You broke, my mouth, the bloody bits are spittin' out/Your grave, unscathed, the worm is countin' down the day

Friday 4 September - In an attempt to top up on our listening of original music, tonight sees 'A' and I at Fibbers where the headline act is doing a farewell gig, which is actually a bit Irish, if we like them, we'll never see them again! Anyway, first on the bill was A New Society, but it clearly wasn't them as it was one bloke and a guitar. We never worked out what his name was, but he was actually rather good. He sounded a bit like Damien Rice.

Just to confuse us a little more, the second and third supports bands had been switched, so the second act turned out to be The M62s. From the opening chord my clothes were vibrating. The drum (Mike C) was mixed way too loud and the vocals (Martin T) were lost in distortion. I'm sure at various points the drum missed the odd beat. On the positive side they sounded pretty good, a bit like Ash. The bass in particular, played by Chris W, was wicked, very good indeed. Martin also did some pretty nifty looking guitar soloing, but again, the sound was lost in the mix. Shame really. We've been to gigs at Fibbers before and, even with loud bands, we know it's possible to get a mix where the vocals and instrumentation are distinct, so there are no excuses. Mr Mixing desk, please take note.

The next act, Elan Vitale, didn't suffer so much in the mix, possibly because they weren't so loud. Fronted by Tommy (Joe 90 with side-burns), they are a York five-piece Indie/New Wave band with a distinctive and fresh sound. They had the energy of the Arctic Monkeys but had a darker edge. Tommy's vocals reminded me of Rick Witter in his Shed 7 days. Overall they were very tight, and definitely one to watch out for in the future.

And so, finally, to the headline act, and by this time it was getting very crowded. I had forgotten, but we'd seen Airheads before, strangely enough in September 2008, although that time it was at The Duchess. We only caught half their act on that occasion but I really liked them. This time they appeared to be a pale imitation of their former selves. Maybe it was because Elan Vitale were so good, maybe I was expecting more with the hype of a farewell gig. What was certain was that the enthusiasm of the crowd exceeded the talent on the stage. Sorry guys.

As the music had finished so early, Airheads didn't even bother with an encore, we made our way over to The Roman Bath where covers band Storm were in full flow. We entered to the strains of Green Day's Basketcase, closely followed by Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. They did a 10 minute medley of popular covers, followed by an unnecessary version of The Timewarp, before finishing with Prince's Purple Rain and Whitesnake's Here I go Again. A very pleasant way to round off the evening.

Oh God said to Abraham kill me a son/Abe said man you must be puttin me on

Friday 22 May - and we are at a different venue tonight, The Grand Opera House in York to see one of my all-time guitar heroes, Johnny Winter. The problem I have with the GOH is the fact that it's an all-seated venue so this is starting a bit strange and I realise that I'll probably be in for a 'numb-bum' by the send of the session. Still, we are in the Dress Circle so should get a good view. Support was from Ian Siegal a British blues singer/guitarist very much on the roots side of the genre. He has a voice like Tom Waits and writes lyrics with a strong sense of humour. Currently touring with Andy Graham (bass) and Nikolaj Bjerre (drums) I think everything he played/sang were his own compositions as I didn't recognise a single song. The lyrics were a bit indistinct, possibly due to the acoustics of the GOH, I've not sat in the Circle before, but I certainly enjoyed the Mortal Coil Shuffle off his 2007 album, Swagger.

During the interval The Druid and I caught up on recent music purchases while 'A' wandered around the building admiring the architecture. Then it was on to the headline act, John Dawson Winter III, the cross-eyed albino Texas blues legend. We kicked off with an instrumental by Johnny's band; Paul Nelson (guitar), Scott Spray (bass), and Tony Beard (drums) which was very well executed. Then Johnny himself came on stage and I have to say that my heart went out to him. He looked every day of his 65 years, barely able to shuffle onstage unaided. Apparently he suffered an injury to his hip back in October 2000 following a fall. The damage was severe enough that he had to undergo surgery to correct the problem, but he seems to be suffering the effects of that injury to this day. He performed the entire set whilst sitting on a chair and using a vintage dew drop-shaped 'headless' Steinberger guitar switching to a 1963 Gibson Firebird V for the encore. For me, the Firebird has a much nicer tone, the Steinberger sounded very shrill.

He has an exquisite voice but the lyrics were once more lost in the acoustics of the GOH. To be brutally honest he didn't really seem to hit his stride until about half-way through the set when he played Hendrix's Red House. After that things definitely improved with his own Mojo Boogie, Derringer's Rock 'n' Roll, Hoochie Koo, Ray Charles's Blackjack, Larry William's Bony Moronie, The Rolling Stones' It's All Over Now, and finally Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. As was pointed out to me later "so we've just heard an old bloke play a bunch of covers?" and I guess that's about the size of it, but it's the manner of his playing that makes it special, It's All Over Now was practically unrecognisable.

