Calamity Cratediggers' IVW All-Dayer

Barely has the dust settled on the old year, heads still ringing from seeing in the new, and the gig calendar is starting to populate with new events to attend. Amongst the first of these is an all day event at the Edge of the Wedge, the Wedgewood Rooms' sister venue, held in support of Independent Venue Week.

An annual celebration of the UK's small music venues and the people that own, run and work in them, Independent Venue Week supports the stages where many artists receive their first taste of playing live to an audience, artists that may eventually end up playing to thousands at stadia and festivals.

Unfortunately the UK's smaller venues currently face threats from a variety of sources, whether it be rate increases, property developers or neighbourhood noise issues, resulting in names familiar to gig goers disappearing from listings across the land.
 
Independent Music Week 2019 runs from Monday 28th January through to Sunday 2rd February, with member venues throughout Blighty hosting gigs (locally this includes The Joiners and Suburbia in Southampton, Strings on the Isle of Wight, and the aforementioned Wedgewood Rooms).

Portsmouth DJs and event organisers Calamity Cratediggers have planned an all day shindig at the Edge, complete with record fair and local art showcase, for Sunday 3rd February. The first two confirmed acts playing are Slift, purveyors of psychedelic garage from Toulouse, and Khana Bierbood (คณะเบียร์บูด), a 60s influenced surf band from Thailand, with several more acts set to be announced soon;

Advance tickets are available now via the Wedgewood Rooms website, priced at a very reasonable £8. Yes, sounds a bargain to me too.

Update:

Calamity Cratediggers have announced more acts that have been added to the bill; from London comes punk four-piece Italia 90 and avant-rockers POSA, from closer to home are Portsmouth bands Violet Mud, The Staywakes and Highlights of Our Modern World.

Rounding out the bill is Chet Wynne (aka Adam Rickman from Jesse Wylde & The Stallions), the Battery Hens/Grief Daddy/Aeroplane Attack/Flubums supergroup that is Friday Night Weird Dreams, and Brighton's Squig. A rather natty poster, reproduced above, has been created for the event by illustrator Carl Tai Thompson and would, I feel, make a very nice framed addition for any discerning gig-goers wall.