As you probably know we are taking a break from all the monthly events for the forseeable future, to concentrate on other projects, so until we return, we just wanted to say a massive thank you on behalf of the whole Mr Elephant crew for bringing the vibes to our last 41 events, and to everyone who has been part of any Mr Elephant event, workshop, radio show, or website.

We’ll really miss the events, and each one has been a truly inspiring experience, but the time feels right to move on to other projects until next year.

It was really important that we left things on a high, and we’re forever grateful to all the venues that have housed us throughout the last years, the Adam & Eve, Hare & Hounds, Epic Skate Park, Rainbow Beach, the Bulls Head & Prince Wales.

When we return to do events we will certainly be looking to promote local talent through smaller regular events, but there was a unananimous decision that we all wanted to return to another reason why we started Mr Elephant in the 1st place, and that is the larger more festival style events. Like the 1st 2 at Epic skate park in 2007, the family days at the Prince garden, the 12 hour celebration pf Birmingham’s Underground on the Rainbow beach/warehouse, and the workshops & multistage 2nd Birthday at the hare and hounds. Events that are one offs and that encompass all the areas of Mr Elephant in one cohesive event, or to put it another way, a balance of all the events over the last 3 years, and pushing some of the Mr Elephant ideas forward.

We’ll still be hosting our radio show on www.rhubarbradio.com with Marc Reck every monday evening at 6pm & Mr Elephant residents Skeleton & Dolhasz will be hosting The Beat Suite every wednesday from 11.30pm. However to avoid the whole website being taken up with the radio shows, it seems more appropriate for these to exist on their own websites & of course the rhubarb ones, so that the artists & events can remain on the front of this one. One of the main aims of Mr Elephant is to shine a light on great stuff, and so hopefully the videos of the events housed on this website helps further that.

There are many ideas and goals that we have as Mr Elephant and while we’ve achieved so much more than we hoped, (due to the ever expanding platform of talented contributors) there is so much we have yet to explore.

We have always been totally unfunded, and, as most will know, it becomes difficult to devote such a large portion of your life when you have to cover your own costs, and have other ambitions to explore. With that in mind we are looking at ways to fund future events so we can realise their true potential, and we’ll be taking time out to further our own interests in order to bring them back in bigger and brighter. We all want to keep the free party ethos alight wherever possible, simply because it allows the most accessibility to people, regardless of financial status, and therefore the most diverse mix of people, which is always a good thing… The logisitics of sorting the time and resources we can work out.

Anyway, once again, thanks to one and all for a truly inspiring 3 years, and on behalf of all the Mr Elephant crew, we wish you a beautiful hot summer.

One love
Mr Elephant.

As we’ve stopped the events for a while this will be the last radio show to be posted on this site, so the site doesnt become all about the radio shows.

The Mr Elephant Radio show will be carrying on as normal and you can find all past and future shows on Marc’s own website www.marcreck.com/category/djing/radio-shows of course the rhubarb radio website
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Back on the rhubarb radio airwaves with 4 mini-mixes (this week techno/minimal, breaks, dubstep & drum and bass) each containing my favourite current promos. Also a mini mix of Noisia’s new album Split the Atom & to start, a small selection of some fine chilled summer tracks and a live track from Orbital’s recent gig in Glasgow.

Hope you enjoy the show, comments and feedback welcome & appreciated, & please check out the links below if you like any of the artists you hear on the show.

Tracklisting

0 mins -Chilled Summer Section

1. Buika – Culpa Mia – Nina De Fuego
2. Fauliage – Rafe – (Pacha Remix) – Fauliage Album
3. Bonobo featuring Andrea Triana – Eyes Down
4. Roni Size – Matter of Fact (2008 Edit) – New Forms 2 Album
5. Roni Size – Lets get it on (2008 Edit) – New Forms 2 Album
6. Orbital – Out There Somewhere? (Part Two)

20 mins – Top 5 Rolling Techno & Minimal Tunes

1. Love Sky – New Dawn
2. Ame – Rej
3. Maelstrom – Different Train
4. Stephen Bodzin – Tron
5. Karton (Infusion Mix) -
6. Plastikman – Spastik (Dubfire Rework)

45 mins – 5 Favourite Breakbeat Promos

1. Hexadecimal – Intro – Base 16 Album
2. Loaded Fist – Elusive
3. UK Beat Cartel – Carousel (Rob Focuz and Secureunit’s Carrot Hell Remix)
4. UK Beat Cartel – Suddenly (Dekoy’s Lactose Intolerant Remix)
5. Si Begg – The Bleeps (Shades Of Rhythm remix)

