Whether or not you have someone to hold and squeeze you tight tomorrow night you've always got rock'n'roll to soothe your soul.

Love it or loathe it, Saturday is Valentine's Day, when every couple has to have a good time and every single-bod is sent to the shade.

However, it doesn't have to be like this...

The Loves, Sammo Hung and the Martini Henry Rifles are holding an extended gig to make merry the often grey day.

The trio of local bands make up the bulk of an all-day affair starting in Cardiff Uni.

* The Loves are building up to the release of their long-expected debut album, Love, on Monday, March 29, on The Track and Field Organisation record label.

It's the sound of student sex spread over 14 tracks of sixties and seventies-styled pop sleazery.

They've aped countless psychedelic and garage bands and added their own concerns with mobile phones and sounds of loading eight-bit computers.

At times it's like listening to Hair, and if the GLC are to ICE-T and Busted, then The Loves are to Pebbles and Nuggets.

Popular local favourite, Little Girl Blues, sounds like Iggy Pop, whereas When My Baby Comes is Mark Bolan back from the dead.

She'll Break Your Heart is a busked take on the Velvet Underground's I'll Be Your Mirror, and Shake Yr Bones sounds like Primal Scream sounding like The Rolling Stones.

All the while chunky fuzz-tone guitars play a Phil Spector-like wall of sound.

They break for some acoustic twitters like on My World Turns All Around Her which could be a less Shakespearian Incredible String Band, and they add a touch of country-styled Credence to Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!.

It's passionate and well crafted. The only thing that lets it down is the muddy production which makes it sound like it's all going on under the duvet.

* Sammo Hung released their debut album last year. It's from the same vein of punk that gave us the Slits, Babes in Toyland, with some Shaggs thrown in for good measure.

Their last release was Hit the Konvulsator, on Townhill Records in October, but their best title to date is I Broke My Office and Said Some Bloke Did It.

* The Martini Henry Rifles launched their single, And then We Hit A Truck/Run Jimmy Run Run Run, in a lap-dancing club in Cardiff last November).

Their arty-styled punk is currently housed at FFVinyl. Their name was the weapon of choice for Welshmen fighting Zulus.

* The Loves, The Actionettes, the Keys, The Exteriors, The Real Losers, The Cribs, Sammo Hung, The Martini Henry Rifles, Black Wire play Cardiff Uni Seren Las from 5pm to 2am on Saturday, February 14. Tickets are £7. Dial 029 2078 1458 for more information.