With highlights including Body Vice (at Cobalt Studios), Diiv (Newcastle Riverside), The Ramonas (Head of Steam) and Courteny Dixon (Charts), by March I was pretty confident that my 2020 gig experience was going to be the best year ever… but fair play to the SSD gang (and particularly to Supergrass and Van Morrison) who kept the live scene alive when many had given up; the Virgin Media Arena shows were a credit to the region.  With so much non-gig-time on my hands most other highlights remained ‘indoors’, with ‘Boy Parts’ by local author Eliza Clark being particularly enthralling and new music by local artists Max Bianco, Martha Hill and L Devine being often set to repeat.