And the world looks just the same/And history ain't changed

Monday 13 April - a last minute decision on who was out and when resulted in our usual crowd being split between two venues. The Druid ended up at The Duchess, you can read about his exploits here. The rest ended up in The Roman Bath to watch Dufflegoat (and on FaceSpace).

Formed in 1994, Dufflegoat are a three piece rock covers band hailing from York, consisting of Roger Newton (guitar, backing vocals), Tony Gilpin (bass, lead vocals), and Paul Marshall (drums). We started the evening standing directly in front of the band, but the volume drove us off to one side where, due to the fact that it was not crowded, we still had a great view. This was the first time that we had caught the 'Goat for a full set, in the past we have only managed the tail end. Paul, on drums, is extremely good although I didn't think it was really warm enough for him to divest himself of his shirt. Roger has a penchant for adding his own twiddles to guitar solos. This actually works quite well, although it's a little disconcerting when the solo in your head doesn't match the one Roger is playing. Tony does excellent bass work but the vocals are a tad weak, or maybe the drum was too loud. Anyway, they played blistering set of classic rock covers and even managed to slip in a few of their own songs.

From my rather hazy memory they played: White Room (Cream), Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, Fire (Hendrix), Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who), Black Night (Deep Purple), Twentieth Century Boy (T Rex), Maybe Someday (Dufflegoat), and The Song Remains The Same, Good Times Bad Times, Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin). Plus a host of others that I've forgotten. Highly recommended.

I watched them going 'round and 'round / My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers

Saturday 4 April - ding ding, seconds away, round two. We are really breaking the mould here by paying real English pounds to watch a tribute act. The Duchess are not keen on putting on tributes, unless they are really, really good, so we were putting our trust in Tim and Michelle to provide quality entertainment tonight.

Support was ably provided by the lovely Angela Gordon, the dark half of Odin Dragonfly. Accompanying herself on keyboards, glass of red wine, and an alarm clock(!?!) she reeled off a triptych of tunes from Offerings, some stuff I'd not heard before, a song which I think was called Pirates, about two lady buccaneers on the high seas - I suspect this is a semi-biographical allegory about her and Heather (Findlay), and finishing with a cover of a Duke Special, aka Peter Wilson, song (sorry I can't remember which one). Angela has a fantastic voice and it was a true delight to see her performing again.

There wasn't much of a wait before the main act of the evening, The Hounds of Love Band, who are, not surprisingly, a Kate Bush tribute band, took to the stage. I'm not sure where most of the band come from (Sam Leggett - Drums, Richard Luck - Keyboards, Glen Smith - Guitar, Martin Luklinski - Guitar, and Simon Horn - Bass), but vocalist Josie Mills is a local lass from York so this was a bit of a home-coming for her. There are a couple of elements that were going to make or break this performance; getting the music right, and getting the vocals right. KBs music is idiosyncratic and very well known, so no mistakes would be brooked here. And if Josie failed to match the soaring and distinctive vocals things could get bleak. Happily they scored on both points. The musicians were spot on and recreated the tunes perfectly whilst also embedding solo spots that enabled them to showcase their talents to the fullest extent. Josie, who reminded me of Kylie Minogue in her looks, matched Kate's vocals and also appeared to have a huge amount of fun during her performance.

The set was a Kate Bush 'greatest hits' sampling tracks from nearly all her eight studio albums and spanning the 30 years (so far) of her career. They started with: Wow, Cloudbusting, Them Heavy People, Babooshka, The Big Sky, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, and Army Dreamers. The band then exited stage rear leaving Richard on keyboards and Josie to sing Mrs Bartolozzi, from disc 1 of Aerial, how many songs do you know about washing machines! The rest of the band returned for: Running Up That Hill, And So Is Love, Hounds Of love, James And The Cold Gun, The Red Shoes, Moving, and Rubberband Girl. The band took a bow and left, but we all knew they would be back, there was no way they could have got away without playing Kate's biggest hit. And so to the encore, the delicate And Dream Of Sheep followed by the classic, Wuthering Heights. An utterly superb performance and highly recommended to everyone.

As per usual, after the gig we ended up at The Roman Bath for the closing few numbers from heavier-than-yer-average-covers-band, Stealer.

