Portsmouth's legendary lost Surf Punks Emptifish return for a home-town show next weekend, headlining a night of Garage Rock at the city's newest venue, The House of Rapture. In the 80's the band's gigs gained an infamous reputation, due to in part to an often raw connection with some of the more raucous Pompey fans, leading to Emptifish gaining a ban from playing within the city limits. Whilst it could be argued that this censure led in part to the band's split, on the eve of recording their debut album no less, time heals most rifts (even The Eagles reformed, despite Don Henley's famous quip) and, after all this time, it only seems fitting that their latest gig is in the shadow of Fratton Park.
Support on the Skaraman curated night comes from Sci-Fi Punk supergroup The Gary 7, a band featuring members of Armoured Flu Unit, Thee DB3, The Good Time Charlies and, of course, Emptifish themselves, with mood music between sets courtesy of DJ Paul Groovy.
The band recently released a new single, Haunted, through local label Mayfield which featured ex-Damned drummer Rat Scabies on percussive duties (I remember seeing Dead Men Walking at The Wedgewood Rooms some years ago, an evening notable for Captain Sensible telling some rather interesting and slightly off-colour anecdotes about his old bandmate, but those are tales for another time).
Tickets for the Saturday 6th July gig are £8 in advance, available now from the venue, direct from the bands involved or in person from Lord Sonic's shop on Albert Road.
I like live music, I like a good beer and I like to enjoy one whilst indulging in the other. With this in mind it would seem obvious that I'd be rightly appreciative of any event for new music that just-so-happens to take place in a venue which has a brewery attached.
The House of Rapture, Portsmouth brewers Staggeringly Good's new bar venture, is soon to play host to that most popular way of sampling new music, the Open Mic. In partnership with local band-cum-entrepreneurs Skaraman the new venue will be hosting regular Open Mic Nights, starting with their inaugural event on Thursday 29th February.
Most Open Mics I've encountered have tended to limit themselves to solo or duo acts, trios at a push, with nary a sniff of a full band. Not so at The House of Rapture, the organisers are keen to welcome all to their stage; solo acts, duos, small ensembles and full band line-ups too, the venue will cater for all to plug-and-play.
The doors open wide on the new night at 1900 and, as time slots won't be pre-allocated, would be players are advised to get there early.
