Melt Dunes

Portsmouth psych kings Melt Dunes are fast becoming one of the best live acts in the UK. Period. Their fierce, frenetic live performances and mind-melting, genre-hopping unique brand of psychadelia have earned them a solid reputation as the current golden boys of the psych scene across the entire south coast and beyond. You can catch Melt Dunes at Portsmouth Psych Fest on 28 April, tickets here.

Shadow child

One name that will ring a bell for any electronic music fans is deep house, jungle and bass music DJ – Shadow Child, or Simon Neale. Although Neale is a well established artist and DJ, he only began releasing music under the Shadow Child alias in 2012 -  Having collaborated with acts such as Kry Wolf, Lisa Maffia and Sam Obernik, Shadow child’s fan base has flourished since his BBC Radio 1 days, accumulating 200K followers on Soundcloud and reaching over 1 million hits on YouTube.

Portsmouth home grown Shadow Child made his debut via the mighty Dirtybird early in 2012, mostly thanks to the EP’s lead track “String Thing” dominating Eats Everything and Claude Vonstroke’s DJ set the world over. Shadow Child is currently touring the UK, full list of dates here.

Is Bliss

Forming in 2015, Portsmouth shoegaze trio Is Bliss have gone from strength to strength in an incredibly short space of time. In their first year alone Is Bliss managed to bag some incredible shows alongside artists like Wolf Alice and Nine Black Alps, thanks to their amazingly tight live performance. The band is currently in the process of recording their third release and first full album, following the success of their highly-praised sophomore EP The Honeycomb Explosion.

Sleepwalker

Considering their extremely short existence thus far, Portsmouth metalcore outfit Sleepwalker are absolutely killing it! These hungry young lads have demonstrated time and time again how to own a room and are now beginning to get the recognition they deserve - Sleepwalker’s stellar live shows earned them a headline slot this year at the south coast’s premier unsigned music festival, Portsmouth’s very own Icebreaker.

Crushing breakdowns, groovy djent riffs, techy lead guitar and a fearsome stage presence - Sleepwalker show no signs of relenting in their pursuit of metalcore perfection.

Sven

Local sad lads Sven are currently kicking up a storm in Pompey. Having suddenly burst onto the scene in early 2018 with the release of their debut EP ‘Seventeen’, this emo quartet has already managed to pull in quite the following. Playing to a packed out room on their first ever headline show in March, the lads definitely showed off their chops and proved to the entire room that they’re ones to watch. We can’t wait to see what else 2018 is going to bring for Sven.

Mick Jones (Foreigner)

Okay - so your parents are more likely to be fans than you, and they're not exactly emerging, but we but we still thought it was pretty amazing that this rock icon hails from Portsmouth! Although he formed the band Foreigner in New York, guitarist Mick Jones was born in Pompey in 1944.

Very proud of the place that he still considers home, he comes back to visit as often as he can. He co-wrote most of Foreigner’s songs, collaborated with artists such as like Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Billy Joel, and wrote the band’s most famous hit: ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’ (don’t we all, Mick?).