1 Hour – 7 Tracks from the Noisia new Album

1. Noisia – Square Feet
2. Noisia (Feat Joe Severn) – Hand Gestures
3. Noisia (Feat Foreign Beggars) – Soul Purge
4. Noisia (Feat Amon Tobin) – Sunhammer
5. Noisia – Stigmata
6. Noisia (Feat Giovanca) – My World
7. Noisia – Paper Doll

1h 20 – Top 8 Dubstep Tunes of the moment

1. Alphadrive – Gizmo
2. Vaski – Get Down
3. Tim Healey & Dj Deekline – Yo Yo Yo Get funky (Crissy Criss to to get grimey remix)
4. Reso -Octagon
5. Shock One – Archigaharas Theme
6. Parker – Wheres my monkey
7. Stray – Timbre
8. T.O.B feat Nonku – Evolutionary

1h40 – 4 Beautiful Drum & Bass Tunes

1. Terra Deva – Fresh Start – Lost in Space Diva’s
2. High Contrast – Everything’s Different (Calibre Mix)
3. London Electrikity – Dark Matter (Hospital Records)
4. High Contrast – Ghost of Jungle Past

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P.s The rhubarb show page is http://www.rhubarbradio.com/programmes/mrelephant/2010/05/03/ ,

the mixcloud page is http://www.mixcloud.com/marcreck/mr-elephant-radio-25-hosted-by-marc-reck-030510/

& the new facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Elephant-Radio-Show/113936201976331?ref=ts

You can also follow me on Twitter here – http://twitter.com/MarcReck

Some footage of our guests at out final event for a good while

Part two of our 3rd Birthday Celebrations & our final Mr Elephant event for the forseeable future saw inspired performances from all, and provided a fitting closure to our monthly live & free. We shall really miss both our homes and we’d like to say a massive thank you to the Adam & Eve & the Hare & Hounds for all their support & great work. And of course to everyone who came and created the vibes.

Til we return this will be our last video & photos for the forseeable, so without further ado, here’s a few of the performances caught on the little camera.

And here’s some photos

And of course the original page with all the artist links

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FREE CONTROL – http://www.freecontrol.co.uk are back. Currently storming through the battle of the bands, and with a packed festival schedule, their last gig was pretty much incredible. Somewhere between Lamb & Unkle. Check the video for their sound

FRANK MOON & JOELLE BARKER – These two are musicians of the highest sense. Frank – http://www.myspace.com/frankmoon on the stringed instruments and member of a huge number of bands and sounds from destroyers to desert groove has just come off a world tour and is thankfully in birmingham rehearsing with destroyers. Joelle – http://www.myspace.com/joellebarker is a percussion magician, She teaches, she composes and she jams with a huge range of percussive instruments. See what they magic up together.

DIK GURU -  http://www.myspace.com/dikguru – This man is a legend, and who’s last 2 albums have been creating waves all over the place, both truly deserving of the label Urban Folk. Hilarious tales about Birmingham life & characters presented with great musicianship and instantly likeable charm.

CABSTERS – http://www.myspace.com/cabstars – The full ska band complete with brass section will be performing and kicking up a storm

JAM JAH (Robin G) – http://www.friendlyfiremusic.com/
We’ve said it time and time again, but Jam Jah sound is something to beholden in Birmingham, and is why we at Mr Elephant never fail to get them playing wherever possible. Legends.

JIBBERING (Tangawizi) – http://www.jibbering.com
Jibbering for over 10 years have been bringing bands to Birmingham, the majority of which have gone on to be huge. 1st time we heard Jon play we’ve asked him back ever since. Great music and wonderfully done.

Vj BLENDSTATE – http://www.blendstate.com
A huge part of Mr Elephant ever since the 2nd event where he bought the indymedia films for the chillout room. Now one of the leading vj in Birmingham3 years later, and puts on some wicked events to boot.

THE LAB – http://www.thelab.org.uk

VENUE – http://www.theadam.co.uk
Located on the 50 route at the top of bradford street, in Digbeth, and a short walk from the city centre, the venue has been putting on music events every week for years. A place to chill and chat, as much as it is to see quality local and international bands and / or dance til 4am. There’s a cool heated smoking area, pool table and chilling areas, quality bar and proper friendly staff, great in house engineer and just they’ve spent loads on new bassbins, so expect the sound to be even bigger and crisper than every before.