It almost seems like sacrilege but we left the GOH and immediately headed across town to the Roman Bath where Storm were playing and just kicking off the second half of their set. Storm are a 4-piece rock covers band from Huddersfield whom we've seen before. They played; Van Halen (Jump), The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Darkness (I Believe In A Thing Called Love), Prince (Purple Rain), Bryan Adams (Summer of '69), Wilson Pickett/The Commitments (Mustang Sally), Madness (Baggy Trousers), Whitesnake (Here I Go Again), Lenny Kravitz (Are you Gonna go my way), Green Day (Basket Case), and Alvin and the Chipmunks (Let's Do The Time Warp Again). The last being their nadir, a song where they insist on a female in the audience naming a rude body part for us to "put your hands on...". I really wish they would drop this from what is otherwise a pretty decent act.

This time it is not a game/Jason is the hangman's name

Friday 13 February - unlucky for some, not for us! For the paltry sum of four quid we were admitted into The Duchess to see three bands we'd never heard of before. Frankly I was amazed that there weren't more people about, probaly about fifty tops if you include the three bands, their mums and dads, Paul on the lights, and the bar staff! First on the bill were Dressed In Their Best (FaceSpace) A four piece from York they comprise; James, Danny, Shane, and Robbie on drums. I really liked these guys, they sounded like a raw version of Jimmy Eat World or The Ataris when they were young and playing in a mates garage. There was plenty of variety between the songs and the drumming was top class, it really had me tapping my feet.

Sadly, I can't say the same for the second band, I Call Shotgun (FaceSpace), is another four piece this time from Leeds/Preston/York comprising of students from the Leeds College of Music and Leeds University. ICS are; Joe De Luca (Lead Vocals & Frontman), Iain Bolton (Lead Guitar), Josh Weller (Synths), and Graham Robson (Beats). Their brand of '80s disco dance electro pop really wasn't my cup of cocoa at all and eventually we retired to the 'chill out' area were we sat like three old codgers (Tim's words, not mine) and debated the musical wilderness that was the '80s. The only song that raised a smile was when they sampled Supertamp's Breakfast in America, and that's as good as it got for me.

The evening was not done yet though. There had been some shuffling about with the line-up because of a recent upsurge of interest in our final band, the Brighton-based Telegraphs (FaceSpace). Five young folk this time; Darcy Harrison (Vocals / Guitar), Sam Bacon (Drums), Hattie Williams (Bass / Vocals), Darren LeWarne (Guitar), and Aung Yay (Guitar). Right from the first chord we could tell that this was band on the very brink of breakthrough with driving guitars, forceful drumming, and angst-ridden vocals. Hattie and Darcy are almost a double act, as he prowls at the back of the stage she strides up to the front adding her rich vocals and trashing away on her bass. She looks sassy, sexy, and confident. Like a well choreographed act Hattie slinks off to the side and Darcy takes center stage again. They sound like Biffy or Idlewild, Sam drums like Gorhl, but they're different, fresh and spiky. I know they've been kicking around since 2006 but for me they are the best 'new' band I've heard all year. Their set was short-lived, 'A' clocked them as 24 minutes, and there was no encore which was a bit of a disappointment.

As we'd finished early, we wandered through town to The Roman Bath to catch the second half of the set by Huddersfield rock covers band Storm. I've reviewed them before so I won't bore you with a set list (you can always type "storm" in the search box) but they did air some new material from the Kings of Leon and "Basket Case" by Green Day. Excellent stuff, they are always great fun and a great bunch of lads.

Saturday 14 February - Whilst in The Roman Bath on Friday, I noticed that the band for Saturday were Sundance a Hendrix tribute act, so two of us agreed to met up for some John Smith's and an earful of Jimi's music. Sundance are a four piece from Darlington whose members are; Simon Cassidy (Guitar), Lee Rippon (Vocals), Paul Bennett (Bass), and Martyn Bennett (Drums), and whilst they were in no way as technically accurate as say The Hamsters, they did convey the spirit of Jimi's songs and throughly enjoyed themselves along the way. We thought they were brilliant. I'm relying on their website, as opposed to my beer-fogged brain, to say that they played most of not all of; Highway Chile, Fire, Hey Joe, Manic Depression, Cross Town Traffic, Stone Free, Red House, All Along The Watchtower, Foxy Lady, Bold As Love, Angels, Changes, The Wind Cries Mary, Come On (Let The Good Times Roll), Castles Made Of Sand, 3rd Stone From the Sun, Hey Baby, Voodoo Chile, Purple Haze, Wild Thing, Spanish Castle Magic. Highly recommended.

