It's snowing in Dundee and my fire lighting skills are proving non-existent as I look down towards the city where, for the past two nights, I've been in the audience for what is possibly the best value for money punk/diy festival in the UK - Book Yer Ane Fest (a second festival in the space of a week which is almost at the decade mark). Take into account that the ticket monies go to the Safe Tay charity and you're looking at an event with even more heart.

That it's got a good team behind it in the organisational, social media and sound engineering areas has been evident from when it first came across our radar & that's only been reinforced since Friday as the main Buskers venue and the downstairs Vestry have had exemplary sound across the board, with the engineer lad upstairs nipping about to sort minor issues practically before they occur (when not also kicking off the stage diving or playing in Maxwell's Dead).

Friday night was a riotous, inflatables-and-balloons, hearts on sleeves and emotional night with a great sense of the familial aspect of the scene being catered to and the love within it. Saturday was no less inclusive but more down to the business of getting the bands on and off again. Sunday I'll cover tomorrow.

As you'd expect it's been a mixed bag of acts on off and, having seen 20 out of 31 performances so far (the worst of which infact came during my afternoon at Tannadice watching Dundee United lose yet again) this would become a far too longwinded piece if I detailed them all. Links where possible will let you hear what you want anyway.

So, at the upper end of the scale and in no particular order were The Spook School, Get It Together, The Exhausts (bring to mind The Stupids), Maxwell's Dead, Uniforms (manfully dealing with some band name theft for their final show), Tim Loud (epically overcoming handcramps to complete 'I Don't Care What Everyone Else Says About You, I Think You're A Cunt') and Make War (getting the better of UK Border Control to make it along). Comfortably in the middle were Shatterhand, Veto, Good Grief, Tim Holehouse, Will Wood, Broken Stories, The Kimberley Steaks, The Murderburgers (who last time I saw them were three wee Scottish guys but now comprise one of those & 2/3s of Rational Anthem. New album out in 2016 on Asian Man Records anyway) and Great Cynics. Those not quite reaching me being PMX, Rational Anthem, Lachance & Cavalcades. Catholic Guilt deserve a mention too for having soap for sale in their merchandise, surely a first.

21 more acts on offer on Sunday so time now to get geared up for those as that fire's not looking any hotter and they like to start performances early around these parts.

As small venues go, The Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh must be up there with the best of them. Such a tiny place managed to pack in a decent crowd of 100+ to celebrate the launch of The Spook School's second album Try To Be Hopeful, on a Monday night no less.

The four piece, three of whom look like they should still be at school, made every effort to ward off the ghosts that are reported to stalk the lower depths of The Banshee. Playing a 12 song set of high energy indie/punk it wasn’t long before the crowd was swaying along in time to the tunes. This was the first gig of a mini UK tour that will surely improve once the opening bars to their Taylor Swift cover are fully remembered.

Deploying a confetti cannon at the start of the set and fitting in 'Burn Masculinity', 'Binary', 'I'll Be Honest' all at an infectious pace it was clear to see they have a good deal more live experience as, from the first bar of their set, there was a tightness not heard from support acts No Ditching and Breakfast Muff.

No Ditching, from Durham, all looked slightly startled standing on stage but still provided a decent set of heavy indie, with the unusual inclusion in their ranks of a marching band snare drummer. However, their vocals lacked a cutting edge that may be more down to the Banshee’s mix than anything else. Certainly ones to watch for future material.

Late additions, Breakfast Muff, from Glasgow played musical instruments in more ways than one as they swapped places throughout their set. Reminding me of early Bis and also X-Ray Specs their whimsical lyrics about cats and exes raised a smile and they'd a good line in self-deprecating banter (indeed all three bands interacted far better with the crowd than most acts I've seen this year).

The UK indie scene is still cranking out good and influential bands and one if not all three here will go on to bigger and better venues for sure.

Further tour details for The Spook School can be found here.

Try To Be Hopeful is released on Fortuna POP! and is available from amazon & iTunes.