Last time The Dwarves fitted a UK date or two into a tour, it was at a Northern venue with an in house soundman who couldn't have known less about music if he'd given himself an aural lobotomy. Squinting my ears though, I could just about make out the foundations of a killer show through the distortion and feedback, meaning that I was stoked to see them at a completely different venue this time round; in fact two venues, as Sunday night's full band carnage was followed by a Monday night acoustic set which promised a more intimate, clear rendition of Blag Dahlia’s gleefully offensive lyric book.

Sunday night was a late starter due to the myriad distractions offered by a BBQ at Stockwell skatepark, so I arrive at Dingwall's in Camden just in time for the headliners to kick off with 'Let me Show you how it's Done' morphing straight into 'Speed Demon'. With Nick Oliveri naked apart from his bass guitar, Blag down the front regularly drawling that 'The Dwarves are rock legends' and the entire band a tightly packed whirlwind of energy, this is a set which perfectly treads the line between tongue in cheek humour and full bore rock music at its most dirty and menacing. The set is heavy on classics from various points in their back catalogue, but thankfully did not mirror sets of old too closely - the shows which would end in fighting and broken instruments after no more than a few minutes have been replaced by a band who look pretty stoked to be playing music together. Oliveri ably takes vocal duties for a couple of songs but it is Blag's voice, switching in an instant from snarling rage to sarcastic croon, which gives the band their quintessential sound. Not to detract from the other members at all, Oliveri's bass playing is unmistakable in every band he has been in and guitarist The Fresh Prince of Darkness is spot on throughout. Their drummer, name lost in the alcohol fog of my evening's mental lubrication, holds together the non-stop assault right until the very last note and we are left to take our sweaty, booze addled selves home.

The next night, we tackle our hangovers head on and get in the street beers before heading back to Camden - this time to the smaller confines of The Stillery. How does the Dwarves acoustic set compared to the previous night's chaos? Well for one thing I catch the support acts, who I'd be happy to go and see on their own. As we reach the venue, Alex and Mark from Wonk Unit are just getting down to things. It is a testament to the band's ear for a hook that their songs convert so well to a stripped down, unplugged set (in fact, that is true of all tonight's acts.) Alex's a cappella introduction's highlight the poetry of his words, while classics like 'Horses' and 'She Cut Her Finger' invite plenty of sing-alongs from a crowd clearly well versed in their back catalogue. 

The same vibe carries on to Duncan Redmonds' set, a clearly partisan London crowd offering plenty of opportunity for the Snuff, Billy No Mates and Guns 'n' Wankers front-man to get comfortable and chat between songs. Running jokes on belching and Status Quo are weaved into a set of songs from a variety of Redmonds' projects and some choice covers, which in this format brings to mind an acoustic one man Small Faces, but more raucous. Finishing the set with Tom Jones only widens the grins on peoples' faces!

Blag, Nick and The Fresh Prince of Darkness then take to the stage and get settled. Clearly relishing the chance for a mellower set at the end of the tour and still proclaiming themselves rock legends, the stripped down format of the night offers a chance for Blag to really enunciate every lyric to come out of his mouth. In a room consisting only of fans, many familiar faces from the night before, the set is heavy on requests and the three of them seem very much at ease. Hearing beacons of taste and decency like 'Let's Fuck' and 'Drug Store', slowed and stripped, will probably go down as one of my favourite gig experiences. Not a short set, we are offered the full extent of the band's collective imagination and we lap up every minute of it. We leave reassured that The Dwarves are young, they are good looking, and they are rock motherfucking legends...

I’m standing roughly in the middle of the floor, we’ve been warmed up by Katie Collins, Vish Amarasinghe and the wonderful Benjamin Folke Thomas. We’re in a good place.

When Beans On Toast gets on stage, the atmosphere is honey-and-melted-butter-warm. This is a hero’s welcome: it’s like a homecoming party which is particularly interesting because Beans' home is back east in Essex.

