Willy Mason at The Wedgewood Rooms

Willy Mason has spent twenty-odd years writing plainspoken, weathered folk-rock songs that reward hearing live far more than on record — a genuine cult favourite rather than a nostalgia act. The Wedgewood Rooms is the kind of low-ceilinged, no-frills room that suits him: a few hundred capacity, a stage you can nearly touch, none of the distance of an arena tour.

Southsea's seafront pubs are two minutes away for a pint before or after, and it's an easy solo trip — gig crowds here are chatty rather than cliquey.