Crocodile Nightmares: Violet Mud, Sans, Gork and Make Them All Smile

The Checkatrade Trophy is, for those unfamiliar with the vagaries of the beautiful game, the third most prestigious trophy in the realm of English football. Were it not for capricious fate (and two goals from Sunderland) Bristol Rovers would have reached this year's final at Wembley, playing Portsmouth for the honour of lifting the silverware. 

If Rovers had made it to this weekend's final then linking the game to Crocodile Nightmares' forthcoming gig at The Loft, which features bands both from Bristol and Pompey, would not have required such tenuous opening spiel. But that's football for you, it's a funny old game but, at the end of 90 minutes, Ron Manager will have something inane to say.

Noise merchants Violet Mud, local purveyors of raw, loud musical morsels, headline an evening of mellifluous entertainments. The band played the Strong Island Recordings stage at this year's Icebreaker, always a sign of quality.

The first of the Bristle bands is Sans, a three-piece whose Facebook bio likens their output to audio treacle. Mmm, treacle. Ahead of the release of their first long player Misophonic Songs the band released a track, Ode to Marilyn, which is currently streaming on Bristol In Stereo. If you remember Rickyfitts then you may recognise one of Sans.


 
Also out of Brizzle are Gork, a six-headed, twelve-legged power punk pop monster of epic proportions. All hail Gork, our new Bristolian overlords... feed the Gork and it will score, etc..



Rounding out the bill are Make Them All Smile, Portsmouth post-punks with a predilection for choice tunes and post-gig kebabs (who also, like Violet Mud, played the SIR stage at Icebreaker in January).



This fun-packed fixture is scheduled for Friday 12th April, at The Loft on Albert Road, with tickets priced at a bargain £5.

Lower Slaughter @ The Loft

Marsh Gibbon. Queen Camel. Lickfold. Curry Mallet. Throop. The English countryside is liberally sprinkled with odd sounding places, quaint hamlets with weird names, that lend themselves easily to naming your new favourite band (though I'll admit Throop does have a bit of a "Brian Pern" feel about it). The Cotswold village of Lower Slaughter, an outpost better known of late as being a no-go area for selling ice cream, might not feature amongst the odder patronymics but, yes, it has indeed named a band.

The musical version of Lower Slaughter are an indie-rock foursome, three quarters of which are based in Brighton (with singer Sinead Young now residing in her home town of Glasgow), who release their second album Some Things Take Work via Newcastle's Box Records later this month. With the new long player imminent the band are taking to the road, stopping off at The Loft in Portsmouth on Friday 5th April.



Support comes from the magnificently monikered You're Smiling Now But We'll All Turn Into Demons, a band who take their name from a comment in documentary about female wrestling (and not, as I previously thought, from a badly translated Anime), Horsefiles and Dad Hair.



Advance tickets are available online from WeGotTickets, priced £7 plus booking fee.

Funk The Borders

Cultural collective The People's Lounge are well known for hosting a diverse array of talent at their events, at their Sunday night Late Lounge Sessions at Southsea's HUIS or via their now annual presence in the World Music Village at Portsmouth's Victorious Festival (where their tented stage hosts a variety of artists, providing a programme of spoken word, poetry and discussion, as well as hosting both live music and DJ sets). 

Whilst The People's Lounge has a presence at Victorious the World Music Village is curated by the Arms Around The Child charity, an organisation that aims to provide love, hope and dignity to children around the world who in desperate need of it. Similarly local charity Friends Without Borders provides support and friendship to asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detainees in the Portsmouth area, and it's for these two organisations that The People's Lounge are hosting a musical fundraiser this weekend.

Funk The Borders takes place this Saturday, 2nd March, at The Loft on Albert Road (upstairs of The Kings pub) and features an eclectic line-up of Funk, Folk, Hip-Hop and, perhaps, some Jazz too. Nice. Singer-songwriter Megan Linford, whose new single First Day of Spring features below, will be performing as will TPL's own Global Sounds Portsmouth music project.

There'll also be some hip-swinging tunes courtesy of The People's Lounge Funk Band and up-and-coming local hip-hop act Prøspects will be laying down their flow (which, I'm reasonably assured, is the correct parlance). Prøspects recently released the Grim EP which features Deceit, available below:

It promises to be a musical selection box of an evening, with DJ sets from Sahara Rock, Mo Funk and Sam Foot in addition to the live acts, supplying good music to the paying punters whilst helping do some good for those that need a hand. Tickets are priced £5 and can be purchased in advance via EventBrite.

Word of Mouth presents Battlegrounds

Portsmouth Hip-Hop promoters/label Word of Mouth are bringing the spirit of 8 Mile to Albert Road with a new freestyle rap tournament night, Battlegrounds. Whether you're a budding Q-Tip or a fully fledged DMX (yes, I've heard of them) the stage is open for all-comers to throw down. If the guest judges rate your flow then you could emerge victorious, crowned the Battlegrounds Champion, walking away with some "epic prizes".

