FANCY some "Bristol squelch beat"? If so, heavily tipped Chikinki will be making plenty of noise at Fibbers on Sunday, the night before they release new single Like It Or Leave It on the Island label.

Chance and destiny threw the five-piece together in Bristol in the late 1990s when vocalist Rupert Browne, drummer Steve Bond, guitarist Ed East and the keyboard twin turbine of Trevor Wensley and Boris ended up sharing a house in the city's Bedminster district. Chikinki Heights remains the band's nerve centre, home base and DIY recording studio.

Fibbers manager Tim Hornsby sounds impressed. "Name-checking the Beta Band and Bert Jansch, Primal Scream and Squarepusher, here's a dual-keyboard five-piece that fuses guitars, electronics and cocksure rock'n'roll swagger into a future-glam hybrid sound born from the fizzing chemistry of Bristol," he says.

Their debut album will be out in May, but why wait. Catch a glimpse of the British rock future live in York this weekend.

- BLUES veterans The Hamsters - alias Snail's Pace Slim, The Reverend Otis Elevator and Miss Zsa Zsa Poltergeist - hit Fibbers one more time tomorrow. Some Hendrix, some ZZ Top, some personal stuff, some band.

- If The Hamsters have been there, done that, been there again, then the Access To Music Regional Festival is a chance for new talent to have its day and night in an all-day event on Monday. Access To Music provides music education and training services for more than 1,300 students in programmes run by 150 tutors in 16 towns and cities across England, from Portsmouth in the south to York and Middlesbrough in the north.

TWO heats in two nights, the pace is building in Round One of the Fibbers/ Evening Press Battle of the Bands 2004 at Fibbers in York. This week, heat five on Monday was won by Vanacutt, who secured the Secret Panel vote beating second-placed Independent State, and on Tuesday, Filthy Sanchez also found favour with the Secret Panel in their victory in heat six. Solstice came second with 33.9 per cent of the vote, a figure that stands them in good stead of progressing to round two as the highest-scoring runner-up so far. In heat seven on Tuesday next week, competition joint favourites Sixty 6 enter the fray, ranked at 2/1 in the unofficial Fibbers betting along with Scassa Monakee. Thin Air, Fado Rock and Audiogasm will be looking to out-battle Sixty 6, kicking off at 7.30pm. Admission is £3.

- Fibbers extends a big thanks to everyone who attended the Passport: Back To The Bars charity shows by Blazin' Squad, Spiritualized and Badly Drawn Boy last week. Collections were held on the door and over the bar and an extra £1,478 was donated to Shelter and War Child.

Updated: 15:38 Thursday, March 11, 2004