Anyone who’s had a night on the town in Belfast will be struck by the energy of the live music scene. Every night of the week, week in week out, cou...

This week we've got some electronic genius, a few old faces in new guises, some quirky folk and the latest contender to take the pop kingdom by storm. Sound good? You wait til you hear the tunes...

FRESH on the scene and raring to go - Little Big Adventure are five musicians from Oslo and Bergen who are setting out to show the Norwegian scene just what they can do.

Most musicians are notoriously nervous of playing support gigs, as how the crowd will respond is such a huge unknown. It's pretty important that the headliner and support are matched musically in a way that at least suggests that they might have listened to one or two of the same records.

Festivals have changed dramatically in this time - when the first T in the Park took place in 1994 the only other UK festivals were Glastonbury, Reading and WOMAD - now there are literally hundreds all over the country and they have gone from just being a place where you watch bands outdoors, to an entire four day experience or a long weekend away.

The stunning production belies itself immediately, studios of the 90s just couldn't capture sound this well, and from the get go, beneath the maelstrom, the voices have that slight weathered thinness that age brings.

Permutation upon permutation of exasperated expletives have been thrown at the now infamous Edinburgh Tram project. Each time I return to the city after a length of time on tour I expect the fervent dissing of the tram works to have quietened a little, that the city's drivers and pedestrians will have accepted the situation and moved on to another subject of complaint.

Here are four side-project gems that you need to be aware of. If you don't have at least one record by one of these bands in your collection, you need to take a long look at yourself and think about the direction your life is going in.

It's a chance to listen to the remarkable progression from 1977 to 1982 over six increasingly impressive albums.

Signed 500 limited edition seven inchers this morning. I felt very like Muhammad Ali. He used to sign 1000 photos of himself every morning before breakfast and dispatch them forth quipping, "Yeah, I was pretty", safe in the knowledge that the bills were covered for the day.

Has it really been a week since the first show of this tour? The time has just flown by... And it's been as amazing as we hoped - no, scratch that - it's been better. Great gigs, great crowds, great responses, oh and the odd comedy moment!

Every small unsigned, unsupported band is out for their big break and we're no exception. But whenever and however that break arises, with excitement and elation also comes a lot of hard work. That has certainly been true for us, getting confirmed as the support to Steel Panther.

You want some gigs? Well, we've got 'em!

Right now in the US, stories of popular indie bands such as Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective etc, are getting loads of attention. By today's standards they're doing really well, having sold hundreds of thousands albums and downloads. But is it enough to survive?

From the upper echelons of the West London venue, I overlooked a jam-packed audience nodding their heads in unison as the five-piece band opened with the hypnotically folksy beat of 'Shield Your Eyes'. Moving into 'New Ceremony' followed by 'History Book', the band played more like an orchestra with the addition of a brass section that amped up the softer songs to give a more anthem-like feel.

By supporting these shows you're supporting the acts and the thriving community they represent. These talented musicians just want to be heard and this is the way to see them at their very best!

Apologies to anyone who came to see us in New York, Chicago or any of the Canadian shows, but LA stormed in as our best gig of the tour. The room was big and packed, the sound was thumping and we played an absolute corker, even if I say so myself.

Coming out of Montana and into Idaho was so dramatic I almost parked the van and cracked into a few poems.

So for all the wonderful privileges that being the in-house photographer for The Fly magazine brings, the greatest challenge for me is constantly coming up with new ideas for shoots to best represent the huge array of fantastic musical artists the title constantly features.

The idea that Spotify is somehow bad for the music industry is farcical. I read today that Coldplay are not releasing their new album on Spotify - ost...

We've all had the dream - trekking across Europe aboard a ten-berth sleeper bus, stocked to the ceiling with free booze and free drugs, leaving just enough room for the free women that inevitably follow rock bands across the globe.