Good day to you. It’s that time of the week again – to dangle the region’s musical bites in front of your sniffer and get your mouth sufficiently salivating, ready to sample the action.

Tonight it’s the return of the monthly indie night Start Stirring Venom at the Frog and Nightingale, which is by that lovely spot by the canal in Chester. This month they have Stoke-on-Trent band The Sport headlining with support coming from FightFightFight from Liverpool and Here’s To The Atom Bomb from Stoke-on-Trent.

Tomorrow night the Frog and Nightingale have the Real Crazy Apartment Sessions holding fort with The Loungs (from St Helens) and It’s a Buffalo. We’ve had The Loungs play one of the wrexhammusic.co.uk nights before and if you enjoy foot-tapping trippy folk with beards (but not your stereotypical beardy folk) then you should make the effort to see them. They’ve been praised upon by NME, The Sun, Q magazine, Uncut and many more. Listen to them at myspace.com/theloungs.

Heat 5 of the Panic Promotions Battle of the Bands compo will be on tonight at McLean’s in Pentre. Founded by Thought, MLB and Slightly Generic are the contenders for the next round. It’s £3.50 entry and the bell sounds at 8pm.

Now we move onto Friday night.

Following their Spring Gathering monster gig last Saturday, The Old Swan in Wrexham should have recovered and swept the decks in time for tonight’s event ‘The Nice Up’ from Funkmode. Guest DJs include Birfmarq, Echotone HiFi, Chris Reynolds, Alasdair and Colak. Naturally it’s free to get in and starts at 8pm. Nice indeed.

Up the hill (the street is imaginatively called Hill Street) at Central Station, the REDI Nights showcase returns with Arnie, The Djangos, Andy Hickie, Andy Jones and Stolen Volume. Doors are 9pm and its 4 sheets to get.

On Saturday we return to The Old Swan who should be hosting a show from krautrock synthy scousers Kling Klang. Unfortunately the gig has been pulled by the band. I’d like to tell you that the scheduled support band, Gallops, will still be playing but I simply don’t know! Without besmirching the anticipations of KK fans, they are hoping to reschedule the show for another date. Deep breath….and relax.

On Sunday the rambling acoustic troubadours Andy Hickie and Andy Jones will be hosting the open stage night at Telfords Warehouse in Chester. They are on a joint jaunt around the UK called ‘Tour of the Andys’ and this is their penultimate date before their finale gig at The Old Swan on Wednesday 30th.

Tonight at Telfords it’s time for Doodle Planet! In case you are wondering what the thunk is this crazily named event – I can tell you it’s an evening of interactive art and music. The dance floor is converted into a giant canvas and everyone is invited to grab their pens and doodle away. The soundtrack is supplied by Matty Setter who will be playing Nu-Jazz, Soul, Hip Hop and Reggae. It starts at 8pm, it’s free entry and you must remember to bring your crayola’s.

Most people consider covers bands to be groups of random middle-aged ‘could’ve been a big hit in the 60s’ musicians who are still holding onto the buzz of playing live and entertaining. And in most cases they would be right, but the one thing most people don’t realise is that these bands are the hardest grafters on the live circuits, sometimes playing 3 or 4 gigs a week. Much respect. The other thing that most people forget is that decent covers bands can pack out a venue with more strength than the largest of local bands. An example of a well respected rock and blues covers band is Wrexham’s Tobacco Road. The group was founded by local musician ‘Noochy’ Davies, who was knocking on the door of musical stardom in the 60s with Wrexham band ‘Dec Dooley & the Dominators’ (why don’t bands have names like that nowadays!). He has shared stages with The Beatles, The Searchers and The Hollies and has been playing for over 30 years. Tobacco Road’s next gig is up on the Wirral at the Swinging Arm in Birkenhead tomorrow night.

Last week we (wrexhammusic.co.uk) announced the full line-up and ticket information for our GOOD TIMES! Music Festival in Wrexham. Taking place on 25th – 26th July on the outskirts of Wrexham where there will be indoor music and outdoor camping, and on Sunday 27th it will be time to pack up, crawl home and recover. There are 21 acts on the bill, which you can view at www.wrexhammusic.co.uk/goodtimes as well as ticket information (you can buy your tickets online) and other juicy stuff. If your not web ‘savvy’ you can go to Yales Café Bar in Wrexham to pick some up. Tickets are £15, which includes camping on both nights.

Neatly linking in with an appearance at the festival, The Rigby’s have reunited. They disbanded last year and now Jac, Dan, Ben and Tom have decided to let the good times roll again. Check out myspace.com/therigbystunes for a new video and all the latest goss.

Don’t forget to tell me what’s happening by emailing me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk.

Au revoir for now.