I've spoken to a few people who were at the club on Friday and had their verdict.

Let's hear from the rest of you.

First of all thanks to everyone that contributed to last week's blog, especially Brian Jones who suceeded in making himself look a complete idiot (or possibly the world's worst wind-up artist). I expect he'll be first in line for The Troubleshooter's big Xmas gig at The District in place of Racing Cars.

We knew very little about Shifting Gear until they arrived at the club on Friday night. Although they tried very hard to be nonchalant about the facilities that we have at the club it soon became obvious that they were not used to playing on a stage as big as ours and were in awe of the PA and new monitoring system that's in place. After their soundcheck we had time for a quick chat with the band and it turned out that we were lucky to have their lead singer with us at all. Earlier that day he'd been the passenger on a bus that had been involved in quite a serious crash somewhere in Cross Keys. Apart from having developed a very worrying facial tick, he'd thankfully managed to escape virtually unscathed.

The band's performance passed off in an inoffensive haze. They certainly weren't the best band that have ever graced the District stage, but they definitely weren't the worst. The lead guitarist appears to have an unhealthy Hank Marvin obsession persisting as he did for most of the night with a clean sound , dripping in reverb. Neither did the lead singer have a particularly powerful voice but to be fair he was in tune for most of the night and they even managed to coax a few people onto the dancefloor in the end. The bass and drums chugged away adequately in the background all night through a selection of classic and original rock tracks and to be fair the band were given a pretty good reception at the end of their performance.

On a personal note, I managed to wake up on Saturday morning with what I'm told is called a "hangover". Since making the change from lager to Guinness a few years ago hangovers have largely become a thing of the past for me. The worst side-effects I usually get  after a Friday night is a bad taste in my mouth and a feeling of lethargy. I felt decidedly rough on Saturday morning and couldn't even manage a piece of toast or cup of coffee until well after lunchtime. Must have been a bad pint.

We had to compete with an aweful lot of other events last Friday, Limehouse Lizzy in The Point, The Big Cheese , Quo at Cyfartha Castle the following day and of course the Summer Holidays, all of which contributed to an exceptionally quiet evening in terms of numbers.

Undaunted myself, Byron ,John and Ronnie aka The Troubleshooters attempted to whip up some sort of an atmosphere among the District faithful, always a difficult task in a half empty hall.

The band have been jamming together for a while in Byron's studio in Clydach, mainly for fun but always with the intention of playing a few gigs when we had enough songs in the locker. We'd decided that the time was right for a gig at The District some months ago and last Friday's date had been booked into the diary and all other committments cancelled. We'd discussed with Mike Spear, our regular guitarist, about bringing in Ronnie for the gig to add some extra "beef" to the sound. After one rehearsal things sounded pretty good and we were all up for the gig. It came as a bit of a shock when a few days later Mike announced that he had booked a six week holiday to Canada that clashed with the gig. Bugger! Rather than cancel we decided to ask Ronnie whether he'd be prepared to take on the guitar duties on his own - luckily for us he agreed.

The brand of R+B that we'd decided to pursue was always going to be at the rougher end of the scale taking our inspiration from artists like Dr Feelgood, Wilko, The Paladins and Rory Gallagher but from a bass playing perspective our first half performance sounded surprisingly polished. Byron and Ron were playing superbly and John seemed to be enjoying himself and blowing some lovely harp.

A few drinks were taken during the break and inevitably the second half was a little looser but enjoyable none the less. Appropriately things fell apart during a song called "Rolling Drunk" (Note to John .... songs should include choruses as well as verses). After leaving the crowd with an encore of Roadhouse Blues we all agreed that we'd thoroughly enjoyed the gig and hopefully acquitted ourselves with some credit.

Massive thanks to Ronnie, our " hired gun" for the night - always a pleasure mate (and don't let the dust settle on that amp too long).

I'd be especially interested in getting some comments on the band's performance from an audience perspective - please be as candid as you like.

Ah, nice to be back at the club after a couple of weeks away, especially for our old mates Panama Red.

