Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

If you’re on the Isle of Wight this weekend and haven’t made plans yet, there are loads of things happening over the next couple of days.

We have at least 22 events listed for today over on Events on the Wight not to mention the 25 events taking place tomorrow.

Blues fans don’t forget that this Saturday night the Winter Gardens will come along to the sound of Big Joe Louis and his Blues Kings.

The award-winning “Jamaican Blues guitar supremo” will be dishing up some real down-home Blues with his band and bringing the venue to life.

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A cupcake tea break in aid of Ovarian Cancer hopes to raise funds and much needed awareness later this month.

Taking place at St Wilfred’s Primary School in Ventnor, organisers of the event are appealing to local residents and businesses to donate prizes for the raffle as well as cakes.

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If you were unable to get into the ’sold out’ Tom Priestley talk that took place in Brook last year, you’ll be pleased to hear that there’ll be a repeat performance in May.

Tom Priestly, son of the famous writer and broadcaster, J B Priestley, will be returning to the Island for an informal evening of memories and a film he made about his father, who lived at Brook Hill House in the 1950s and 60s.

Tickets are reasonably priced at just £2.50 but will go quickly.

See details of how to get yours on Events On The Wight

Here’s another from Ryde councillor Brian Harris. Ed

If you’re over 50, and have concerns about living in Ryde that need resolving, come and air your views to Ryde Older Voices.

They meet for an hour every month in the Methodist Church Hall, Garfield Road; the March meeting is on Wednesday 24th, at 1.45pm.

Ryde Older Voices is one of the IW Older Voices Circles that have been established across the Island specifically to try to improve things for the more mature of our residents; Brian Harris, on 563603, has further details.

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If you’re a fan of the Ryde Regatta, or perhaps you feel it could be improved, read on for this message from Ryde Councillor, Brian Harris. Ed

Ryde Town Council has set up a Regatta steering group to organise the event, which will run from Friday evening to Sunday evening, 2nd – 4th July, on the Eastern Gardens.

It will be family-orientated fun, especially in the daytime.

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It’s amazing to hear that the annual Speed Dating Walk, which is part of the Isle of Wight Walking Festival, is now in its fifth year.

The previous walks have been hugely successful in bringing together like minded people and have even resulted in three marriages as well as long lasting friendships.

This year the walk starts from the Fisherman’s Cottage on Shanklin Esplanade at the foot of Shanklin Chine.

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This coming weekend sees the sixth annual Spring Blues concert take place on the Island.

On Saturday night, the Ventnor Winter Gardens will play host to some amazing blues talent, as Jamaican born Big Joe Louis makes his way to the south of the Island.

He’ll be bringing with him his band, The Blues Kings, and promising to deliver their special kind of real down-home Blues.

These guys have been touring the world for 18 years and have worked with the likes of Mississippi Delta Blues legend David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Van Morrison and Jools Holland, making this one gig you should not miss out on

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The Minghella Film festival comes to an end tomorrow, but there is a great lineup of events throughout the day to enjoy.

The morning kicks off with screenings of The Storyteller in Quay Arts and Cineworld. John Hurt and Duncan Kenworthy will be attending the screening at Quay and taking part in a discussion following the film.

Lunchtime sees the Big Italian Brunch at Quay Arts hosted by Gloria and Eddie Minghella.

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Tickets are still available for tonight’s concert at Quay Arts.

Barrington Pheloung wrote and performed the original music for much of Anthony’s early work, from the BAFTA-nominated soundtrack to Inspector Morse to Truly, Madly, Deeply.

Since then, he has gone on to become one of the most prolific composers for television and film in the UK.

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Tonight sees the launch of the 2010 Minghella Film Festival.

The event kicks off with the UK premiere of ‘The Be All and End All’.

The feature length film written by Steve Lewis and Tony Owen tells the story of fifteen year old Robbie who has only one thing on his mind – losing his virginity. The problem is that he’s in hospital with a fatal heart condition.

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Island blues outfit, The Folsom Prison Blues Band will be making their way down to the Ventnor Winter Gardens this Saturday night.

Taking over the bar area on the ground floor, Mick Cooch, Tim Hollis, Rich Wilson and the Man in Black, Damien Paul, will be ripping it up performing their favourite Johnny Cash tunes along with a few other Rock’n'roll’n'blues thrown in.

