ISLAND singer-songwriter Steve Love has hit his target of releasing three CDs of his Isle of Wight songs, in time for the summer season.

Steve writes and performs chirpy upbeat original songs about the ups, downs and quirks of Island life and after many prompts from his audiences he set about a grand project to record all his favourite songs and put them out on CDs.

The project has taken three years but he has finally made it.

First out, in 2020, was Isle of Wight Girl which quickly sold out and had to be reprinted.

Next, in 2021 came Living on Isle of Wight Time, also going to a re-print.

Living on Isle of Wight Time

The third and final CD, out now, is named One Way Ticket to the Isle of Wight and, like the other two CDs, takes an affectionate poke at Island life with 20 fresh tracks such as The Broken Down Ferry Song, The Steam Railway Song, The Somewhen Song, The Fishing Trip and the Lifeboat Song.

Steve, who lives in Ryde, got the bug for writing Isle of Wight songs in 2016 when the County Press covered the story about a senior government education official making unkind remarks about the Island.

Steve responded with the song Crime Filled Ghetto? which went viral.

Since then, he hasn't stopped.

He said: “I decided to capture all the little bits of daily Island life in chirpy songs, and have been collecting anecdotes, stories and quirks ever since.

"People now bring them to me and say I've got to do a song about them and I often do.

"I scrutinise the County Press avidly every Friday — a lot of my songs come from there.

"Every time I think there is nothing else crazy left to happen on the Island I open up a page and something else has happened and out comes my notebook and off we go with another song.”

Isle of Wight County Press:

Steve has a busy summer season ahead, with appearances at Ticket to Ryde, Adgestone Vineyard, Monkton Arts, the County Show, Waverley Folk Club, Dimbola Lodge, Ventnor Fringe, Shanklin Hideaway, Quay Arts and more.

To celebrate the completion of his project, for a limited period, Steve's three CDs are available at a special County Press launch price of £5 each.

  • Contact him via email at stelov1@yahoo.co.uk quoting IWCP