Friday 3 April - and the start of a heavily musical weekend. We kicked off at The Duchess tonight for Hijak Oscar's second album launch. I arrived a little later than I'd planned and was greeted by a staggeringly fine sounding noise and a pint of Theakston's XB, courtesy of The Druid. The fine sounding noise was being generated by York four-piece Undergrass who are: Rob Lumby (guitar), Phil Goodrick (vocals), Dave Chitty (drums), and Danny Lee (bass). As far as I could make out, they played their own material with excellent drum and bass playing, superb guitar work from Rob - including a southern-fried stint on a lap guitar with a slide, and gruff yet still reasonably clear vocals. Phil has a voice somewhere between Chester Bennington and Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro) and boy can he hold a note, fantastic. The songs were well constructed and original sounding and there was ample opportunity for the individuals to show off their musical talents. We were very impressed and afterwards looked around to see if there was an album available, but it appears not at the moment. I will have to keep an eye open for these guys and in the meantime I heartily recommend you to listen to them.

The evening was off to a great start and next on the menu was a band fast becoming a favourite of ours, 98Pages. We caught them a few weeks ago at the launch of their debut album, Broken Homes and the Halfway House. In fact they started off with Halfway House and continued with a good selection of tracks off the album. The album is brilliant, but live they really rock. Another recommended treat for your ears.

Could the evening get any better? Sadly not. We've seen Hijak Oscar on previous occasions going back to 2007. 'A' has never liked their unique brand of vudu-blues, but I've always had a sneaking admiration for them, good songs and tight playing, possibly enhanced by their appearance on Channel 4's MobileAct Unsigned towards the end of 2007 where, in the end, they just walked out of the show. Tonight marked the launch of their second album BlackSheepMoneyBox, but it was a different band. The songs were just a mish-mash, the playing was chaotic, and the vocals were indistinct. Mr Fox insisted on quoting lines from a book of prayers, which no one could hear, and no one was bothered about anyway. There was something about the female singer Gaby Milner that I couldn't quite put my finger on, she just didn't sound right. I found out why later, the singer I remembered was the excellent Emma Keaveney-Roys who apparently left the band sometime in the first half of 2008. So have the wheels actually come off, or was this just a one-off shambles caused by them trying too hard? I don't know. There were copies of their new album on sale but on the strength of this performance I wasn't in the least tempted to part with any cash. A bit disappointing really.

'A' and I rounded off the evening by catching the last half hour of Prime Example at the Roman Bath. It was a pleasant enough way to sup John Smith's but I managed to lose my MP3 player at some stage, which was a bit sad. I have a habit of doing this so I suspect I won't be replacing it unless I can get one chained to my body parts, or maybe a subcutaneous implant... mmm.

It's not in the way that you hold me, it's not in the way you say you care

Friday 27 February - and we start by going slightly off piste with an early (20:00) visit to The Slag and Luggage in Swinegate to meet up with some reprobates that we knew in a previous existence. For the sake of a cheap laugh let's call it a Norwich Reunion. It was great to play catch-up with folk that we've not seen for about five years, and astonishing really that all those that went through the Great Cull are doing well for themselves and seem happy in their new jobs.

Sadly, I'm not the type of person that can while away endless hours in a bar, so about 21:30 we nipped off to The Roman Bath where The Mojos were playing. For those that regularly read my blogs, somebody does, you'll know that we rather like The Mojos and their brand of cover tunes. I didn't grab a set-list because they don't stick to it so it would be a waste of time me reproducing it for you. Suffice to say we had: I Want To Break Free (Queen), Summer Of '69 (Bryan Adams), Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits), Hold The Line (Toto), I Believe In A Thing Called Love (The Darkness), Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses), Jump (Van Halen), Livin' On A Prayer (Bon Jovi), 500 Miles (The Proclaimers), Vertigo (U2), plus a whole lot more than my brain could remember.

Musically replete we contacted our erstwhile Reunionists only to find that they hadn't actually moved on from the The Slag and Luggage. We dragged them out and the party continued further down the road in Kennedy's where we stayed until a little after two in the morning. A great night was had by all, and my head lived to regret it in the morning!

Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses.

Saturday 21 March- The RBS Six Nations finished on a high with wins from England and a cracking, albeit sometimes brutal, game between Ireland and Wales. Top stuff. In the evening it was off to The Duchess for the second album launch from The Yards and an acoustic set from Hope&Social.

