John Bramwell – I Am Kloot 15th May

John Bramwell of I Am Kloot is currently on tour playing solo shows and lucky for us one of those shows is in Southsea at The Cellars of Eastney on Friday 15th of May. I Am Kloot’s first album ‘Natural History’ is a classic and was produced by Guy Garvey & Craig Potter of Elbow – who will be producing their new album too. This is likely to sell out so grab tickets quick, £10 in advance and £12 on the door. More information on the show is available at the Cellars website and the I Am Kloot website and have a listen over at MySpace too. See you there.

Mark Morriss (The Bluetones)

Lead singer of The Bluetones, Mark Morriss, will be performing live at The Cellars of Eastney on Wednesday 8th of April. Doors open at 8:30pm and tickets are available at £8 in advance and £9 on the door. For more information see the Cellars website and check out Mark Morriss’ MySpace and have a listen.

Baddies

Hotly tipped for greatness in 2009 by the NME, MTV2, Q Magazine and many others, Southend on Sea’s Baddies will be performing in Southsea at The Cellars of Eastney on Friday 10th of April, tickets are £8 in advance and full details are available at the Cellars website. Check the Baddies MySpace and Facebook to have a look and a listen and also watch the video for ‘Battleships’:

Rust Never Sleeps

Apologies for the very late notice but this evening The Cellars at Eastney are holding ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ an evening of the music of Neil Young. Local musicians (including Andrew Foster, Chris Perrin, Bemis, Two Fingers of Firewater, Tom Dangerous, C.M.Arnold and Jennifer Frost) will be performing live the music of Neil Young. It’s £7 on the door and it all starts at 8pm tonight. Check the Facebook event and the Cellars website for full details.

p.s. Neil Young himself will be in this neck of the woods later this year when he headlines the Sunday of the Isle of Wight festival in the summer.

The 2nd Strong Island Ale – Dry Dock No. 1

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.

The Isle Of Wight Randonnee 2012 – Team Strong Island

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.