Now then, it seems to be quite busy this week so I’ll delve straight into the tasty stuff.

Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle and Out From Animals are due to jet off to Texas for the SXSW Music Festival on March 18th but before then they have organised a pre-fest farewell gig at the Picket in Liverpool tonight. Like their last venture up to the ‘Pool, they have organised a bus (53 seats in total) which will be leaving Wrexham tonight – make sure you get there early though, you don’t want to get the billy seat at the front. The bus costs £5 and the entry is £2.

Polly and her band; Tom, Dan, Stan and Adam have recently been recording in Real World Studios in Bath. You’ve probably not heard of Real World, but those who know about recording studios will have definitely of heard of it. It’s owned by Peter Gabriel (he used to be in Genesis and had a successful solo career – Sledgehammer anyone?) and is renowned as being one of the best recording facilities in the UK, if not the world. Hopefully we’ll be hearing the fruits of their sessions soon.

The Tiv Battle of the Bands final is tonight. Fighting it out will be Deeside’s I Am Austin and Dirty Static and Wrexham’s Sinner Men. Entry is £4 and they’ve got some tasty offers on the drinks – pints and bottles are all £1.50. Doors are 8pm.

They come from all the way over in Alaska, named themselves after a Jackie Chan movie and now they are rolling up to Wrexham to play tonight’s Chaos Theory show at Central Station. 36 Crazyfists have teamed up with fellow American compadres Poison the Well and Gwen Stacey for a jaunt around the UK – they are all on the same label – Ferret Music. The Chaos guys reckon this is the biggest shows they’ve ever put on, and they’ve put plenty of shows on. Tickets are £13.50 and doors are 7pm.

Last Friday our favourite underground venue The Talbot in Wrexham closed its doors. There has been a rumour about bailiffs and unpaid bills etc but the truth is that the estate agent and the lease holder mutually agreed to shut up shop. It’s a massive shame as it was an invaluable resource for the local music scene once it started having bands on there and it only lasted a few months.

What’s happening to the music nights? Obviously all of the gigs have been cancelled. The Socialist nights have vowed to keep on keeping on as they intend on using two different venues for gigs twice monthly and The Kill Club have pledged to find another venue and carry on as they left off. Let’s hope someone else takes The Talbot on and revives it again, although I very

Has everyone been to the new record shop in Mold? I’ve yet to visit yet but I’ve heard it’s a right gem of a place. It’s on New Street and probably clinches the title of smallest record shop in the UK but it’s deceivingly rammed full of vinyl, CDs, t-shirts, badges and ace pop art from a local artist. It has limited opening times at present, which are displayed on the shop front a month in advance and the opening times are also on their MySpace: http://tinyurl.com/adpg6s.

There aren’t enough independent record shops around. They’ve been slowly dwindling in numbers from towns like ours ever since the ‘muscles’ of HMV and the supermarkets started their mass expansion, utilising their bulk buying powers to offer ‘cheaper than everybody else’ prices. And then there’s the internet and torrents, but I won’t go into that. Get down there and have a rummage.

Tomorrow night a BBC Radio 1 DJ is playing Luv*Jam at Central Station. Rob da Bank is one of the most well known DJs of his genre and the curator of the Bestival Festival on the Isle of Wight and tomorrow night he’ll be playing an exclusive Wob da Bonk techno set. Tickets are £8 and doors are 10pm. Nice indeed.

Did anyone go the to revived ‘Indie Project’ night at Cruise in Chester last Monday? They host it in the aptly named ‘Cool Britannia’ room inside the Cruise mega club complex and the DJs play all the obvious indie classics – Stone Roses, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, The Libertines, Kings of Leon etc etc. It’s cheap aswell – student prices in fact, although it’s not a dedicated student night; pints, bottles and cocktails from £1.50. Tasty beans.

That’s your lot for this week. Join me next Thursday for some more of the same. Don’t forget to email me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk with your news. Take care.