Flush with the success of their first outing Nod Ya Head have announced details of their second event, with Fareham's first new music night in I don't know how long moving to the Roundabout Hotelfor round two.
Billed as later, longer and louder than before, the sophomore outing is scheduled for Saturday 10th November and will be headlined by the winners of The Wedgewood Rooms' Unsigned Showcase 2018 competition, Brother Deep. Joining them on the bill are Guildford's Fuzzwalker, Portsmouth indie rock merchants Capital Fuzz and local singer-songwriter Devin Jade.
Tickets are available via BookEvents or from Heathen Chemistry Records in Fareham, priced at £6 advance (plus £1 booking fee if purchased online), £7 on the door.
Growing up in Portchester, the Burbs of Fareham,
there never seemed to be a venue nearby to showcase local bands. Yes,
the local pubs might host a band of a weekend, but these were (and still
are) mostly cover acts. Once at college there was the lure of the Gosport Labour Club,
the go to spot for fellow students who'd thrown a band together. That
was then and this is now; there are fewer pubs, fewer venues, but the
appetite for live music is the same if not greater.
What to do, what to do? Fret not my local gig monkey, for an enterprising chap called Dave has
set about organising a (hopefully regular) event where local acts can
gain valuable gigging experience and us punters can be entertained by
new music. The new event, named after the Facebook group that got the ball rolling, will debut in September with a line-up consisting of Marley Blandford, Lo-Fi Rebels, Drusillaand Dutch Criminal Record. Tickets for the event, to be held at the Mill Road Social Club, are £6 in advance, £7 on the door, and can be purchased from Fareham's one and only vinyl emporium, Heathen Chemistry
(if you're local, and like vinyl, then I urge you to visit; the shop is
a labour of love for its owner and, if you're at all like me, you'll
end up in deep conversation with him about gigs and bands and shiny
vinyl).
All it took was a thumbs up, a thumbs up of a post on Facebook, and my fate was sealed; the gauntlet thrown to select seven songs from Eighties, a misbegotten decade, and post them for all to enjoy (or mock, depending on the selection). Was I up to the challenge? Yes, although not wanting to limit "the fun" to Facebook I'd thought I'd bung them up here as well for all to enjoy.
The Eighties, as I recall them through the hazy fog of memory, were an interesting time to be alive. As I remember now it seemed a loud decade, mostly big and bright, peppered with quirky design and adorned with shocking typography, with too much time spent obsessing over shoulder pads or doing whatever Frankie told us to do. It was a time of grand technological advances, burgeoning globalisation, some excellent John Hughes movies and living in the near constant fear of either being atomised in a Nuclear Holocaust or catching something nasty that might make your winky fall off. Fun times indeed, all sound-tracked with a selection of tunes, some good, some bad, some classic and some that haven't aged very well at all.
First up on our brief and hopefully entertaining jaunt through the dusty 80's section of my record collection (as, yes, I promise that I will have owned or still have a copy of all the selections posted) is a gem of a tune from 1983. All drums, whistles and earnest clipped vocals, I first encountered Kissing The Pink thanks to that classic of Saturday morning television, No.73. I can't recall if the band were on before or after Roger Ramjet, or if they played The Sandwich Game, but I do know that I liked their song so much that I bought the 7" single....
