Steve Langton sent over his Represent after having a relaxing time on the beach in Thailand and feeling a rumbling in his chair. They were eagerly asked to leave the beach and make they’re way home as wave warnings were coming in. A speedy trip back to the hotel in a Tuk Tuk and several power cuts later the all clear was given. Steve made it back to the bar for some Long Island Iced Teas and to put up a Strong Island sticker. Representing.
The University of Portsmouth’s Student Union have won £1,000 of funding from the NUS, through the The London 2012 Organising Committee, to organise and host a Modern Olympics exhibition. This exhibition will celebrate the 7 values of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Games; respect; excellence; friendship; courage; determination; inspiration; and equality.
The Olympic Art Exhibition are looking for entries for their show which will be held in May at the Cascades Shopping Centre on Commercial Road, Portsmouth.
For more information about the exhibtion and how to submit please visit www.upsu.net/art2012
DiElle will be performing one of the most influential and inspiring albums of our generation – Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’, the 1971 pop album featuring minimal production by Lou Adler. Tapestry was ranked US number 1 for 15 consecutive weeks, which is the longest time for an album by a female artist to occupy that position, and remained in the charts for six years.
Carole King’s Tapestry will be Performed by Dielle with special guest support of Chris Ricketts singing the songs of James Taylor. In this beautiful location, DiElle will strive to do justice to this increadible album, including titles such as ‘You’ve got a friend’, ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’, ‘Where You Lead’ and ‘Natural Woman’. A must see for Carole King lovers and aspiring songwriters.
It will be a purely exclusive event with only 100 seats available. Tickets will be £8 in Advance / £10 On The Door. More info HERE.
In the artist’s first solo show in Portsmouth, Knox exhibits his new collection of work titled Party Animals; a series of paintings that illustrate not only his development since graduating from art school last year, but also his new found spontinaneity and energy in his practise. Recently taking studio residence at ArtSpace, Knox has been free to explore techniques of drawing and experimental ways of working resulting in the realisation and signficance of line.
In the past year, Knox has exhibited at 1000 Lakeside, Garbos Hair Salon and Portsmouth Guildhall and last summer exhibited work at the Signal Gallery and Truman Brewery in London. In Party Animals, Knox invites his audience to engage with his new body of work and the dialogue between art and the act of creating, celebrating a milestone in his artistic career.
Private View: 20th April 2012 and thereafter on the 21st, 22nd & 28th April 9:30 – 4:30pm All other times by appointment only.
Organised by Portsmouth Climate Action Network in partnership with Portsmouth City Council the 6th annual Portsmouth Summer Fair and Picnic promises to be as popular as always with plenty of free fun for all the family. For all the information about the Portsmouth Summer Fair and Picnic please visit www.portsmouthcan.co.uk.
Photos: Sue James
Phaeleh, pronounced “Fella”, is classically trained musician and electronic sound scientist Matt Preston. Having being swept up in the wake of the Dubstep phenomenon his diverse influences resulted in an equally diverse musical output, ranging from the euphoric heights of Nordic electronica through cinematic breakbeat to the depth charges of Dubstep.
Phaeleh’s unique sound has garnered support from the scene’s leading artists, including Skream, N-Type, Scuba and Kryptic Minds, as well as radio support on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Kiss and XFM. His recent remixes for Niki & the Dove and Ruff Diamonds have seen him the “go to” man for a chart grazing bass heavy rework!
Kingsin started off making music at 170 bpm, with Loxy, Data & Pessimist supporting their underground minimal sound. They released there first collab 12″ with Data (Metalheadz) entitled Baggage , this came out on deepsoulmusic in March 2010.
Fast forward to 2011, they are now working around the slightly slower bpm count of 132-140bpm, with southcoast label Sounds of Sumo just releasing their debut 4 track e.p. The E.P is currently getting support from the legend DJ Flight (RinseFM/FWD) ScratchaDVA (RinseFM/Hyperdub) Diplo (Mad decent) Krywolf (Sumo) to name but a few.
Keep up to date with all the Subliminal happenings over at their Facebook HERE.
Strong Island are proud to announce their very first LIVE broadcast brought to you in collaboration with the good old boys over at Civilisation of The Rough and their Easter Bonnet Boutique Party on the 8th April. We will be broadcasting all night LIVE from the main room at COR’s annaul Easter Bonnet party.
This event marks the first of what will be a regular part of Strong Island as we cover music and parties from around the city. Can’t make it out? Throwing your own party or soriee? Or just having a night in. Then Strong Island LIVE is here to add a little bit of what’s happening out there, inside to the comfort of your own home.