Things started quite slowly which provided an opportunity to enjoy a foaming pint of Theakston's XB before four hombres from Hope&Social took to the stage resplendent in their 'blue coats'. This wasn't exactly acoustic because they were all wired up, but certainly Simon Wainwright and Rich Huxley were playing battered acoustic guitars, whilst Jason Miller and Ed Waring sat further back, Jason with his bass guitar and Ed with keyboards balanced on his lap. Percussion was provided by vigorous foot-stamping. With the set weighing in at just five tunes, I felt a little short-changed, but they did explain that they had just travelled 100 miles up the M1, lost Rich's luggage out the back door of the truck, had a blow-out on the motorway (2 recovery vehicles required!), and Simon was losing his voice, so they weren't having their best day. As is usual at an H&S gig they were dogged by undercurrent of persistent talking from the audience. For god's sake, if you've paid money to listen to a band, just have the common courtesy to shut up while they're playing!

We retired to that bar to re-charge our glasses (well plastic cups) and were deep in conversation when we noticed that the crowd had started to swell at an alarming rate. The Yards were about to take to the stage. We managed to feed in from the side of the ruck (just as well the ref was unsighted) and although the three of us got split up, we were no more than three for four people from the front, so that wasn't too bad.

For those who aren't aware, and shame on you, The Yards are a five-piece from York comprising: Chris Helme (Vocals and guitars) ex-Seahorses, Stuart 'Stu' Fletcher (Bass guitar) ex-Seahorses and currently also Rick Witter & The Dukes John Miller (Drums), Jon Hargreaves (Keyboards) and Chris Farrell (Guitar).

The band were joined on stage by two vocalists (one was Hayley Hutchinson I think) and a string section at the back. I thought it was three violins and a cello, but one of the violins might have been a viola which is similar in size, though pitched a perfect fifth below the violin and gives a rich, dark-toned sonority that is more full-bodied than the violin's. Chris did introduce the string section, all girls, but I missed their names. About half way through the set he decided that they should be called The Yardbirds, which caused amusement among the younger listeners and good-natured groans from us older ones.

The reason for the extra bodies on stage was presumable in order to more closely reflect the production sound of the material from their new album Imperial Measure, for which this was the launch night. I'm very pleased to be able to report that this was certainly a full-bodied and really tight performance, something that Chris has failed to achieve in the past. They played most of the tracks from the new album with a sprinkling of stuff from their old one. The set consisted of: Cars, Last High, Turn & Run, Centre Of Gravity, California, Pure, Minus A Million, Small Fires, Broken, Let It Go, Cold Shoulder, The Devil Is Alive And Well in DC, and See The Lights.

I bought an album during the evening, and I'm really looking forward to listening to. On the strength of tonight's performance The Yards Are Alive And Well In York. The songs on this album are an order of magnitude better than their first efforts, so hats off to The Yards.

Friday 20 March- the weekend started with a trip out to our favourite watering hole, The Roman Bath, where covers band Full Tilt were blasting punters ears off. Full Tilt are a four-piece from Bradford comprising: Derek Moulson (Lead vocals & guitar), Jim Croisdale (Lead guitar), Andy Bucaltizn (Bass guitar), and Darren O'Grady (Drums).

Compared to a lot of covers bands we've seen recently, these are much heavier than then normal and, for me, that's a good thing. I tried to blag a set-list but Derek assured me that they didn't have one so I've had to rely on my dodgy memory to supply you with a list of some of the songs they played: Thin Lizzy (Rosalie), AC/DC (Whole Lotta Rosie, Highway To Hell), Bad Co. (Can't get Enough of Your Love), Deep Purple (Black Night), Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit), Puddle of Mudd (She Hates Me), Kinks (Really Got Me Going), Guns ‘n' Roses (Knocking' on Heavens Door), Whitesnake (Fool For Your Loving), Cameo (Word Up), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way), The Police (Message In A Bottle), Ozzy Osbourne (Crazy Train), Metallica (Enter The Sandman), Blur (Song 2), Judas Priest (Breaking The Law). For an encore they did Rage Against The Machine's Killing in the Name, which resulted in a lot of headbanging and audience sing-along. Not for the easily offended!

