"Quality, sheer quality," asserted the guy in the gents next to me at The Bebside Inn near Blyth in Northumberland. This was half time during a Happy Cats concert and everyone was whistling Fairytale of New York, the number with which the band had finished the first set. It was his first live experience of the band who are now getting some well-deserved airplay. It appears that the "quality" is being recognised by more than just those of us who travel miles to see them play. It was also a bizarre experience for us. The crowd was mostly locals who would have been there that evening had the entertainment just been a domino match. It felt like we had gatecrashed a ZZ Top convention as the place was packed with bald, bearded, tattooed, muscle bound, leather clad characters - the men looked even meaner! At previous gigs there has always been a fair proportion of the crowd who have turned up to see the band. The lads clearly had their work cut out but we needn't have worried. By the time a mechanical cat had been presented to them and they were told it would only stop mewing if they played a third encore we knew we had witnessed another standard Cats gig where nearly everyone had a great time. These talented professionals won over the crowd, turned in another polished display and did their CD sales no harm at all as well as enhancing their reputation as one of, if not the best live act around. They play something for everyone with songs by artists such as Mark Knopfler, Shania Twain, Van Morrison, The Saw Doctors, Dylan, Elvis and, naturally, Alan Hull played alongside their own material. Their message forum is full of requests to play further afield in places such as Bedfordshire and South Wales.(see www.thehappycats.com) The time will surely come when they receive national recognition for their own songs - the album is called Follow the Moon and the title track is as good a song as you'll ever hear. Until that time arrives the good folks of the North-East have got them to themselves and certainly the Bebside In-crowd know how lucky they are.