Bike Week, the UK’s biggest mass participation cycling event, will take place between 15 – 23 June in 2013. Bike Week events offer something for everyone; from families, schools and companies, to seasoned cyclists and those who have never cycled before. 2012 saw almost half a million people taking part in the celebrations of cycling across the UK. This year, Bike Week is asking the nation to dig out their bikes, get back on the saddle and fall in love with cycling all over again!
Naturally Portsmouth will have a hand in helping to make this a fun annual fixture. Planned are a series of exciting activities and guided rides ranging from BMX stunt shows, competitions, bike breakfasts and much more. The already strong cycling scene in Portsmouth is evolving at a great pace and this will be one of many two wheeled events announced this summer. For further information check out My Journey Portsmouth or please email: travel@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
How fun does the forest track look?
(Photos from My Journey Portsmouth and Jayne Rodgers)
Enjoy being on a bike? Think you know the nooks and crannies of this island? Then head on over to Southsea Cycle Club’s FB page and join us in our game of bike tag. Super easy premise: a location is set by a member taking a quick snap of his ride by a local landmark, if you recognise the location hop on your saddle quick in order to snap your own bike in the same position before anyone else does. Once done you are “it”, you have the freedom to set the next location wherever you deem fit. You can make it as easy or as hard as you like, but try and keep it within the island. Although a Portsdown Hill shot is not too far off I reckon…
If you fancy keeping an eye on past locations and get your name on the leaderboard, click here.
Once again the scum of the streets have stolen another bike. This unique Raleigh Shopper belongs to my girlfriend Katie and was stolen in broad daylight from the front of Fratton Station on the 5th of June between the hours of 8.30am and 5.30pm. It’s a distinctive copper bronze colour with a Ye Olde Bike Shoppe sticker on the frame. They cut through a Kyroptonite lock and must have been on the prowl. If you have any info at all please contact us at contact@strong-island.co.uk.
If you would like more information about how you can get your bicycle security marked then you can do so by contacting your local Neighbourhood Policing Team HERE. Alternatively you can register your bike with schemes such as Immobilise or Bike Register.
Very sad to hear that Gwen Robson had her brand new bike stolen from outside Eastney swimming pool on 31st May around 3:30pm. The bike is an Electra Townie 8D balloon, ladies bike with a Yepp bike seat. Keep your eyes peeled out there and if you see this distinctive bike get in touch with the Police or ring 07980 859960. Would be great to get this family bike back after they only had it for one day.
If you would like more information about how you can get your bicycle security marked then you can do so by contacting your local Neighbourhood Policing Team HERE. Alternatively you can register your bike with schemes such as Immobilise or Bike Register.
To coincide with this year’s Isle of Wight Randonnee this Sunday there will be a drop in bike surgery at Head Hairdressing on Albert Road in the garden this Saturday. Bike mechanic Harry will be offering to check & sort gears, brakes, chain & tyres for a mere £10.
Whether you’re planning on doing the Randonnee or not, now is a great time to get your bike up together for the Spring at a bargain price! No new parts are included in this price, but Harry can advise if anything is needed & arrange a suitable time to sort it out. Drop in at Heads Facebook HERE.
This Sunday sees the return of the annual Isle Of Wight Randonnee. Thousands of lycra clad men and women will descend upon the isle in order to tackle the 100km or 55km route of pure hills. This yearly event has become a fixture on many Strong Islander’s calendars, not only is it free but it also offers a great opportunity to discover all sides of the island at your own pace. For more information check out the Cycle Island website here. We would love to see some of your snaps from the day so feel free to send them in. Good luck to you all, the weather is set to be a banger. Don’t forget to take advantage of the tea and cakes at the checkpoints…
On Monday the 27th of May, two fearless Strong Islanders will fly out to New York in order to begin an epic 5000 mile coast to coast cycle challenge. Lex and Andy are both taking 4 months out of work to embark on this once in a lifetime experience, and are aiming to raise charity funds along the way for Motiv8 and CRED, two organisations that our intrepid explorers work with closely. Check out their blog Look Mum No Car for updates, further info and where to donate. You can also follow them on Twitter here. We’ll make sure you both get some Strong Island stickers before the off so that your bikes (or helmets) can represent throughout the trek. We all wish you the best of luck and look forward to your updates.
Keep your eyes peeled for this stolen Cinelli with white aero-spoke, sram crankset & Brooks swift saddle, stolen at the start of the month in Southsea. If you spy it call the police and/or get in touch with Curtis Cameron Daly on Facebook.
A new addition to Albert Road is Bike U Like, a bicycle shop located next to Capkandi that has been open about a month. The shop has a range of pre-built and custom built complete bikes for all ages and a range of parts too. They are currently seeking people interested in playing bike polo so if you are interested pop in and get in touch.
This year we have changed the way we are compiling our 2014 calendar. Instead we are inviting entries of all themes all year round.
We will dedicate at least two of the months for images taken on Instagram. If you’ve taken a photo that you’d like to submit for consideration you just need add the hashtag #SIC2014.
We will still primarily be accepting submissions via email calendar@strong-island.co.uk.
This year the calendars will be available from mid November from the Strong Island online store and Southsea Gallery. I’d also ask that you keep 14th November free from 7pm, we’ll announce why in late July.
This year we will again be supporting the Alzheimer’s Society as well as another local charity which we will be announcing very very soon!
Strong Island & Strong Island Recordings are very proud to present our 2nd year at one of the premier new music festivals, Southsea Fest and we are also very proud to be the first stage announcing this year too. We follow up from last year’s ‘Drunken Sailor’ event where queues of one in one out were formed within the opening 15 minutes of the stage starting and where our infamous stage was known for sweat dripping from the walls and ceiling while rabid mosh pits brewed…all in the early afternoon.