We've seen Full Tilt twice before this and on each occasion been very impressed both with their technical playing and choice of material. They didn't disappoint tonight and I heartily recommend them.

Get your whiskey, Ahh get your wine

Saturday 14 March- Part 2 of our musical weekend, and four of us are back in The Roman Bath to watch the Chantel McGregor Band. It has to be said that, since first watching Chantel, we've never failed to catch her at The Bath. She is an awesome guitar virtuoso. Name your personal guitar god and Chantel is at least as good, probably better. I kid you not.

I freely admit that I struggle to recognise a lot of the stuff she plays, and I suspect that most of her audience are little better than me. That said, she captivates the crowd with her sheer, mind-blowing brilliance. You just have to stand there, slack-jawed, and watch her. She kindly provided me with her set list, but she missed out some from the list, played other stuff, and not necessarily in the order written. Who cares. It was superb. Anyway, here's the list: Bridge to Better Days (Joe Bonamassa), Lie No. 1 (Joe Bonamassa), Stormy Monday (T Bone Walker), Up in The Sky (Joe Satriana), Daydream (Robin Trower), Miss You Hate You (Joe Bonamassa), Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac), All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan), Angel From Montgomery (Bonnie Raitt), I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt), One Of These Days (Ten Years After), Purple Haze (Hendrix), Red House (Hendrix), Voodoo Chile (Hendrix), New Day Yesterday (Jethro Tull), Mountain Time (Joe Bonnamassa), and Had To Cry Today (Blind Faith). But there was definitely two Steve Vai numbers, one of which was For The Love Of God.

Friday 13 March- the start of a musically packed weekend. We kicked off at The Duchess for the album launch of 98Pages. We've seen this band a couple of times before and were looking forward to seeing them again, but first we had to get through the support acts. I arrived as the first band started the evening. They looked strangely familiar. I swear the running order said Ashtray, but apparently my eyes must have been watering with the delight of my first sip of beer, as it actually said Astray. Even that was wrong because they turned out to be Astrae (on MyFace and FaceFriend), another band that we had seen before. The last time we saw them it was a bit chaotic, Jack with his arm in plaster, James with guitar cable problems, and the whole band with a dischordant air about themselves. Astrae are a York-based alt-rock band consisting of James A Hutchinson (Guitar / Vocals), Jack Beavers (Guitar / Synth / Vocals), Ali Thyne (Drums / Percussion), Rio (Keyboard / Synth), T-Bone Malogus (Bass and pineapple knot hair do), and Jo Wherry (Violin). I think the first song was called Vanity Fair, but I wouldn't swear to it. I liked it. In fact I rather like all their songs. These are not 3 minute blasts of noise, but rather well-crafted, lengthier pieces with, dare I say it, different 'movements' to each composition. James' vocals put me in mind of Robert Smith of The Cure. Jo's violin provided a solid background sound for the twin guitars to paint over the top of. She looks so elegant to boot. All the instruments seemed to be in tune tonight, except for the keyboards, which seemed to be playing different tunes from everyone else. It was a far from perfect performance, and I'm sure the band would agree with me on that, but they have a spark, an originality that somehow raises them up above the usual dross and I will keep looking out for them, to watch them as they develop, because there is definitely something special there.

Which is more than can be said for Bolton's To The Bones, which consists of Rhys G Bradley (Vocals / Guitar), Matt Evans (Guitar / Vocals), Toomy T (Drums), and Wayne Riley (Bass). In fairness the volume seemed to be mixed very loud for tonight's performances which didn't help their sound that was hardcore from the very start. One of our group was forced to resort to ear defenders. Apparently they have an album, Duke Type A, which was released back in September. I shan't be buying it. Each song sounded the same, was dull and loud. The vocals were muddy and indistinct. Sorry guys.

Finally, 98Pages took to the stage and we all pressed forward to within touching distance of the barriers. Not that the band were bothered as both Martyn and Jase jumped down between the stage and the barriers to prowl up and down before their fans. 98Pages are a York-based power blues trio consisting of; Martyn Fillingham (Vocals/Guitar), Jase Brooks (Bass), and Andy Black (Drums). As this was our third time of listening, some of the tracks were becoming familiar to us now; Goodbye JoJo, Same Old Pain, Only Let You Down, Careful, and Halfway House. Martyn bust a string on their opening number which led him to chuck his guitar away with distain as he plucked up a semi-acoustic and carried on with that for the rest of the performance. It was all good stuff and at the end a couple of us purchased a copy of the album, Broken homes and the halfway house, which was on sale for the bargain price of a fiver.

