Those crazy skate rats over at Signature have just dropped their latest range for Spring. Check out the full range over at www.thesignatureclothing.com and follow them on Facebook HERE.
Lloyd ‘Dobbo’ Davies from 1401 Skateboard Co rolls in the new Signature Victorian Gangster tee in this mini web clip. Shutting it down son!
Lloyd Davies/ Signature from Liam Searle on Vimeo.
Bored of Southsea are pleased introduce there collaboration with the artist Rob Ryan and owner of the store Ryantown in Columbia Road, London.
Although Rob views himself as a fine artist since around 2002 he’s been mainly working within the paper cutting medium and has a style that lends itself well to screen printing onto fabric’s, ceramics and other surfaces. His work often consisting of whimsical figures paired with sentimental, grave, honest and occasionally humorous pieces he readily admits are autobiographical.
Bored of Southsea is a store based in Portsmouth with its roots deeply embedded in skateboarding culture though as a business its products and outlook tends to stray from the trodden path. Currently celebrating its 15th year of trade within the City its established itself not only with the City’s core skateboarder’s but also as a centre of creativity for like minded people.
For this collaboration together they have produced two colours of men’s T shirt a women’s T shirt and a tote bag, all of which are now available to buy at both Ryantown, London and Bored of Southsea, number 23 Albert Road. They are also available to buy via boredofsouthsea.co.uk with worldwide shipping available.
Each year Southsea’s own skater owned skateshop Bored of Southsea enters a team in to the Southampton based Something For the Weekend competition and this year is no different. The competition is open to anyone and sees a dozen or more teams travelling around the Southampton area and skateboarding skateparks and street spots and then quickly producing a video edit of the weekend. The video edits are then open for public voting and this weekend all the edits went online.
Have a watch of the Bored of Southsea edit below (keep an eye out for Jak Tonge ripping the Totton halfpipe in particular) and give them a vote HERE (where you can also watch the other edits too). It only takes a couple of clicks to give your vote and you can vote on multiple days too.
Southsea Skatepark had a smallish bowled concrete bank and added extension at the end of the slalom hill since day one but in 1990 this was replaced with a deep concrete bowl (also called ‘The Pool’ at the time). This then new addition to the skatepark quickly grew popular with locals and visitors alike but few people got close to skating it the way visiting American pro skater Ben Schroeder did when passing through in 1990. Most people would wear pads to skate the deep concrete transitions back then but Ben smashed it wearing shorts and no pads and even ollied the transfer from bowl to bank, which immediately went down in to local skate folklore.
We got the heads up on some rare video footage filmed on the day of the Ben Schroeder putting down that trick and more in the bowl, have a watch and bear witness:
A big thank you to OG Southsea skater Pete for the heads up on this epic mini ramp run on the old Southsea Skatepark mini ramp by American pro Aaron Deeter. Aaron Deeter was pro for Zorlac and visited the UK around 1989 so I’m guessing the visit to Southsea was down to Mark & Barry Abrook and this was filmed at that time.
Liam Searle put together an edit of skateboarding filmed over the last few months which features skaters Adam Keys, Casey Brown, Sam Willers, Jed Cullen, Lloyd Davies, Harrison Davis, Matt Grey, Jak Tonge, Jake Skinner, Dean Lawrence, Jay Pateman and Phil Russell. Phil, Jak and Adam are on the Bored of Southsea team and many of these guys are locals. Great to see this crew ripping it up from here to London.
Notable skate rat and top lensman Gormski captures Paul Gonella shutting down the University House banks with a bluntside back in 2007. On the team before the team existed. Via Gorms Flickr HERE.
A little while back good friend Russ Cowling came down during the filming for the latest Monster Network skateboarding video ’20′ with friends Carl Potter, Veran Tull and Sam Juner to skate and film at a bunch of the local street spots. ’20′ was released online at the end of 2012 and Russ edited up the footage from the Portsmouth trip in to a little extra, shown below.
You can watch ’20′ HERE.
Portsmouth as a city has a very long and illustrious history of skateboarding from the 70s with Dread City Skates through to the 80s with Pros like The Abrooks and Gary Lee through to the 90s with videos like Pigeon (which you can watch HERE) to the early 00s with videos like Walk the Plank up to now with 14:01, Herbal and Signature. In more recent times skateboarding in and around Portsmouth has also seen more local parks crop up which some might argue has a negative effect on street skateboarding, the act of skateboarding out in the streets using the environment in new creative ways that in many ways has defined skateboarding culture for the last two decades. This use of urban spaces has been actually been academically discussed with papers by Ocean Howell, including “The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space”, and the Iain Borden book ‘Skateboarding, Space and the City’ (both with insightful perspectives from an architectural and sociological context) and is skateboarding’s defining image in relation to popular culture.
Despite the popularity of skateparks it’s great (and in many ways vital to the local scene) to see some of the new breed of local street skaters out in the city’s streets putting their stamp on both the classic and new street spots. This video features parts by Jack White, Travis Baker & Nick Munday. Plus a classic skate photo of a local spot with visiting US legend Lance Mountain from back in 1988.
Lance Mountain Frontside Grind Lawcourts (1988) Photo by Tim Leighton-Boyce
Local skate company 14:01 have recently dropped the new series ’14:01 Anti Rain Squad’, a collaboration with London illustrator Darren John. Darren has produced work for Skittles, Kopparberg Cider, Desperados Beer, The Guardian, Bombay Bicycle Club and many more, you can see more of Darren’s work at www.iamdarrenjohn.com.
14:01 Skateboard Co produced the “Anti Rain Squad” for the hate of rain and typical British weather preventing skateboarders from skateboarding…a tribute to our country’s climate. The series consists of two decks and a pocket tee and is available at:
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.
Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Last year’s shenanigans at ‘Drunken Sailor’ can be watched below and HERE.
We hope to see you all there on the day and get involved!
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.
Attending artists include: Snik, Wah Graff, Id-iom, Korporate Kaine, Process Smith and of course My Dog Sighs. Be sure to check their links to see more of their amazing work and we look forward to seeing you.
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.
Order your Strong Island Clothing Co. X Portsmouth Supporters Trust T-Shirt
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.
creatingbalanceproject.tumblr.com
A huge thank you to Claire Sambrook, Simon at Anglepoise and everyone involved.
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.
View the full lookbook HERE.
www.strongislandclothingco.com
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