You began a search I know many have tried/Not a blind man among you for years let fate decide

Friday 30 May – not wishing to become cover band junkies, we toddled along to Fibbers to apply our ears to Sons and Daughters, a Scottish band femme-fronted by Adele Bethel, she of Arab Strap. The four piece also includes David Gow (Drums, Percussion, also played in Arab Strap), Ailidh Lennon (Bass, mandolin, piano, married to Roddy Woomble of Idlewild), and Scott Paterson (Vocals, guitar). Support came (I think) from York band the Young Believers (If it was them, we’ve seen them before at the Junction). I only managed to catch the last couple of songs and they were a bit to folky for me. Anyway, on with the Sons and Daughters. I liked the first 2 or 3 tunes, but then they started to sound a bit samey, not bad, but just not enough variety. About half way through the set they pulled a rabbit out of the hat, something completely different and totally psychedelic, absolutely blinding.Sadly, I’ve no idea what it was called. Then there was a spate of fairly interesting tracks before we slipped back into the mediocre stuff. Finally they ended with Johnny Cash their 2004 single from the Love The Cup album, which was, of course, really good.

As the evening was still young, and it was a Race Day in York we knew there would be plenty of drunk blokes in suits and ladies in unfeasible footwear to laugh at, so we popped across the road to The Terrace, except that it seemed very quiet from the outside and everyone was sitting down inside. We detoured to The Roman Bath to catch the second half performance of The Mojos. These are a splendid covers band and really had the audience singing along and dancing. There was a bit of funk, the odd AWB tune for the ladies, but they finished on Status Quo which can’t be bad.

As I glance at my list of forth coming gigs this month, I’m mightyly please to see that Tim Hornsby’s new venture, The Duchess York, is due to open on Tuesday 17 June, hurrah! Actually, it really is hurrah, follow the link and check out the acts Tim has lined up. Fibbers are going to have to pull their fingers out to compete.

On Friday a bunch of us are off to see Four Day Hombre at Fibbers, but hey, they’ve just changed their name and are now Hope&Social (the band formerly known as 4DH)