It been a bad week on the fruit and veg front. Luckily the music scene hasn't been affected.

Musicians, legendarily, don't really eat fruit and vegetables, their most common diet consisting of garage-sourced meat pies after midnight while returning from gigs. Well, that's the younger ones...

Poor diet has brought others the joy of sclerosis of the liver, gastroesophageal reflux, an alphabet's worth of hepatitis and – despite being unable to spell it – haemorrhoids. Consequently they eat quite sensibly.

This latter group joined me in a collective anguished wail at the news that John's Produce in Oropi closed this week.

What a loss for the fruit 'n' vegetable world. Lorraine and John have furnished my coriander for years, always sweet and helpful and everything you'd want in a food supplier. They will be missed.

Meanwhile, there's some deranged nutter with a strawberry phobia and a sewing kit – it's enough to send you back to those meat pies...

Taking off on a tangent, all you unhealthy musicians out there might be reassured (or not) that there's actually a Wikipedia page entitled 'Health Problems Of Musicians'.

Is it worth looking at? Well, without it, I wouldn't have learnt this fascinating titbit of information:

'Woodwind instrumentalists... suffer a condition known as hypersensitivity pneumonitis, also referred to as saxophone lung.”

I have no idea what that entails but I'm chuffed to know more activity-related diseases to add to athlete's foot, tennis elbow, guitarist's ego and others.

But enough frivolity. There are incoming gigs. To make sure everyone has good warning let's skip ahead to next weekend. Here are three.

We'll start on Friday, October 5...

Aaradhna

One of the country's leading soul and R'n'B singers, Aaradhna, is at the Totara Street performance venue in Mount Maunganui as part of the Auckland singer's North Island tour.

Aaradhna came to prominence through featuring on Adeaze's chart-topping song ‘Getting Stronger'. She's since released several albums, including 2012's Treble & Reverb, which spawned the hits ‘Wake Up' and ‘Lorena Bobbit'.

2016's Brown Girl garnered the award for Best Female Solo Artist at the NZ Music Awards and four awards at the 2017 Pacific Music Awards. Even the UK's Guardian newspaper praised it.

Tickets are $30 online from The Ticket Fairy or via Eventfinda.

In the other direction on the same night The Penmans are playing the Katikati Folk Club. They're fronted by Chris Penman who specialises in Scottish music. She's played a bunch of folk festivals and supported the likes of Dick Gaughan, Martin and Eliza Carthy and Sharon Shannon. Chris will be accompanied by her sister Thiea – their voices blend beautifully on traditional and contemporary folk songs – and her singer/songwriter/guitarist husband John Maydon.

Doors open at 7pm, concert 7.30pm, at the Katikati Bowling Club. Tickets at the door, adults $20, members $15, school children attend free.

The big gig

But, for me, the Big Gig is on Saturday, October 6. Model Train Wreck are venturing down from Auckland to play in the inchoate Jam Factory at the Historic Village.

They're here to celebrate their excellent new EP 'I Want That Back'.

Since a simply brilliant self-titled debut album, these guys have been about my favourite Kiwi band. They're a four-piece indie-pop outfit from Auckland featuring guitar (Chris Howard), saxophone and organ (Hamish Peart), bass (Tom Healy), and drums (Carl Lutcher), who play quirky indie-pop with great skill. All are superb musicians and their music is simultaneously playful, heartfelt, catchy and clever.

That first album had songs ranging from wild rockabilly on 'Port Chalmer's Murder Ballad' to the Twin Peaks-themed 'Has Anybody Seen My Laura'. When it came out in 2014 I bought a dozen copies from the band to give to friends – yes, it's that good! You can check their music out on Spotify and other platforms.

To make the evening even more attractive, local outsider folk band Redwood Trail, the brainchild

of Americana purveyor Brad Taylor, will be playing support.

Doors open at 6.30pm for people who pay $10.