Mr Elephant Presents

It seems our first 2 Mr Elephant events had a part to play in creating new opportunities for some of our artists!

Our 4 piece percussion group were booked to perform at Drop Beats Not Bombs back in May, as was newcomer dj Badaboon, and he and Marc recently played at the mighty Funkatronic events. The Belly Dancers, and The Performance artists who played the Tourists have been offered gigs at the fortcoming Rockfall, and one is even directing the Project X Presents performance in Novemeber! Birmingham Dance Collective, and Marc Reck performed together at peace not war along with our vj Chromatouch, and Marc and Vj Chromatouch are working together at the next Project X Presents event in November on The Heroes Journey. Marc and the percussionists are also now confirmed to play at the re-opening of Birmingham’s biggest club - The Que Club in Birmingham, and Mr Elephant designer is rumoured to be designing the forthcoming Drop Beats Not Bombs website.

Big ups to all involved, and to all the promotors who are making it happen

With footage from our first two events courtesy of Martin, Jo and Marc. The elephant is going more underground for our next party so keep those ears big for the tremors!

Here’s a lovely review from online birmingham clubbing magazine The Blaggerz Guide, from their clubbing editor Jo about Mr Elephant Presents 2!

“A day of silly fun and phat funky breaks began with the mask making during the hot sunny Saturday afternoon. We gathered at the skate park at 2pm and sparked our creative brain cells into action, with attaching all sorts of sparkly, shiny bits and pieces to our mask shapes producing some weird and wonderful creations. There was plenty of fun had all round and it’s fair to say that the best masks were created by the youngest minds.

After an afternoon bbq at the Prince, we met up later on that night back at the skate park for the Mr Elephant carnival experience.

Mr Elephant had thought of everything possible for a fun carnivalesque evening. Upstairs, in the early stages of the night, guests could help themselves to the free Indian vegan buffet on offer, the samosa’s were definitely the tastiest and quite obviously the most popular, as they weren’t available for long. While guests were stuffing themselves on the food, Jibbering records spun a vast array of tunes from all corners of the globe.

Downstairs, in the main room, the DJ’s of the night, gave outstanding animated performances. Everyone in there seemed to be having a fantastic night, with the atmosphere and vibe was becoming more a more fun-filled as the night went on. The DJ’s were feeding off the emotions of the crows and the crowd in turn were feeding off the emotions of the DJ’s, with everyone seeming to be having as much fun as a 6 year old at a funfair! The phat breaks were accompanied by live percussionists Mooncup and Mylo and friends, who gave the funky breaks an almost 3d audio quality as they drummed along to the tempo and rhythm of the tunes. Visual entertainment was supplied in 2 parts, the crowd were joined in the main room by belly dancers whose hypnotic movements and colourful costumes kept many folks attention whilst they were dancing. Behind the DJ’s, Chromatouch’s visuals were a mix of joyously eclectic animations that he amazed the guests with how harmoniously they were mixing with the tunes.

Outside the main room was even more entertainment. Some of the guests watched some of the selection of videos supplied by Indymedia on the 20ft screen, whilst others had loads of fun making themselves a carnivalesque mask (or 3).

Mr Elephant Presents was a brilliant day. He had thought of everything possible for a fun event and more… luckily there’s not too long to wait till the next one as it’s on August 4th.”

By Day

By Night

Mammoth love to everyone who came down to the last mr elephant, and to all those people who came out for the days activities! We got lots of photos of the workshop, the afternoon in the prince garden, and the second mr elephant event itself, and yet again we were blown away by the response. Despite the last minute cancellations of the samba band and the beatboxer, and all the equipment traumas and license rumours, to everyone who made a mask, played a drum or shook their ass, we salute you with both feet. Nice one

And a huge thank you to all the people who went well beyond the call of duty to make it happen like it did. Pyn Stockman, for hosting the family mask workshop, the prince, and for all her work on and off the night, before playing out the tourists with proper comic skill, alongside the talented Adam Skerrit. To Marc Reck who worked relentlessly from start to finish, despite the floors falling through. To Adie B, and Dodgy Greg for really going out their way to setup the sound and lights, and working all day in the face of adversity. To Skinny and Aart, for their visual productions and underground vibes. To Leon Trimble for amazing visuals and a shiny soul. To Lyndall and Rich for their love support and warm hosting of the door, to the percussionists Mooncup, Mylo, Nath, and the percussion crew, for some inspired percussion, and live jams, To the djs, Sir Real, Marc Reck, Boogie Dave, and Adie B for completely rocking the Rockfall room all night long. To the Jibbering soundsystem Oli, Dan, Cro and Muz for bringing some quality music, nice vibes and much needed equipment, To Indymedia Liam for hosting some proper important films and making the chillout room into a real cinemal. To the Khalgani Belly Dancers who just blew people’s minds. To Gary and Phil for keeping the sun out in the prince garden with the most sublime acoustic music on their spanish guitars. To Zen Ben and Kate for supplying the legal drugs, from jo from blaggerz, frank, claire, sue and pete, for their support, and of course to the ever amazing hosts Keith and Diane and the Epic bar staff and security for looking after us and our guests. Last but never least, a massive shout to all the friends that came down despite all the rumours about the license.

You are fuckin great!

One love
Mr E x