Hello to you. My car window will not shut. It’s one of those electric ones which you have to rely on a little button to make it open and close. The makers of the car obviously failed to realise that once the little button stops working during a ‘close’ operation you’re left with an open window, in the middle of winter, with lots of rain. Nice. I should really get it fixed but that takes time, effort and money, none of which I’m willing to give up, not for a car anyway.

Right then, enough of that, let’s get onto the events which will no doubt keep you busy over the next week.

Last Sunday Wrexham legends Camera went into the Calon FM radio studios to guest on the Uncut show with Steve Dwight. Matt, Steph and Tim from the band played 3 new songs; Can’t Explain, Crystal Ball and Change Your Mind, all from their forthcoming EP which is due out this year. They also played ‘All You, All Day’ from their debut album ‘Ashes & Dim Light’. I tuned in and was pretty much blown away by absolutely everything, welcome back Camera, we’ve missed you.

Tonight Hellacious, Pink River Dolphins and Kizz Mac are all playing the Panic Promotions night at McLean’s in Pentre. The Pink River Dolphins are currently recording a 3 track EP for release soon. The show tonight opens at 7:45pm and costs £4 entry.

Chester’s The Time are playing Telfords Warehouse tomorrow night. They describe themselves as a 5 piece ‘rock and roll band’ and their songs tackle such subjects as work, drugs, alcohol, love and life. The Sun newspaper picked up on them last year calling them ‘The next band on the conveyer belt of talent, following the Artic Monkeys and The Enemy’. The Manchester Evening News called them ‘The next big thing’.

Quite high praise indeed and I’ve no doubt well worth it; they sold out the Carling Academy 2 and Korova in Liverpool and have ventured down to Londoninium to play the Water Rats and the Cobden Club. Doors are 9pm.

Staying at Telfords Warehouse, they have The Loving Cup performing on Saturday night. It’s free entry before 10pm and £4 thereafter.

Tonight Socialist at the Talbot Bar in Wrexham has ASbos playing. If you like Talking Heads, The Pixies and The Velvet Underground then these will peel your banana for you. Hailing from North Wales but migrating across to Liverpool, ASbos have taken their paranoid tales of dysfunctional families across the North West and as far ‘sarf’ as London with The Fly magazine describing them as ‘A slow and gutsy funkola with a wobbly-eyed frontman’.

Also playing tonight are the dastardly punk peacocks The Eyelashes That Ate Manhattan and Fag Machine. Its £2 entry and doors are 8pm.

The Talbot on Saturday night has Oswestry band Smackrats playing. They’ve played Wrexham a few times over the past couple of years, often at the deceased venue the Old Swan. They never fail to cause a raucous rebel storm wherever they play, although I’m not entirely convinced about what they are rebelling against. Imaginative use of hair spray as well, that’s always good to see.

Supporting Smackrats will be 4Jerry (featuring Calon FM’s very own Steve Dwight) and The Longshot. Again its £2 entry and doors are 8pm.

You may have read the article on the previous page about Roses Kings Castles (Adam Ficek of Babyshambles) playing Central Station next Wednesday. Let’s take a look at the ace support for the gig, Craig Williams and Cal Roberts.

Craig, from Wrexham, is a singer-songwriter who has the precious ability to capture even the most ignorantly noisy audience within a second of his lyrical prose’s passing through the speakers. Cal, from Bagillt near Flint, has been living most young songwriter’s soggy dream of late. In the past 6 months he has been personally invited by Pete Doherty to play at one of his shows in Austria and subsequently a handful of shows in London and also bagged himself a support slot for The Courteeners. Sounds like a great show, but that’s just me being slightly bias as it is a wrexhammusic.co.uk do. Tickets are £6 advance and doors are 7:30pm.

That’s all for this week. If you desperately need to get in touch to tell me your news, you can do by emailing ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk. No seriously, please do. Take care.