by Catherine Collins. Bill Kenwright‘s legendary production of the international smash hit musical Blood Brothers returns to the stage of the Mayflower Theatre from September 7-11 2021. The much-loved musical, which performed to sell-out houses and standing ovations on its most recent UK tour in 2019-2020, features Lyn Paul’s...
Opinion: Food banks in your area – are you really sitting comfortably?
by Chris Oakes Monger. Listening to the radio last week, I was struck by a discussion arising from the National Food Strategy Review which has recommended that sugar and salt should be taxed. The revenue raised would be directed to allowing GPs to prescribe fresh fruit and vegetables on...
Southampton Action hosting urgent meeting to help Afghan and other refugees
Southampton Action works to support refugees and asylum seekers in Southampton and surrounding areas, by providing practical support. With the recent news about Afghanistan and the City Council announcing they are happy to resettle refugees in the city, the organisation has been receiving lots of enquiries about volunteering with...
Controversy as Southampton city centre meadows cut
by Sally Churchward. Southampton residents have taken to social media to express their horror at the meadows outside the city’s Civic Centre being cut. The sight of the much loved meadows being cut to the ground provoked outcry amongst those who feared a much-loved area of urban wildlife was...
Creative writing: poetry by Meg Sherman
Meg Sherman has been writing poetry since 2016, and has since written more than 1000 poems. Meg says: ” I always longed to write blistering romantic poetry that transcends the realm of the mortal and is forged in divine fire, but I didn’t have the necessary creative flow, until...
Southampton’s first Sapphic Cafe takes place tonight
by Sally Churchward. Southampton’s Sapphic Cafe launches tonight, with it’s first ever event. Sapphic Cafe is a social group specifically for people who identify as sapphic. The aim of the group is to provide a a dry (non alcoholic) space modelled loosely on lesbian cafe culture where people are...
Suburban Safari: The Secret Garden
by Katie Isham. If I told you that this Suburban Safari visits Valley Gardens, would you know where we are? I’m not sure many residents of Southampton could point it out on a map. But I guess that’s the thing with secrets; there’s always an element of secrecy. Small...
Experience: being part of Southampton Coronavirus Mutual Aid Group showed the strength of community action
by Tom Wardle. One Saturday morning in mid-March 2020, I was invited down to the Guildhall to cast an eye over Southampton’s preparations for the coming Coronavirus pandemic. At that point, nobody really knew what to expect, whether it was safe to so much as touch a door handle....
Southampton band Delays trending on Twitter with help from The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess
by Sally Churchward. Last night (August 10), Southampton band Delays were (rightfully) ahead of gossip about TV stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer in Twitter polls, thanks to Tim Burgess’ Listening Party. Users of the micro blogging site listened along with Aaron Gilbert and Colin Fox of Delays to...
Opinion: we all deserve to live somewhere we love, let’s make Southampton a National Park
by Manthan Pathak. One of my earliest memories is jumping between the roots of trees on a street in Northam, one after another until I ran out of pavement. The only rule was to avoid touching a root. It was, for a 3 or 4 year old, a thrillingly...