It’s really all about the lyrics with the guitar (named Martin) a means of carrying the message – think of it like Royal Mail but back when it was publicly owned. If there’s a way to describe the content of the set, it’d be this: part political manifesto, part music gig, part drug truth and part love story. However the facts are well and truly over-ridden by an atmosphere that I've never felt at gigs before. And this does not dwindle, sometimes it increases, for instance when Beans gets down into the crowd to sing; when he berates members of the audience for filming rather than watching and experiencing the gig; when he lets us in on “secrets”; and something even better which I’ll end on.

He is a magician in Nineties clothing, a street prince and he is captivating and beguiling, childlike and a man all at once. There really is such a lot of love in this barn (sounds a bit like Christ). With some acts you’re very much aware of structure and place – it’s a gig, it’s going through the motions. Beans is all about the connection. It’s all about getting across simple but lost messages that we should be good and honest to each other and find value in what is really important.

Nattering, bringing it down to the crowd means that Beans’ messages sink down and you feel them good and proper. You feel included in some cosmic secrets (‘Orange’) about the mistreatment of nature and our fellow man as well as love and drugs and it really makes you wonder why we just can’t all get along, lovingly illustrated by the song ‘The War On War’. The happy-go-lucky timbre of Beans’ songs is the spoonful of sugar that makes what could be quite hard to swallow political angst, go down. He apologises for talking so much – but he knows we love it. Several times he asks us if we want him to be honest with us. Of course we say yes. I won’t tell you what he told us, you’ll have to go to the gigs.

I expect drug songs on the night and complete advocation of them, but their role is small, much to the chagrin of some of the audience – bless ‘em. However, Beans really knows how to work a crowd and they love his honesty in that he says a lot of it was great and he wouldn’t change it but “I’ve had my fill” which makes everyone laugh. When he sings, ‘MDMAmazing’ with such conviviality and without regret I believe him. One thing you do feel is that he associates drug culture with positive human emotion and togetherness – peace – that society seems to be losing. And against this he berates modern culture and social networks for undoing real human social interactions.

Although the politics matter, as do the drugs, this actually boils down to a love story. The show ends with a special song. We’re all blissful like bees supping on jam and perhaps its because the man on stage is in love? She’s had a mention here and there and he’s clearly so proud to be able to end on her. She really is where it stops:

“without [her] it wouldn’t be possible or at least it wouldn’t be right” – ‘Microwave Popcorn’.

Some artists and bands are noticeably different – if not worse – when live. Beans On Toast is made for live shows and if you are going to experience the delight, and I urge you to, then catch him for real and in the flesh. Buy an album, buy all the albums but only as a reminder of the cracking night you’ve had, a night where you were at the best party and it was the best party because the music is happy and the words are true and the singer is in love and so are you – a little bit.

"I’ve got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead, to buy me a tombstone so I can be pronounced dead" - BB King. 

Next month an area of sleepy Suffolk will see the arrival of a small part of the Deep South of the USA. The second annual Red Rooster festival, set in the beautiful grounds of Euston Hall and will take place from 5th June through to 7th June. Although still in its infancy the festival has expanded and has some of the finest talent around. 

One of the organisers of the festival, Harry Grafton explained the festival's ethos and what festival goers can hope to expect: “It’s a small boutique festival that’s a celebration of all good things from the American south: - Blues, country and bluegrass along with great soul food and cooking.”

The Festival prides itself on selecting its acts as they are kind of particular about the music they champion, which is why you will find only the finest R&B, Americana, Soul, Blues, Roots and Country musicians on the bill. 

The Friday night will see two of the best UK blues acts in Kitty, Daisy & Lewis and Ian Siegal’s band. Although these two acts are vastly different in their approach, the music that has inspired them is central to the festival's core. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are the young singing siblings from Durham who have attracted a great following over the past few years with their interpretations of blues classics whilst Ian Siegal is more of your classic bluesman with a host of British Blues awards to his name. His much acclaimed 2011 album The Skinny was recorded in North Mississippi and well displays his wonderful abilities. 

On the Saturday night you can expect to see Son Of Dave's one man blues attack. Not necessarily one for for the purists as he uses a loop station alongside drum machines and a variety of magical pedals and a whole host of modern tech to deliver deep blues from the 21st century but who's to say even the blues can't develop? On the same night Aussie CW Stoneking is scheduled to deliver straight up traditional blues so traditionalists shouldn't be too greatly put out as this much lauded performer sets things back on track. 

