Last Saturday you would have found me on the side of a hill within the moors of Llandegla, timorously grasping an Italian berretta shotgun and being ordered to raise, aim and fire. 25 times over until tea time. No, I’ve not enlisted into the Territorial, I was shooting clay pigeons (which didn’t actually physically look anything like pigeons) as part of my soon-to-be-wed brother’s stag do. It was a long day (and night) which was preceded by a 2:30am sojourn to the Wrexham A&E department the previous night. It was a false alarm for all those mildly interested, I’m not going to divulge but it was funny once we realised the self diagnosis was a bit of the mark, a convincing self diagnosis at the time as well.

Enough of that, onto this week’s dispatches.

The royal doomster’s themselves, Mother of Six, are playing The Tiv tonight. It’s their first visit there and in indulgence they are providing a comfy bus for transport between Wrexham and Buckley, you have to pay for it of course – 6 rips all in and that includes the entry. The magic bus leaves at 7:45pm. Bargain. Also playing are Sinner Men who, although could possibly be slotted on the same shelf in the library as Mother of Six, have not played a gig together in a long time. It’s an apocalyptic potion.

A new band night has crept its way onto my radar, ‘The Faction’. I can’t stop thinking ‘X-Factor’ when I say the name, but as with most names, they don’t really matter – wrexhammusic.co.uk isn’t exactly inspiring but it does what it says on the tin. The Faction believe ‘Fresh raw musical talent should be heard’ and no one can argue with that. They have their first gig this Saturday at Bradley Cricket Club with Parody and Danny Gruff playing. Doors are 8pm and tickets are £4.

Tomorrow night The Roseville Band will be previewing their freshly recorded debut album with a live appearance at Telfords Warehouse. It’s free entry before 9pm and a mere £4 after then.

Meanwhile at Central Station the Redi Nights are back. Trader are headlining with No Room For Heroes kicking off the night followed by Deeside’s I Am Austin and Wrexham’s Katanga (formerly Cream Tangerine). Accompanying that fine line-up will be DJs Jamie Barlow and Neal Thompson offa Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll. The cost? £4.50.

On Saturday night Clays Golf Club in Wrexham have locals The Collards playing. They formed in October 2005 and have continued to gather quite a large fan base around the area. DJ Danno is providing the post-gig tunage until the late hours. Tickets are £5 and the gig starts at 8pm.

Gallops, Gallops, Gallops. You might think I harp on about them but I don’t care. They stormed their Club Ifor Bach gig in Cardiff last Friday, they are becoming quite the band to go and see down there you know. Cardiff seems to welcome them with arms wide open, maternally embracing them and demanding they return immediately once the city realises they’ve sped off up the A49 back to hometown Wrexham. I told you last week of them recording a session for Bethan Elfyn’s BBC Radio 1 show whilst they were down there, its going to be broadcast on Wednesday. I’ve heard the recordings and they sound no less than prodigious. This Saturday they are playing the Socialist night at the Talbot, which I’ve been told is going to be their last small show for a while. As a consequence there’s been a public service announcement that proclaims ‘In order not to be disappointed, all revellers should be in attendance at the venue before 9pm of that evening to ensure their entrance to the show is not hindered by congestion’. Support comes from live dub masters Freedom of Expression (F.O.E.), DJs Wondercut and Birfmarq. Entry is 3 nuggets and doors are 8pm, remember the PSA though.

Following the full release of their video for DLC (see it at www.newagerocketeer.com), Stokoz to Moscow are playing the Start Stirring Venom night at the Frog & Nightingale in Chester tonight. Also playing are Ono Palindromes (formerly Young Sensations) and Siren City. Doors are 9pm and entry is £3.

That’s it for this week. Now I’m off to prepare for my brother’s wedding on Saturday. I’m hoping not to be in the resident’s bar at 5am like I was at the last wedding I went to. I say that because I want to savour the 9am hotel breakfast rather than have it make an all too brief visit to my stomach like last time. Take care.