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.

Saturday night’s alright for... listening to music

Out again and on Saturday we visited Fibbers to watch Cohesion. There were two support acts and when we arrived the first act, Lights, were already on-stage. It actually turned out to be Ben Leftwich (he of The Nicoles) who is using the name as a basis for new set of fellow muscians that he hopes to bring onboard. There was a thin line of his followers at the front of the stage, then us, and behind us a crowd of the loudest chattering idots in creation. How rude not to at least lend your ears to the artist while he performs! Anyway, Ben came down and chatted to us after finishing his set. I particularly enjoyed his last song which he told me he had written just two days before. He hopes to be in the recording studio soon.

The next act were The Station Club formed from the ashes of Sixty6 and Kryah. Mike Wilson (ex-Sixty6) on vocals and lead guitar, twins Tom and James Martin (ex-Kryah) playing bass and keyboards respectively, and finally, Adam Swales on drums. Slight echoes of The Killers I thought. Their best track seemed to be Brand New Day (I think that’s what it was called.)

The final performance was from Cohesion, Paul James on vocals/lead guitar, Matt Goodbody on Bass, and Richie Clark on drums. A high-energy, foot-stamping fusion of indie, rock and blues. Excellent stuff.

Grump of the night? People talking loudly whilst Ben was performing, and no Landlord or Black Sheep to drink. I had to make do with Worthington!

Was the evening over yet? No it wasn’t. Off we stomped to the Roman Bath where, rumour had it, a six piece soft rock band was playing. Now I don’t know if Hazzard’s rock god Richard is stalking us, or the other way around, but there he was leaning on the bar again. Hello Richard! The band were Breathing Space and the female vocalist was not only absolutely superb (at singing) but also... faintly familiar. And, there was something Mostly Autumn going on as well. She did an absolutely belter of a song called “Belief” which was dedicated to her parents. It was a little later, when I saw her mum and dad that I realised that we had stumbled upon Olivia Ruth Sparneen (backing vocalist with MA) and, on keyboards, Iain Jennings (ex-MA). We often see Olivia and her parents at The Old White Swan watching Hazzard County and I well remember watching her in the Talent For Africa shows put on at Tadcaster Grammar School (I was there to watch my own daughters, honest guv.)What a small world. Anyway, I understand that Olivia is performing with Chris Johnson (he of Hazzards and Mostly Autumn) at the City Screen in York on Monday 28 May, the last gig of York Music Live weekend.

Hot gossip, well, it was to me. Heather Findlay, of Mostly Autumn, is currently engaged to Fish (Derek William Dick who left Marillion in 1899.)