Elsewhere on the event bill you'll find Duke Garwood (whose Heavy Love is one of the finest of 2015 so far in any musical style), the wonderful guitar talents of Marcus Bonfanti as well as the rocking blues sounds of Dollar Bill - all of whom we're looking forward too ourselves.

If that wasn’t enough the whole event is supported by the wonderful folk from The Blues Kitchen, home of one of the best podcasts on the web and who also have brought along their own gospel choir to play at the event.  

Like all great bespoke festivals the organisers understand that people dance and party once they have satisfied their bellies and with such a specific set of sounds on offer it’s obvious that the food has to match the occasion. Therefore the whole weekend is supported by a taste of the south which is based on delicious soul cooking. This will include the wonderful folks from MEATliquor where you can treat yourself to a Dead Hippie burger (real hippies not included). Alongside this is a wonderful array of foodie street food talent which includes Club Mexicana for all your Mexican needs plus such wonderfully named vendors as Colonel Tom Gumbo, Soul and Pepper and the Mac Factory.

It promises to be a wonderful weekend and if you are quick you may just get one of the few scarce tickets left here.   

The sun is shining on Whelan's, as it is shining on Fight Like Apes right now. After record company woes and a 5 year gap between albums, their eponymous album has finally arrived. They've booked 3 nights in Charleville Castle with buses coming from all around the country and today, with the CD finally in shops and online, they are having a celebratory matinee show for fans upstairs in Dublin’s famous home of live music. The all ages show is sponsored and free to fans who have bought the album on the day of release.

Critical response to the album has been broadly positive and many of the songs have been part of from Fight Like Apes’ live shows over the past few years. It’s almost ten years since vocalist MayKay and Pockets formed the group. There have been a number of changes to the rhythm section in that time but the dual core of the band remain intact and have lost little of their youthful shambolic intensity over that decade.  

The front row of the audience is made up of children. They sit patiently on the wooden dancefloor sipping sugary pop and waiting for the fizzy pop to begin onstage. Fight Like Apes are fashionably late and the start is delayed by technical difficulties. MayKay must appear like a proper old school pop star to the kids, with her back-combed hair and elaborate face paint, but they readily engage her in conversation while they wait. She offers sage advice to them about wearing earplugs, never incorporating a laptop into your live setup, and not drinking beer in the daytime, as the bands’ drinks arrive to the stage.

With the technical problems remedied the band launch straight into the opening track from Fight Like Apes; ‘I Am Not A Merryman’. It’s in the classic mold they first cast with their early EPs, all pounding rhythms, screechy synths, and an incessant vocal hook that will echo in the ears of the listener all day after first hearing it.

The grown ups in attendance are dancing carefully around the edges of the dancefloor so to avoid stepping on, or falling over,  the kids and it makes for a wholly different live atmosphere  to see the generation gap temporarily spanned through noisy tunes. MayKay walks down among the crowd during ‘Lend Me Your Face’ and invites delighted audience members to sing the chorus into her mic.

Old and new singles sit side by side in the hour long set and, even in a dry house with the blinds drawn against the afternoon sun, the crowd dance enthusiastically. One young man in particular is throwing eye-catching moves, limbs flailing and body popping like a karate rock Bez. MayKay singles him out, introduces him as her new favourite dancer, and the pair tear around the dancefloor during a riotous rendition of signature song, ‘Jake Summers’.

She returns her attention to children and explains that it’s OK to use bad language sometimes to express oneself creatively, and the band give a demonstration of that principle by playing ‘Ice Cream Apple Fuck’ and ‘Digifucker’ in quick succession. To be fair, the boys and girls don’t seem too bothered by it and a few of them seem fascinated by the old movie dialogue played during the breakdown in ‘Digifucker’.

The set finishes in the traditional manner with upturned keyboards and heads banging to old favourite 'Battlestations' and we emerge, blinking, into the sunlight; stone cold sober and with adrenaline pumping. As with their upcoming shows in Charleville Castle, Fight Like Apes specialise in unique gigging experiences.

Fight Like Apes is available from amazon & iTunes.