After the gig we wandered over to The Roman Bath where party band CopOwt were playing. CopOwt are a five-piece covers band from Copmanthorpe, just outside York, and consist of: Rob (vocals), Alan (guitar and vocals), Paul (guitar), Paul (drums), and Seon (bass and vocals). As covers bands go they've not technically that good, but where they score points is in selecting covers that get the whole crowd singing along with them. So no one actually cares if if they can play well or not, 'cos everyone enjoys a good old sing-along. What did they play? While we were there they got through: When the sun goes down (Arctic Monkeys), Should I stay or should I go (Clash), Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols), Sex on fire (Kings of Leon), Dakota (Stereophonics), Cigarettes and Alcohol (Oasis), Local Boy in a Photograph (Stereophonics), I Predict a Riot (Kaiser Chiefs), and Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol).

Looking out my narrow window/I'll tell you what I see

Friday 6 March - tonight we're split; do we go to The Roman Bath and watch the Travellin' Barras, who we think we've seen before, or do we see a new (to us) band, The Mothers, at O'Neills? In the end we decided to sit on the fence and start in O'Neills then nip to The Bath at half-time.

Now O'Neills is an OK sort of venue. I'm not a fan of the 'black stuff' but Caffery's is passable as a drink. The stage area is at the back and I'm always amazed at how crowded it can get. There is nowhere to stand where you won't get continually buffeted, unless you are stood behind a huge pillar, and then you can't see the band!

I can't find The Mothers on t'interweb or FaceSpace, but basically they are a four piece covers band from York performing soul (Wilson Pickett et al), Northern soul and some slightly rockier stuff. They were very good and I would definitely like to see a full set.

As planned, we elbowed our way out at half-time and trotted across to The Bath where the Travellin' Barras were just starting the second half of their set. These were not a band we've seen before, and given that there was only two of them, they probably don't qualify as a band at all. The TBs consist of Chris Watkins (slide guitar) and Dave Ward (semi-acoustic and vocals) and bill their act as covers of Rock, Country, Disco, Reggae, and R&B classics.

OK, they covered stuff like Money For Nothing (Dire Straits), Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett), and Smooth (Santana), and if you closed your eyes, they sounded pretty good. There were two problems for me; one was the use of a drum machine, but much worse was that David was wearing shorts (probably for the AC/DC numbers). All a bit disturbing to be honest. Needless to say, we hadn't seen these before and probably won't be putting ourselves out to see them again. Sorry chaps.

Don't you forget about me/I'll be alone, dancing you know it baby

Saturday 28 February - we were not out on Friday, but instead met up on Saturday evening having watched the fairly miserable performance that was the Ireland v England game in the Six Nations. Was Ronan O'Gara playing for us? Well, he did manage to miss three penalty attempts and a conversion, but he was balanced in the end by the efforts of skipper Brian O'Driscoll. Although England finally smelt the coffee about 5 minutes before the end, it was too little too late. A very disappointing match. So a little later I affixed the headphones of my p-pod to my ears and set off for The Roman Bath for an evening with The Mojos.

When I arrived, a little after 21:00, there were a few bouncers outside squaring up to bald-headed meathead who was the worse for drink and seemed to have taken exception to everyone within viewing distance. I slipped around the back, away from any aggro, and into the tightly-packed bar where The Mojos were just polishing off Genesis' Turn It On Again. What a fine song. I'm guessing that the meathead was eventually moved along because when 'A' turned up 5 minutes later he was oblivious to any trouble outside.

The John Smiths was excellent, and the band were better than I've ever heard them play before. Really tight. I've previously blogged lists of the covers they perform so I won't bore you with the details. There was a bit of funk, we're not big fans of funk generally, but it does seem to get the ladies moving which is no bad thing. Their Sweet Child O' Mine, Living On A Prayer, Layla, and Sultans Of Swing were brilliant. I really do recommend that you see this band if you get a chance.