In our new series celebrating charities and community organisations that are making a real difference to the lives of people in the local area, we take a look at Step by Step. Right now, there are young people across Southampton without a safe, stable place to call home. For...
Local Heroes
Asylum seekers & other volunteers plant more than 1,300 trees
Volunteers from Action Asylum Portsmouth – part of a national initiative active in seven UK cities – planted 1,300 tree whips in Buckland on 11th and 12th February, supporting Portsmouth City Council’s Clean and Green team’s ambitious tree-planting programme. On 28th February, the group joined forces with Portsmouth Tree...
Review: Lucy Kitchen album launch, Heartbreakers, Southampton
By Darren Grayer. Sunday night saw Romsey singer/songwriter Lucy Kitchen headline Heartbreakers Bar for the release of her latest and third album In The Low Light (1/3/26). Written in the aftermath of tragically losing her husband, Stephen, to cancer in October 2022, it’s a heart-wrenching and stark piece of...
Southampton runners raise hundreds of pounds for local domestic and sexual abuse charity Yellow Door
Lordshill Road Runners, a community running group based in Southampton, have raised almost £900 for local charity Yellow Door, helping to support people affected by domestic and sexual abuse. The group first fundraised for the charity in September, when members took part in a 10k run in aid of...
Reader’s letter: Thanks from Southampton Ukulele Jam for helping us support some of the the city’s most vulnerable
By SUJ – Southampton Ukulele Jam. Hello, we’re Southampton Ukulele Jam! Remember us? Back in August we embarked on a challenge: to set a UK record for the longest jam a jam has ever jammed, whilst raising as much money we could for four Southampton charities. We played our...
Celebrating securing the future and the 57th birthday of The Joiners
By Sally Churchward. “It’s all about solidarity and community.” Ricky Bates, venue operator and promoter of The Joiners (and the wider Southampton music scene) summed up the feeling in the room at the St Mary’s venue last night. He was addressing the capacity crowd who had come together to...
Winchester’s Blue Apple Theatre brings inclusive performance to China
Photos by: Li Xiaocao. Winchester-based Blue Apple Theatre has recently returned from an international collaboration in Beijing, where Artistic Director Richard Conlon co-directed an inclusive adaptation of Journey to the West with Chinese partner Intellectual Heart Theatre Company. The production, staged at the Luminous Festival in China’s 798 Art...
Southampton Ukulele Jam vs The UKe-athon – charity fundraiser smashes target
Over the weekend (Saturday the 9th to Sunday the 10th of August 2025) Southampton Ukulele Jam (SUJ) overwhelmingly accomplished a most marvellous thing. By playing their ‘tiny toy instruments’ for 30hrs 1min and 25secs continuously, with only 30 secs allowed between each song and 5 min break every hour...
Southampton charities to get a boost from ukulele record attempt
As we previously reported Southampton Ukulele Jam (SUJ), the hardest working ukulele jam in Southampton, are planning to set a UK record “The UKe-athon: Longest Marathon Ukulele Jam (UK)”. All proceeds will be shared between No Limits (Southampton), Yellow Door, The Society of St James and Mountbatten Hospice. You...
Interview: Ricky Bates of legendary Southampton venue The Joiners
Words: Darren Grayer. Pictures: Chris Moorhouse. The recent news that Southampton music venue The Joiners is in line to be granted funding from the Music Venues Trust was gratefully received by everyone involved in running it as well as the hundreds of music lovers who regularly attend gigs there....