As featured a couple of weeks ago in this section, How's My Pop's new CD, On The Hop will be on sale at the Gregson Centre in Moor Lane tonight, Friday – where you can watch the band play live too.

They'll be supported by Ivan Campo and Homemade Lemonade.

Doors open at 8pm, entry is £3 and CDs cost a fiver.

Down at the Yorkshire House in Parliament Street, Lancaster's Electric Free Time Machine launch their debut album Mystery With Hermit Foil, with support coming from Manchester's Sam and The Plants (DIY pastoral krautrock psyche-folk), Voytek The Bear (abrasive grooves, sleazy dub funk and infectious melodies), and a solo set from Dan Haywood.

Expect "fast and bulbous blues stomps and vast experimental krautrock ambient strangeness, to abrasive shambolic metal, strange time shifts and delicate acoustic folk..." from the Machine.

Admission is £1, and the album costs £4.

Doors open at 8pm.

As you read this, I'll be pitching my tent at this year's Beatherder Festival taking place near Sawley in the Ribble Valley, about an hour's drive from Lancaster.

Reverend and the Makers, Beardyman, The Whip and Utah Saints headline, and Lancaster's One Love Sound System wil be dishing out roots rock reggae in the Bushrocker Family Hi Fi. Another highlight will be the Hang Project.

I won't say any more other than it involves a very unique drum! Check them out at myspace.com/thehangproject.

And while it wasn't exactly Glastonbury, there was definitely a festival feel at the Royal Hotel in Heysham on Sunday afternoon with performances from 24/7 and The Bottlenecks outside in the beer garden.

The place was packed – and both bands entertained young and old, with some great Guns n' Roses and Aerosmith covers from The Bottlenecks.

The Royal have two more events lined up as well – The Big Afternoon takes place on July 26, and The Hoodoos perform on August 30.

Finally, Lancaster band Djune made it into the top five bands in this year's Live and Unsigned 2009 competition, seeing off more than 10,000 others to get to the final stage, judged by Annie Nightingale and Malcolm McLaren, at Portsmouth Guild Hall last week.

For more information on Live and Unsigned 2010, with auditions beginning in January for all unsigned acts, bands or soloists, go to www.LiveandUnsigned.Uk.com.