Showing posts with label
Highlights of our Modern World.
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Showing posts with label
Highlights of our Modern World.
Show all posts
Portsmouth's Dials Festival is an excellent showcase of new music, presenting local and touring talent that the average gig-goer may have otherwise not had the joy of stumbling across. Last year's festival provided me the pleasure of encountering both the jaw-dropping live spectacle of Brighton's LibraLibra and the mellow tune-scapes of Pompey's own Highlights of Our Modern World (or HoTM for short).
Watching a man hunched over an array of boxes and keyboards, twiddling nobs and fettling his MacBook, may not immediately appeal to those who like their performance art high in the frenetic. The experience of enjoying HoTM perform live is, however, more art than performance, with the music seeping into your pores and allowing your brain to paint pictures in your mind. OK, I'll admit that sounds more than mildly pretentious, but trust me on this one.
If you'd like to enjoy
this experience then your luck is in; HoTM headline a Lathe To The Grave curated night at The Wave Maiden in Southsea next weekend, a line-up that also includes Winchester-based DJ and instrumentalist Inkhromo, Portsmouth's own trip-hop & glitch legend Yeti and new local talent Yung Chow.
Doors are from 1900 next Saturday, 29th June, with entry to the gig only £5 (or £3 for NUS cardholders). G'won, you know you want to...
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.
Waking up on a wet Saturday morning, with a sore throat and a head full of cold, puts no-one in the best of spirits. So it was then that I attempted to recharge my energies with a double-header of caffeine and Twitter. Whilst the coffee machine did its noisy thing I scrolled through my feed and, yes, saw something which brought the sunshine back into my day.
For a while now small venues have been disappearing from out midst, with Portsmouth losing several over the past few years (The RMA Tavern, Drift In The City and The Cellars to name but three). It's therefore nice to be able to report some good news; the lovely folks of local ale producers Staggeringly Good have today announced the imminent of a new venue for the city, The House of Rapture.
Situated adjacent to both the brewery and its taproom, within shouting distance of Fratton Park, this new venture promises to marry the joyousness of live music with craft beer (which Staggeringly Good brew some very tasty examples of). If you're in the least bit beardy, like me, then this is a very good thing indeed.
The House of Rapture opens next week and, to celebrate its launch, the venue is hosting three evenings of FREE live music. The fun starts this Thursday, 20th December, with party ska from the always effervescent Skaraman, psychedelic rock from Mystic Hipniks Picnic (from Portsmouth, via Metropolis) and some chilled out ambience from Highlights Of Our Modern World (who were excellent at Dials Festival this year).
The following night, Friday 21st December, boasts modern folk from Megan Linford, shoegaze from Superdrone and 6Ts flavoured psych-rock courtesy of Number 9. The opening celebrations conclude on Saturday 22nd December with grunge from Make Them All Smile and [drum roll] a super secret special headliner who will be announced on the day. All that and they sell very nice beers too which, I'm sure you'll agree, really is something to celebrate.
The lovely people at Southsea's Pie & Vinyl have teamed up with the equally lovely folk at Strong Island Recordings to curate an Oxjam Portsmouth festival. Hurrah!
Oxjam, if you didn't already know, is a multi-venue music event, held annually, that supports grassroots music across the UK whilst also raising valuable funds for Oxfam. Oxjam events take place in towns and cities nationwide, organised by volunteers, that can be either one-off gigs or music festivals.
In previous years Portsmouth has hosted several smaller Oxjam events, usually at the Edge of the Wedge, but this year Pompey is going large; Oxjam Portsmouth is a one-day festival, to be held at Portsmouth Pyramids on Saturday 13th October, and features both a family-friendly day session (from midday-1700) and an evening music session (from 1800-2300).
The line-up announced so far for the evening session includes Superdrone, Highlights of our Modern World, Barbudo and Lucid Rising, with further acts still to be announced. All that and it's for a good cause too, how great is that?
Tickets are available now via WeGotTickets, priced at £4 (Early Bird, standard price £5) for the day session and £8 (Early Bird, standard price £10) for both the day & evening sessions (ticket prices are subject to booking fee).