Be sure to tune in from 8pm where your hosts for the evening will be COR’s Steve Laming and Mick Hood, as well some brief appearance from the rest of the COR Family. The highlight of the evening, however, will most certainly be the headline set from COR’s VERY special guest and true House music pioneer and ledgend Terry Farley LIVE from 11pm til 2am! A very rare treat indeed!
UPDATE:
You can listen to the recorded LIVE stream here featuring Terry Farley:
Terry Farley : COR’s Great Easter Bonnet Boutique 08/04/2012 by Civilisation Of the Rough
With the April Bank Holiday very nearly upon us it’s put me in the mood for a little light refreshment at The Bridge Tavern and a casual cycle along the seafront and back to get me in the mood for the Summer ahead. I might even end up at Spice Island for a cheeky tipple after. I reckon I’ll get to the Bridge Tavern for about 12pm on Sunday 8th and set off around 2pm after some lunch. Give me a shout if you’re in the area. Nudge nudge. Wink wink.
When Charles first asked me to do this ‘friends of…’ playlist I really wanted to dedicate it to Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound. Spector’s songs and production techniques, this ‘more is more’ attitude to building tracks to the point where there is barely any room to breathe, has been something I’ve strived to emulate over the years but Spector was a true master who produced scores of hit records working with some of the greatest artists in modern music. Overlooking the rather malevolent mood swings and the slight predilection for murder, big Phil really deserves his place in the rock and roll hall of fame.
Spector called his technique “a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids” and, alongside arranger Jack Nitzsche, would pull together dozens of musicians, crammed into a tiny studio and create this huge sonic spectacular that he managed to compress into a single mono channel. His working methods and production values would go on to influence countless musicians, from the Beach Boys to the Arcade Fire.
Spotify, however, didn’t seem to want to play ball. There is a distinct lack of Spector’s early material, while his version of Tina Turner’s River Deep Mountain High and Dion’s Born To Be With You are glaring omissions. Of course his later production on The Beatles’ Let It Be and solo material from Lennon and Harrison is all missing too.
So instead I turned to another of my musical heroes: composer Ennio Morricone. Most famous for his work on the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, he to some extent followed the same ethos as Spector, taking the Wall of Sound to a truly symphonic level. His approach initially I believe was out of financial necessity as an orchestra of electric guitars and handclaps was far cheaper than a philharmonic. However his arrangements are far more subtle than Spector’s pop symphonies, the medium of the film score allowing the wall of sound to be constructed slowly throughout the track rather than being erected in a two and a half minute pop nugget.
Spector, incidentally, never made a film score, though a few projects did almost get off the ground. He had planned to direct his own film, I wonder what a visual wall of sound might have looked like?
Ennio’s music for Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, meanwhile, have become eponymous with the sound of the cowboy; his score effortlessly reflecting the life and times of the lone gunslinger. The solitude of the barren landscapes, the haunting whistles, the twang of the jew’s harp. The tired lollop of the horseback rider in the guitar rhythms and hollow percussions building, of course, into the sublime glory of the funereal strings and choirs, the harbinger for death and destruction at the hands of a six shooter revolver.
Morricone has gone on to write scores for over 500 movies and TV shows, highlights of which, apart from the spaghetti westerns, include The Mission, The Untouchables and John Carpenter’s The Thing. He has been nominated five times for an Oscar and was finally awarded an honorary lifetime achievement Academy Award in 2007.
01. Jack Nitzsche – The Lonely Surfer
So we start with a track that inspired the saturated surf-rock guitar sound of Ennio’s spaghetti western scores. In a convenient connection, Nitzsche was Spector’s go-to arranger for almost all of his biggest hits.
02. Ennio Morricone – Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo
Despite the eponymous whistled theme there’s so much going on in this piece and the driving rhythm guitars just make you want to saddle up…
03. Ennio Morricone – Ecstasy of Gold
From the opening bell ring this track builds into the most lush string arrangement while the haunting female solo is gradually joined by more and more triumphant instrumentation. This song is effortlessly empowering.
04. Ennio Morricone – Man with The Harmonica
Armed with a bigger budget than the dollars trilogy, Ennio’s theme for Charles Bronson’s character in Once Upon A Time in the West takes the spaghetti western sound to new heights with a bigger orchestra, bigger choir and better production values.
05. Air – Wonder Milky Bitch
For something that is so clearly an homage to Morricone, Air manage quite impressively to still stamp their trademark sleazy French ooze all over this one.
