Interstellar Food Drive Online, 20th June 2020

For a number of years now, Portsmouth’s Strong Island Recordings have hosted a day of live music in exchange for donations to the local foodbank. With gigs and festivals still currently a pipe dream, on Saturday they took their Interstellar Food Drive online, in collaboration with Pie & Vinyl, Honeymooner Records, Velvet Candy, Hard of Hearing Music and Thank God For Sinners, bringing streamed performances from artists around the world. The event ran in association with Love Record Stores Day and encouraged donations to the Trussell Trust and other charities.

LA Peach

Tom Bryan

Given that the novelty of taking photos of the beach has long since worn thin, I thought it would be good to shoot some musicians again so spent a strange chunk of the afternoon pointing my camera at computer screens. And yes, I’m aware there’s such a thing as a screenshot but if people are doing photo shoots over Zoom then why not. Oddly, I found I still defaulted to my favoured slightly to the left front of stage position, make of that what you will.

Thyla, Sunfruits, Freya Beer

Hussy, Tugboat Captain

Rosie Alena

As well as seeing favourite bands, a lot of us are missing that chance to find something new, and the food drive gave just that opportunity with a whole bunch of talent from far and wide. Kicking things off, an Australian trio of laid-back psych from Sunfruits, kaleidoscopic riffs from Dear Doonan and some fine indie tunes from Badgers. Closer to home, there were great mini sets from local south coast artists including Megan Linford, Barbudo, Ban Summers, Public Body and Thyla. A stunning showcase from Speedy Wunderground’s new kids on the block Tiña (header photo) suggests that they will very definitely be on the ones to watch list, and no less chaos and ripped denim than you would expect from the illustrious Lynks Afrikka, proving that sofa performance is not to be taken lightly. Too many more to mention individually (see poster for complete line up) but suffice to say that every artist was well worth the watch and I have to give a shout out to LA Peach for the shower cap and shades combo, sure to catch on.

Lynks Afrikka

Fake Turins, Megan Linford, LIME

Tropa Magica

The final set came from LA’s Tropa Magica, closing an excellent day with some suitably festival fuelled cumbian-punk. Am so looking forward to when we can do all this in person again but, for now, if you haven’t had the chance yet, you can watch the full stream on the YouTube link here. If you’re able, you can donate directly to the causes listed below via their links.

The Trussell Trust
Helping food banks to provide practical support to people in crisis

Brixton Soup Kitchen
A Brixton based service for the homeless and people in need

Portsmouth Hive
A local cooperative from the voluntary and community sector helping people to build independence

Words and photos by Siobhan

22nd June 2020