Mar
19
Tue
The Variables Present: An Evening of Science Comedy
Mar 19 @ 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

Part of the Cambridge festival.

Festival favourites The Variables return once more to the Portland Arms and the Cambridge Festival, to show the funny side of science.

Join our scientists as they become comedians for an evening, and find out what it’s really like to delve into the secrets of the universe day in and day out.

We will lay bare the silliness caused by specimens, share our chemical catastrophes and invite you to join in with laughter around lab work.

Mar
20
Wed
Green Mind presents WILLIAM DOYLE
Mar 20 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Serving up art-pop for the anthropocene, “Springs Eternal” is the Mercury-nominated, critically acclaimed artist William Doyle’s most ambitious and most playful creation to date. Taking a panoramic view of the ecstasies and agonies of life in the 2020s, the record asks how we exist as fragile flesh and blood – our hearts beating and our minds racing – in an unprecedented, almost unimaginable time of runaway climate destruction and technological expansion.

“Springs Eternal” presents a strange and thrilling cast of characters – from cowboys to castaways – who just might be Doyle, once or twice removed. “Most of the songs are in the first-person, but rather than being autobiographical, I was trying to imagine hyperreality versions of myself,” Doyle says. “What if decisions I made in my life had resulted in the self of each particular song? How many degrees of separation am I from those realities? It’s a frightening thought, and frightening thoughts often make for good songs.”

Mar
21
Thu
Ely Folk Festival presents – State of the Union
Mar 21 @ 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams as State of the Union create a magical, stripped back and enthralling musical atmosphere with two guitars and two voices. Reuniting for their only show in 2024 this wonderful duo are not to be missed!
Support from Tu-Kay & Ryan and Rich Young & Myke Clifford.
Doors 7pm, Support 8pm

Mar
22
Fri
*SOLD OUT* The Devout (Depeche Mode tribute)
Mar 22 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

DEPECHE MODE TRIBUTE – THE DEVOUT – GREATEST HITS
The Devout perform a concert of Greatest Hits and fan favourites.
Fast becoming The World’s number one Depeche Mode Tribute Act, The Devout have brought the Depeche Mode experience to another level visually, aurally and musically.
The band members are made up of well known artists in their own right.

Reza Udhin (Killing Joke, Inertia, Black Volition)
Keith Trigwell (Speak & Spell, Form)
Barclay Quarton (Audition winner for the role of Dave Gahan in The Devout)

The Devout’s show transports the audience back to a Depeche Mode concert, at their peak with authentic reproductions of the songs together with astounding visuals, that take the audience back to those great innovative tours.

http://www.depechemodetribute.co.uk/

 

Mar
23
Sat
Cambridge Band Comp – Heat 4
Mar 23 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

It gives us great pleasure to give to you, you’re line up for Cambridge Band Competition 2024 – Heat 4
In no particular order:
Flying Symbols
Manic Stanley
Lounge Lizards
Slater
tba
Heat 4 will take place at The Portland Arms on Saturday 23rd March. The winner of Heat 4 will go straight through to the Cambridge Band Competition final at Cambridge Junction on Friday 26th April.

Mar
24
Sun
Young performers Drum showcase
Mar 24 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Drum student showcase:
Backed by a full live professional band, the drumming students of Cambridge drum teacher, Paul Richards, present their latest showcase. For this gig, the theme is simply: Blur v Oasis, so expect plenty of Britpop classics.
Many of the students, with ages ranging between 6 and 70, will be performing live for the very first time! All door money will go direct to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Suggested donation: £5 (or more if you are able) on the door.
Mar
25
Mon
Private event in venue
Mar 25 @ 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

Private event in venue, pub open as normal.

Mar
26
Tue
Very Normal Men 2: a Drag King Show
Mar 26 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

The Normal Men are BACK with some more of their most hinged and stable work to date in Very Normal Men 2: the Unbearable Weight of a Massive Drag King Show! (with Special Guest Star Juno Watt)

Loud shirts optional (but encouraged). Limited tickets will be available on the door, first come first served! Put the bunny back in the box!

Our Special Guest Star, Juno Watt (he/him) is a Drag King sent from heaven, you lucky things – an fboy with powerful eyebrows and a bewildering shirt collection, he’s here to show you the meaning of cool 😎

Max Legroom (he/him) is a performer, host, quizmaster and totally normal bloke. Can’t be trusted around toilet roll. He was Master of Ceremonies at Justa and Clit’s debut show, which makes him kind of their cool drag uncle. “Quirky and fun…a multi-talented gem.”

Clit Eastwood, the Cambridge Cowboy (he/him) is the Babybel of Rebel Rebel, co-host of Comfort Zone and all around Macho Macho Man. He’s also the only known person able to summon up the devilish miscreant (and Little Shithead) known as Beelzechub.