Apart from Mr Baker who was suffering with some strange ear infection the band looked like they were enjoying themselves on stage and the sound outfront complimented the energy that the boys were putting in on stage. (Anyone notice the improvement in the bottom end with the subs back in action ?)

I don't remember too many new songs in the set this time but as usual a couple of their old favourites stood out especially Lee's vocals on Street Spirit and Oz's faultless guitar work on Surfing with the Alien. As usual the band's second half set passed in a bit of a blur for me ( had some catching up to do with the Guinness) but the dancefloor was predictably packed until the close of the evening. Did I miss anything good ?

You're  always guaranteed a quality performance from PR and once again they delivered in spades.

Another no show by myself but rest assured I will be back for Panama Red this week.

I'm told that we had a reasonable turn-out and that the band were pretty good and really enjoyed themselves.

More great pics from Gloria - http://www.freewebs.com/southwalesbands/photosfromthegigs.htm

My weekend consisted of two gigs with the Lunatics , Caerphilly on Friday and Aberdare on Sunday. Both gigs were decent enough and very well received. A couple of notable events from both gigs - the landlord of Friday's pub insisted on vetting our choice of opening songs insisting that we play something "bouncey"to start . Bit of a liberty don't you think ?

Sunday in Aberdare was quite interesting, a tidy little pub just out of the town centre, the lounge where we were playing choc-a bloc with a friendly, musically knowledgable crowd intent on getting really pissed and enjoying themselves. The adjoining bar through which you had to walk to the bogs was obviously the place in Aberdare for the steroid abusers to hang out.

Inevitably it all kicked off later in the evening when some mindless 'roider took a dislike to one of the music crowd. Peace was soon restored thankfully but it got me thinking that over the years The District has largely escaped the influx of this particular sub-section of society. Long may it continue.

I crept back to the club just as everyone was leaving last Friday, Nicky had very kindly got me a couple of pints in before last orders (my round next week Nick). From what I was told a pretty good night was had by all with the band bringing along quite a few supporters (always a sure fire way of getting a rebooking !).

As usual the floor is open to anyone that wants to review the band.

Some of you might also be interested in a recent posting from Matt , the drummer with Strangers of a
Kind, responding to the numerous comments on the band's performance earlier in the year. Here's a link:

http://districtmike.bravejournal.com/entry/24000

I'm only going to post a short entry this week , busy in work unfortunately.

Slowburner - Superb. Pics on main site.

Neil Young - Exceeded my expectations which were extremely high. Great weekend. There's a clip of his encore posted above.

True to their word, the band arrived promptly at 7.30 this time making up for their tardy appearance last year. The name change from Stoneflower had coincided with the arrival of a new guitarist charged with replicating the eponymous Carlos.

After a quick switch of mixing desks the soundcheck was completed painlessly and following the acquisition of some new stage monitors we were actually asked by the singers to bring down the level of the wedges. (believe me ...that's a first).

..and so to the performance. The band can really kick up a fine racket when the full rhythm section cuts loose in true Santana style. The boy/girl lead vocals worked well throughout and the keyboard and bass players both showed a level of restraint that enhanced the textured sound of the original material. Only the new guitarist appeared a little ill at ease with his role in the band, maybe due to the fact that he was experiencing some technical glitches with his foot pedals. Despite the errant hardware he struggled on manfully through the first set and thankfully seemed to have cured most of the problems by the second half.

I'm not a massive fan of Santana and was not familiar with much of the material hence my disappointment at not hearing the band play a few of the better known tracks. It comes with the territory , if you're a tribute band you really need to cover all your bases and I fail to see a case for not playing Samba Pa Ti, She's not there or even Well Alright. That's my only real gripe with the band who otherwise played and sounded terrific and enticed plenty of budding samba dancers to the dancefloor.

Friday night also brought with it some surprising news - Daemon our DJ/Soundman informed us that he and his long-term partner Anne-Marie will be getting married next Saturday (28th). It sounded like a bit of a spur of the moment decision and has unfortunately caught us all a bit by surprise and unable to organise some appropriate pre-wedding festivities in time. (shame !)

I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing Daemon and Anne-Marie all the very best for the future.