DWAHLINGS, hello again, mwah mwah.

I've been off work for a week, cultivating my luxuriant moustache hair and buffing my spats to a shine so refulgent that ships have been inadvertently lured on to the rocks.

My path to work this morning was strewn with rose petals thrown by attractive young doxies who swooned into a dead faint as my sedan chair hove into view, and the day has only improved since my personal letter-opener festooned my desk with a rare selection of musical sweetmeats, starting with The Great Gig In The Sky (Weymouth Pavilion Ocean Room, Friday, 8pm, £10).

As the title would suggest, this is a full-scale, no-expense-spared Pink Floyd extravaganza, brought to you by the core team of local lovelies (Ricky Stevenson, Chris Page, Paul Graham, Steve Garden, Rob Paull, Timmy Wheeler) who so successfully staged the Dark Side Of The Moon evening in the Pavilion seven or more years ago. I was there, and I can vouch for the fact that the accuracy of the whole undertaking was positively scary.

This time round, the amount of work that has gone into it is so staggeringly extensive and painstaking that, well, it makes the Great Wall Of China look like a DIY patio, constructed by notoriously impractical me, using porridge instead of grout.

Bringing together members of The Crack, Pondlife and Loop Garou, as well as Jess Upton, Steve Wilson, Gabby Hitchin, Anjee Hughes and Julie Trevett, The Great Gig In The Sky promises to be a complete jaw-dropper for all Floyd fanatics, and a few surprises are temptingly promised.

Will there be anything from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn? A few highlights from The Wall, perhaps? You'll have to nip along and find out.

My pal Big Pete is involved in the production side, and he's not a chap who impresses easily - yet he's practically speechless at how Floyd-like it sounds and how professionally-staged it all is, which is as high a recommendation as I can possibly give you.

Missing it isn't an option.

Now, those of you who fancy a little musical aperitif before the Floyd event might like to consider a jaunt to Parkstone this evening to catch the legendary sixties titans The Animals (Mr Kyps, Ashley Cross, Parkstone, tonight, support by The Recliners, £7, 01202 748945).

For my money, The Animals were rivalled only by The Pretty Things in terms of disseminating tough, lantern-jawed R&B, and Eric Burdon heads up the list of Britain's most under-rated vocalists as well as being admirably unrepentant about the controversial Sixties ethos.

When a bunch of rock luminaries were interviewed recently for an anniversary programme about the infamous 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, all of them shuffled their feet with embarrassment, mumbling "well, it was the Sixties after all." The notable exception was Eric Burdon, who threw his head back and bellowed the following thoughtful statement in fluent Tyneside Mid-Atlantic tones: "It was MAAAAGICAL: The sun was comin' up, we was aaaall takin' droogs. Ah coulda diiiyyyed thaaat day."

Burdon's long-time compadre, John Steel, still occupies the drum stool with The Animals: I saw the latest line-up a couple of years back and was hugely impressed by how stern and refreshingly un-showbizzy they were. They come out and hammer through their marvellous back catalogue with hearty conviction.

Coincidentally, a Sixties R&B contemporary of The Animals is blowing through the locale this very weekend: Stand up and bend those high notes Ian Briggs & The Supervampers (Dorchester Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm, £8/£5 under-18s/NUS cardholders, tickets on 01305 266926).

Ian Briggs has been playing blues harp since the early Sixties, picking off lesser lights and rising through the ranks to win the National Harmonica League championship in 1989 - then achieving fourth place in the world championships. Sterling support is provided by The Supervampers, including ex-Graham Bond sideman Dave Sheen on drums and vocals.

An evening in the company of Ian and his top-notch band is a splendid way to kick off the new season of Bluesnights at Dorchester: Blues In Britain magazine's review of Ian's last visit to the arts centre described the evening as 'a couple of hours of unadulterated virtuosity', and you can't say fairer than that.

Finally, I trust you'll join with me in toasting Luke Adams, my grinning Gothic Chicken colleague, who is the proud father of a newly-minted baby boy called Stanley. Giant congratulations to Luke, Pebble and, of course, the boy Stanley.