The Southsea Alternative Choir had a very successful Christmas, raising just under £1,500 for Samuel’s Fund, a local cerebral palsy charity. With Christmas 2012 ten months away, the local octet already intend to up the ante by releasing their own version of The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’, which proved a highlight of the band’s set of indie/alt rock classics, which also included covers of tracks by David Bowie, Brian Wilson, Primal Scream, Bob Dylan, Blur and The Band.
The Southsea Alternative Choir have launched a Fairytale of New York website, which they will embellish as the year goes on. The choir is led by Southsea photographer Stuart Scott and also features the talents of Adam Collier; former Bluesky Research trio Charlie Waddington, Sam Richards and Matt Gill; former Kid Idiot duo Sam Davidson and Ashley Till; and former Ricky singer Jim Lines.
The Southsea Alternative Choir will record ‘Fairytale of New York’ later in the year, but in the meantime you can see the band performing the track outside The Belle Isle, mid-way through an epic six-hour session of drinking and busking that culminated in the band gate-crashing Little Johnny Russell’s one Saturday in December.
Friends of Strong Island Pet Sounds would like to give their seal of approval to 2.54. On 9th Feb fresh from tours with Wild Beasts, Yuck and Warpaint, the London based sisters arrive at the Wedgewood Rooms supporting The Big Pink to promote their EP release ‘Scarlet’. You can get tickets here.
It’s always good to see a band before they really take off, and the Wedgewood Rooms has seen its fair share of support bands go massive after that charmed slot.
The Big Pink are good too so all round a pretty hot ticket. Local support from the top Kassassin Street also. All in all a pretty sweet night…
Check out what the Guardian had to say on 2:54 and the Big Pink.
Going back to ten years ago I remember working with lead singer Jake in Fareham. He introduced me to his band the Elements, they had a strong and loyal following within Fareham and Gosport. Since those days there are a few new faces and they go by the name of Blackfoot Circle.
Fresh off the back of winning Hard Rock Cafe’s UK Battle of The Bands competition, where they received glowing reviews from judges James Curran (Absolute Radio), Jemma Downey (Live Nation) and James Walsh (Starsailor), The band’s belief and reputation is growing fast. This and their recent appearance at Bestival being covered by ITV’s Meridian News has created a real buzz in and around their local area.
The band are starting to gain a strong following in London and have gigs there on the 2nd and 9th Feb. You can see the band playing around Hampshire on…
Fri 27 Jan @ 147 Club, Gosport
Sat 18 Feb @ The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
Sat 24 March @ Unit, Southampton (supporting Sound Of Guns)
The band love their social networking and you can keep up to date with them via their YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud pages. To sign up to their mailing list click here.
If you like the video below you can buy four tracks on iTunes.
(L-R) Barrie Hardman (Guitar), Jake Bezzina (Vocals), Jack Greenfield (Drums), Grant Melin (Bass) and James Hill (Guitar)
Calling ALL vinyl lovers! Sam Foot is having a huge vinyl jumble tomorrow at his wonderful pub The King Street Tavern (click here for map). Expect some fine examples of some beautiful old tunes from back in the day.
He’s putting in listening stations too – gonna be like record shopping used to be!! Kicks off at 12noon, get involved! Beer and food will be served as usual.
Help Hayden at The Pier is a LIVE music event put together by local musicians, DJs, promoters, business owners and people who care, to help raise funds for a little lad named Hayden!
“Hayden is a 3 year old local boy who has Cerebal Pulsy. He has just under gone an operation in America to help him walk and we’d like help pay for for the expensive after care that he now needs. Not only would this money help a little run around like every lil boy but also help ease some of the massive pressure his parents and family must be under.”
Tickets are just £6 so make sure you get involved and help in any way you can. For more information about Hayden please visit www.helphayden.co.uk and keep up to date on the fundraiser of at Facebook.
Digger Barnes is a ramblin’ troubadour. His songs are dark portrayals of outlaws, criminals and suicides. Influenced by early roots music, murderballads and gospel tunes he creates his own ghostly universe that could be described best as gothic americana or country noir.
Digger works also as a studio/touring musician and shared stages with Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Tim Barry (Avail), Tom Gabel (Against Me), Ben Nichols (Lucero), Jim Ward (At The Drive-In), Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Austin Lucas, Jon Snodgrass, Frank Turner (Kneejerk) and many more.
Together with visual artist Pencil Quincy he runs the Hamburg/Germany based label BARNES & QUINCY.
