Remember to put it in your diary guys. Be great to see you all. After the success of our 2nd Birthday Raffle we’d like to say thanks to everyone that attended and gave generously by inviting you to another little shindig. It’s that time of year again so don your scarves and warm jackets and get yourself down to The Belle Isle for the Strong Island and Bored Christmas Social.
There will be free Mulled Wine and Hot Spiced Cider on arrival to warm you up and Grahams alternative Christmas playlist to get you in the festive mood. Good times and good people. We hope to see you all there.
Keep up to date and spread the word over at Facebook. You can also grab the poster to print out yourselves HERE.
Ex Portsmouth son Jon B is a skateboarder, artist, photographer and now long time Malta resident has for some years been meticulously tinkering and customising his film camera with holes and tape and developing the results with images of his new home Malta and his travels back to Portsmouth and all over the world.
Jon’s website www.reasonsfor.com is full of his photos and below are just a few, it was difficult to pick just a handful as there are so much goodness on there, be sure to spend some time looking through.
Every year the artist Banksy takes over a shop in the centre of London and invites artists across the UK to take part. Portsmouth’s very own Caravan Gallery were invited this year and images from the private view which took place last Friday can be seen below along with some of their work.
The shop called Marks & Stencils is open at Berwick Street from tomorrow (30th Nov) with their online shop open for business later in the day. Check their website for full details and list of work featured.
Wonderful to see their work included . . go Caravanners go
Jack Palmer is a 3rd year BA Media student at The University of Portsmouth and Sam Stockley from Ballpoint Zine has just released a video of one of his tracks.
Strong Island grabbed a quick interview with him.
“I played bass in a band from the age of around 12 so I’ve been writing original stuff from around that age. I picked up the 6 string when I was about 15. My dad and brother played. My brother is still influential today actually. He plays the blues incredibly. My dad plays a mean version of Streets of London too!
I started playing my own solo stuff at gigs when I was 18. My good friend Will McNicol had a gig at Drift in Southsea and invited me up to play with him. It went down well and the fact that I had contacts in Portsmouth from then on was a fairly big factor in me choosing to come to university here. Since then, I’ve recorded an album called ‘Winter’s Songs’ and an ep called ‘Scenery of Music’. You can buy the EP and download the album, free, from www.jackpalmer.bandcamp.com
You can see Jack perform tomorrow night (30th Nov) at RMA Tavern, Southsea from 8pm.
The legendary Skyways Rollercoaster at Clarence Pier is soon to be joined by a new ride. On their website it states ‘ STOP PRESS – NEW RIDE COMING SOON’.
Strong Island will find out more and report back. I think it is going to be pirate or ship themed as you can see the design starting to take shape from the pictures below.
It’s time for the second instalment of the wonderful Cabaret Voltaire! This time round sees Mark and Rosko flying solo – no guests, just back to back underground disco and deep house deliciousness from the two COR brothers, all night long.
Tickets are £3.50 on the door, but there are frebbies in advance. This has gone down pretty well, but there are still some left to be had HERE. Keep up to date at the usual places HERE and HERE.
‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ by The Beatles is one of the most perfectly formed pop songs ever written and it comes in at 2 minutes and 24 seconds. Surely no song needs to hang around any longer than that if they got it so right ? Well, there are exceptions…….The Rules : Strictly over 6 minutes. This weeks Pet Sounds Weekly Playlist comes in at a delicious 3 hours in total. Set it up and sit back. Grab it HERE and check the previous playlists HERE.
01 The Concept – Teenage Fanclub (6.07 – must try harder)
02 Heroes – David Bowie (6.08)
03 All You Good Good People – Embrace (6.18)
04 Paranoid Android – Radiohead (6.24)
05 I Got The… – Labi Siffre (6.35)
06 Burning Wheel – Primal Scream (7.06)
07 The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel – Grandmaster Flash (7.08 – it took me 2 of these minutes to write out the title)
08 Around The World – Daft Punk (7.10)
09 Living For The City – Stevie Wonder (7.23)
10 Blue Monday – New Order (7.27)
11 You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones (7.29)
12 Newborn – Elbow (7.36)
13 The Cedar Room – Doves (7.39)
14 L.A. Woman – The Doors (7.58)
15 I Am The Resurrection – The Stone Roses (8.14)
16 Leave Them All Behind – Ride (8.17)
17 Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who (8.32)
18 Poem 58 – Chicago (8.35)
19 Down By The River – Neil Young (9.17)
20 After The Flood – Talk Talk (9.27)
21 Marquee Moon – Television (10.45 – now we’re talking)
22 Water No Get Enemy – Fela Kuti (11.01)
23 Heart Of The Sunrise – Yes (11.33)
24 Weekender – Flowered Up (12.55)
25 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (13.40 – go on Jimi !!)
