Play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your soul.

Friday 10 September - Good music in York seems to have been a bit thin on the ground over the last couple of weeks but tonight we are in the Royal Oak in Goodramgate to see Adam Dawson perform. Adam joined Breathing Space as their new guitarist in July of this year. Tonight he was doing a solo gig, singing and playing acoustic six- and twelve-stringed guitars, mostly covers.

This was the first time we'd seen Adam although The Druid had caught him in July. Adam is an affable chap with a great sense of humour. He was quite happy doing covers on request if he was familiar enough with the lyrics or if he could get the audience to join in with him, which we did. Everyone loves a sing-a-long.

From memory, Adam treated us to; The Cave, Little Lion Man (Mumford & Sons), Mr Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan), Hotel California (The Eagles), Space Oddity (David Bowie), Rule The World (Coldplay), Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Poker Face (Lady Gaga), Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd), Shine (Take That), When You Say Nothing At All (Ronan Keating), Tribute (Tenacious D), Streets Of London (Ralph McTell), Wild Rover (Trad.), Dream Catch Me (Newton Faulkner), Wonderful Tonight, Tears In Heaven (Eric Clapton), Dedicated Follower of Fashion (The Kinks), Use Somebody (Kings of Leon), I think it was Take A Chance (Magic Numbers) and two renditions of Lazy Susan (Adam Dawson) one of which was demanded as an encore.

Adam has a fantastic voice and a great guitar style. I haven’t caught the new incarnation of Breathing Space yet but look forward to doing so. I’ll also be looking out for more solo gig from the boy Dawson, highly recommended.

Do all that I can to heal you inside / I'll be the angel on your shoulder

It's been a while since we've been out in York on a Friday evening, partly because Fibbers is closed for refurbishment and partly because The Duchess doesn't seem to have much going on. All of which reduces us to watching covers bands at either The Roman Bath or The Terrace. That's not to say that other venues such as The Basement or Stereo have been lacking, but none of their acts has actually caught our eye, or ear.

This week however, we were pleased to see that Rubber Bullets were playing at The Terrace. Now we first encountered these guys back in April this year at the same place and were very impressed at the quality of their singing/playing and the material they cover, quite unlike most of the cover bands we watch.

Rubbers Bullets are 5-piece from York comprising Eddy Andersen on vocals, Dan and Phil Hardcastle on guitars, Andy Miller on bass, and Mark Lee on drums.

Tonight they gave us (not in this order); Rock 'n' Roll Star, Supersonic, Cigarettes and Alcohol (Oasis), Shoot The Runner, Underdog , Reason Is Treason, (Kasabian), Jailbird, Get Your Rocks Off (Primal Scream), Geraldine (Glasvegas), North Country Boy (The Charlatans), She Left Me On Friday (Shed Seven), Sun Goes Down, Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Fake Tales of San Francisco (Arctic Monkeys), The Bucket, Molly's Chambers (Kings of Leon), The Riverboat Song (Ocean Colour Scene), Sally Cinnamon, She Bangs The Drums (Stone Roses), Song 2 (Blur), Common People (Pulp), Love Is The Law (The Seahorses), and Golden Touch (Razorlight). Every song was performed extremely well and made for a fantastic night's entertainment. Highly recommended so check them out.

You're all I have in this teenage twilight, Your golden hair and pale blue eyes

Sunday 4 July - I know! Sunday! It's mad isn't it! But it's for a good reason, Ash are playing in the Duchess. Now the last time I heard these live was way back at one of the Leeds festivals, when we couldn't actually get inside the tent to see them and had to sit on the grass outside and listen. They were so loud that it really didn't make much difference, and frankly, tonight was almost the same, very loud, and very hot indeed.

We got all the greatest hits; Lose Control, Goldfinger, Girl From Mars, Kung Fu, Oh Yeah, Let It Flow, Angel Interceptor , Lost In You etc. A couple of their new singles, which I didn't recognise, but enjoyed anyway. And a few, more extended, dance-like tracks; one I didn't catch the name of, the other was Twilight Of The Innocents, extremely good, and I don't like dance music. Without doubt this was the gig of the year for me and my ears were still ringing two days afterwards. Fantastic.

Friday 2 July - and a strong turnout at the Roman Bath, not least to exchange tickets for various events. I forgot and left mine at home so I'll have to post them off to The Druid, drat. Anyway up, tonight we are blessed by the presence of a superb covers band The Mojos. Regular readers (ha ha) will be aware that we've seen these on a number of previous occasions, 'cos basically they're very, very good and we know that we will have a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I'm relying on my miserable memory here but I distinctly remember them playing; Free (All Right Now), Jamiroquai (Cosmic Girl), Bad Company (Can't Get Enough Of Your Love), Nina Simone (Feeling Good, in the style of Muse) , Toto (Hold the Line), Whitesnake (Here I go Again), AC/DC (Highway To Hell), Kaiser Chiefs (I Predict A Riot), Robbie Williams (Let Me Entertain You), Chic (Le Freak), Dire Straits(Money For Nothing, Sultans Of Swing), The Killers (Mr Brightside), Queen (One Vision, Tie Your Mother Down), Primal Scream (Rocks Off), Stevie Wonder (Superstition), The Jam (Town Called Malice), Muse (Uprising), and Jackie Wilson( Higher and Higher). There may well have been others but the John Smith's was going down too well for me to recall. Thoroughly recommended.