NB a lot of people have been asking why we are stopping Mr Elephant events as they are all going really well. Truth is is that its a really hard decision but they take up a huge amount of time, and we dont earn money from them. We could spend less time, but they wouldnt be the same, so we are taking some time out to focus on other projects and ways to fund the development of the events.

We will still be running the odd free event, our radio show will continue every week, and we are planning a return to the big festival style events, which was the reason to start it back in 2007.

You can check all the associated video, photos and blog posts for every single event on our website http://www.mrelephant.com by clicking on the events menu item.

Mr Elephant is 3 years, and almost 40 events old, so we are celebrating with 2 final free parties at our 2 favourite homes

Here are a few photos from the event

and a little bit of video (sorry about the sound quality) before our cameraman sorts the well shot footage out.

Update & here’s Jack Brabant‘s video

Massive thanks to all who came down and bought the vibes. Great night and one we wont forgot.

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Part One will be the phat underground floor shaking party rockin mammal sessions with 5 of Birmingham’s most versatile party rockin djs & the return of a new vj.

Headliners are the massive Doctor & Malicious ak the Brotherhood of Filth, and pioneers of http://www.bassoperations.co.uk/

DOCTOR http://www.bassoperations.co.uk/NewerTheDoctor.html plays many musical genres including Hip Hop, Dnb, Reggae, Dubstep, Oldskool & Breaks. With a massive reputation from his residencies at Scratch Club & Heducation, and his forthcoming releases, its safe to say you can expect the unexpected, with a host of genres cut up in his individual scratch style.

Malicious Dj – http://www.bassoperations.co.uk/NewerMalicious.html is another genre hopping turntablist who continues to create a floor filling party experiences for a wide variety of audiences across the country. Long time resident for Scratch Club and Heducation, Malicious dj has developed a unique scratching style mashing up his love for hip-hop, reggae and drum and bass during his versatile and creative sets.

MARC RECK – http://www.marcreck.com has been taking 6 months off djing to work on a brand new setup for May, but will be giving a sneak preview on the night alongside celebrating his own birthday. Coined as the Dj with no barriers by the Night Times and winner of best local dj in Dec 2008, Marc has 6 residencies, a radio show, and has supported a huge spectrum of live bands and headline djs, so expect peak time party rockin genre hopping.

THE BEAT SUITE – http://www.rhubarbradio.com/programmes/beatsuite/ has been going from strength to strength, both behind the decks and on the airwaves. Here’s the men behind the show.

SKELETON – http://www.myspace.com/skeletonskratch is a diverse turntablist party rocker, with bookings every weekend, and an ever growing armoury of styles. A keen ear for dynamics and superb deck skills, expect everything from dubstep, glitchybreaks through to rolling jungle and phat drum and bass.

Dolhasz – http://www.myspace.com/dolhasz brings the party to the decks and the bass to the airwaves. Host of two radio shows, a producer with recent releases, and a dj who can drop the biggest tunes at all the right moments, Dolhasz’s party rockin style of bass music will be in full effect for our last session.

This event was created by our resident Vj monsieur Blendstate, but as he will now be in Japan on the date, we will be welcoming back our last guest at cinephonci.http://www.mrelephant.com/events/featured/cinephonic-5-photos-review . All the way from Italy, Vj Delsyd will be adorning the big screen with her beautiful blend of visuals, keeping our vision enthralled throughout the evening.

And our crew will also be bringing you Elephant Crafts to get your creativity a flowing when you need a sit down from the party rockin tunes.

As a little way of saying a big thank you to everyone for their incredible support of Mr Elephant and the events over the last 3 years, these parties will be free all night and the venue have kindly given us an extra hour til 3am.

NB a lot of people have been asking why we are stopping Mr Elephant events at a time when they are seemingly going so well, and so in answer to anyone who may be wondering the same, it’s mainly because the regular events, while hugely enjoyable, take up a lot of time & with us all working for free, there was a consensus that we need to drop them for a while in favour of moving back to the original reasons to why we started it, which is the bigger festival events, and various related strands. Plus this year some of the core members need time to focus on other areas.

We will still be running the odd free event, and our radio show will continue every week, but for now we just wanted to leave things on a high, so these will be our last two for the forseeable future.

