EVERYONE has their favourite era of pop, and it usually coincides with the moment their teenage lugholes are opened to the power of popular music.
It could be the rock’n’roll explosion of Elvis at al from the mid-fifties, The Beatles, Kinks and Stones of the Sixties, the anarchy of punk from the Seventies, the pomp and poodle rock of the Eighties or maybe Britpop or grunge from the Nineties.
Whatever your epoch, just be grateful you’re not a teenager today: They’ll have the delights of Baby Shark to look back on.
But if your era was very much the sounds of the Seventies, you’re in for a treat over the next few weeks with two quality bands still surviving from that glorious time and two top-drawer tributes heading this way.
Look back at what was called the Top 40 throughout the decade and you’ll see one name popping up consistently: 10cc.
Their run of hits, including Donna, Rubber Bullets, Life is a Minestrone, Wall Street Shuffle, Things We Do For Love and, of course, I’m Not In Love unsurprisingly had the band labelled as the Seventies Beatles and original member Graham Gouldman is taking the band out on a UK tour, so soon after finishing a mammoth Europe and US trek with Ringo Starr’s All Star band this summer.
Songwriter supreme Graham is still working with loyal stalwarts guitarist Rick Fenn and drummer Paul Burgess and the tour arrives at Weymouth Pavilion on Friday, November 9.
Tickets at £37 are available from the box office on 01305 783225.


And regular visitors The Blockheads make their annual pilgrimage to these parts with a show at the Electric Palace in Bridport on Saturday, November 24.
Derek ‘The Draw’ Hussey has been filling the new boots (but presumably not the panties) of the much missed Ian Dury since the turn of the millennium.
Their catalogue of such belters as Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Reasons to be Cheerful, What a Waste and Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll are just timeless floor-fillers and they’ll no doubt be playing new material from their album/documentary Beyond the Call of Dury (…See what they did there?) which is released next month
You MUST see this band! Tickets are £16.50 from the box office on 01308 424901.
Moving on, and you have a bit of a dilemma on Friday, November 2 with two excellent tribute shows to choose from.
There’s Cloudbusting: Forty years of Kate Bush at the Dorchester Arts Centre, featuring the extraordinary vocal talents of Mandy Watson who has the unenviable task of paying homage to a quite incredible artist. But does she manage it? You bet your Red Shoes she does…


It’s 40 years since Kate’s debt album The Kick Inside and her high-pitched Out On the Windy, Wily Moors intro to Wuthering Heights sent dogs across the country scurrying to their baskets.
Mandy and her top-notch band pulled off a great show at the Corn Exchange last year, so it’s no wonder they were invited back.
Tickets are £15 from the box office on 01305 266926.
Frustratingly, it’s the same night as Boot Led Zeppelin at Weymouth Pavilion, who celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the planet’s monster bands with an ambitious production featuring all the biggies, plus laser pyramids, flaming gongs, guitar pyrotechnics and a whole lotta ridiculously tight trousers.
Tickets are £22 from the box office on 01305 783225.
Till next time…

TONIGHT (19)
Jolly Boys Outing (Finns, Weymouth)
TBC (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)
Charlie Hodds (Park, Weymouth)
Ashley Day (Weymouth Working Mens Club)
Stacey Lou (Gloucester, Weymouth)
Ricky Solo (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Skint Imperials (Duke of Albany, Weymouth)
The Hawkmen (Belvedere, Weymouth)
Fat Marrow Blues Band (Ropemakers, Bridport)
Gentlemen of Few (The Sandford, Wareham)
Billy Solo (Wellington, Weymouth)
Compass (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth)
Martin Freed (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)
Tripod (Golden Lion, Weymouth)
Darren H (Duke of Albany, Weymouth)
SATURDAY (20)
Bad Intention (Finns, Weymouth)
The Remedy (Sailors Return, Weymouth)
Brass Monkeys (Wyke Regis Working Mens Club, Weymouth)
The Katz (Portland Social Club)
Rob Davis (Market House Tavern, Weymouth)
Under the Carousel (Golden Lion, Weymouth)
Sheryl Lee (Park, Weymouth)
Restless (Weymouth Working Mens Club)
Dave Griff and the Trouser Band (Gloucester, Weymouth)
Kerbera (Belvedere, Weymouth)
Karina and Aaron (Conservative Club, Weymouth)
Chris Woodchuck (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
TBC (Hardy’s Tavern, Dorchester)
Tequila Mockingbird (Bulls Head, Fordington, Dorchester)
Chris Payne (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth)
Total Madness (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)
Elvis Pete and Pam Johns (Duke of Albany, Weymouth)
Justin Daish (Wyke Regis Social Club, Weymouth)
SUNDAY (21)
Acoustic Night (Old Town Hall, Weymouth) From 7.30pm
Open Mic Night (Boat That Rocks, Portland Marina) From 8pm.
Stompin’ Dave (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)
Tim Andrews (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth) 3pm and 8pm.
Regulation 9 (Blue Vinney, Puddletown) 6pm.
Ricky Solo (Sailor’s Return, Weymouth) From 3pm.
Big Al Whittle (George, Portland) 4-7pm. Big Al is being filmed this afternoon, so turn up and be captured swooning for evermore.
John Ramon (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)
Scots Dan’s Open Mic (Duke of Albany, Weymouth)
MONDAY (22)
Tim Andrews (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Acoustic session (Belvedere, Weymouth)
TUESDAY (23)
Ricky Solo (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Martin Freed’s Open Mic Night (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)
WEDNESDAY (24)
Tim Andrews (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Wessex Folk Night (Sailors Return, Weymouth) Acoustic folk, here every Wednesday.
Open Mic Night (Rock, Weymouth)
THURSDAY (25)
Roger Mac’s Singalong (Gloucester, Weymouth)
Ricky Solo (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Traditional Tune Session (Cove House Inn, ChiswelI, Portland)
Ukulele Sessions (Sailors Return, Weymouth) Strum on down from 8pm.
FRIDAY (26)
TBC (Finns, Weymouth)
Ricky Solo (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)
Zoe Schwarz and Rob Koral (Y&Ys, Brewery Sq, Dorchester)
Elvis 56 (Spice Ship, Weymouth)
Rockin’ Ronnie (Weymouth Working Mens Club)
Liam Holland and the Truthseekers (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)
Elijah Wolf (Gloucester, Weymouth)
Shooter (Bulls Head, Fordington, Dorchester)
Billy Solo (Wellington, Weymouth)
Mojo (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth)
Bad Intention (Golden Lion, Weymouth)
Shakespearos (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)