second fiddle

The Warsaw Village Band @ Courthouse (Otley)

There are any number of things you could choose to do of a Wednesday evening in Otley; I understand that there are some very challenging pub quizzes, perhaps a meal out in one of the many and varied restaurants, a quiet night in in front of the television might appeal to some, or even attending a gymnasium for some much needed aerobic exercise.

The Wonder Stuff @ Cockpit

It's time for bleeding the money cow dry again, with The Wonder Stuff back in the game. There's the cheeky Miles Hunt, the rocker Malcolm Treece, quiet bassist Mark McCarthy, and drummer Andres Karu hidden behind excellent fiddle player Erica Nockalls, who has good posture and is probably classically trained.

John McCusker Band @ Otley Methodist Hall

How far beyond expectation is the word 'lush' when describing Scottish traditional music? Well, it can turn up here - because the musicians are the John McCusker Band, and listening to them you get the quality of the playing, the power of the sound, and a strength that is not a matter of amplification.

Seth Lakeman @ LMUSU

The old days when folk was seen as only for the "crusties" are gone. Thanks to troubadours like Willy Mason, Frank Turner and Get Cape,Wear Cape, Fly, folk is now in the lug holes of many young as well as old people.

Moishe's Bagel @ Courthouse (Otley)

Saturday evenings in Otley are always pleasant affairs. As has been previously documented there are a number of public houses, restaurants and even a video shop for people wishing to spend a quiet evening at home.

Sharron Krauss @ Korks (Otley)

Sharron Krauss was billed as an "avant garde" singer/songwriter and an expectant crowd had gathered at Korks, a venue which had, in a previous incarnation, operated as a night club of ill repute.

Seth Lakeman @ LMUSU

Despite arriving fairly early to Leeds Met, I managed to just miss support act Ben's Brother. The prompt stage times saw Seth Lakeman begin his set just shy of 20:30; fortunately the venue seemed just about full when he began.

Seth Lakeman @ Cockpit

The main room of the Cockpit is heaving tonight so I have no chance of getting in to see Carus Thompson, usually of Carus and the True Believers.

Hayseed Dixie @ LMUSU

Scotland's Dark Water have great stage presence, though it is samey and unoriginal. The female vocals are on the whole ok apart from the odd bum note, and the guitarist seems to focus more on pulling faces and attracting the females' attention then actually playing.

Kid Galahad @ Joseph's Well

As the sun overhead blazes down over Leeds, most people either sit outside basking in the mid twenties sunshine or fiddle with their badly burned meat on their barbecues rather than venturing out to the local venues.

Flogging Molly @ Cockpit

Now you know you're in for a good night when the stage is awash with cans of Guinness even before seven downtown LA agro Celt merchants take to the stage.

Angie Palmer @ Jug & Barrel

What comes next in your career if you've just heard you've got your first 5-star CD review (in Country Music People magazine) and Bob Harris has told the world of Radio 2 that you're one of Britain's best current singer-songwriters as he too endorses your new album?

My Awesome Compilation @ Joseph's Well

It's fair to say My Awesome Compilation's debut full length 'Plans' didn't exactly "break" the band the way it could and probably should have done.

Kate Rusby @ Harrogate Theatre

Kate Rusby is Yorkshire's best folk singer taking traditional songs making them her own as well as using them as inspirational points for writing evoking a Yorkshire folk spirit that is not likely to ever die.

Westport @ Grove Inn

A Swedish hitchhiker near York asked if I played a musical instrument and when the answer was no he told me he was returning from Ireland.

Clinic @ Brudenell Social Club

While several monkeys scramble around in the dark outside searching for their frozen bollocks, 3 bravehearts from Cardiff, armed only with fiddle, guitar, drums and gob do their best to warm our cockles inside the Brudey.

Bayou Gumbo @ The Junction (Otley)

I like to think of myself as a man of the world, a raconteur, a philanthropist and all those other words I remember my father using when I was a lad to describe himself to some hapless stranger over a pint (he never ever knew what they meant!) However, even men of the world can be caught off guard every now and then.

Duncan McFarlane Band @ Korks (Otley)

What Otley has rightly become used to when the Duncan McFarlane Band plays the Folk Festival there, is a glowingly satisfied home crowd with a similar reaction from visitors who know the band's sound - and amidst all this, many new listeners simply astounded at the quality of Duncan and his musicians.

Hekety @ Woodhouse Liberal Club

Hekety: a 5-piece ceilidh band from Sheffield that's very much easier to listen to than spell if you've only heard the name spoken.

Levellers @ St George's Hall (Bradford)

3 Daft Monkeys are a three-piece made up of a female violin player / vocalist (Athene Roberts), electric bass player Jamie Waters and male vocalist / 12 string acoustic guitarist Tim Ashton, who also plays a kick drum and occasionally adds whistle to what their website calls a "colourful carnival of sound".

The Lazy Darlings @ Cockpit

There are countless questions that can, and inevitably have, been raised about the Futuresound Competition.

Seth Lakeman @ LMUSU

So how do you prepare for a night of folk from one of England's rising stars? By checking out some hip-hop break dancing up at the Stylus.

Lightning Bolt @ Brudenell Social Club

Arriving at the venue around 5pm, the Brudenell Social Club is already packed out with a whole variety of people.

Darren Poyzer @ Grove Inn

Where Darren Poyzer appears, unusual things happen and people enjoy themselves. Over the weekend of 20-22 August, he even had to forego his own birthday gig back in his Glossop-Manchester-Oldham homeland because he'd been such a success at the 'Arts for Life' Edinburgh Festival that they wanted more.

The Rakes @ Leeds Festival 2006

It doesn't seem like two minutes since we left the rubble and wreckage of last year's festival behind and dispersed forth to the safe haven of a soft floor and a properly plumbed toilet.

The Duke Spirit @ Joseph's Well

Fact: good image + good stage presence + good songs + lot's of A&R men = getting a good record deal. ...And all this is true about Duels, the first band on tonight, at an absolutely jam-packed Joseph's Well.

Maximo Park @ The Refectory

It all sits a bit on knife-edge this one; I can't be the only one that feels it. The sweet, sweet taste of anticipation impregnates ever fibre of my body and, in empathy with a dog on heat, I pace round the Refec like a chained beast.

The Holloways @ Joseph's Well

In the cavernous grime of the Well, it is forever night time. Forever a luminous green-tinged, stale tobacco-clad dark age.