“I got up early enough this morning to enjoy the sun illuminating the eastern side of South Parade Pier. A couple of eager fishermen and the odd dog walker kept me company as the pigeons circled over-head. It was quite fresh! I liked this shot in particular – there are so many patterns and shapes.” Daniel Tidbury.
Join Thee Festive Fleet Foxes for a series of short Christmas carol services around Albert Road, Palmeston Road and the surrounding areas…but this is carol singing with a twist, for they won’t be singing conventional Christmas song, they will be singing from the hymn sheet of the Fleet Foxes!
Help raise money for a very worthy cause, a young lad named Samuel Deakin-Mant. Samuel has cerebral palsy, this is damage to the brain, and in his case this affects his motor skills to the extent that he cannot walk. Please donate to this event either by clicking here or simply popping down and joining us for a few Carols and throwing some change in the collection bucket.
The latest plan is to hold services from 6pm friday 10th Dec for a few hours and/or (weather permitting of course) from about 5pm saturday 11th Dec, moving around various locations. Songs will be White Winter Hymnal, Mykonos & He Doesn’t Know Why to name a few. Song sheets will be available.
Thee Festive Fleet Foxes are:
Stuart Scott – Vocals
Sam Davidson – Guitar/Vocals
Sam Richards – Guitar/Vocals
You – The Festive Fleet Foxes Choir
Keep up to date with the times/locations at the Facebook event.
This Saturday 27th November from 11am – 4pm Zest & Aspex are having a joint Christmas Fair down at the Apsex Gallery in Gunwharf. Many items are end of stock and there will some great reductions. prices start from 50p!
Including many gorgeous, yet affordable gifts for family and the home, wooden toys, vintage style goodies, retro storage tins, silver candlesticks and tealights, stocking fillers, christmas lights, felt craft kits, cushions, retro childrens toys, vases, and much more. Situated in and around Aspex’s fantastic cafe – come and browse the gift fair, have a coffee and see some art. A fantastic afternoon out! Take a peek at what Zest have on offer over at their website www.zest-direct.com
As you may know each year we run a home brew competition in February where the winning brew has the opportunity to be brewed by Irving & Co Brewing Co. and sold around the city in the summer. Last year’s brew, the Strong Island Hopper Ale, was hugely successful being one of Inving’s best selling ales and selling out so quickly it went through a second brew run. This year’s winning ale is Dry Dock No. 1, originally brewed by Lee Immins, went on sale in some of Portsmouth and Southsea’s pubs over the weekend.
We spoke to The Hole in The Wall in Southsea who said the new ale went down a storm with it being their best seller on Sunday and with almost two barrels empty by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend. Those guys at the Hole in The Wall and their regular ale drinkers know their stuff so for us this was amazing early news with the ale.
To officially launch Dry Dock No. 1 we are having a launch party with the lovely souls at The Belle Isle on Thursday evening. The ale will be on full flow, come down and try a pint or two. As well as being on sale all around the city the ale will also be available in Chichester’s Belle Isle too, so you can drink it away from home for the first time too.
Just over a year ago, a group of Strong Islanders were sat on the Isle of Wight ferry on our way to the yearly Randonnee cycling event; 60 miles around the island spread across 5 checkpoints. Whilst on the crossing we couldn’t help but admire various enthusiasts and their custom team jerseys. Fast forward a year and it is my great pleasure to unveil the Strong Island cycling jersey. Made as a one off for the event, the jersey is our way of representing this city and all the values that come with it. Thanks to the combined designing efforts of Chris Ballingall and Tristan Savage, we were able to produce this clean, retro looking jersey that 11 of Southsea’s finest could wear to conquer the island’s endless hills. Well done chaps.
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