2020 is destined go out with a bang this year, if the amount of gigs that are taking place around the island are anything to go by.

It’s pretty staggering how many gigs there are out there at the moment, and it pays testimony to both the hard work of many of the local bands and solo singers, and also the faith shown in performers by pubs in all corners of the island.

Pats on the back are due all round, I reckon.

One such hard-working solo singer is Eoin Molyneux.

Not only is he regularly appearing at a good many venues at the moment, with four gigs racked up last weekend alone, he also released his latest EP recently.

’Last of The One Man Band’ features five songs of well-crafted, light-spirited indie rock, reminiscent of classic Oasis and the Last of the Shadow Puppets.

It starts out with the rocky, bouncing single ’All of Me’, which is pure early Oasis, complete with a real ear-wom of a chorus.

From there, things mellow out, with ’Same old Stories’, ’Fuse’ and the excellent ’Ghosts’ (my personal favourite) providing some dreamy, ambient soulful moments.

Final track ’Girl’ makes sure the EP finishes on a bit of an anthemic, chorus-led sing-along, and has a great feel of an unfinished demo-feel about it.

’Last of the One Man Band’ is available on the usual outlets of Spotify, iTunes and Amazon Music.

Eoin also launched his new band ’A Third Above’, last week featuring Eoin on guitars and vocals along with fellow singer and guitarist Jon Lightfield and vocalist Lauren Molyneux.

They made their live debut at last Friday’s Deep South concert, supporting Buncha Skankas at Tower House.

Eoin will be performing more solo gigs this week at the Dog’s Nollick, East Quay in Peel on Friday, followed by a night at 1886, Douglas, from 10pm.

Voodoo Bandits frontman Ben Donaldson and solo singer songwriter Kizzie Puzzar joined Christine Collister, Alex Maxwell and the Roc Vannin choir to record ’Keep Us in Your Heart this Christmas’, a bright and cheery Christmas song written and produced by Simon Rae and Dave Armstrong.

The song has been commissioned to help encourage people to shop local and support local businesses this year.

The song, with accompanying video produced by Glenn Whorrall, can be seen on the Douglas Town Centre Management Facebook page.

And finally this week, classic rock monsters Final Cut are preparing to call it a day with a big almighty blow-out at Quids Inn this coming Saturday.

Featuring singer and guitarist Ian Astill, bassist Luke Chambers and drummer Ross Doyle, the group have been plugging away for nine years and feel like now is good time to explore other ventures.