Howard Jones at Bestival? Yep.

One of the more surprising names on the latest line up announcement for the annual hoe down that is Bestival on the Isle of Wight, which includes The Prodigy, Dizzee Rascal, LCD Soundsystem and The Flaming Lips is the long forgotten synth pop man Howard Jones. Jones had a string of hits in the 1980’s including New Song, What Is Love, Things Can Only Get Better, Life in One Day and Hide and Seek and then faded away to obscurity. But following a four year campaign on the official Bestival website forum, Bestival head-honcho and curator Rob da Bank has wilted under the pressure and finally agreed to book the keyboard wizard to play the festival.

The leader of this campaign is one Robin Seamer, writer of one of Portsmouth’s most prolific music blogs – Breaking More Waves. But why Howard Jones? Looking at his blog Robins own tastes seem to be far more modern – the campaign for a long forgotten pop star seems somewhat at odds with his blog, which was named as one of the Tastemakers of 2010 in the annual BBC Sound Of 2010 poll. “It all started as a bit of a joke really,” Robin explains. “Then it just escalated, and before I knew it I was obsessing about getting Howard booked for Bestival. Part of the appeal is that he has never been seen as a hip or cool artist, yet Bestival always attracts such an eclectic and cool mix of bands and punters I thought it would be funny to campaign for a man who once sang the words ‘I don’t want to be hip or cool’, in one of his biggest hits.”

The campaign has now paid off, and Bestival regulars are delighted. “I finally got to meet Rob da Bank in London a few weeks ago and when he confirmed to me that Howard had been booked to play Bestival. I almost kissed him,” he laughs. “It’s going to be a right old party when Howard takes to the stage,” says Robin. If you want to join the party, get your tickets now before Bestival sells out.

March at Hayling Island Skatepark

Sam Way gave us a heads up on a new edit of footage filmed during March of a bunch of the Hayling Island skaters, sick as always.

Above Western Parade

The other day I got to go up on to the roof of a house on Western parade with a great view over the common, Southsea and The Solent. Always interesting seeing Southsea in new ways. Below are some photos (click on ‘Read More’ to see more plus there are more over on Forever Circling).

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Easter Weekend at The One Eyed Dog

Need something to do this weekend. Just set up camp outside The One Eyed Dog and your set. Killer. And of course you’ll be at The Strong Island Bike Ride on Sunday if you feel you need to work off some of those drinks.

Civilisation Of The Rough presents their Balearic Easter Space Bonnet Boutique with DJ ALFREDO!!

Just a quick reminder for this Easter weekends much anticipated Balearic Easter Space Bonnet Boutique presented to you by the quite frankly bonkers lot, Civilisation Of The Rough.

There are a bunch of old Alfredo mixes to get you in the mood over on the site. Have a listen HERE and also check out some of the seriously cool photos from last year over on the COR Flickr site.

Keep up the good work guys and don’t forget people it’s the Strong Island Bank Holiday Bike Ride during the day. The perfect accompaniment.

Last Night at The Dogs

Some of you will have heard that the Greyhound Stadium has closed down with it’s last bets being taken last Saturday 27th. A bunch of locals headed over in the evening to gamble and have fun with friends. Top Southsea publican Ben Mills took some photos of the evening. Check the rest out over at the always interesting “Mills Report”

Strong Island Bank Holiday Bike Ride – Route Video We’ll be setting off at 2pm but meeting at 12pm

Not long now till the Strong Island Bank Holiday Bike Ride on April 4th, Easter Sunday. The ride starts at The Bridge Tavern in Old Portsmouth and will leave at 2pm taking us all on a casual 8 mile cruise down to Eastney and then back on ourselves ending up at Spice Island, The Point.

A few of us did the route on Sunday to get a bit of air in our hungover lungs. I must say, although it was quite a nice day it was still a bit chilly. So wrap up warm people, because you never know what the weather man will predict.

Strong Island Route Time Lapse from Tristan on Vimeo.

Click on the route map for a closer look or head over to Google Maps HERE

The Birth of British Rock

An amazing exhibition of early British rock photography by Harry Hammond is on exhibition at the Museum and with it is a large selection of photos and memorabilia from Portsmouth. Dave Allen got in contact and gave us the heads up plus a link to his Flickr contain a gold mine of photos of old venues and bands too, a wonderful collection. Below are a few examples, check here for more.

KING KONG – Skateboarding Edit

Herbal Skateboards gave us the heads up on some footage from the KING KONG event at the Wedgwood Rooms. The guys there had a micro-ramp not as easy to skate as you might imagine. Looks like loads of fun though.

Skaters: Marcus Payne, Casey Brown, Cody Fraser-Kimpton, Murray Cross, Jon Sekulla, Adam Keys and Sam Willers

Strong Island Bank Holiday Bike Ride

The Easter weekend is rapidly approaching and as unpredictable as the weather is currently I for one can’t wait, rain or shine. Numbers are looking pretty crazy with 312 ‘confirmed’ guests. We all know the rule of Facebook, but hey, that’s pretty damn nuts. Continue to spread the word and let’s make it 400.

Nothing has changed. 2pm from The Bridge Tavern on Sunday 4th April. Ride for a causal 8 miles along the seafront and back, ending up at The Point, Spice Island. SImple and fun. Check the Facebook Event page for details. Oh, and don’t forget the After Party at The One Eyed Dog from 6pm onwards. Matty is lending me his copy of BMX Bandits for the projector.

PRIMARY – A Phoneography Exhibition by Strong Island – Call for entries

This coming new year we will be proud to announce our latest exhibition PRIMARY, a Phoneography exhibition by Strong Island and we are even happier to announce that it’s open to you, the readers.

With the continuing increase in impressive camera technology in mobile phones and the ability to alter, tweak, post process and upload the photos to social media networks and websites like Instagram, the popularity of Phoneography has never been greater.

The ‘of the moment’ ability to take a photo at almost any time and any place by most people has really driven the fact that the camera does not make the photographer. By which I mean, you don’t need an expensive camera to take outstanding photos.

Agreed, the quality of the physical image may not stand up to the big guns, but new learnings in composition, style and aesthetic by a new generation of camera users via online media has really driven this popularity, and encourage people to go beyond a ‘quick shot’.

PRIMARY invites you to get out and about around Portsea with your mobile phone camera and take photos of anything and everything based around the three primary colours red, yellow and blue. What you photograph is entirely up to you, but submissions will only be accepted if they stick to the theme.

The call for entires has now begun and the deadline is the 31st of January 2012 with the exhibition being held in March of 2012. Photos can be taken on any mobile phone model and we ask that a maximum of 3 photos per applicant are sent in to primary@strong-island.co.uk.

Please submit along with your photographs your name, photo title, phone model, location of photo on the island and any post process apps you used, if any, to achieve the final shot.

We look forward to seeing all the entries, and the final installation will be something special using every photo submitted in a slightly different fashion from your average photographic exhibition. CLICK HERE TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER

Poster by Tristan Savage & Photo by Paul Gonella

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage