LIVE from Canada

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone that signed Andy Halls Birthday card before we all went away, he was super stoked to say the least. We’ve just returned to civilisation after 4 days with no electricity and over and hour from the nearest Hospital or Off License so we’re stocked back up and out on the town in Vancouver.

Glad to hear the weather has been good and I hope you all have a belter of a Bank Holiday in Sunny Southsea.

Andy relaxes with a can of Molson Pilsner. Backdrop courtesy of Birkenhead Lake, Canada.

Tags: Mandy hall

Sunny Southsea

A beautiful morning to the Bank Holiday weekend in Southsea. Hope you all have an awesome weekend, see you next week.

Bank Holiday Weekend Thought of the Week with Handsome ‘Dave’ Rocker

Now then now then boy and girls, it only seems like yesterday I was saying summer is nearly here, and here we are nearly at the end of the bar b q season. Which is wal bum! But fear not the next few weeks are gonna be the best by a long way……….

Starting off this weekend, half of Red Indie are getting married so Saturday night is going to be great fun in the LJRs, I’m gonna be dropping none stop hit after non stop hit, the fun starts around 8 and finishes when ever you want but the pub shuts at 1am.

Then on to everybody’s favourite Sunday shantathon the legendary august bank holiday!!!! Where once again it’s a crazy Sumo Sunday at LJRs joining me on the old wheels of steel with large magnets in, is the Albino Monkey ahead of his 1st international release on the 14th of September and another superstar by the name of Leatherhead. It’s guaranteed to be cool, electro and a bit ravey.

But also just down the road at the Liberal Club the C.O.R. disco queens have got Greg Wilson playing alongside the usual suspects in Southsea’s 1st ever A&E ward, for real. Also Southsea being Southsea there’s heaps of other bits and pieces going on dain the seaside from dog shows to kite contests. Not forgetting all you culture vultures that leave Southsea this weekend, so whether you’re at Reading, Notting Hill, Shambala or even staying in Southsea please respect one and other and remember you are representing my town and we are a lot cooler than everyone else with out even trying.

Hope to see you all over the next few days, as usual come and say hi (I like pear cider) have lots of fun and above all RAVE SAFE!

Love as ever Handsome Dave Rocker. xxxxx

Tags: Handsome Dave Rocker, Thought of the Week

Guildhall After WWII

On 10th January 1941 during a heavy bombing attack on Portsmouth the Guildhall was hit by several incendiary bombs which heavily damaged the structure and the resulting fires quickly spread throughout the whole building, turning it in to just a shell. It took almost 15 years to rebuild the Guildhall in to what we have today, which was officially reopened by the Queen on the 8th June 1959. This photo from Stan Webb from a collection of photos collected by Portsmouth College shows how totally destroyed the building was, leaving just some of the frontage and most of the tower.

Tags: Guildhall, WWII

Portsmouth Kite Festival

Now in it’s 18th year, the Portsmouth International Kite Festival will be on all Bank Holiday weekend. The event is free and consists of competitions, exhibitions, etc and runs from 10am to 5pm each day down on Southsea Common. Last year’s event was hugely popular so no doubt this weekend’s will be too. Here are a couple of photos from last year, taken by local photographer Duncan Allan:

Tags: Kite Festival, Southsea Common

Pier to Pier Swimming Competition

On Sunday 6th September Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club will be hosting an open water swimming race between the two piers in Southsea (From Clarence to South Parade), a distance of two kilometres. Entry to the race is now closed but it should be fun to watch and show your support to the swimmers. The race begins at 2:30pm.

Tags: Clarence Pier, South Parade Pier, Swimming

Volcom & Geoff Rowley at Bored

The Volcom Stone Age t-shirt screen printing tour visit to Bored by Geoff Rowley, Ben Raemers and crew went off with a bang last Friday. With well over the originally planned 100 t-shirts being printed and given away, the huge crowd of people that came through were obviously stoked to be a part of such a high profile skateboarding event in Southsea. Not to mention how nice both Geoff and Ben were too and how hard the crew worked as well in the heat. Good work to Kev at Volcom, the guys at Bored, Geoff and Ben, Stu from Lovenskate, the rest of the crew and everyone who came down and popped in. Check below for some photos and see more at Forever Circling. Also check out the Sidewalk blog post and the Bored blog too.

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Tags: Bored, Geoff Rowley, Volcom

Bike Debate at Greenfair

The continued problems (and dangers) of cycling the seafront in Southsea will be raised in an open, public debate as part of the Greenfair, organised by Portsmouth Climate Action Network and PCC on Saturday 5th September 11am-4pm at The Guildhall. As mentioned previously on Strong Island, earlier this year the Council overruled the democratic, publicly chosen proposal of allowing cycling on the promenade. PCAN has invited Councillor Gerald Vernon Jackson to the debate so hopefully finally some progress can begin and Southsea seafront can be made safe for everyone to enjoy, both on foot and on bike. Please show your support if you can.

More details about the situation can be found at Pompey Bug.

Tags: Greenfair

Pressing Matters – 7th Sept

Pressing Matters is a joint exhibition of print work by Lisa Mundy and Ric Robinson running at the 3rd Floor Art Centre in the Portsmouth Central Library (next to the cafe) from 7th to the 30th of September. See below the flyer for some examples of work for the exhibition from both artists.

Lisa Mundy:

Ric Robinson:

Tags: Lisa Mundy, Ric Robinson

Local Photographer – Marcus Hunt’s

Marcus Hunt has rigged together an amazing radio controlled camera set up with a kite which allows him to capture photos of local places in and around Portsmouth with a unique perspective. Unlike photos from aeroplanes, the kite allows for photos from low altitudes giving way more detail. To see loads more than the photos below be sure to spend some time looking through Marcus’ Kite photo Flickr set.

