SO following on from last week’s punk all-dayer and Fieldview Festival Launch party, we stay in celebratory mode for a show at The Victoria tonight.

The Night of The Ocelot is the local entertainment guide’s annual gathering, a showcase of music and shenanigans, drinks and socialising and a chance to hang out with the team behind it.

Musically they have a stellar line up. All Ears Avow headline the night, a band who have technical roots but commercial aspirations, a blend that sees them appeal to cultist metallers and mainstream rock fans in equal measure.

Rock is also on the cards when Rival Pilots take the stage as urgency and aggression, melody and imagination combine in a sound that is less West Country and more Pacific North West Country. The Ocelot’s answer to Lester Bangs, Mike Barham, will be opening the night.

The Beehive will be dancing to a funkier, bluesy beat as Hip Route bring their brilliant rootsy sound to the venue, a soulful mix of rock and delta vibes. Guitars will slide, backbeats will boogie and the sound of screen doors slamming in the wind and the taste of mint julep easily spring to mind.

Staying at the aforementioned Beehive, Friday sees the fabulously named Bob Collum and The Welfare Mothers and their alt-country meets rock ‘n’ roll meets folk blends being brought to bear on the discerning music fan.

At The Victoria things are a lot more intense as those splendid chaps from Belial bring you some of the heaviest sounds around. It isn’t everyday that a Slovenian band passes through town but Within Destruction steer their tour this way and offer up a dark and thunderous musical landscape built on visceral riffs and brutal beats.

Trust Unclean also play with the same dystopian brutality and local outfits Roads To Nowhere and Ursus complete the package.

Sitting somewhere between the groove of the former show and the grunt of the latter, The Dirt Preachers delve into the rock back catalogue picking only the most soulful and blues-fuelled standards for their show at The Rolleston, whilst the perpetually honest In It For The Money bring a mixed bag of pop and rock covers to The Groves Company Inn.

Saturday takes its usual route into more familiar musical waters and The Killertones do their bit to further the cause of ska and reggae at The Victoria, so if you fancy a bit of offbeat skanking or groovesome gyration, you know the place to be. But, in the “if you like that, you may like this” department Blackmax and The Pirates are at The Groves Company Inn, another band offering ska covers, as well as some rock and punk, and all done with a nautical vibe…apparently.

Bleep Machines do not play ska. Nothing could be further from their mind. They are an 80s retro synth-pop outfit revelling in those classic tunes that were created as the punks explored new ideas and new technology, and didn’t have to hide their love of Bowie and Roxy Music any longer.

Bands such as Duran Duran, Human League and OMD glammed up and glitched out and you can relive that soundtrack at The Ferndale.

For legal reasons I must point out that other decades are available, like The Naughties covering the music of that period at The Rolleston.

There is a lot of talk these days about the demise of the music venue so at The Victoria on Sunday you will find the Save Swindon club night making a stand with a night of finely curated music courtesy of DJ sets from Chaney, Carl Hiett, Korim and Benny Zucco.

Your Sunday cure for your Saturday night fever can be found at Level III but this time with tongues firmly in cheek as Tragedy, an all-metal tribute to The Bee Gees reinvent disco and pop for the leather-clad hordes. Opener Surreal Panther set the strange benchmark for the night.

Old school rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and country can be found at The Groves Company Inn courtesy of The Bulltown Boys.

And finally, on Monday, Level III has a high octane, euphoric and energetic show in the guise of Special Brew, an 8 piece tribute to tongue in cheek, party ska band Bad Manners.