She likes the boys in the band, She knows when they come to town, Every musician's fan after the curtain comes down

Friday 25 June - and tonight we eschew covers for some more original material in the shape of three bands playing at Fibbers, or do we? First band on the bill are a group that we've seen no less than three times before, Astrae (on MyFace and SpaceBook). They are a York-based alt-rock band (Haxby's finest) consisting of James A Hutchinson (Guitar / Vocals), Jack Beavers (Guitar / Synth / Vocals), Ali Thynne (Drums / Percussion), Rio (Keyboard / Synth), and T-Bone Malogus (Bass). As we've seen them before, you can read my previous reviews by typing their name into the Search box. Tonight there was no drummer which gave their set a sort of "unplugged" sound. James' continues to impress me with his energy and the power of his voice (think Robert Smith of The Cure). This band is really growing on me and this was an excellent start to the evening.

The next act we had also seen before, The Bitter Image. Another York-based band, their sounds have a hint of QotSA about them; heavy-ish rock, bit melodic, bit quirky. But, there's something about them that doesn't quite gel. Dom (Wells, lead singer rhythm guitar) is a bit too clean-cut for the lyrics that he sings. His neat hair cut and appearance is at odds with songs of blood and angels and demons. The other problem, for me, is that Jonny (Wells, lead guitar) seemed to be playing some excellent solos but they were lost in Dom's rhythm playing and an over-mix of the drum (Dom Smith) and bass (Jim Buck). Shame, if they didn't drown Jonny out I would have enjoyed this band so much more.

And so to the top of the bill, a Glaswegian outfit playing under the moniker of A Joker's Rage. Actually all the members of this band play in a whole fistful of other bands and AJR is just one avatar of their communal work. Their charismatic front man is Zakk Taylor, they have a fiery guitar-smith in the shape of Gary Johnstone, and Neil MacDougall (drums) and Graeme Glancy (bass) make up the engine room. There's a bit of funk, some heavy rock, some rapping, all sorts. The audience certainly lapped it all up. We were treated to a couple of covers as well; on the anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson we got Dirty Diana, and for their encore we all sang along to Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name. Very entertaining, but of the three, Astrae were the ones that stood out for me.

Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night, I can see paradise by the dashboard light

Friday 4 June - Sorry but I'm a bit behind with my gig write-ups and they may be a tad on the short side, but hey, I only started doing this to keep tabs on which bands we'd seen. Unfortunately my system fell over on this occasion because I forgot to check if we'd seen Graf Zeppelin before. We had. They were fantastic last time and just as good this time too. Playing in the Roman Bath, so free music, and hailing from Doncaster, GF are; Richard Oxby on vocals, Raith Wilson on guitar, Daz Chandler on bass, and Jon Booth on drums. They don't look like Led Zep, but they do exactly what it says on the tin, they play like Led Zep. They're flippin' brilliant.

Friday 11 June - and Bad Dog are playing in the Roman Bath tonight. I checked this blog. We hadn't seen them before. Except that we had, but I forgot to blog it. Bugger! Anyway, Bad Dog are a femme-fronted four piece rock covers band formed by Steph and Andy who formerly played as part of Steve Steinman's major theatre shows The Meatloaf Story, Meatloaf Trilogy and Vampires Rock. Together with Ben and Mike, Bad Dog put on an excellent rock show covering artists such as; Queen, Tina Turner, T-Rex, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, AC/DC, Status Quo , Kings of Leon, The Kinks, The Beatles, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Blondie, and of course, Led Zeppelin. Very theatrical, but very, very good indeed.

This one goes out to the one I love

Friday 21 May – It's nine months ago since Skint last played at The Terrace in York. We saw them six months ago in O'Neills and thirteen months ago at The Terrace, so we're averaging catching them every six months. Why? Because they're pretty damn good, that's why. Skint are: Rich Graves (lead vocals), Stew King (lead/rhythm guitar), Ian Moore (drums), Gav Cator (rhythm/lead guitar), and Paul Teasdale (bass/vocals). Paul also plays bass in Breathing Space. They play modern indie and classic rock covers, and they do it very well indeed.

