Following the Christmas indulgence, the month of January as a whole are never really busy on the live scene, so I thought now we’ve said goodbye to 2010, I’ll give you a review of the year gone by, an almanac if you like.

Let’s start in January. Wrexham’s Danny Gruff released his solo EP ‘Homegrown’, which was more like an album, with 8 new recordings and 3 live tracks.

Onto February and the main news was that The Roseville Band finally revealed their debut album online. ‘Little Eyes in the Universe’ was 3 years in the making and was streamed in entirety on their website before the physical release in June. Andy, Steve, James, Phill, Stu and Ali went on a jaunt around Germany to promote the album, like here, the Germans love ‘em.

March saw Mother of Six release the video for their song ‘Grossberger’. ‘Twas a dark and eerie showing, mixing live footage of the band with clever horror movie-esque clips. The same month saw the doom munsters support Manchester’s finest Twisted Wheel at The Tiv in Buckley.

April was all about the Supajam. For the past two years Wrexham bands had consecutively won the national Supajam Fast Track to Benicassim Music Festival competition, in 2009 Polly Mackey & The Pleasure Principle were victorious and the year before JKLMNO beat off the thousands of entries to win the opportunity to play the huge Benicassim festival in Spain.

Was 2010 the third year running? No. No Room For Heroes, Trader, Seb Green and Danny Gruff & the Peacemakers were all in with a shout but none of them made it to the final 5. Fingers crossed for 2011.

May was busy. First of all, our Gallops were handpicked to take part in an event called the ‘Un-convention Factory’. The event was part of a larger event called Unknown Pleasure which celebrated the life of Joy Division legend Ian Curtis on the 30th anniversary of his death. 8 bands from across the UK, 60 music industry professionals and 300 participants recorded, produced and released a cover of the Iggy Pop album ‘The Idiot’.

Heal the Last Stand prepared for their state-side tour of sunny California, with a meet up with the first citizen of Wrexham, the actual Mayor himself, Councillor Arwel Gwynn Jones and his loyal lady The Mayoress Mrs Mair Jones. The Heal family met with the outgoing Mayor to spread the word of their Everlasting Peace tour and to give him a copy of their debut album ‘Love is…’.

June was comparatively quiet with the main news being the launch of a new music festival in Rhos. The Rhos Summer Sounds Music Festival took played host to 35 acts across 90 days at the Stiwt theatre.

July involved JKLMNO playing the T in the Park music festival, Gallops and Mother of Six hosting a free outdoor gig at Bellevue Park, Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle recording their debut single with a big name producer, Robert Harder (Brian Eno, Babyshambles, Kylie Minogue) and Gallops bagging themselves a TV advert soundtrack for Channel 5 and also netting themselves a headline slot at the Leeds and Reading Festivals. Exhausting.

August had the news of a local guitarist mixing amongst the greats. David Stewart Jones revealed he had been working with seminal reggae artist Lee Scratch Perry on his latest album. He was in good company, the album ‘Revelation’ also featured the only human to ever survive a future nuclear fall-out Keith Richards and funk legend George Clinton.

September saw The Big Beat carving an even bigger reputation in the world of corporate entertainment. They were picked to be Diana Vickers’ backing band for her live appearance at the Rugby League’s Grand Final. Nerve-racking you’d think? Not to them, it’s just another gig in an ever growing list of big appearances for them.

In October, Juno and the Mook took to the famous Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield to record their debut EP. The studios have housed a number of big names in the past including the Arctic Monkeys, Reverend & the Makers and one of the best songwriters in the UK and one of my favourites, Richard Hawley.

November was all about the Mackey. Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle released their debut single ‘Higher’ and recorded a stunning video to go with it. The single was also remixed by Jeuce, which helped it gain wide-spread attention across the internet’s blogosphere.

And now to December. Apart from the obvious, the biblical wrexhammusic.co.uk Christmas Spruce gig, Don’t Die Just Yet! decided to call it a day with their last ever show.

For over 4 years we were treated to a plethora of cutting edge gigs and DJs thanks to the DDJY! and they finished on a high with a DJ slot from The Charlatans front man Tim Burgess.

There you have it, a quick review of 2010. What a year it’s been. What’s in store for 2011? More of the same and even more no doubt.