HELLO live music lovers of St Helens. I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year and enjoyed your local live music over the festive period.

I decided to take a break over Christmas and New year but now I'm back now for the quiet period at the start of the year when everyone recovers from the holiday season.

It's been a bit quiet recently on the gig front but as we head into the latter part of January it's all hotting up again and 2016 promises to be even bigger than 2015, which proved one of the biggest years for music in the town in a while.

A few bits of news first, with the Mad Hatters' jam night, which had been held on Thursdays at the Lounge, has returned to its spiritual home at the Rendezvous on Church street.

Greg Davies and crew will welcome jammers old and new back to one of St Helens' best venues starting this Thursday (January 21) at 9pm.

Over on the Westfield Street side of town Tank Bar hosts Bandit & Butler who are almost the house band and have appeared regularly at this compact and Bijou venue. Tank commander Ian Whittaker has a great line up of live music in the pipeline for 2016 and more on that in future instalments of the Glasstown guide.

Friday sees a new name appearing at the newly-christened Rendezvous. On the Edge are a well established band and probably not an unfamiliar name to those who check out the North West bands website, www.nwb.co and have been regular visitors to many venues across the region over many years. Well worth checking out on Friday night

All the regular gigs and open mic nights are up and running as usual, and to find out who's on where our weekly gig guide is back:

Thursday, January 21

The Rendezvous Music Bar, Church Street, town centre - Greg Davies and the Mad Hatters jam night 9pm

Tank, Westfield Street, town centre - Bandit & Butler 9.30pm

The Sefton Arms, Baldwin Street, town centre - Joe Arnold 4pm

Friday, January 22

The Griffin Inn, Earle Street, Earlstown - Chicken Run 9.45pm

The Sefton Arms, Baldwin Street, town centre -Tricast (formerly The Swifty's) open mic night 9pm

The Junction Inn, News Lane, Rainford - Open mic night 9pm

The Rendezvous Music Bar, Church Street, town centre -, On The Edge 10pm

Bird I'th Hand, Prescot Road - Devotion 9pm

Saturday, January 23

The Junction Inn, News Lane, Rainford - 909 9.30pm

The Griffin, Earle Street, Earlestown - Gypsy 9.45pm

Bird I'th Hand, Prescot road - Ziggy's Glam Rock Show 9pm

The Red Lion, Robins Lane, Sutton - The Buzz 9.30pm