This year we have upgraded venues to just across the road with the upstairs of the Southsea Social Club where we have a few new ideas planned for the day while ensuring the same chaos and vibe from our label parties resume. To celebrate what will be Strong Island Recordings’ 1st birthday we like to think we have pushed the boat out this year with a heavy line up ranging from grunge, surf punk, noise pop to space math rock.
So we are really stoked to present the following who will be playing our 1st drunken, messy birthday bash:
Arrows of Love
The Black Tambourines
Slowcoaches
The Physics House Band
PLaylounge
Yoofs
Tyrannosaurus Dead
Battery Hens
Cycle Schmeichel
Ricky Fitts
Perch
You’re All Smiling But We’ll All Turn Into Demons
A Spotify playlist of some of the acts can be listened to HERE.
We are stoked, as always, to be working once again with local artist My Dog Sighs on what is set to be one of the largest mural paintings in the city.
Rick from Head Hairdressing on Albert Road conceived the idea of having the courtyard to the rear of the local barbers transformed in to a permanent giant art piece. From precision multilayered stencils, through bubble gum cutsie to surreal illustrative mayhem, My Dog Sighs has hand picked his favourite artists from across the country to produce the ultimate street art dreamscape courtyard.
Head Jam will run all day so feel free to pop along, take a look, have a chat, hang out, meet the artists and enjoy the atmosphere. There will be music on all day, a BBQ turning over in the background if you want to stick a burger on (not supplied), and please feel free to bring along a beer too. Everyone is welcome, so bring the kids so they can see some of the countries finest street artists working together in this unique environment.
As you are probably well aware from reading the news recently, the Portsmouth Supporters Trust succeeded in their bid to take control of Portsmouth FC making it the biggest community owned club in the UK. It is a long and hard fought victory by the fans that have endured years of bad fortune, bad news and bad performances and a couple of the SI crew have seen most of them! PST’s aim is to bring about responsible, democratic representation at Portsmouth Football Club and so help promote the highest standards of transparent governance, accountability and embed Portsmouth FC deeper into its community through greater communication and co-operation with its fans.
We contacted the PST back in November last year to put forward our idea of doing a Strong Island PFC edition T-shirt to raise money towards buying a share in the club. The PST warmly welcomed the idea and we are pleased to say we are now putting our plan into action.
Strong Island is keen to get behind the trust as are many others. We’re going to pledge £5 of every limited edition SI X PFC tee sold towards Strong Island buying a share of the football club, therefore financially helping PFC in it’s aim to become stable again and continue to be a hugely important aspect of the city.
The design itself is a re-imagining of the common elements from the iconic Portsmouth FC logo from the 1980s and the Strong Island logo, with two swords in place, each dated with the club’s FA Cup wins. The Strong Island Clothing Co. items are normally hand screened in East London but for this particular tee they are produced literally just down the road from Fratton Park and will be at a special price of £15 (plus P&P).
No matter if you are passionate about football or not, we hope this tee is a way of showing support for a club that is now a beacon to the rest of the country for a city and a community that strives to work together for the better.
To pre-order the t-shirt click on the link below. Tees will be back from the printers soon and we hope to have orders in the post by the end of the month, if not sooner.
We are very proud to announce The Creating Balance Project, a new, collaborative project between Anglepoise, Strong Island & the University of Portsmouth to celebrate a design classic and local creativity in Portsmouth. The project aims to showcase the working studios and disciplines of artists and designers across the island and connect them to local photographers to capture, document and collaborate.
Anglepoise lamps have been given to each of the 10 participating artists/designers and the 10 photographers involved have used the lamps to light the photographs, give a sense of place and document the artist, where they work & how they create. During the collaboration sessions University of Portsmouth BSc TV and Broadcast students Massimo Marzullo and Jonas Jakunas have been documenting the project, producing short films for each collaboration.
Later this summer key images from each photographer will be printed and displayed with the films, lamps, photos and more in an exhibition in Portsmouth and one in London (TBA).
The collaborations are:
Andrew Whyte & Peter Clutterbuck
Matt Sills & Lorna Apps-Woodland
Paul Gonella & Tristan Savage
Russell Squires & Farkfk
Josh Knill & I Love Dust
Thor Haley & William Pounds
Rob Luckins & Roo + Barry Abrook
Cotton Candy & Neal Layton + Sadie Tierney
Matt Saxey & Deer Park Alpha
My Dog Sighs & Jack Daly
The project is progressing over the next couple of months and already two films are finished and many collaborations complete. Below are the completed collaboration films and we will be posting updates on The Creating Balance Project regularly here on Strong Island. To keep up to date with the project also please check the Creating Balance website where you can see loads of photos from behind the scenes of the collaborations.
It’s been a while (apologies) but the Strong Island Clothing Co. spring 2013 capsule drop is now available and online in the Strong Island Shop Ahoy store! The drop includes some brand new Branded tee colourways, a new grey crew (highest quality, carefully selected and sourced) and a collection of accessories including new beanies, our seriously high quality Branded iPhone cases (4 & 5) from Etch and our hand crafted, leather coin pouch collaboration with Raw & Auburn.
To kick this capsule drop off right we visited the home of Portsmouth’s Eberhardt signwriters and neon sign specialists. Eberhardt are a true creative business gem of the city with a very long history and still produce hand crafted, carefully designed neon signs, a rare and special craft these days. Check the photos below and the behind the scenes edit too to see more. Photography principally by Jack Daly.
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