First up, I wanted to have a word about the now-relocated McLaren Valley Festival.

And that word is 'Aaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhh!”. Selling tickets before resource consent has been granted – seriously?

Dylan Israel, also known as Izzy Bones.

I guess this proves right all the people, myself included, who didn't want to be negative but who thought that for many reasons McLaren Falls was a very iffy spot for such an event.

And, for a change, it would seem that the early rush to condemn various council departments and recalcitrant residents, was misplaced. This was down solely to the organisers. Though I can't see it helping Tauranga's reputation in the musical world. At least the many local bands who applied to play and heard nothing will be relieved they didn't get ripped off.

But what with being Labour Weekend ‘n' all, I guess what you most want is some good oil on the live scene... And the answer to your question, 'What's happenin'?” is that there's a bucket load.

There's so much going on that it's hard to miss and the big stuff is easy to find. So leaving that aside, I thought I'd bring to your attention a few small free gigs happening at the Mount.

Clustered on the roundabout borders are Vaudeville, Mount Mellick, the Mount Social Club, the Hop House and Rosie O'Grady's (not to mention the Pizza Library, Breakers, and Satori) all of which have music.

And it's there that you'll find a bunch of unusual stuff happening over the weekend at no charge. Here's just a couple of those many things...

On Saturday night (October 24) at The Hop House John Michaelz is playing with Dylan Israel. This is unusual for a few reasons. Mainly because they're father and son.

John, long a mainstay of the local music scene with such bands as Hard To Handle, the Love Vendors, and the Stone Babies, currently lives in Whangarei where he has a new band The Watts. He now has several albums to his name, from full-on band rock to solo acoustic tunes, and was nominated for a NZ Music Award about five years back.

Dylan, who also goes by the name Izzy Bones, lives locally and is prodigiously creative, continually uploading new songs to Bandcamp and YouTube, working with Wellington's Salty Dog Productions.

Much of his music falls into the category of smooth soulful hip-hop. He has a rich voice and an impressive way with a song and the best route to find out more is to Google ‘Izzy Bones' and hunt through the myriad of places where his music has ended up.
As an aside, The Hop House also has local band Echoes on Friday night and folk duo Phil and Tilley on Sunday.

And right next door on Sunday the Mount Social Club has another unusual combo – rockabilly cats B-Side Band are playing one of the few gigs they've done since the release of their latest album, ‘Fast Forward', earlier this year, shortly after which their drummer departed for Wellington.

Supporting them is an all-woman band The Jam Tarts, a trio comprising acoustic guitar, bass ukulele and drums. They were a big hit recently at a Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness fundraiser and are starting to pop up all over the place.

Things on Sunday start at 9pm.