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.

Our first professional produced video by super talented Jack Brabant. Along with Jules Hyland, we captured the footage, and he’s spent the last week creating the video below.

Suffice to say we are all somewhat blown away with the result!

Great to have you onboard Mr B

Those lovely people at the Night Times have featured Mr Elephant twice in this month’s issue! An interview and a review! Click on the pics for a readable version

Update : It seems the workshops were also covered by the BBC website too – http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2009/05/21/half_term_highlights_feature.shtml

Thanks to Rich for the heads up

Despite the forecast, the sun, and humans of all ages were out in full effect, which made for a thoroughly lovely afternoon.

It was our second attempt at a family event, since our first collaboration with Dramask last year. This time we got a lot more of our friends involved, and the result was more than inspiring.

Here’s some of the highlights this time in nice easy to digest picture form

Subvert Sounds made for a smooth setup and quality finish

Justin Bond rom Loafers Lounge kicked off the music with his blend sublime sun kissed music.

Pyn from Dramask demonstrated various gum strip and tissue techniques to a queue of potential mask makers.

whilst Jen (not pictured here) hosted another few tables for those that wanted to decorate our card masks.

Robin from Jam Jah was up next supplying his unique blend of roots and reggae.

Olly gave a drum skinning demonstration

Anna gave some juggling workshops

Rohit played some of his beautiful sitar compositions

Daz Dolczech and Anka played an amazing set of acoustic renditions of their own Mama Matrix tracks!

And as the sun went down Dj Marc Reck and Vj Liam Blendstate provided a sublime audio visual soundtrack.

Thanks to everyone that came down, and to our wonderful hosts, Keith and Diane at the Prince.

There are more pictures here, and we have recordings of the Daz and Anka’s set, and various of footage of the workshops, so please check back, or subscribe to the rss or the newsletter on the right.

One Love
Mr Elephant x

Finally we’ve moved servers and got this site back up and running! While we are on a nice new shiny server, these internet problems have stopped me from telling you about our next event, which is this saturday!

It’s a different affair, aimed at all ages, and one we hope will make for a glorious relaxed day in the sunshine… (or under a marquee if its raining!!)

flyer by Justin Loafer

On Saturday 24th May, we are offering a free family bank holiday all dayer. This was orinally inspired by the work Dramask do, and some of my human friends who have younger kids, and which often keeps them in instead of out enjoying great music with the rest of us. Its also inspired by the family mask decorating event we held last year in the day before the 2nd party, which was facilitated by Dramask at Epic Skate Park.

This time Dramask is hosting actual mask making workshops, and we’ve have a whole day planned for anyone that fancies some nice time. Olly is coming with an informal demonstration on drum skinning, we have chilled and eclectic djed music from Justin Bond (Loafers Lounge), Robin Friendly Fire (Jam Jah), and our very own Marc Reck (Project X Presents).

We welcome Daz Dolczech and Anka from Mama Matrix, performing 2 sets of acoustic solo stuff, alongside some sitar playing from Rohit, an array of live visuals from Liam Blendstate, and with the sound and lights being expertly handled by Subvert Sounds.

The venue is owned by the lovely couple who hosted Epic Skate Park last year and they have now restored and even improved the Prince, hosting the best beer garden in the locality with marquees, a video screen, and a proper kitchen, which serves all manner of real food (not microwave or typical steak and a pint menu’s either), whilst having 9 real ales to choose from.

All of this had enticed the locals back, and made the place one of the nicest places to relax on a summer day, so if you’re not going away this weekend, we hope you can join us.

P.s For any that fancy dancing afterward, we will be going to the Hare and Hounds for custom made….All in all, it should be a great bank holiday weekend.

One Love

Mr Elephant

So today’s kinda the “launch” of this website, so it might be a good time to introduce what we are doing, and why…..

Well firstly i’m (obviously) a real elephant, and i live in a nice lickle park in Moseley, Birmingham. I came over to this country about 2 years ago, and have many great stories to share of my past…..That however, is for another day.

The first thing that struck me about Birmingham is the wealth of creative talent and this melting pot of cultures. After a short period of getting adjusted, i started meeting people who were showcasing culture’s from all around the world alongside their own slices of life, and the more i dug, the more i found.

While it confused me that it wasn’t in the tourist information office, or on the birmingham websites, i was inspired by this almost underground culture, and it is what has inspired me to create my own events, which i hope will help to shine a light on all this beautiful activity.

The other thing that struck me about this city is the friendliness of people. Human’s not only willing to share their tips and knowledge with you, but also a real sense of wanting to get involved, with many of the city’s creatives and promoters working for little or no money.

It also seems that while this city was once known as the workshop of the world, that the pace of today’s lifestyle doesn’t allow time to share knowledge and skills with each other, with most human’s being restricted by problems that don’t really affect us elephant’s, such as money, time, responsibilities, etc.

So we thought it might be beneficial or/at least interesting to offer a platform for anyone who wants to share what they do. At our events, with support and workshops from our team, and/or on our website as part of the Workshop of World idea, by sharing your tips and links.

We figure if you can share what has moved you forward, it (a) introduces you to the local community, and (b) might be beneficial to others, hopefully creating new opportunities. Either way it’ll be interesting to find out what we like to do, and we will be asking you for your tips at the next Mr Elephant, (and hopefully scratching them into the mix via the djs!)

We are doing short mentoring opportunities for people that are interested in doing what we do at our events, by giving them hands on experience and/or a workshop so they can experience what its like to be doing what they are into. We hope to make this into a Mr Elephant programme of workshops later this year, if we can find some financial support, so the workshops will always be free.

Our other strands of Mr Elephant are currently the explorations and of the 3 part radio show. The Radio show is designed to be accessible to a wide range of tastes, with an ecletic mixtape with narrative , a dj mix, and live recordings from Birmingham. It’s free and the links to the artists are provided to encourage you to check them out. The cd covers and artwork by the way is designed by Aart Tanner, and are available for download.

The explorations will be hosted by me and Ruth Robinson, who will be conducting a period of research into the effects on local businesses of the current eastside development of Digbeth. I’ll be looking at things that i’m curious about from the point of view of an elephant living in Birmingham , e.g like empty buildings, the big city plan, how easy is it to get your voice heard to the local council etc, and we’ll both be blogging and/or recording our journey.

And last but not least, we we are working on/towards hosting festival tents and venues, offering music based on our radio shows, and workshops for all ages, alongside all the rest of what goes into a Mr Elephant tent/experience. We have the setup and the team to deliver events of any size, and are always open to any offer, though aside from the current festival bids, and collaberations with the local venues, this will be something we are looking to expand after the summer.

So that’s about it. Collectively we hope the ideas will continue to evolve, and that it’s something you might like to get involved with in someway. (Even if that be shaking your trunk on the dancefloor

One love

Mr Elephant x