Having seen Thee Waxworks gig in the bar last week, we reckon having live acts perform there is a great use of the space.

Kicks off around 9pm and it won’t cost you a penny to get in. You can’t ask for better than that!

Image: Franco Folini under CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Gonna Make a Change’ is the theme for this year’s Wight 2B Heard event.

On Friday next week 200 young people from across the Island will descend upon Cowes Yacht Haven to take part in the annual debate.

This year the all day event features workshops focusing on binge drinking, work opportunities, body image and rural transport.

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If you haven’t already heard, later this year a new event aimed as a tribute to Britain’s serving armed forces makes its way to Yarmouth.

The event, titled Sailing for Heroes, has been organised by the Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners with support from the Royal Solent Yacht Club.

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Lots of action on the gloriously sunny Saturday.

Details of next Saturday’s League fixtures available on Events On The Wight.

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Next week on national No Smoking Day a film made by young people from the Island will be screened at Quay Arts.

Stubbed Out is an ambitious project pulled off by the Streets Ahead crew.

Along with a small army of volunteers, the film involves the main character playing out different scenarios, whilst interacting with a gameshow!

This is not a corporate film to stop people smoking, but a community led project hoping to to instill some kind of thought or feeling on the subject.

The screening takes place at Quay Arts on Wednesday 10th March at 7pm. If you’re interested in attending email Andy Jones on andy(at)emusport.com

A new exhibition starts at Dimbola Lodge this weekend, entitled Out of the Box.

The photographic exhibition is a collaboration between students at Medina High School and St George’s Special Needs School.

The theme of the exhibition celebrates creativity, encouraging the students to think ‘outside of the box’ and exploring the processes of the Camera Obscura.

It runs until the 11th April and more details can be found on Events on the Wight.

This week is your last chance to catch the MELT exhibition at Quay Arts.

Taking over the cafe wall and Rope Store Gallery over the last few weeks has been work by two hugely talented Island artists.

The work of Michael Forrest and David Knight hang side by side, each a very different style, but both complementing each other.

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Following the sad death in late January of former Isle of Wight council chairman John Effemey, a memorial service to celebrate his life will take place in three weeks time.

The service, led by Canon Richard Emblin will take place at Newport Minster on Monday 22 March 2010 at 10.30am (seated by 10.15am).

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A new artist in residence takes their place at Quay Arts today, using the Learning Curve Gallery as their base.

The Medina Extended Schools Partnership in collaboration with Quay Arts and Medina High School welcome Chris Cudlip, who will be offering a range of workshops around the theme of Nomadic Life and Culture to invited schools during the month of March.

We understand that the ‘Medina Yurt’ will be the focus of the work, with workshops being held in and around the Yurt.

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Oh go on then, one more piece of music news before we head back to the boring things like being thrown out of court or decisions to cut millions of pounds to the vulnerable.

Saturday night sees the return of Quality Control at The Studio in Newport. This monthly event which launched near the end of last year is proving hugely successful, so if you intend to go, make sure you turn up early.

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Heat Two of the Live Wired competition takes place tonight.

The Scores, Damien Paul, James Hunt and The Golden Strands have been chosen by the public to battle it out tonight.

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Anyone interested in hearing the experience of those who joined the international convoy to Gaza just before Christmas, should head to the Quay Arts Centre this evening.

At 6.30pm tonight, Quay Arts will be showing the film, Eyewitness to Gaza, which is followed with a talk by Zuber Hatia and Peter Venner who made that journey.

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Tom ‘The Hat’ Blackwell and ‘The Demon’ Damian Walshe, the guys from Headfunk (the monthly funk fest at the Black Sheep Bar), tell us that tomorrow evening they’ll be launching their new weekly slot on online radio station, Vectis Radio.

Each week between 5-7pm they’ll aim to play you the best Friday night tunes, mixed in with lots of local Island talent.

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If you’re a regular VB reader you’ll know that we’re big fans of Island band Thee Waxworks.

The four piece, who all learnt how to play instruments so they could form the band, have been working their smelly socks off on a load of new tracks which they’ll be giving an outing to this coming Friday.

Yes, the long awaited next live performance is almost upon us. Thee Waxworks will be playing live in the upstairs bar at the Winter Gardens at the monthly Psycho Beat gig.

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