We've got a bit of everything this week: gigs, recordings, movies. It may be winter (now officially confirmed) but the beat goes on…

Let's deal with stuff in order, starting with a few gigs in the near and not so near future that you may be inclined to stick on your calendars.

First up, tickets are going fast for Hot Club Sandwich's show next week at Mills Reef. The swinging trio are currently winging their way around the country and end up in Tauranga on Thursday, June 23. The well-travelled band has been to some interesting places recently; last year they were flown to Saudi Arabia where they played their 1000th live show together for the NZ Embassy in Riyadh.

They say bands don't really start to click on stage until they've done at least a thousand gigs, so these guys probably know what they're doing by now. If you haven't seen them, don't miss out. If you have, then I don't need to say anything…

In a vaguely similar vein, boogie pianist Jan Preston is winging her way home from across the Tasman for a show at Baycourt on July 17. Like the Hot Club Sandwich boys, Jan gigs almost constantly, travelling to Europe each year for a series of boogie festivals and is constantly in demand in Australia. Last year she wrote the score for her sister Gaylene Preston's very cool little film about WW2 New Zealand, Home By Christmas, as well as recording a new album of blues and boogie originals at Tauranga's Boatshed Studio called The Cool Boogie Woogie.

And, also at Baycourt, but in a different musical world, tickets are now on sale for the album launch show of the newly-renamed Nine Mile Stone.

This is the band that used to be called Mellow Drops and whose long-awaited second album seems to have been struggling with getting off the ground for a couple of years now. Sometimes you just have to wait for the stars to be in alignment, and it can take a while. There is also the inconvenient habit of real life intruding on even the most strenuous attempts to make music.

So, after various babies arriving, drummers leaving, illnesses and the search for a keyboard player, the band finally settled at Tim Julian's studio in Welcome Bay, The Colourfield. This was rather fortuitous as Tim (who has previously added piano and organ to R&B band Brilleaux) happened to be exactly the keyboard wiz they wanted.
Now, with drummer Tim Frame firmly settled in (though they have yet to do those thousand gigs), the band has changed its name to Nine Mile Stone and pretty much completed that ‘difficult second album', to be entitled All Roads Lead Home. I've heard a couple of early tracks and they definitely represent a leap forward for the band. If they can write a song that's under six minutes, they might even be looking at some sort of commercial breakthrough.

Meanwhile, promising a music and light extravaganza, the boys have booked into the main theatre at Baycourt for a huge launch gig on July 30. Tickets are now on sale from the Baycourt box office or online from TicketDirect.
And on to the movies…

…where lovers of classic film will be surprised and delighted to hear that there is a short David Lean season coming up.

Not to be confused with David Lynch – unless you want a very surreal cinema experience – Sir David Lean represents the pinnacle of epic English filmmaking, and four of his films are showing at the Bay City Cinema in Tauranga, but only briefly. First up is the magnificent Lawrence of Arabia which has four sessions from Sunday 26 to Wednesday, June 29. I realise that it has long been available on DVD, but that doesn't come close to the experience of a film like this on the big screen in all its three and three quarter hour (plus intermission!) glory.
Still ranked by the AFI as one of the 10 greatest films ever made, it really should be seen at a movie theatre.
Dr Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter and A Passage to India arrive in following weeks – see the cinema for details – but, for me, Lawrence… is the one. Go Peter O'Toole!