Music Editor Tim Hughes emerges from his post New Year stupor to get all excited at the prospect of a glittering start to the musical year.

YES, yes. I know. Nobody goes out in January. We’re all broke, suffering extended hangovers and brutal colds, and feel unappealingly bloated after too much Yuletide good living.

But shake yourself out of your festive hibernation, exchange those skinny jeans for something more roomy, fix the hangover good and proper, and get yourself down to one of the city’s finer nighteries to celebrate the start of a stunning year of live music.

But where to go? Well, as is so often the case, most of the big guns are all heading to our old favourite – the Oxford Academy, now re-branded the 02 Academy (Carling no more) ... but forever known to hardened gig-goers as the Zodiac!

However, don’t forget the smaller venues. The Port Mahon may no longer be with us (may its creaking PA system rest in peace), but The Jericho Tavern, The Bully, The Cellar, The Wheatsheaf, and Purple Turtle still offer some of the best nights out in town – as do loads of local boozers and specialist venues. And, for the truly big names, there’s that art-deco riot of gaudy velvet, the New Theatre. Anyway, here’s our prescription for a January musical re-tox!

For the discerning music-lover: Hotly tipped by discerning musos as the one to watch this year, Frank Turner, above, is a singer-songwriter of startling honesty.

No stranger to Oxford, where he never fails to draw admiring crowds who hang on his every, carefully-chosen word, he returns to the city this month, fresh from a working trip to the USA and the release of second album Love Ire & Song. Find out what got 12,000 fervent fans so wound up at Reading and Leeds Festivals last year.

Frank plays the 02 Academy on January 18, with support from Chris T-T. See next week’s Guide for details.

For the glamour-lover: Irish-born singer/songwriter Imelda May, right, has created a unique fusion of rockabilly, blues and jazz. And she does it with impeccable style.

Hear her delicious brand of jazz-a-billy, when she plays The 02 Academy, next month.

Given her first break through the UK’s boogie woogie maestro Jools Holland, Imelda harnesses a sassy, burlesque-inspired style which is artfully retro, yet breezily cutting edge. Imelda May plays the 02 Academy on February 9. Tickets are £10.

For the festival freak: Can’t bear the thought of having to wait a whole six months for your favourite festival?

We know how you feel. And more importantly, so do the slightly bonkers bar staff of Truck Festival.

Unwilling to lie back and dream of sunnier times, Andy ‘Roo’ Hill, Stocker and co have vowed to bring a dose of summer fun to bleakest January, by staging their annual Equitruck bash.

Falling exactly mid-way between Trucks, this semi-mystical gathering is one of the messiest nights out in Oxford’s musical calendar.

This year’s party features sets from everybody’s new favourite Oxford band Little Fish, The Black Hats, The Delta Frequency, Reid Morrison of the late lamented Morrison Steamfayre, Vultures, I Am Thieves, Hearts in Pencil, Phantom Theory, The Last Army, and Leeds outfit Eureka Machines.

Equitruck @ The Jericho Tavern is on January 31. Tickets are £8 from http://wegottickets.com