Strong Island

The Wedgewood Rooms

Blackfoot Circle

Local band Blackfoot Circle are back in the studio today working on some new material, including Texas Headlight which you can see below.

Later this month you will also be able to purchase two new tracks on iTunes, “Racket Of The Records” and “Scarlett”.

You can see the band playing at the The Wedgewood Rooms on Albert Road next Saturday (18th). They will also be supporting Sound of Guns at Unit, in Southampton on Saturday 24th March. This will be one of the rare times we encourage a trip to Southampton!

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.


(L-R) Barrie Hardman (Guitar), Jake Bezzina (Vocals), Jack Greenfield (Drums), Grant Melin (Bass) and James Hill (Guitar)

Texas Headlights

Hipshaker This Saturday

Hipshaker is back this Saturday (11th February) at The Wedgewood Rooms and will feature a live performance by Janice Graham Band who recently signed to Acid Jazz.

Blackfoot Circle

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)

Guillemots and Tanya Auclair @ The Wedgewood Rooms

On sunday I went to see the Guillemots at the Wedgewood Rooms. I’ve been lucky enough to see them before at Latitude Festival and again I had a great time!

Lead by Fyfe Dangerfield the band played a large selection of tracks from their three albums. My two favourite tracks of the night were ‘Made Up Love Song #43′ and ‘Falling Out Of Reach’.


When I go to a gig I like to get there early and see the support act. Tanya Auclair opened the night and I’m glad I got there early to see her. If you like Bonobo, Andreya Triana and Little Dragon then I think you should take the time to view the video below of her guesting with Yult, or check out some of her other tracks on Soundcloud.


The Horrors at The Wedgewood Rooms

Monday night saw the very welcome return to Southsea of The Horrors. Despite some technical issues the band fought on to deliver an amazing set and it was great to see and experience the new songs performed live. Below are a few photos and the video for Still Life.







Munroe Effect – November Tour

Portsmouth band Munroe Effect are playing the Wedgewood Rooms as part of their UK tour on 7th November and will be joined by Dananananakroyd.

“With a history of accomplished live performance (shows include support for The Subways, Young Guns and Gay for Johnny Depp), several album video teasers, the Portsmouth four piece have already been getting noticed in the right places, with Daniel P Carter playing the album opener ‘The Escape (Part Two)’ on his Radio 1 Rock Show, and BBC Radio 1 Wales Introducing DJ Jen Long showing support on her blog. “

Keep updated with all their news on their Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/munroeeffect

City and Colour

Last night’s City and Colour show at The Wedgewood Rooms was sold out so if you missed it check these photos from Katie Anderson. Would have loved to have been there.

www.katieandersonphotos.com









Death in Vegas at The Wedgewood Rooms

Last night saw The Wedgewood Rooms dropping hints on Twitter (@WedgewoodRooms) that at 12 midnight they would be announcing something special, which was keeping many people in Southsea guessing in to the late evening. At 12 it was announced that Death in Vegas would perform on Thursday 18th of August, with tickets available from 9am this morning! This is going to sell out quick so keep F5ing HERE with your card details at the ready.

(This song is a personal favourite – a good way to start a wet Monday morning too).

Wedgewood Rooms Shortlisted – Britain’s Best Small Venue

I posted a few days ago about a competition that NME are running to find Britain’s best small venue.  Well, great news The Wedgewood Rooms has made the final shortlist for the South East category!

This really is a great accolade not only for them should they win, but the city also.  Get involved and cast your vote here and hopefully we will see them win the award I believe they deserve.

www.nme.com/smallvenues

The Bees

The Isle of Wight’s The Bees played a sell out show at The Wedgewood Rooms last night and killed it. I’m not very good at writing reviews so I’ll keep it simple: they started with These Are The Ghosts and ended with Chicken Payback with a few new songs thrown in there too. Chicken Payback was something special, a smile on every face there. Still smiling through the hangover now.

Have a watch of the video below and turn the volume up to Friday.








Photos by Paul Gonella

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Features

PRIMARY – Extended & Improved

We have some great news about our PRIMARY phonography exhibition (find out all the details here) that we can now announce:

- The deadline for submissions has now been extended to Sunday 4th March. We have had some incredible submissions but want to set aside more time to make the exhibition something really special.

- The competition is now open to up to 10 submissions from each individual. With the ability to capture many photos on your phone over the next two months we we want you to not feel restricted to just three. The same rules apply about the photos conforming to compositions using the primary colours though. If you have already submitted feel free to send more photos over as and when you please.

- The exhibition will be hosted by Albert Road’s own Bonzo Studio who are also partnering up with us in the creation of the exhibition space. More news on this soon!

- Finally, we will be running a competition as part of the exhibition where the best three photos submitted will win some incredible prizes. We will be announcing the prizes available very soon but got to say, these will be the best prize haul we have ever offered.

- We will be putting together a poster for the exhibition that will be on sale on the opening night. The poster will feature some of the best submissions and all profits from the sales will go to a local charity (details to follow soon). Due to this we need to say that any photos submitted to PRIMARY will involve you giving us permission to use them for commercial purposes, if you do not want your photo used in this way simply let us know via email.

Well, that is it for now! We really hope to drum up as much coverage locally for PRIMARY in the next couple of months so if you could Facebook/Tweet/+1 about the exhibition we would really appreciate it. We would love this exhibition to be a real reflection of the whole population of Portsmouth with everyone taking part and feeling involved.

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

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.

Poster: Tristan Savage

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