What’s On

The expression of hard-fought optimism encapsulates The Good Kind, an album exploring themes of sexuality, relationships, community, and illness. Our Girl’s trademark dynamics permeate the record, from heavy guitars and soaring lead lines to ear worm choruses and intimate vocal moments. Filled with warmth and honesty, The Good Kind is a celebration of determination – of choosing to recommit to what matters, against all opposition. “A lot of the songs are about taking setbacks and turning them into superpowers” says drummer Lauren Wilson.

“I only realised then, when I thought it out loud,” begins singer/guitarist Soph Nathan on ‘Relief’, the first single released from the album, “And I feel better now”. This song is aptly named, invoking a long-awaited exhale – the feeling of finally emerging from a long and lonely period of uncertainty and self-doubt. Beginning with a single airy strum, Nathan’s reverb-drenched guitar attaches itself to Joshua Tyler’s grounding bass chords, as Wilson’s quietly insistent drum beat throws its weight behind Nathan’s words of reassurance: “You’ve gotta see it to believe it/ Well, I see it in you already.”

This song speaks honestly to the life-giving importance of queer community. From the warmth and immediacy of her delivery, Nathan could be comforting a friend. But as ‘Relief’ builds from that cautious opening to a determinedly, driving force, it becomes clear: these aren’t empty platitudes. Nathan believes in you, because she’s learned to believe in herself.

In a frankly unbelievable turn of events Hayley & Steve have been running good-ship Portland for 20 years this weekend!

To apologise/celebrate this fact (depending on your point of view) we will be having some of our favourite bands and people performing throughout the day for us starting with acoustic performances in the main bar before rocking it out in the venue during the evening.

It’s all free to attend, plus there will be giveaways, special deals and surprises throughout the day.
So come join us and party like it 2004 again!

Acts performing are…

MAIN BAR from 3pm
3pm: Rishi Karmadillo
3.45pm: Steve Adams
4.30pm: Benjamin B Sydes
5.15pm: Jazz & Friends
6pm: Old Man Boom
6.45pm: Darren Michael-Angelo Smith

IN THE VENUE from 8pm
Two Peas in a Pod
Ellie Walker & band
Pony Collaboration

Winter Solstice Warmer, with
The Brewer’s Daughter
Cara Means Friend
The Skraelings Acoustic
Plus Dj ET Receiver

Christian Smith & The Heretics are an Alternative Rock outfit taking influence from the likes of The Gaslight Anthem, Green Day and more.
Following a breakout year releasing three singles and receiving national and international radio play, the band have announced the release of their upcoming album ‘Relentless’, with an album launch show hosted at The Portland Arms, Cambridge on 9th January 2025.
A culmination of the past years work including singles ‘Aurora’, ‘Famous Last Words’ and ‘Revelry’, Relentless is destined to cement a place in any rock fans collection!
Don’t miss this first chance to hear the album in full!

Singles & B-Sides Tour

So you know 10 Years Asleep, Really Scrape the Sky, Lucy’s Down and Eat Yourself Whole right? Maybe Armchair Anarchist and Two Headed Yellow Bellied Hole Digger?

But how about Celebrated Working Man? And what about those B-sides?

Over five years in the early 90s Hull’s finest indie rockers produced almost 30 tracks that never made it on to albums; the likes of Everything’s Changed Since You’ve Been To London, Kissing Under Anaesthetic, I’m In Love and Another Bad Dose of Home Truths.

For the first time ever the band will play a set including all their A- sides and a selection of their favourite back up tracks.

Approximate times:
19:00 doors open
19:30 support
20:15 Kingmaker

For twelve long days, Chuck Prophet waited. A stage four lymphoma diagnosis had knocked the wind out of him, dragged him off the road and into surgery, and now here he was, a perpetual motion machine forced to sit still, confronting his mortality for the first time as he wondered if he’d live long enough to see the end of the year, let alone get back on tour.

“I was going through a tunnel,” he recalls. “It was dark. But I had music: music to play, music to listen to, music to get me out of my head. Music was my saviour.”

That much is plain to hear on “Wake The Dead”, Prophet’s extraordinary – and unlikely – new album. Recorded with Qiensave, a band of brothers from the Central Coast farming community of Salinas, California, the collection dives headfirst into the world of Cumbia music, which consumed and comforted Prophet during his illness and subsequent recovery. The songs are intoxicatingly rhythmic, with arrangements that blur the lines between tradition and innovation, between past and present, between cultures and countries. There are flashes of rock and roll, punk, surf, and soul, all filtered through the streets of San Francisco and wrapped up in the rich legacy of a genre that traces its roots back hundreds of years and thousands of miles.

With their eclectic, danceable grooves and astute, hilarious put-downs of modern Britain, Getdown Services are steadily carving out a name for themselves. The new EP ‘Crumbs’ sees the duo weave slacker-rock, funk, indie and dance into an engrossingly entertaining sound brimming with infectious hooks and acerbic wit. Steadily building momentum over the past 18 months with balls-to-the-wall live performances, their highly lauded debut album ‘Crisps’, and prestigious shows with Pip Blom, Fat Dog, The Bug Club, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Donny Benet, and Personal Trainer, the band ready themselves for their biggest ever headline tour this autumn. Off the back of extensive BBC 6Music support from the likes of Craig Charles, Huw Stephens, and Cerys Matthews, and armed with an arsenal of red-hot hits, Getdown Services look set to gobble the world up, one crumb at a time.

Gengahr’s critically acclaimed debut album turns 10 next year and to celebrate the band are hitting the road to play their breakthrough album in full.

They will be visiting a few of the very same venues that first welcomed the band back in 2015 as well as a selection of other small venues across the country, paying homage to these vital spaces where bands develop both their sound and audience.

TBC

Rock night

Their recent single, “Stages”, featured Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy doing a voiceover on the track; with The Franks & Walters you never know what to expect next, but you know it will be a bit quirky and great fun. Formed in Cork, Ireland they have been spreading joy and happiness with their indie-pop music for over 30 years.

“The Franks” became famous in the 90’s Indie scene and have a catalogue of hundreds of songs from seven studio albums. They still play sold out gigs all over Europe.

Green Mind presents… acts TBA

Celebrate the peak of post punk and goth with a celebration of two of the pioneers in the genre! All the hits from Lovecats to Boys Don’t Cry, Peekaboo, Kiss Them For me and more!