Recent Bella Union signings Penelope Isles are set to release their debut long player, Until The Tide Creeps In, on the label this Summer. Ahead of this the Brighton-based quartet of Jack Wolter, Lily Wolter, Becky Redford and Jack Sowton are hitting the road, playing a selection of dates which includes a stop at SXSW and a home-town show for the Wolters on the Isle of Man.
Along the way the band will be making a return visit to Portsmouth, where they played Dials Festival last year, to play a set at the city's newest venue The House of Rapture. Tickets for the Tuesday 2nd April gig, co-promoted by Dials, Strong Island Recordings and Pie & Vinyl, are priced at a very reasonable £6 and available online via Billetto.
Support on the night comes from local acts Barbudo, who recently released their new EP Sunshine, and the lo-fi soul of Ban Summers. The gig poster, below, has been conjured up by Chris Williamson and, disturbingly, reflects how I feel some Saturday mornings. No, really.
Growing up in a reasonably sized village, well served by greengrocers and butchers but lacking record shops, meant an excursion into the market town nearby if I wanted to feed my burgeoning vinyl habit. Back in the Eighties the sleepy borough of Fareham was well served with vinyl peddlers; both Woolies and WHSmiths had racks of chart music and, though compact, the local branch of Our Price still managed to cram its shelves with enough delights to empty my wallet.
However it was the dark yet welcoming confines of Venus Records, the only independent record shop in town, where most of my allowance was spent; one of my earliest record buying memories is of foraging through its 99p 12" singles rack, trying to find a gem amongst the generic, fuelled by whatever new music Mike Read et al had debuted on that week's Saturday Superstore.
Despite my weekly purchases, which increased considerably once I'd left school and secured regular employment of sorts (does YTS count?), times became hard for record shops. Eventually the shutters came down on Venus, though the faces behind its counter were soon enough serving me in newcomer MVC (which would would also falter, rebrand as Music Zone, before disappearing).
American chain Sam Goody made a fleeting appearance, well-stocked but expensive it soon closed, its place in the shopping centre soon taken by an opticians. Our Price battled on before it too threw in the towel, leaving only Woolworths and WHSmiths as the town's go-to record shops. Woolies famously folded, taking its supply chain with it, and that (as they say) was that; good luck buying anything that wasn't charting.
After some years with no record shop to speak of, with only the appearance of a pop-up HMV store at Christmastime, flogging DVD boxsets and novelty items to the harried and indiscriminate shopper, I had voted with my wallet and moved on to buying online or sampling the wares in Portsmouth's larger music emporia. With vinyl's resurgence however independent stores began to reappear on high streets across the land; Southsea's Pie & Vinyl led the way locally, then came Elephant Records in Winchester and, most recently, Heathen Chemistry in Fareham.
This labour of love, with its framed Oasis posters and OSB racking, has been open for a couple of years now and has easily become a focal point for the town's vinylheads. Selling both new and pre-loved records and CDs it boasts, as many record shops do, a friendly atmosphere; I popped in a few months after opening, intending only to check the place out, and ended up spending a good half an hour or so talking to its affable owner about all things round and shiny.
Building upon its place in the local vinyl scene Heathen Chemistry has now branched into organising record fairs; following the success of its first event last November the shop has announced its next fair for Saturday 16th March, at a venue just a short stroll from the shop itself.
If you're interested in hosting a table to sell your wares then contact the shop, if you're more of a buyer than a seller you can rock up at Harmony Hall (yes, like the current Vampire Weekend single) and add to your ever-growing collection of musical platters; doors open at 1030 and the trading continues until 1600.
Since opening in Gosport last year second-hand record shop A Slice of Vinyl has quickly and quietly established itself as the biggest little record shop in town. Located on the first floor above Katie's Vinyl Bar & Kitchen, on the pedestrianised High Street, the tiny shop offers a wide and constantly updating selection of new and old vinyl.
Building on this reputation A Slice of Vinyl, also organisers of the Gosport Record Fair, have joined forces with another of Gosport's finest, producers of real ales and craft lagers, Fallen Acorn, to combine their shared love of vinyl and good ale by hosting a record fair at the brewery.
The fun starts at 11am this coming Saturday, 2nd February, with ample opportunity to both procure that album you've been looking for (and sample some of Fallen Acorn's excellent beers) until the shutters roll down at 5pm.
I must confess that, as much as I enjoy a good tune by itself, a good tune enjoyed with a refreshing alcoholic beverage is always a welcoming prospect (however I have found that a surfeit of ale can impact on the already small amount of restraint I have when it comes to buying shiny records).
Entrance to the event is FREE however an optional entry fee of 50p-£1 can be paid at the door; all monies collected in this manner will be donated to Tonic - Music for Mental Health, a Portsmouth-based charity that both raises awareness and challenges the stigma associated with mental illness, via music and art based events.
And yes, there's a raffle too.
Listening to an album, from beginning to end, appears to be an extravagant experience in our modern age. For some years now I've heard the phrase "the lost art of album listening" bandied about and, whilst I'll admit that MP3s and music streaming have changed the way we listen to and experience a collection of music, I feel it's to easy a trope to point the finger of blame solely in that direction.
People have, in my experience, always taken their music in different ways. There were mix-tapes before MP3s and they didn't kill album listening. Hitting shuffle on my old Pioneer 6 CD player left me ignorant of song titles for most of the albums I listened to in the 90s, the same goes for the large number of albums I've enjoyed on my iPod despite my listening to them from beginning to end. Maybe it's more the pace of life that has affected the savouring of an album; do we have the time to pore over the sleeve art and liner notes whilst taking in something either new or reassuringly familiar? Probably not as much as we did. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and listen once in a while, you could miss something good.
Thankfully there are like-minded folks who still want to enjoy the album experience, and it's through their efforts that Classic Album Sundays was born (apparently over a good meal with friends which, yes, adds to its charm). If you've not encountered it before the concept is beautifully simple, you listen to a classic album from beginning to end, on vinyl, pausing only to flip from A to B.
My one and only experience of an official Classic Album Sunday was several years ago, at Bestival, where whilst suffering the hangover of the previous evening's festival excesses I found myself in a wooden hut, atop a mound at Robin Hill Country Park. There are few better ways to prepare yourself for a day's festival-going than sitting in a darkened room, surrounded by strangers, and letting the blissful sounds of The KLF's Chill Out album wash over you.
After enjoying that experience I was pained to discover that, despite similar happenings popping up across the globe, there wasn't a regular event near me (which, now I think of it, does make me wonder why I didn't try and start up my own event, but I digress). Thankfully that's all about to change with the announcement that the very lovely Pie & Vinyl are to start hosting a regular Classic Album Sunday event.
The inaugural Classic Album Sunday at Pie & Vinyl takes place on Sunday 14th October with the featured vinyl being Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. The event is both a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the band's fifth album and part of National Album Day. Jon Callender & Jim Shaw (of Cranes) and Adi Vines (of Swervedriver) will be present to discuss the album and their personal experiences of Sonic Youth.
Limited tickets are available now, priced at £10 (plus £1 booking) that, obviously, includes a Sonic Youth themed pie (meat or vegan). Further information, including details of the shiny hardware AudioT are supplying for the event, is available on the CAS website and P&V's events page.
