A very quick post from the phat mammals headquarters with some exciting news.

On Saturday september 20th 2008, we will be teaming up with the Night Times, and about 20 or Birmingham’s best loved promotors and their residents in celebration of Birmingham’s underground.

Not only that but the venue is none other than the Rainbow Beach, with 12 tonne of sand, Real Palm Trees, and a retractable roof, and The mighty Rainbow Warehouse, with a massive 20 k Function One Soundsystem!

We will of course be featuring our midnight mask parade, this time hosted by a drumming circle, a beatboxer, and where you can parade your mask, and promenade your poodle.

And there will be a host of other treats to tantalise from 6pm until at least 4am.

And it will be at the very most £5!!!…It might even be freee!

More news as it breaks but for now, here is the line up for the beach

6pm

Loafers Lounge (Justin Bond) - Sunset Music

VS Jam Jah (Friendly Fire Crew)  - Roots Dub & Reggae

VS Leftfoot (Sam Redmore) - Reedited Funk/Soul & Party Tunes

VS   Funkatronic (Dani C)             - Booty Balearic & Latino Rollers

VS Custom Made (Mark Smallman) - Rump Shaking Minimal Electro House

12am Parade your masks, or your Poodle - The Midnight Masked Poodle Promenade

VS Scratch Club vs Mr Djembe - (Beatboxer Bass 6 Vs Live Drumming Circle)

VS Project X Presents - (Marc Reck)   -   Rockin Mash Up

VS        Dj Joust / Rockfall – (R Caine)    - Booty Breaks and Techy Rollers

VS Mr Elephant - (Mash Up) - Party Breaks and Drum n Bass

and in the warehouse, you can expect to find the tougher end of the underground with appearances from H.O.G, Osmosis, Trigger, My Bass, Urban Disturbance, Bunka, The Night Times, Magnetik, Broken Minds, Breakthru, Cog, and about 6 others…More news as its confirmed

To everyone who came to our first birthday bash! We are all quite amazed at the response, and just how much fun it was all weekend long. Here’s a quick rundown of the night for anyone who missed it.

After a relatively easy setup (thanks to the in house engineers, and help from Christy), we welcomed the first guests at 9.01 pm, who received their free cd and choice of kazoo from our delectable door hosts, Pyn and Shelly. In room 2, Robin from Jam Jah kicked it off with some choice roots and reggae, against a backdrop Keir’s inspired visuals mash ups on a 6ft Plasma Screen, whilst Manic Organic prepared tasters from their menu to serve up to any hungry guests.

In room 1, Mr Elephant mixtapes provided the soundtrack to a late leon setting up, and much creativity, with the mask decorating table which were all feverishly surrounded by 9.30.

By 11.15 both rooms were bustling with birthday merriment, and it was time for our headline band to don the main stage. Mama Matrix once again showing why they are one of the most exciting bands in the city, delivering a blistering set of balkan gypsy jazz. Their performance even grabbing the attention of one of Birmingham’s most respected music promotor’s, and igniting many questions as to where they were from!

While Dj Christy was keeping room two on fire with more reggae and some old jungle, Room 1 saw people don their masks, and raise their kazoos, ready for the midnight mask parade. Marc announced it using his voice changer, (which unfortunatly made the announcement somewhat hard to distinguish!), but nevertheless the tribal sound of 8 of the city’s local percussionists (who had never played together before the night) commanded the focus of the party goers, and led by Issabella and Katie, who were in character as victorian ladies, the midnight mask parade journeyed around the top floor of the venue, before settling in the main room for a percussion jam that got the whole room moving.

Some people joined in on the kazoo, and our professional mask maker followed in hot pursuit, selecting 3 winners and notifying them with specially made golden tickets. Marc announced the winners, (thankfully in his normal voice!), who each won a cuddly version of me, (with the top prize being an addition of a bottle of smirnoff). Marc dropped his first record (Arthur Conley’s sweet soul music), and it was back to more dancing and merriment for the rest of the evening.

A mix of music from the mr elephant radio shows got the crowd nicely loose and ready for some big breaks, and the arrival of Khalgani Belly Dancers on stage raised the heat even more.

Birthday Boy Lopan took over, and kept the crowd rockin, before a back to back finale of huge breaks, that rock tune from Steve, and a couple of drum and bass favourites. The last two tracks were Harry Belafonte’s Daylight Come, and Don’t Worry Be Happy, leaving everyone with warm feelings and positive vibes as they journeyed to the after party at the last ever weekend sessions of the Church Inn. A truly memorable night, (and a most suitably celebratory weekend! Dave Piper took some fantastic pictures of the evening, and here’s a little video we hashed together.

We hope you can join us for something a lot more relaxing at our Free Bank Holiday Family Alldayer at the Prince on Saturday May 24th 2008. One Love Mr Elephant

With the birthday bash almost here, here’s a run down of the expected evening’s entertainment.

9 pm – Doors Open – Free Cds for 1st 100 people / Free Kazoo’s for first 200 people

Room 1 – Mr Elephant’s Birthday Room / Room 2 – hosted all night by Jam Jah & Friendly Fire Crew

( Mask Decorating Tables open in both room – (Decorate your mask ready for the midnight mask parade) )

10pm – Manic Organic start serving a range of organic food from around the world til 12am

Film Crew and performers play and investigate your top tips and messages of inspiration

10.30 pm – Possible Party Games like Hit The Pinyada

11 pm – Mama Matrix Live on Stage

12 am – Midnight Mask Parade led by 4 Local Percussionists on stage & 6 percussionists parading the room.

Feel free to join in with you kazoo / Prizes giving for best mask made/worn

12.30 am – Dj Marc Reck, Vj Chromatouch, Khalgani Belly Dance & Percussionist Drummond

1.30 am – Dj Steve Lopan & Drummond & Vj Chromatouch

2.15 am – Back to Back 30th Mash Up

3 am – Close (Free afterparty sorted, so let us know if you want to come

Hope you can be there

I’m excited to report we have quite a few flavours from around the world at our next Mr Elephant, which is fitting right in with the journey around the world mixtape we are giving to the first 100 people through the doors.

Room one will be jammed full of rich reggae music, alongside traditional jamaican roots & dancehall.

Food from greece, turkey, spain and a host of other places will be served from Manic Organic with a taster from their menu’s.

Room two see’s Balkan Gypsy Jazz Music from the mighty Mama Matrix, with music from around the world from our djs, before their final dancefloor sets.

And we also welcome 10 local percussionists all playing various drums and rhythms from around the world, in our midnight mask parade. So far we have a cajon, darboukas, djembes, conga’s, bongo’s, shakers, guiros, clavas, jungle snare, 2 sirdu’s, and a cowbell. And thats not forgetting the 200 kazoos, and various masks made from your good selves.

And last but by no means least, we welcome back the Khalgani Belly Dancers, who were most impressive at our 2nd event last year.

So it’s all shaping up to be fitting birthday for all involved, and one that will make me feel a lot less homesick!

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