Well my name's John Lee Pettimore/Same as my daddy and his daddy before

Friday 29 August – Well we considered dropping into The Duchess to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band but the gig had sold out already so we settled for an evening of covers at The Roman Bath. According to my sources, The Mojos were playing tonight, however, I checked The Mojo's website and that had them playing on Saturday, so it was anyone's guess who might be playing. It turned out to be Travelin Band, a group we’ve seen before albeit only half their set previously.

The band apparently started life in 2004 as The Outlaws but there has been a few comings and goings and the current line-up is now billed as; Tony (Oscar) Smith - Vocal and Rhythm guitar, Steve (Crazy Horse) McLeod - Lead guitar and Backing vocal, John (The Russian) Mitchell - Bass guitar, and Paul (Big foot - Almost ) Drums. I have to say that the drummer looked different from when we saw them last, so this information may not be entirely accurate.

I think a couple of them play in, or have played in, a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. Steve has the band’s name etched into the frets of his guitar so you can guess where their main influences come from! Tony is also a big fan of John Fogerty, he of Creedance Clearwater Revival and various solo efforts.

The range of covers they performed was similar to other covers bands we’ve seen but they also pulled out a few tracks that I only vaguely recognised, and some that left me baffled. I'm usually quite good at playing 'spot the tune'. The drumming did seem to be mixed a little too loud, and the lead guitar not loud enough, but hey, they’re playing in a pub, not the Albert Hall. I also found the vocals a bit flat on some of the songs. But I’m not really complaining, just trying to tell it like it was.

I can’t remember all of the covers they played (I had three lip-smacking points of John Smith’s and my brain cells were dying like lemmings) but here is a selection of the ones I did remember, in no particular order:

Bad moon rising, Travelin' Band, Up Around The Bend, Rocking All Over The World (John Fogerty), Rocking in the free world (Neil Young), Gimme three steps, Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Johnny B Goode, Roll over Beethoven (Chuck Berry), Old time rock and roll (Bob Seger), Copperhead Road (Steve Earle), Crossroads (Eric Clapton), Battleship chains (The Georgia Satellites).