Nick Horton

IT’S a truly dreadful time, we all know, but many pubs and clubs are staying open and continue to host live music this week as they try to keep their businesses going, albeit while they still can and before any lockdown is enforced by law.Obviously, it’s a personal choice of the venues and the musicians involved, just as much as it’s a personal decision of people to either attend or not.We’re fortunate to live in a country where we still have that freedom, for the time being anyway…The situation is as serious as it is volatile and things are changing by the hour, so please check with the venue before venturing out during the current situation.Be sensible, stay safe, stay healthy, let’s help each other get through this and let’s hope it’s only temporary…Till next time, hopefully…

Aficionados of slide guitar, whisky-soaked voices and Americana music in general are in for a treat next week with a show from master axeman Martin Harley.

FIRST, blow dry your pet poodle and attach it firmly to your head, then pull on a ridiculously tight pair of ripped, bleached jeans (a well-worn shell suit will suffice if the strides are anatomically impossible), put on a battered leather or denim jacket rolled up to the elbows and grab your favourite air guitar. (No, not that one, the other one. It’s in tune…)

There’s a distinctly folky feel to this week’s gig guide, so if you put your finger in your ear, put on your best sandals and baggiest cardy and grow a beard, it would help.

After a pretty stupendous 2019, blues and soul singer Amy Mayes is looking forward to getting her feet back on the ground in 2020.

Not all superheroes wear capes, nor do they all wear their pants outside their trousers.

They say if you can remember the Sixties, then you clearly weren’t there.

REVIEW

Praise the lord and hallelujah, after endless agonising weeks, weeks that tuned into months, months that turned into years, it’s finally, at long last, over and done with.

It takes an inordinate amount of genius and nift, plus no less an amount of chutzpah, to take on any controversial, confrontational yet compelling piece of work, tweak it, translate and then present it as something even more difficult but nonetheless equally enjoyable.