Well, the fates were smiling upon me the other day when I had the good fortune to bump into singer Kelly Harrison from the band Loves Lost.

I ended up not with one spooky story, but half a dozen.

After speaking with the band's manager, Karl Colin Campbell, I managed to fix up an exclusive interview with the members just before a rehearsal.

Kelly has the voice of an angel. Along with fellow members "Dan the Man" Bolam, Liam Woodmass, Jimbo Whiting and Adam "Dom" Bell, she puts her heart and soul into every number.

Karl, Kelly and Jimbo were the seed-corn of the band, and the others followed one by one.

I asked them what they'd like to achieve in the future. Jimbo and Dom told me in no uncertain terms: "We want to play at Area 51 in the USA. Now that would be really cool."

And indeed it would. For the uninitiated, Area 51 in Nevada is where the US government is hiding (allegedly, of course – would they lie to you?) a number of alien spacecraft they purloined, stumbled upon or otherwise appropriated.

Kelly related to me her own spooky experience.

It was personal and very moving. Even recalling it brought a tear to her eye.

Some time ago, her grandmother died, and they'd been pretty close.

That evening, as she lay in bed, she felt a hand gently stroking her face, while a voice said, "It's all right, everything is going to get better."

The next morning she again felt the hand stroking her face.

Initially she thought her mum had popped in to check on her, but later she denied ever having gone in Kelly's room.

Kelly is convinced it was her Nanna come to say goodbye.

Karl also told me of a strange experience.

He'd been driving long distance when, out of the blue, he decided to make a wish.

Just then he saw a meteor or shooting star course through the heavens.

He took this as a sign that his wish had been granted.

Then, on reflection, he felt his wish had been a little selfish.

He said a small prayer and asked God to take it back.

He then asked for something less personal and more philanthropic instead.

To his astonishment yet another meteor soared across the sky.

Karl recalls being overcome with the feeling that his latter wish had been granted, and the second shooting star was a sign.

Jimbo Jones is into ghosts. He's worked, and lived, with a few in his time.

"I remember working in a pub in Fatfield with a friend.

"Behind the bar there used to be recesses in the shelving where bottles of wine could be stored.

"One night, after closing, there was this tremendous rattling noise, and a bottle of wine came shooting off the shelf.

"There was no way it could have done that by itself."

Loves Lost is a spookily fantastic band, and you can see them live at the Lord Clyde in South Shields on Sunday night.

* You can find out more, and hear the band, by visiting
www.myspace.com/introducingloveslost.

* Mike now has his own Bizarre website, full of spooky stories and unexplained happenings. To visit it, click here.