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Latest
  • [ 18th June 2025 ] Portsmouth UCU branch votes for democratisation of University Politics
  • [ 17th June 2025 ] Portsmouth UCU Branch Condemns Labour’s Immigration Rhetoric and Restrictions on International Students Politics
  • [ 16th June 2025 ] Grief, My Father and Home Memoir
  • [ 11th June 2025 ] What’s Missing from Local News in Portsmouth? And How do we Fix it? News
  • [ 8th June 2025 ] What’s Happened to Local News in the UK and What Does it Mean for Portsmouth? News
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Classical Music

Culture

Mighty Brahms Review: Portsmouth Guildhall

26th April 2023

S&C’s classical music commentator Paul Valentine shares his experience of an evening with Weber, Prokofiev and Brahms at Portsmouth Guildhall on 30th March 2023. When I saw the size of tonight’s orchestra and reminisced about [… read more ]

Culture

Controlled Screaming and Sublime Effort: Mahler’s 5th at Portsmouth Guildhall

27th October 2022

The finest concert Paul Valentine has attended to date is Walton’s Viola Concerto and Second Symphony performed by the LSO and conducted by the late André Previn. Walton was in attendance looking on from the [… read more ]

Culture

Review: Shostakovich’s Mighty Concerto

10th June 2022

S&C‘s classical music critic Paul Valentine was impressed by a recent performance of Scriabin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) at Portsmouth Guildhall. This programme, directed by Alexander Shelley, establishes the BSO [… read more ]

Reviews

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – Back to the Future

3rd May 2022

Like many other art forms, classical music was forced off the stage by Covid-19. Paul Valentine was all the more thrilled to be able to get out and see the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s performances of [… read more ]

Culture

Review: ‘Outstanding’ Czech Mates with the BSO

28th May 2019

Paul Valentine reviews the recent performance of Czech Mates by the BSO, conducted by Kiril Karabits, piano by Sunwook Kim, and Amyn Merchant, Leader. The performance comprised Suk Scherzo, Fantastique and Dvorak’s Piano Concerto and Symphony [… read more ]

Culture

Authority, Dexterity and Drama: Echoes of Home with the BSO

16th April 2019

Community reporter, Paul Valentine, reviews the recent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) performance, Echoes of Home, conducted by Jamie Phillips and starring pianist Denis Kozhukhin. The concert comprised performances of Smetana – Vltava (Ma Vlast), Tchaikovsky – [… read more ]

Culture

Review: BSO Exceeds All Expectation

11th April 2019

Community reporter, Paul Valentine, reviews the recent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) performance, Spirit of England, conducted by David Hill. I was looking forward to this concert, not so much for the programme – I lost touch with [… read more ]

Reviews

Review: BSO Strings Drive a Hairpin Bend at 100mph

8th March 2019

Community reporter, Paul Valentine, reviews the recent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) performance, Superhuman Strauss, and is far from disappointed Well here we are at the Guildhall in Portsmouth again. Tonight, I am full of expectancy; there [… read more ]

Culture

Review: Oozing Mastery – ‘Natural Beauty’ with the BSO

13th February 2019

Community reporter, Paul Valentine, reviews the recent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) performance, Natural Beauty, at Portsmouth Guildhall on 8th February 2019, conducted by Michael Seal, and violin by Ning Feng.  Full disclosure, nothing grabbed me about this programme. [… read more ]

Culture

Review: ‘Backward Glimpses’ with the BSO

6th February 2019

Community reporter, Paul Valentine, reviews the recent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) performance, Backwards Glimpses, at Portsmouth Guildhall on 24th January 2019, conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. I mused during this performance on the irony that is current concert-going, [… read more ]

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Latest News

News

What’s Missing from Local News in Portsmouth? And How do we Fix it?

11th June 2025

S&C Editor Dr Sarah Cheverton shares insights from her PhD research on the local news crisis in her second article for Indie News Week (9th-16th June 2025). Building on her first article about the local [… read more ]

Indie News Week 9th-16th June 2025. No news is bad news.
News

What’s Happened to Local News in the UK and What Does it Mean for Portsmouth?

8th June 2025

This week, to mark Indie News Week 2025, S&C Editor Dr Sarah Cheverton is drawing from her recent PhD research on the local news crisis to talk about the dramatic changes to local news over [… read more ]

Post shows logos for Indie News Week, reading: Indie News Week, 9th-16th June 2025; No news is bad news; and support local news.
News

Local News Crisis, Portsmouth: Sign the Petition to Help Regenerate Independent News

8th June 2025

This week – 9th-16th June – is Indie News Week, showcasing the importance of funding community-based journalism across the UK. The campaign’s organisers, the Public Interest News Foundation, has launched a petition calling on the government to support independent local news publishers and even up the playing field between independent local publishers and the large news corporations that own most of the UK’s local news titles.  [… read more ]

News

Record Breaking £11 Billion is Still Not Enough to End the Special Educational Needs Crisis

17th May 2025

Parents and teachers left ‘overwhelmed’ by the failing SEN system in England’s schools, reports University of Portsmouth journalism student Ivana Domozetska. ‘I will do everything and anything for my daughter to get the support she [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth City Council Plans £7.5 Million Boost in SEND for New Special School

17th May 2025

Portsmouth City Council (PCC) is planning to invest £7.5 million in the Omega Arts Centre in Southsea to convert it into a special needs school. University of Portsmouth journalism student Ivana Domozetska reports. This will cover [… read more ]

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