Justa Knight (he/they) emerged fully-formed from a manhole on Burleigh Street in 2022 and the Cambridge drag scene hasn’t been able to get rid of them since. This non-binary harlequin drag beast is the creative force behind Cambridge’s LGBTQ+ open stage show, Comfort Zone, a member of Cambridge drag troupe Dragtime! and Big Cheese of the alternative LGBTQ+ club night Rebel Rebel.

Doors: 7PM
Show start: 8PM
{ There will be two comfort breaks during the show }
Show end: 11PM

Mar
28
Thu
PORTLAND KOMBAT: Arcade Games Tournament
Mar 28 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Join us for a multi-game tournament on classic arcade games tbc, as well as retro console classics on the SNES, Mega Drive and arcade cabinets. Played live and loud from the iconic Portland Arms venue.

Free entry to the tournament for those wanting a challenge as well as machines on free-play for the spectators and casual gamers to try!

Prizes including merch, free drinks and Portland Pounds to the winners!
Register your interest by dropping us a line on our socials or email us at post@theportlandarms.co.uk

 

Mar
29
Fri
Portland Comedy Club
Mar 29 @ 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

Our regular night of mirth featuring top comics from the national circuit.

Headline: Jeremy O’Donnell

“Lighting fast” Evening Standard

“Excellent observational comedy” London Live 94.9fm

“Excellent MC” Time Out

As an act or compere, Jeremy mixes sharp one liners with friendly story telling and sparkling off the cuff wit. His cheeky smile and friendly nature have endeared him to audiences all over Britain and as far a field as Berlin, Bahrain, Paris and Zurich

Jeremy has a reputation for reliably strong performances at major comedy clubs nationwide including Jongleurs and The Comedy Café. He also tailors his act for regular corporate shows. Jeremy is currently working on a pilot show for Channel 4.

With Kirk Fontaine, Barnaby Slater, Josh Watmore
and your Compere: Natalie Durkin.

Tickets just £8 in advance or £10 on the door.

Mar
30
Sat
Cambridge Band Comp – Under 18’s FINAL
Mar 30 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

The final of this year under 18’s competition.

The three heat winners along with the audience vote battle it out for this years title.

Cambridge Band Comp – Heat 5
Mar 30 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm
It gives us great pleasure to give to you, you’re line up for Cambridge Band Competition 2024 – Heat 5
In no particular order:
Not Until Four
Tranquility Beach
South of Polaris
Bin Weasel
This Circus Life
Heat 5 will take place at The Portland Arms on Saturday 30th March. The winner of Heat 5 will go straight through to the Cambridge Band Competition final at Cambridge Junction on Friday 26th April.
Apr
1
Mon
Green Mind presents JOLIE HOLLAND (Be Good Tanyas) + Mark McKowski
Apr 1 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Green Mind presents JOLIE HOLLAND (Be Good Tanyas) + Mark McKowski

Over the span of her career, Jolie Holland has knotted together a century of American song – jazz, blues, soul, rock and roll – into some stew that is impossible to categorize with any conventional critical terminology. This is her burden and her gift, to know all of these American songs of the last ten decades in her head and her heart, and to have to wrestle with their legacy. She dives straight to the pathos of a song the way the very greatest singers, singers like Mavis Staples, or Al Green, or Skip James, or Tom Waits do.

Upon first encounter her songs seem challenging, perhaps unsettling at times, but as so many poets and rockers have shown us (from Dante Alighieri to William Blake to Sylvia Plath to Patti Smith to Nick Cave to Mark E. Smith) that’s where the beauty lies. As evident on her first recordings, Holland apparently has no fear of the truth, and there is no emotional core that she cannot reach in song. In fact she thrives on the red hot centre of a musical composition, in all its strange and brutal detail.

Apr
3
Wed
Green Mind presents UGLY
Apr 3 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

The group have become renowned amongst peers for their shape shifting sound that blends experimental post-rock with swelling choral textures. Today’s track was produced at Church Studios by Balázs Altsach, assistant to Paul Epworth who has worked on music for The Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg & Blur.

Hailing from Cambridge and its surrounding areas, UGLY originally evolved through the band’s choral background. Glimmers of its influence can be heard throughout their catalogue – instantly gripping infectious melodies, explosive dynamic changes and rich, intricate harmonies.

Apr
4
Thu
NMG presents: APTEEKI + The Budapest Tapes +GSD +Jamie Black
Apr 4 @ 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

The New Music Generator presents an electronic themed night of local artists taking to the stage at the legendary Portland Arms. Featuring the very first live outing from electro-three-piece Apteekii alongside The Budapest Tapes, GSD and Jamie Black.