Greetings, Lonergan here in Marco's absence.

The Rossi often alludes to his relative maturity on this page, but let me tell you that I outrank him in agedness by a full ten years.

The first live band that I ever saw was The Beatles, at the Hammersmith Odeon (now the Apollo) in 1965 at the tender age of fifteen.

A couple of years later, the British blues boom' was in full swing, producing possibly the first truly indie' label, Blue Horizon, to cater for UK blues devotees.

In '68 one of the best blues venues in West London was the Farx Blues Club in Southall, and my brother Pete and I attended one night to check out a new band that had just changed its name from The New Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin.

We saw the band in a little pub about the size of Weymouth's Queens Hotel, before their first album came out.

They were, it goes without saying, amazing.

The mathematicians amongst you may have noticed that, in 1968, I'd have been a mere 16-year-old; true, but with my club membership card, we were allowed entry.

The mention of the Queens Hotel earlier was not random - the fact that they've got a separate function room with a stage, PA but no bar means that under-18s like my son Jack can play there and check out local and national metal and indie bands on a weekly basis. It's only a matter of time before one of the bands that take to the stage becomes a major act, surely. In the future, will Jack be dangling his kids on his knee, saying, "Of course, I was there at The Queens in 2008 when Sonic Boom Six played there"?

Sonic Boom Six, who play at the Queens Hotel tonight as part of the Ruff + Ready Tour, emanate from Manchester and claim dancefloor-savvy elements of reggae, jungle and ska with the rigorous commentary of hip-hop whilst retaining enough grit and aggression to be an active fixture of the UK's punk scene.

The band released their first two EPs on Moon Ska Europe before signing to Deck Cheese Records in the UK for their acclaimed debut album, The Ruff Guide to Genre-Terrorism, which they promoted on a Radio One Punk Show session and at gigs alongside such as Mad Caddies, Hard-Fi, Flogging Molly and RX Bandits alongside festival appearances at Glastonbury, Rebellion and the Lock-Up Stage at Reading and Leeds festivals.

Phew! All this in little old Weymouth! And it's under (and over) -18-friendly. You can't afford to miss it.

Finally, please watch this page in coming weeks for details of a tribute concert for Tony Bunny' Broughton. Please contact me on chrislonergan@gmail.co.uk if you'd like to take part.