My hectic weekend started with the Beauty Of Poison at The Gaff. At last, the day of the drummer is here as two bands in one night had the addition of a new drummer each. I've been saying for ages now that real drummers and real instruments add colour to a live set, call me old fashioned but I like my music as real as possible when I see a band play. I can't resist a bad drummer joke: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? You only have to instruct the drum machine once.

Dead Heaven, a very talented band have added a drummer and what a difference it makes. Baz Dedhevan, singer of the band said that it has put new life into their music and he was right. When you get to see them, listen out for their song called ‘Dorian Grey'

NightPorter have also added a drummer and this was the first gig with this line-up so it was going to be interesting to see how they got on, especially because they were supporting Specimen the next day. Again, the difference in the music was immense, the energy and warmth from using real instruments and being 100% live gave it all a grin factor. There was a particularly interesting version of Riders On The Storm and a very beautiful rendition of 'Victoria',their hippy trippy love song along with the dance floor friendly Blood Rite.

The Mumbles are a two piece band consisting of a singer and keyboards, the best description for me being dark 80's sort of Goth, a bit Joy Divison, a bit Sisters, and a bit of something else. Great to chuck your body around the floor to.

Anyway, off to Slimelight for the Old Goth Reunion aka the Specimen gig. I wasn't sure if this was going to be hugely embarassing or a case of sheer brilliance. You kind of knew there was a party atmosphere when people were dancing on the tables before it had all begun.

NightPorter were special guests and any nerves weren't evident and again, they did a cracking set and they hadn't lost their drummer overnight either which in my view is a result. A lot of the sizeable crowd were getting on down and dancing to them, loads of cheering and loads of good feeling, in fact there was almost a sense of everyone having a mutual love fest. Here though, I would like to put out a request. If anyone has a tambourine that they don't want could they pass it on to Raven Porter so he's got something to play with on stage?

Like a fool I went downstairs to get some 'air', when I came back upstairs Specimen were already playing, the room was full of ex Batcavers and a mosh pit heaving away at the front. So there we all were, Specimen on stage, Ollie in his Day-Gloness and the crowd happily singing along. As I got further to the front and the smoke cleared, it was plain to see from Ollie Wisdom's face that he was loving it and had clearly reached a god-like status judging by the crowds' behaviour.

Now, when I looked to the side of the stage, Il Dottore, bass player from NightPorter was doing some fairly amazing dancing and his explanation was that he was helping the crowd along! Specimen hadn't lost it at all, older, yes but they still had the glamour but also a sense of cheekiness. They belted out the usual stuff - Hex, Beauty Of Poison, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and could do no wrong. I did actually hear one of my male friends say 'I've never fallen in love with a man and now I have' pointing at Ollie.

Gene Loves Jezebel, fronted by Jay Aston were on fairly late at night. This was a pre DV8 gig and just added to the whole re-living the past with a rosy glow thing that was going on. I last saw Gene Loves Jezebel back in the 80's at Rock City so I was re-living my own youth to an extent. They played the classic stuff such as 20KHZ, Rooftops, Josephina, Gorgeous and Desire as well as newer songs and seemed genuinely surprised when they were called back on for an encore.

Slimelight then continued through to 6.30 am playing non-stop Goth to full floors as the partying continued. I'm sure that some things weren't perfect but I don't think anyone cared as the atmosphere was jumping. We drank too much and partied too hard and some of us older Goths are still drinking extra fruit juice in an attempt to recover but who cares. My ears have stopped ringing from standing next to the speakers, the pain in my feet has finally gone and I can piece the events together as blood has replaced the alcohol in my veins.