You can check all the associated video, photos and blog posts for every single event on our website http://www.mrelephant.com by clicking on the events menu item.

One love
Mr Elephant

Some footage of Relative Dub & 360 at our penultimate Live & Free @ the Adam & Eve

Here’s the camera video of two of the live artists, Relative Dub & 360 who both delivered fantastic sets.

Proper video to follow, and here are some photos from the same said camera

Below is the full line up / preview of last night’s event with links and a little background on the artists.

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Following our haiti fundraiser last month, we are back with our last two live and free events for a while at one of our favourite venues in Birmingham.
UPDATE – The mighty 360 will also be joining us for a special live set, courtesy of a mixup at another venue Get your skanking shoes ready for the crowd pleasing skafunkapunkreggae rockers! – http://www.myspace.com/360sound

On the live stage will be Relative Dub – one of the freshest new Dub bands on the Birmingham music scene, who have been creating big waves with their unique blend of electronic dub, featuring live bass, guest vocalists, & a huge mixing desk all creating a live sonic journey. – http://www.myspace.com/relativedub

Their guest vocalist this time will be none other than Laura Louise, a live loop pedal artist from New Zealand who has played a many at mr elephant event, due her amazing voice & beautifully written songs. Normally armed with her acoustic guitar, & boss loop pedal, we know not what to expect with her collaboration with Relative – http://www.myspace.com/lauralouiseowen

Also up will be Cabsters – a band who are tearing it up on the ska scene with their crowd pleasing blend of ska, dub and funk. In just over a year, they are fast becoming big names on the circuit, and we’re well pleased that they are able to come down to once again rock the adam and eve. UPDATE > -We had news this week that their drummer can’t make it, but everyone else can, so cabsters will be bringing a special acoustic sublime style ska set with keys, bass, guitar and vocals. http://www.myspace.com/cabstars

On the 1210′s we have 3 treats keeping the venue toasty til 4am. The mighty Jam Jah will be adorning the new bassbins courtesty of Mr Bongo Damo & his seriously fine roots, reggae & record collection. – http://www.friendlyfiremusic.com/

Also returning is Tangawizi from the legendary Jibbering, who will be mixing it up once again with funk, hip hop, reggae, and anything else he has laid his hands on. – http://www.jibbering.co.uk/

Any also we welcome Shelley from Arts de Ville who hosts the sunday city musicbox every week on rhubarb, and heads up the arts de ville events. Another great record collection which spans, reggae, funk, soul and a whole load more. – http://www.rhubarbradio.com/programmes/sundaycitymusicbox/

You can also feast your eyes on our resident Vj Blendstate’s big screen antics, which will be a mixture of live camera work, and his unique vj style. – http://www.blendstate.com

As always its free entry all night long and we’ll be partying until 4am.

More information on past live and free events are all on our website – http://www.mrelephant.com/category/events/live-and-free, and venue address is 203 Bradford St, Digbeth, West Midlands, B12 0JD.

This Saturday is our 2nd Party Rockin Mammal Sessions at the new home at Hare & Hounds. 1st one in January was off the hook (see pics and vid below) so we’re excited about this one.

Check the details & the pics and vids below

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=347708168379

Party Rockin Mammal Sessions is back with another free party following January’s large launch. We were blown away by the response and the vibe at the last one, so we’re going for another free entry all night.

This month we are very pleased to be welcoming DJ Reaction as our special guest. Heading one of the leading drum and bass events in the city aka Break Thru, and the man who bought us the infamous underground nightlife newspaper – The Night Times, Ric aka DJ Reaction has supported a wealth of big names, including Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Calibre, High Contrast, and London Elektricity. Expect a journey through lush sun kissed liquid drum and bass all the way through to those massive peak time club bangers. Not to be missed.

Joining Ric are our residents Skeleton (Trigger/Secret Wars/The Beat Suite) & Dolhasz (The Beat Suite) taking their killa radio show on rhurbarb radio to the live environment with a diverse party rockin set of beats, breaks and basslines. It always goes off in a big way when they step up, and music wise it’ll range from from turntablism to glitch-hop, all the through to phat breakbeat, dirty dubstep, and lashings of peak time jungle & drum & bass. Blendstate visuals will be on VJ duties making the place look the part, and resident charm offensive Emily will be hosting with the most.

As mentioned it’s Free entry all night long, and have a gander at the little vids of our last party rockin mammal sessions below.