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Tags: Aerial Photography, Kit, Marcus Hunt

Indoor Market – LJRs

More Bank Holiday weekend goodness to keep you busy, Little Johnny Russells is hosting another indoor market on the Monday 31st. So far the stalls involved are Edgeworld Records (Brighton), Dress Code, Dead Mans Glory, ZoZo vintage clothes, Parmiters Antiques and Southsea Gallery plus there will be a load more. The market will be open from 12pm to 5pm and entry is free.

Tags: Indoor Market, Little Johnny Russells

Let The Right One In

Portsmouth’s independent cinema No. 6 will be showing the critically acclaimed Swedish vampire horror Let The Right One In tonight at 6:30pm and tomorrow at 8:30pm. The film is a 15 certificate classification. Tickets are £6 and £4.50 for concessions. For more information see www.no6cinema.co.uk.

Tags: No. 6 Cinema

Saturday Bandstand

This Bank Holiday weekend’s Saturday Bandstand is looking really good, it will feature Cherbourg (who have just signed to Rough Trade), Ryan O’Reilly (who currently has a residency at Ronnie Scott’s in London), Southampton’s Haunted Stereo, Le Plat Du Jour and The Boy I Used To Be.

For loads more information on the event and the bands hit up the Facebook event.

Tags: Saturday Bandstand

eS Game of Skate – More Photos

Here are some more photos from the other weekend’s eS Game of Skate held by Bored at the Red Flat down on the seafront. You can see more on Forever Circling and from the link after the first two.

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Tags: Bored, eS Game of Skate

The Big Pink

Tipped for greatness by bloggers and national press alike, London’s The Big Pink are playing at the Wedgewood Rooms on Thursday 8th October to promote the launch of their debut album ‘A Brief History of Love’. Tickets are only £8 online at the Wedgewood Rooms. Will see you there.

Tags: The Big Pink, The Wedgewood Rooms

COR Monthly Chart

Each month COR will be putting up tunes that are rocking it for them in that particular month, with links to listen to all the tunes and to buy them when available. Where this differs from other charts is it’ll be a mixture of new AND oldies! The monthly chart for August is now up on the COR website (www.c-o-r.co.uk) and be sure to subscribe to their RSS feed to keep track of their event news and the new charts right when they are posted up.

Speaking of COR events, they’ll be doing their usual Friday evening residency in Cafe Citrus on Albert Road this week as a warm up for Sunday’s big Bank Holiday Weekend COR with Greg Wilson, which is unmissable. Will see you there.

Tags: Civilisation of the Rough, Greg Wilson

You’re Smiling Now but we’ll all turn into Demons album launch

The Hong Kong Gardeners Club are hosting Portsmouth’s own You’re Smiling Now but we’ll all Turn Into Demons‘ album launch as part of their Thursday residency at the Fat Fox. As well as the band playing the evening will also feature the following:

Elapse-O

‘Oxford’s Elapse-O tap into a world before language. Elapse-O live is like a time-warp back to your childhood, back when you were attempting to make sense of all the sonic clutter around you, except that there is nothing immature about this band. It’s exhilarating – big bright lights exciting.’ – Drowned In Sound

Invasion

Two girls and a guy, Invasion are metal, but not as we know it. “Invasion are pretty much the most exciting thing happening in UK metal right now” NME

Some of the band members will also be DJing during the evening too. More details over at the Facebook event.

P.S. Just want to say that the poster artwork by Chaos vs Cosmos is incredible. Not often you see poster/flyer artwork you want to keep and frame.

Tags: The Fat Fox, The Hong Kong Gardeners Club

Hipshaker at the IOW Scooter Rally

A little last minute and tickets might be almost sold out but wanted to give a heads up for Headshaker at the Isle of Wight Scooter Rally on this weekend from Friday to the Sunday. The line up as follows:

Friday
Hipshaker Room: Hipshaker DJs + special guest DJs Paul Hallam, Jim Watson, Warren Bright & Kev Jay
In the Lounge: Southampton Soul Club with Resident DJs Alfie & Chilli + special guests John Hurbet [Groove Junkies] & Tony Castle [Shake Your Mini]
£7

Saturday
Hipshaker Room: Hipshaker DJs + special guest DJs Eddie Piller, Smiler & Paul Welsby
In the Lounge: Talk of the South Soul Club with Resident DJs Pete Tebbutt & Sean Chapman + special guests tbc
£8

Sunday
Hipshaker Room: Hipshaker DJs + special guest DJs Eddie Piller, Dave Edwards & Mickee Edwards
In the Lounge: Walls of Heartache with Resident DJs Dave Duplock, Tim Fuller & Richard Anker + special guest Magoo [Kent Soul Club]
£7

Weekend ticket available @ £20 adv. Tickets were available via the Wedgewood Rooms but hit up the Facebook event and the Hipshaker group to find out about ticket availability now and on the door.

Tags: Hipshaker, Isle of Wight Scooter Rally

Bank Holiday £1 You Pay OK?

Brknk & 10Ton have organised a £1 on the door event at the One Eyed Dog on Sunday 30th. Dubstep, Fidget and Mashup will be served up by Charge, SDM, Triple M and Vortechtral. Knowing the nights in The Dog, this will be going off.

Tags: 10Ton, Breakneck, The One Eyed Dog

Southsea Deck Your Chairs – Website

Claire Sambrook kindly gave us a heads up on the new Southsea Deck Your Chairs website where you can find out all the details about the project and see the artwork for all 25 chairs plus loads of photos of the chairs being made, etc.

www.southseadeckyourchairs.tk

Tags: Southsea Deck Your Chairs