Last year's highlights on the Isle of Man music scene? Well, that's a tricky one.

There were some amazing concerts during 2009, and the bar was certainly raised in terms of the quality of artists being brought to the Isle of Man.

Lenny Conroy of Triskel Promotions brought us some of the finest music available in the British Isles. His major coup was a gig by the Kaiser Chiefs in August before their Leeds and Reading Festival gigs, an amazing performance by the band making full use of the Villa Marina including the dress circle.

Lenny also presented Christine Collister's Tour Preview Show at the Erin Arts Centre at the end of TT, then Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam's 'one night only' gig at the Gaiety.

Lenny's final commercial gig of the year was Tom McRae at the Centenary Centre, Peel, which some say was the gig of the year in 2009.
As always Lenny provided plenty of local band entertainment at the Bay Hotel and on the beach in Port Erin during TT and also in Bushy's Beer Tent during TT.

Mark Armstrong, of Talismann, brought talented bluesman Marcus Bonfanti back to the Island for a couple of visits last year — both of which were well received, and Mark also organised a Manx Musicians showcase at the end of June featuring Truman Falls, Steph Gomaa with Hannah Layhe, Jack Wolter and Helen Morrison.

The showcase was attended by Derrin Nauendorf, who played at the Big Wheel Blues Festival in 2007, and was back in the Island for the weekend having played support for an amazing gig by 'The Gathering, Legends of Folk Rock' — featuring Jerry Donahue, Ray Jackson (of Lindisfarne), Doug Morter, Clive Bunker, Kristina Donahue and Matt Pegg.
Mark Armstrong also brought over New2 (a U2 tribute), the Kaiser Thiefs (have a guess!) and tribute act Coldplace who played another excellent gig at the Outback on December 13.

He also introduced us to Tristan O'Meara, an amazing talent who entertained us by playing the digeridoo, harmonica and multiple guitars.
Mark is bringing 80s music maestro Midge Ure to the Centenary Centre for two sell-out gigs on February 13 and 14.

Meanwhile, Chris McGahan brought over Fairport Convention, supported by Phil Cool and Ken Nicol, for a sell-out gig at the Centenary Centre in March.

I understand they are returning to the Island to play the Gaiety Theatre on March 4.

Other highlights at Peel last year included sell-out gigs by honky-tonk band Los Pistoleros (who will return in April) featuring top class session musicians and slide guitarist BJ Cole, who will be returning as part of folk guitarist Martin Simpson's band, which is playing at Peel on February 27.

There was another standing room only gig at Peel by folk legends Julie Matthews and Chris While who returned to the Island after a long break.
Special Arts Council sponsorship allowed Peel another coup in the form of a sell-out gig by internationally renowned world class musicians Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba, a triumph for Dave McLean and the Centenary Centre team.

Another phenomenal gig by Jeff Lang and Grant Cummerford at Peel, with support from Clara Barker and Rhysical Pheck, was a personal highlight as I got a chance to sing on stage with Jeff. Grainne Duffy and her band played a phenomenal concert at Peel in April as a warm-up for the Big Wheel Blues Festival in Laxey.

The festival itself featured amazing performances by Jeremiah Marques and the Blue Aces, Kyla Brox Band, blues legend Miller Anderson, Eddie Martin Trio, Rodney Brannigan and Rogue Dolls.

There were also loads of brilliant performances by local bands and musicians including the Heights, Beastie Dovey, Redgap and I Am President.

May 2010's Big Wheel Blues Festival is on May 1 and 2, and is going to feature as headliners Larry Garner and the Norman Beaker Band plus Netherlands-based Ana Popovic. More details will follow shortly.
Sponsors for the Blues Festival are urgently needed.

The Isle of Man & MGP GuitarFest in association with Isle of Man Arts Council saw another two legends visiting the Island — Pierre Bensusan and Gordon Giltrap co-headlining the festival, with other amazing gigs by classical player Gary Ryan (a professor at the Royal College of Music), by Rod Clements of Lindisfarne and by Angelo Palladino and his band.

Angelo played as support to Jon Gomm for JonnoPromotions at the Promenade Suite in January 2009 – one of the best gigs of the year for me.

Also featuring at GuitarFest were Pete Smith, Amrit Sond and Michael Berk (who now owns and runs London jazz and blues venue Round Midnight in Islington).

A large number of local guitarists played free of charge for the public on the Manx Telecom acoustic stage over the course of the weekend.

Soon after the GuitarFest, Patsy Matheson played on the Island with accompaniment by Clive Gregson, who also led a songwriting workshop supported by the Arts Council.

I was honoured to be asked to act as a judge for the Battle of the Bands competition at Amber in November, which reinforced to me that there are many talented musicians on the Island playing top-quality music across a range of genres.

There were many excellent performances from winning finalists Grambo, runners-up Uber-Room, newly-formed and brilliantly melodic band Abrasive Melody and metal band Durgen Mortice.

My musical year ended with a great concert by Paul Young's Tex Mex outfit — Los Pacaminos — which was excellent fun, if somewhat modestly attended, and that has been the story of the year, for me.

Big name events were very well attended (and sold out very quickly — as with Live Nation's Bryan Adams Bare Bones Tour event at the Villa in January 2010) but it has been a struggle to sell tickets for gigs by 'non-chart' artists or for well-known artists playing in a non-standard format.

The year 2009 was really challenging and to set the record straight, the vast majority of my gigs in 2009 were loss-making. I was, however, thrilled to be approached by James Craig and Pete Williamson of Pigs On The Wing to promote their gig with Planes over Paris for the benefit of Nick Crowe and Mark Cox.

The event was a complete sell out and raised £13,000 for the injured TT riders.

This was a phenomenal achievement due, in most part, to the generosity of Justin McMullin of ELS and a number of other sponsors.

The event's success was due to the time and effort put in by Andy James in organising and stage managing the event.

I would like to thank all those support artists who gave their time and energy free of charge.

Also I'd like to pass my thanks to Anglin Buttimore and Dick Best for their help with sound at the various gigs and the GuitarFest.

Thanks to Dave McLean, Ernie Leece, Jim Grahame and the rest of the sound and lighting crew and all the Friends of the Centenary Centre for their assistance with events held there.

A big thank you to Ken Mitchell at Peter Norris Music who has assisted me on a number of occasions with loans of equipment and for his partnership during GuitarFest in providing a venue for the workshops.
Thanks also to the team at Peter Norris for their support in marketing events and selling tickets.

Thanks also to the local music stations who support local promoters with event announcements and to John Gregory and all the other journalists at Isle of Man Newspapers who support us with articles and by attending and reporting on events.

Finally thanks to Tim and Tom Cass for their work on the www.jonnopromotions.com website and for developing and enhancing www.eTickets.im enabling me to sell tickets for a number of my events this year.

The year 2010 looks set to be even busier here in the Isle of Man and while wishing you all season's greetings and a Happy New Year, I also wish all musicians, promoters and venues success for all their endeavours in the year ahead.