20 December 2004: Dogs D'Amour - Rock City, Nottingham, England, UK

The Dogs D'Amour were the seminal band of my youth, 'twas they who introduced me to the delight of Jack Daniels and coke and my parents drowned out by playing "The Dynamite Jet Saloon" at Full volume, they are my favourite band of all time. Since the last time I saw the Dogs at Derby Uni student union a lot of water has passed under the bridge, we've all grown older, some more disgraceful than others, so I was very and I do mean VERY!!!! excited when a tour…

30 November 2004: Rachel Stamp - The Victoria Inn, Derby, England, UK

The last time I saw Rachel Stamp was at Bradford Rios a while back now so I was looking forward to seeing them a little nearer home and in one of my favourite small venues. The Vic in Derby is a really friendly venue, there's something about having your hand stamped with an undecipherable smudge that makes you feel like it's a "proper" gig. It was good to find that the venue was pretty busy, the crowd at Bradford was a bit disappointing, and on arrival I made…

12 December 2004: The Darkness - Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, England, UK

The evening looks to be an agonising one. Wembley Arena's full of a gormless crowd only getting mildly excited by Ash's Tim Wheeler toting a flaming Flying V living out the title of Special Guest. There's only one band they came to see tonight. Just when The Darkness seem to have faded out, a legion of fans erupt as The Darkness kick straight into awesome new material soaked in testosterone with roars of FREE spliced in. Prepare to fall in love again.

Growing on me goes down…

06 February 2005: The Dears + Ambulance Ltd - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, England, UK

The Rescue Rooms have been a god send for Nottingham, a venue that is a step up from the back room of a pub, but small enough to attract the new up and coming bands who would not fill Rock City proper, something that has been missing in Nottingham for many years. This is saving me a fortune through not having to travel to the Charlotte in Leicester, the nearest venue of similar proportions.

On offer tonight were three bands, all for the princely sum of…

16 February 2005: Willy Mason - The Social, Nottingham, England, UK

I was fortunate enough to catch Willy Mason when he opened for the 22-20's at the Rescue Rooms in October last year, and left that gig feeling I'd witnessed something special. Listening to the Album "Where the Humans Eat" confirmed my first impression that Willy was truly gifted. Since then Willy has received acclaim from the music industry being championed by the likes of Jo Wiley and the NME, with the…

Wed 16 Feb – Willy Mason, Plan B, Dave Wyatt
Plan B
Dave Wyatt

17 March 2005: John Hegley "Uncut Confetti" - The Guildhall, Derby, England, UK

"I'm off to see John Hegley", said I with sense of glee, "Your going to see a weatherman?", my friend he said to me. "That's John Kettley, Not John Hegley", I gave a curt reply. My friend he turned his head to me and looked me in the eye…

Thu 17 Mar – John Hegley
John Hegley

08 April 2005: Levellers - The Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, England, UK

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I felt terrible…

Chesterfield seems like a nice place, but I arrived in what I thought was good time to get a parking place and make it to the venue, but with what turned out to be, nowhere near enough time.

After driving around a number of the car parks in Chesterfield for what seemed like an hour, and was at least 30 minutes, looking for a space to park the motor, it became very apparent that I…

16 November 2008: Scouting For Girls + The Days + Sam Beeton - Trent FM Arena, Nottingham, England, UK

I normally dislike this sort of venue, but was pleasantly surprised by the Trent FM Arena. I wasn't subjected to a full body search on the way in, I wasn't treated like a sheep on the way in or the way out and I wasn't so far from the stage that the artist was the size of a pin head. All in all quite a pleasant surprise really, although I was standing and I don't think I would have liked the…

19 April 2005: The House of Love - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, England, UK

As The House of Love took to the stage the entire audience stared at the stage in absolute silence in anticipation of something very special.

It’s very rare that you get complete crowd silence at a gig and I have only ever experienced it a couple of times (the Sundays very first live dates being the prime example) and the only reason for it is anticipation. You could feel it in the venue.

After fifteen years, longer if you count the absence of…

Tue 19 Apr –…

29 April 2005: DJ Format + Little Barrie - Stealth, Nottingham, England, UK

I may as well be honest right from the start as it will soon be obvious from the review that I didn't attend tonight's gig to see the headline act DJ Format. The draw for tonight's show was definitely Little Barrie, so for those of you looking for a review of DJ Format I must apologise now as unusually the bulk of the review will be devoted to the support.

Stealth is another venue in the same complex as the Rescue Rooms although it is really a…