It took a while for the guardian of peace (bouncer) to get the patio cleared so that the doors could be closed allowing the band to start playing so we had a bit of a late kick-off, maybe 21:30. They went straight into R.E.M's The One I Love for their sound check and then they were away; Kaiser Chiefs (I Predict A Riot) QotSA (No One Knows), The Editors (An End Has A Start), Kings of Leon (Red Morning Light) Green Day (Basket Case), Blur (Song 2), Jet (Are You Gonna Be My Girl), Green Day (Boulevard Of Broken Dreams), Stereophonics (Dakota), Oasis (Champagne Supernova), Kings of Leon (Molly's Chambers), The Kooks (She Moves In Her Own Ways), Snow Patrol (Chasing Cars), Rolling Stones (Jumping Jack Flash), Simon & Garfunkle (Mrs Robinson), The Automatic (Monster), Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen In Love), Fratellis (Chelsea Dagger), Arctic Monkeys (I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor), The Hives (Hate To Say I Told You So), and Electric Six (Gay Bar).

The highlight for me was the rocked-up version of Mrs Robinson, whilst the lowlight was Gay Bar. Not necessary. They have plenty of good songs in their repertoire; please remove from your set-list. Overall, as before, highly recommended. See you in about six months guys.

A little bit of addiction, It never hurt me, it won't hurt you.

Friday 24 April – and tonight we visited one of our less well-used haunts, Stereo, the pub/venue formerly known as Speakeasy or Certificate 18 or The Bay Horse, depending on when you last dropped in. Three of us turned out to see one of our favourite bands headlining, but first we supped warm ale and watched the warm-up acts.

First to tread the boards was Robert Loxley Hughes, the front man from Idle Jack And The Big Sleep. I have it on the best possible authority that IJATBS are currently in hiatus with Mr Hughes doing his own thing and the rest of the band resurrecting side-projects such as Ishtar. So for tonight RLH performed whilst sitting on a chair, just him and an acoustic guitar (actually borrowed from GT Turbo). Now I'm not a huge fan of RLH the person, having had a run-in with him a glass of red wine and one of my white t-shirts, however, he sings with a heart-felt passion and the songs are well-crafted, ranging from lullaby soft to outright shredding metal. Believe me, I felt for those poor guitar strings.

Talking of guitar abuse brings me nicely onto the second act of the evening, Dave Woodcock And The Dead Comedians. Now we've seen these before, but only two of them on that occasion, so it was interesting to see and hear the full band. Too be honest, I wasn't much more impressed, although I did recognise a few of the songs which means that they must have been good enough to hook into my brain first time around, lots of cigarettes, and alcohol, and lost love. At one point Dave attempted to dance with a female member of the audience and finally ended up singing whilst lying on his back. As the final chord rang out, Dave chucked his guitar to the floor of the stage, an act that caused me to wince in despair.

The third act was Dan "GT Turbo" Lucas, head hombre of Boss Caine and (I think) the organiser of tonight's event. By this time the crowd was beginning to thicken up somewhat and the noise level of the general chit-chat was starting to rise. Why is it that some folk pay an entrance fee just to chat loudly to their mates and ignore the performer? How rude is that? It was clear that Dan had encountered this kind of ignorance before as his t-shirt was emblazoned with "Shut the f*@ck up, the band is playing." Not that the noise-niks took any notice so we edged ever near the stage. I'm beginning to familiarise myself with Dan's work, Smoking In My Back Yard, Leaving Victoria, and the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I will have to get the album.

And so to the headline act, Hope&Social, who are touring their second album (not counting releases as Four Day Hombre), April. Once more they are selling their album on a pay-what-you-like basis both for a physical CD and downloads. I ordered a physical copy and was pleasantly surprised to get a download copy as well, to listen to whilst awaiting the actual CD to arrive in the post. How thoughtful was that? Anyway, I burned the download and had been playing it on heavy rotation in my car, so I was up to speed with all the new material before tonight's gig. In fact I was intrigued as the album features the Garforth Brass Band and I couldn't see how they were all going to fit on the stage. In fact H&S managed to get three into their "brass" section; James Hamilton on trumpet, Katie Hawcutt on sax (actually a woodwind instrument), and a girl on trombone who’s name eludes me. The core members of H&S; Simon Wainwright (vocals/guitars/piano), Rich Huxley (guitars/vocals/piano/rhodes), and Ed Waring (keyboards), were joined tonight by new comers on drums and bass.

The band played tracks from both the new album, April, and their previous offering, Architect Of This Church. Highlights for me included; Sunlight Hold Me with its huge crescendo of noise, Do What You Want, Red Red Rose, Pitching It Far Too High, Marching On Through, and Ripples Rock My Boat. But, besides the superb music, there's also a fantastic engagement with the audience with opportunities to sing along in the choruses and play along with tiny, plastic kazoos. There was also a completely unplugged, acoustic version of Looking For Answers with audience backing. Incredible, and quite possibly the best performance I've ever seen from the band. Please, please see them, buy an album, whatever. But don't miss them 'cos they're brilliant.