Isn’t nice when folks just all get along?

Here at the Manx Sound Exchange, we always thinks that its always nice to be nice to each other and to turn the other cheek.

Thankfully, so do most of the good folks around the Manx music scene and, if they don’t, well there is always the ’Bitching Party’ to go along to, have a beer and get it all off your chest.

This weekend, there was happy ending to a little spat between two groups which not only worked out nicely for all those involved, but also helped to raised a good chunk of money for a good cause.

The Soundcheck Youth Music was handed a cheque for £500 last week after singer-songwriter Jamie Blackburn and the group the Tinkermen decided to shake hands and move on from a rather public falling-out.

Jamie recently found himself on the wrong end of a misguided promotional stunt by the Tinkermen after both acts were due to appear at the Secret Pizza Company last weekend and, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing over Facebook, they decided to make up with a nice gesture.

Jamie explains: ’After some recent drama whereby a fellow band had scrubbed out my name from the Secret Pizza November gig lineup due to a small feud, The Tinkermen and I decided it was time to bury the hatchet.

’We got together, talked it out and came to the resolution to donate the gig proceeds from my November 14 gig at Secret Pizza to charity.

’This amount was then matched by The Tinkermen making the donation £500 in total.

’When friends fight no body wins, regardless of the outcome and, as myself, Dom Scaddan and Ryan Archibald (both of The Tinkermen) started off in Soundcheck IoM we saw it fitting to donate the funds there.

’We are very pleased to move forward and continue working to the benefit of the local music scene and hopefully help younger kids take the torch when we are too old to carry our Marshall 4x12s into a Friday night gig.’

Jamie and Ryan both donated the cheque to Jenni Smith, from Soundcheck, at Secret Pizza Company on Saturday.

See? Nice things can happen in 2020.

Speaking of the Bitching Party, tickets have now gone on sale for this year’s concert and, by all accounts are selling fast.

With good reason too, as there is a decent line up in the offering. Headlining this year’s event is the rock monsters themselves, DC/AC, supported by the electro-rock outfit Dusty Plankton and indie surf-rockers Voodoo Bandits.

The Bitching Party was resurrected last year in the memory of legendary sound guru Mo Maddrell, and was once an annual event that brought together the best and the worst of the islands’s rock scene.

It takes place in the Promenade Suite at the Villa Marina on Sunday, December 27, from 7.30pm and tickets are £1o each, available from villagaiety.com