With just over a month to go until the new Baths Hall is opened workmen can be seen putting the finishing touches to the frontage of the building.

Due to open on 11th November the first act at the new venue will see comic and musician Bill Bailey bring his show Dandelion Mind to the Baths Hall. Featuring his trademark musical interludes, observations and stories of the road, Dandelion Mind is based loosely on the theme of doubt, plus barely contained rants about celebrity, TV, and Michael Winner. He demonstrates new instruments, both ancient and modern, he sings an internet love song, a lament about punk heroes, Iranian hip-hop and plays a mean folk-bouzouki. Thomas the Doubter gets a new look, the finer points of nuclear physics and the myth of intelligent design are all worked over in Bill’s own surreal style. He revisits the music of his youth with a French Disco re-working of Gary Numan’s hit ‘Cars’, played in his own inimitable way, and maybe some Wurzels-based remixes of classic German techno.

The following night, Saturday 12th, sees the Rock Open final take place when six bands from across the region and their fans will go into battle. On the Sunday night, 13th November, Rachel Day will host a show of local talent, including Grace Bower, 22, and her grandfather Ted Hall, who reached the semi- finals of the TV show Britain’s Got Talent. Class Act 2011 winner Fiona Lamaudiere, 16, will also be performing on the night whilst local drumming band Crimson Thunder also hope to appear.