The tournament begins this Friday, 8th February, at The Loft (above The Kings pub) on Albert Road with DJs Supernova and Joey Kong providing the beats. If you fancy channelling your inner Andy Cooper, and have the chutzpah to take on a Portsea Island Busta Rhymes, then you can sign up on the night and step into the ring.

Doors open at 1900, with £3 entry before 2000, and ID is required.

Icebreaker Festival 2019 / Line-up announcement

Since 2015 Southsea's Icebreaker Festival has been a highlight on the city's musical calendar, bringing unsigned acts to the city, delivering a glorious variety of new music to venues all within comfortable walking distance of each other. To be honest, I'm a wee bit embarrassed to say I've not been yet (I know, shame on me, I'll go sit on the blog equivalent of the 'naughty step'). 

Over two days in January Icebreaker turns existing venues, situated along the thoroughfares of Elm Grove and Albert Road, into stages offering the freshest in new and unsigned music. It's a model used to great effect by both The Great Escape and the fondly remembered Southsea Fest and, since its inception, Icebreaker successfully applied it to become the South's largest unsigned metropolitan music festival.

In preparation for their next shindig the folks at Icebreaker Towers have been seeding their social media feeds with stage line-ups for next year's festival. The list is, obviously, reassuringly long so, in no particular order here are the acts playing Icebreaker 2019 [deep breath]...

Dutch Criminal Record, Radlouse, Tirana, Syrette, Total State Machine, Arid Wave, Tides, Fake Empire, Ciircus Street, Hallan, Thieves By The Code, Octopus, Sad Palace, Luna Blue, Foxer, The Wild Claims, Alexis Kings, Captain Trips, Wild Front, You're Smiling Now But We'll All Turn Into Demons, Number 9, HAEMA, Violet Mud, Alice Milburn Band, Heir of the Dog, Fugitive Orchestra, The Machete, Slick Minded Individuals, Crybaby Special, Prey Drive, The Collision, Brother Deep, The Purple Smoke, Hang Dai, Something Leather, Joe Burger, The Sweetchunks Band, Frankie Knight, Victus, Anthropophagite, The Dead Reds, Alexander McKay, Seething Akira, Me & The Moon, Hooli, Southerlies, Madeline, Bella Estelle, Horseflies, Heebie Jeebies, Toreador, The Day Of The Rabblement, Bearfist, The Diamond Age, Romances, Winchester, Broken Links, Deuxes, Sam Wilde, Pleasure Complex, Tokyo Taboo, Hometown Show, Yeehaa Granma, Georgia Fearn, Katy Hurt, Mischa & His Merry Men, Ellis Hudson, Matt English, Ryan McMurtry, Mystic Hipniks Picnic, Tom Pointer, Freja Frances, Sal Paradise, Djuno, The Bayonettes, Brutum Fulmen, Pure Assassins, JEPH, Sweetmates, The Hideaways, Light Brigade, 12 Hour Avenue, Our Propaganda, Hanowar, (Not) Queens of the Stone Age, Stray Bullets, Cybernetic Witch Cult, Harbinger, Ravenbreed, King Abyss, Bleed Again, Bad Llama, Escape December, Costellos, Calum Lintott, Girls With No Faces, Cora Pearl, Currls, Sweet Facility, Gloo, Curbwire, Igloo, These Septic Stars, Aren Drift, Marmalade Moonshine, Bird Shoes, Lobster Pot, Submariner, Minque,  Persona, The Vitrines, Finding Kate, Percival Elliott, El Morgan & The Divers, Principal Partners, Make Them All Smile, Mystic Peach, Dad Hair, Burning House, Drusila, Manreads, SKiNNY MiLK, Scrubs, Lucid Rising, The Burning Trestle, Jackarack (DJ), CLT DRP, Birthday Card, Cassinii, Bel Esprit, Counterpoint, FLOWVERS, Sarpa Salpa, Lily Garland, Brother Zulu, The Ruffs, Skull Above The Cannon, Eyre Llew, Capital Fuzz, The FreeDub Press and Shoot The Duke 

...all of whom will be playing stages, some of which are curated by the likes of BBC Introducing Solent, Taro Records, Mayfield Studios and Express FM's The Shout, across a variety of venues (some of which are 14+ friendly for the younger music lover). 

Icebreaker 2019 takes place on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th January 2019, with both day and weekend tickets available online via Seetickets or, if you prefer a proper physical ticket, from The Wedgewood Rooms box office. And after all that I think that I really must get myself a ticket...

Update: The full line-up poster has been released.