06. Radiohead – Exit Music (For A Film)
I read a nice quote from Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien where he actually cites Exit Music as a failed attempt at doing Morricone. He followed up by saying “…but because we haven’t paid the dues, if you like, to play those types of music, we fail to get what we hope to achieve. But by going down that route, we find our own thing.” Thom Yorke added “Aiming and missing is the whole point, really.” Yeh, it is Thom…
Regardless of what the band were aiming at, they’ve managed to create something quite beautiful. Yorke’s vocals soar over the mellotron choirs and a bit of warm fuzz. Epic yet incredibly simple.
07. Kasabian – The Doberman
You can hear Morricone’s influence all over Kasabian, in fact I remember seeing them at the Isle of White and they actually came out to one of Ennio’s tracks. It may have been Ecstasy of Gold but I don’t remember, I might have had a drink… Anyway, it’s all about the coda at 3:48 in this track, it builds and builds, a moments pause followed by a slap in the face with a phlegm filled spittoon and we go out all guns blazing.
08. Tom Waits – Yesterday is Here
Backed by a shuffling horse trot rhythm that resembles Ennio’s Farewell to Cheyenne, only Monty Python and the Holy Grail can acoustically represent riding a horse better…
09. Scott Walker – Old Mans Back Again
From Scott Walker’s fourth album, there’s a definite Morricone influence on the string and choir arrangement. Walker wrote a few tracks that were influenced by Morricone not least The Seventh Seal on the same album but this one is probably my favourite.
10. Last Shadow Puppets – Age of the Understatement
This is a kind of second hand influence as the Arctic Monkeys do Scott Walker doing Morricone. To be fair when I first heard this track I wondered how I’d never heard it before so convincing is the 1960s baroque rock style string arrangements and analogue warmth. The entire album has a really quite impressive production value but I especially like the energy of the galloping guitars and charging strings of the title track.
11. Ian Brown – 2525
I actually prefer the Zager and Evans original but I’ve got a bit of a hard-on for Ian Brown and his version really turns the Mariachi horns up to 10.
12. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust
The bastard son of a one night stand between Johnny Cash and Morricone, while the guitar burns a ring of fire, the strings carry a definite Ennio flourish and there’s even the toll of reverb drenched funeral bells at around 4 minutes in.
13. Portishead – Cowboys
Opening with an electronic ‘whistle’ motif, the beat drops with a monstrous reverb soaked surf-rock guitar. Beth Gibbons soars and snarls over an absolutely immense background track that broods like the best of spaghetti westerns.
14. Dangermouse ft Norah Jones – Rome
Dangermouse has flirted with Morricone on numerous occasions. You’ll find his influence on various tracks by the Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley. When I heard that he had put together an album homage with Italian composer Daniele Luppi, Jack White and Norah Jones I was expecting something a lot more heavy handed but its actually very subtle and a good listen. This is partly due to the authenticity that reuniting several of the key players from the original Morricone sessions. In fact, it’s almost too subtle. I expected with Dangermouse’s pedigree something a little more bombastic and that things would be pushed to a crescendo but it never really gets there. It ends up being just a bit, well, nice.
15. The Weir – Rocksteady
Hmm, how did this one get in here? Well there is some bells and horns in there to be fair. It’s a tentative link but a bit of shameless self promotion never hurt anyone…
Peace and Love.
Grab the Pet Sounds playlist HERE and check the past playlists HERE.
Local 19 year old Edward Perry describes himself as a solo lo-fi/pop musician. Edward plays under the name of ‘the boy i used to be‘ and is a terrifically talented young chap. His second EP ‘Holiday’ follows his self titled EP from January last year and both were produced, recorded and released by himself.
Holiday is due for release on April 23rd on CD, and also for ‘pay what you like’ download over at www.theboyiusedtobe.bandcamp.com. If you’re keen then you can pre-order over at www.theboyiusedtobe.com.
A summer of gigs is planned, including Redfest 2012 and a return to Southsea Fest for 2012. The Boy I Used To Be is also playing at The Registry for Church Gone Wild on April 30th with Clock Opera and Fiction.
“Since the release of the debut EP, I have supported the likes of Lightspeed Champion, Lucy Rose, Among Brothers, Strangers and Sam Duckworth, recently taking in gigs for E4’s Skins in Bristol, The Hope and The Green Door Store in Brighton, The Boogaloo and The Lock Tavern in London, The Railway in Winchester and The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea Bandstand and The Kings Theatre in Portsmouth. I was also the winner of Best Solo Artist in the 2009 Portsmouth News Guide Awards and was chosen to appear on the ‘Best of MySpace Podcast’ by Gil Mills of NME Radio last year.”
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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