OK, so the countdown is over – the GOOD TIMES! Festival weekend is finally here… well it starts tomorrow. It doesn’t seem like 6 months ago since my cohort Andy ‘Salad’ Salomon and I came up with the idea of bringing an almost festival-like experience to the local Wrexham music scene. To be truthful, I’m a bit scared that we’ve missed something glaringly obvious out, but that’s surely impossible after the meetings upon meetings we’ve had accompanied by litres of black coffee and the tasty home cooked food supplied by Mrs S, right? It’s a textbook operation. The gates open at 6pm tomorrow night at The Club House on Oak Road (you can find a map on the website: www.wrexhammusic.co.uk/goodtimes) and the first act is on at 7:30pm, so get down there early to get a good camping pitch before the music starts! If you haven’t got a ticket yet and you want to come, we’ll have a handful to sell for £20 each on the gate until 9pm tomorrow night. Good times! See you there.

Let’s not get too carried away though, as there is tonight to deal with first. In Chester, down at the Frog and Nightingale, there is another instalment of their regular ‘Rock it… Presents’ nights. This time they have 60’s mod enthusiast’s The 66, Chester’s Idle Will Kill and the apparent lovechild of Blondie and Elastica, the K115. Doors are 8pm, it’s £3 entry and you get a free shot (of liquor I presume).

Panic Promotions continue their stretch of gigs at McLean’s in Pentre tonight with I am Austin (featuring members of the defunct Part of the Queue), Impaled Existence and Little Hands, both from Deeside. It’s 4 entry and doors are 7:45pm.

On Saturday night at Telfords Warehouse in Chester they have Bigfinn playing. Their songs have been described as a bit like a retro Doctor Who scarf, but with a far more complex knitting pattern. Singer Martin Travers delivers a full throttle performance which owes a lot to his heroes: Scott Walker, Van Morrison and Captain Beefheart. They’ve released three albums, had an impromptu tour of Russia, gigged in Paris and have plans to tour Italy and France this year. If you like your songs big, like their tour bus, then you’ll love these – like all things big they should be American really, but thankfully they’re not. It’s free before 10pm and £4 thereafter.

I think this weekend is all about the festivals, as on Saturday the DeeCAT Music Festival is taking place behind the Deeside Leisure Centre in Queensferry. From 12noon there will be a long list of bands playing, mainly from the surrounding area and mainly featuring bands that have played the Panic Promotions gigs at McLean’s. Headliners are the recent rightful winners of their Battle of the Bands, Stokoz to Moscow. I said there’s a long list of bands, so here it is: I Am Austin, The Scott Fair Band, Young Underground, Dirty Static, Slightly Generic, Mainstream, The Day before Mortality, Severenth, Ego King, Monte Cassino, New Wave Porn and more.

I love gigs in pubs, and until last Friday I hadn’t been to see live music at a pub for ages. I used to go to loads, especially when I used to travel around with the III on his random gigs around the shire! Happy times. It’s great to see bands using all of their own equipment, setting their sound rig up in a corner on the floor and all without any help from any venue professionals. So, last Friday I dragged myself across to the other side of town to watch Roy Destroy and Polly Mackey play at The Malthouse on Caia Road. After a few minutes of teething problems with the sound Polly Mackey began. I’ve seen her a few times at wrexhammusic.co.uk and other gigs, but this time she seems to have really settled in with her sound and her slots down in London and Liverpool have bode her well. After a short break of chatting to the friendly locals in the lovely rolled-bamboo fenced beer garden, Roy Destroy was up. I was impressed to say the least. Roy (aka Ben Sawin) has some great songs up his sleeve and the introduction of a band has lifted them to another level (not the raabbish late 90s boy band). I, for one, am looking forward to his slot at the festival this weekend.

And that my friend’s is it for this week and if I survive this weekend then I’ll be back with you next Thursday. Email me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk – but please, keep it clean.