I wanna run/I want to hide/I wanna tear down the walls/That hold me inside

Saturday 25 October - I've just had a very enjoyable, long weekend. I was visited by an extremely old friend (i.e. I've known him a very long time, not that he's incredibly ancient!) and his wife and three young daughters. They travelled all the way from Portsmouth to York to spend some time with me and my daughters, arriving around tea-time on Friday.

On Saturday we went to my grandson's sixth birthday party in Tadcaster where I had great fun joining in with the children's party games. In the evening my friend and I went out to the Roman Tin Tub to watch Storm, the Huddersfield 4-piece rock covers band. I've reviewed them before and they're very good. From memory we were treated to: Van Halen (Jump), The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Darkness (I Believe In A Thing Called Love), Prince (Purple Rain), The Who (Won't Get Fooled Again), Bryan Adams (Summer of '69), Thin Lizzy (The Boys Are Back In Town), The Undertones (Teenage Kicks), U2 (Where The Streets Have No Name), Wilson Pickett/The Commitments (Mustang Sally), Bon Jovi (Bed of Roses), Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen in Love), Alvin and the Chipmunks? (Let's Do The Time Warp Again), Madness (Baggy Trousers), as well as tracks by Coldplay, The Clash and The Beatles, and a bunch of medley's. There was some audience participation when three ladies were dragged into the band's area and asked to play tamborines and supply backing vocals for Mustang Sally. Sadly, the band suffered a 'Black Lace' moment in performing Let's Do The Time Warp Again, when trying to encourage the audience to come up with rude words. Everyone was curiously shy about swearing into a microphone. Still, the band recovered their credibility enough to receive shouts of 'encore' at the end, and we all went home happy.

On Sunday we trod the tourist trail in York taking in the city walls and the Jorvik Viking Centre. We also indulged in an activity known as geocaching which basically involved using a GPS tracker combined with small clues to locate caches of small items that other geocachers (or whatever the collective noun is) had hidden, usually in places of interest. These items then get moved to other caches in different locations. It's a bit like a treasure hunt. If you want to know more take a look at www.geocaching.com. It's not as nerdy as it sounds and a couple of us have now been sucked in. We did some more geocaching on Monday combined with a little bit of shopping in the city, rounding off the day with a roast dinner plus trimmings. A fantasic time was had by all and it was a bit sad when they departed for home on Tuesday.

Why does it feel like night today?/Something in here’s not right today

Storm with someone's missus lending a hand on vocals

Friday 14 March – Here we are, stuck on the horns of a dilemma. Both the Bath and Terrace have covers bands playing, and the write up for both is good. We toss a coin. The Roman Bath it is, to see Storm. Sorry Fifty-50, catch you next time.

Storm are an 4-piece from Huddersfield. Ian plays keyboards (Korg N364) and took over fronting the band in 2001. Aden is the guitarist/secondary vocalist; he joined the band in 2003. Nelly joined recently and bangs the drums. Rick has played bass since 2007.

The boys played a great set including, but not only: AC/DC (Whole Lotta Rosie), Van Halen (Jump), The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Darkness (I believe in a thing called love), Prince (Purple Rain), The Who (Won’t Get Fooled Again), Bryan Adams (Summer of ’69), Thin Lizzy (The Boys Are Back In Town),The Undertones (Teenage Kicks), U2 (Where The Streets Have No Name), Wilson Pickett/The Commitments (Mustang Sally), Chuck Berry (Johnny B Goode), Bon Jovi (Bed of Roses) Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen in Love). Plus a whole host of other tunes done as medley’s.

Its easy to forget what a great night out can be had at the Bath: good music, efficient bar-staff, excellent beer, and no entrance charge.

Saturday 15 March – Do you like Johnny Cash? I think most people have heard at least a few of his songs, and I’m pretty sure that hardly anyone could object to a hour and a half listening to his music. Hence we end up in Fibbers to see Hull band Keep It Cash who delivered a brilliant collection of songs from the Man In Black: Jackson, Boy Named Sue, One Piece At A Time, Orange Blossom Special, San Quentin, I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues, This Thing Called Love, Never Picked Cotton, The Tennessee Mare and, of course, Man In Black. Well, that’s the ones I recognised/remembered. The band consist of Dave Burnham on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ted Kay on lead guitar, Andy who plays upright and electric bass, and Steve on drums.