Jimmy Islip is a stalwart of the UK punk/emo scene. Having previously played in Eighty Six, Jimmy now divides his time between That Fucking Tank, Milloy and The Magnificent, whilst also playing solo acoustic shows. Check out his spilt with Chuck Ragan, Helen Chambers and Sam Russo.
Livers and Lungs are a 4 piece country outfit. They don’t play very often but are great to see when they do find the time to regale us with thoughtful and touching songs.
Monday the 23rd of January at The Edge of the Wedge, Southsea. £5
The day has finally come! Our album launch party that we’d hoped would have been in 2010 is now here and we’d like you to come and join us. This is the 1st of 3 shows over this weekend with Brighton & London on the consecutive following days.
Caves – One of the most positive punkrock bands in the UK!!! If you’re not singing along, then you need to change that! www.caves.bandcamp.com
Ravachol – this 4 piece from all over the UK have been killing it at every show! They play a powerful and interesting version of “screamo” music and we encourage you check them out!!!! www.ravachol.bandcamp.com
Southlands – Ex-’Chillerton’/'Circus Act’ & current ‘You, Me and the Atom Bomb’ playing punk rock like your Dad used to make you listen too. If your Dad was cool in the 90′s.
£1 on the door from 7:30pm and open till 1am. DJ Rusty Sheriff on afterwards @ The One Eyed Dog.
Local Portsmouth acts have the opportunity to enter a Road to Blissfield. The winner will be invited to play Blissfields Festival later this summer. This Battle of the Bands will also takes place in Brighton, Basingstoke, Reading, Southampton & Winchester with one act chosen to play from each town/city.
All genres of music are welcome. Portsmouth applications will be listened to by early February and the four shortlisted acts will be invited to play a 30 minute set at Edge of the Wedge on 27th April. The winner will be invited to play Blissfields Festival.
Portsmouth acts including Huw Olesker and Bear Cavalry have been doing great things since playing the festival.
For more information on Blissfields and how to enter click here. Below is a short video about last years festival which included performances from Frank Turner, Gold Panda and Southsea’s own Gentle Bren & Handsome Dave Rocker.
‘3 Feet High & Rising’ was released at the beginning of 1989, it was De La Soul’s debut album, and it’s an absolute blinder. Despite a sometimes reedy production, the style and tunes sound as fresh today as they did back then. It’s known as one of the landmark albums of sampling, Prince Paul behind the desk getting away with murder in a time before harsh copyright rules stifled the magpie creativity that would reach breaking point months later with Beastie Boy’s ‘Paul’s Boutique’.
There have been hundreds of good records that are built around a hook pinched from something else, but this album in particular shows you how to do it with daring, skill and deftness. Listening to a select collection of the originals shows how wide they cast their net, and demonstrates that it’s easy to pinch a beat from an old funk record, but maybe you could try a little harder. Johnny Cash, Yacht-rockers Hall & Oates, cerebral pop masters Steely Dan and a kids record teaching multiplication all chucked into the blender to come out with a hip-hop masterpiece. After listening to this compilation, dig out the actual album and enjoy the melting pot.
01 Five Feet High And Rising – Johnny Cash [The Magic Number]
02 School Boy Crush – Average White Band [D.A.I.S.Y. Age]
03 Funk You Up – The Sequence [This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.]
04 I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) – Hall & Oates [Say No Go]
05 Best Of My Love – The Emotions [Say No Go]
06 Funky Worm – Ohio Players [Me, Myself & I]
07 (Not Just) Knee Deep – Funkadelic [Me, Myself & I]
08 Girl, I Think The World About You – Commodores [Buddy]
09 Three Is A Magic Number – Bob Dorough [The Magic Number]
10 Sing A Simple Song – Sly & The Family Stone [Eye Know]
11 (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding [Eye Know]
12 Make This Young Lady Mine – The Mad Lads [Eye Know]
13 A Little Bit Of Soap – The Jarmels [A Little Bit Of Soap]
14 Peg – Steely Dan [Eye Know]
15 You Showed Me – The Turtles [Transmitting Live From Mars]
Pet Sounds is back on at the One-Eyed Dog this evening from 8pm. Playing the usual eclectic mix from Marvin Gaye to Mantronix. Occasional guests and regular good times, come and get over your new year blues with some ace tunes. Selected 4-pint jugs are just £9
iNDiGO! & SCIENCE are very excited to reveal details of their joint NYE Showcase at Drift Bar Southsea, with a line up that simply spells party. For more details or ticket info call 07792751592 or check out their Resident Advisor event page www.residentadvisor.net
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
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.
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