, plus an ABS system recall (free of course), plus a new passenger side wing mirror as broken by vandals one night on a spree that left five or six cars down my street damaged. Grrr! So that little lot cost me four hundred notes. I kid you not. On the positive side I managed to negotiate a new 08 plate car, delivery in five weeks and, most importantly, within my budget. Result!

On the other hand, Dad has been pretty bad this last week and middle daughter has scratched her eyeball, ouch. Back to this hand, and the cold that I thought I was developing mid-week has vapourised. Well done to my body’s defences.

“Just where is all this leading?” I hear you mutter. Well, tonight we were looking forward to listening to Coast at the Roman Bath. Classic rock covers played on an awesome collection of guitar hardware. Unfortunately, when we got there they had been replaced by an Americana-country outfit called Atlanta. Sorry guys but country really doesn’t float my boat. Technically, they played their instruments well, and for someone into that genre of music they were probably very entertaining, but it left me cold. So, in a fit of pique, we downed our excellent pints of John Smiths and braved the winds of Thor and the lashing rain to try out The Terrace, who have just started putting on live bands on Friday nights.

The Bath is normally filled with tattooed ladies and you wouldn’t want to spill anyone’s drink. The Terrace has a different clientele; the totty is younger and more pleasing to the eye, the chaps have spiky hair that looks as if it’s been dipped in chip fat. We struggled to the bar and were pleasantly surprised at the range of beers on offer, in particular, John Smiths and Black Sheep. The band were The Supermodels a six piece rock covers band from York. The band consist of Mick Sollitt (Bass and Vocals) played in Baseline, DV and the Clients, Jackson Cage. Currently also playing with party band Huge. Kev Harton (Acoustic and electric guitar) also played in Baseline and DV and the Clients. Dave Sykes (Guitar and Vocals) played with Overload, Jackson Cage, currently playing with party band Plan B, Jon Stewart (Vocals and harmonica) also sings with The Mothers. Dave Longhawn (Keyboards) has a strong dislike of punctuality! Tom Sollitt (Drums) hates to be on time for anything, unless its a trip to McDonalds! They did an excellent job of covering the likes of; Queen (Don’t Stop Me Now), The Who (Won’t Get Caught Again), Stereophonics (Dakota), Coldplay (Fix You), Dodgy (In a Room), Genesis (Turn It On), Van Halen (Jump), Lynard Skynard (Sweet Home Alabama), ELO (Mr Blue Sky), and U2 (Beautiful Day). That’s the ones I can remember. I did have three pints.