At our 2nd birthday we hosted a programme of free drop in workshops to enable people (of all ages) to try some of the activities associated with members of the Mr Elephant collective.
One of the ideas was to provide a starting point for a proposed programme of more in depth workshops for anyone who wanted to develop the related activity. Another aim which we’ve had from the beginning was to enable people to get involved with Mr Elephant events on a more deeper level.
Its happened on the curation and the performance side from the start, but we weren’t expecting things to sprout so soon from the 2nd birthday taster workshops, but already three of the workshops have produced follow on …happenings!
The vj workshops hosted by Liam D’Authreau (Blendstate visuals) & Tony Coleman (The Lab) have gone on to participants performing live with legendary techno dj Billy Nasty, and a spark plug for the highly anticipated Lab dvd, which is set for the release in the Autum of this year.
The dj workshop hosted by Marc Reck have begun the participants starting fortnightly one-to-one sessions.
And the animation made by some of our younger guests in the workshop hosted by community artist Clare Evans , has been used by the vjs on the night at our 2nd birthday, and the recent live and free event while the Hidden Half were performing.
This kind of cross pollination happens regularly at lots of different levels in Mr Elephant, and there are some shining examples of it happening on larger scales in the city, such as the ever growing Project X Presents Events, and the cross pollination which happens either on a public levels, or within the collectives, makes the events such fertile breeding grounds for new creative collaboration, and grass roots platforms for cross artform learning. Some nice examples of this have happened recently , with both our guests and residents, such as our resident cameraman dropping some records at the last Party Rockin Mammals, our resident vj setting up and promotin his own event, and our resident dj getting to vj for the Heels after a quick hands on tutorial, and a member our guest band vjing to a dj set for the first time at a recent live and free.
We like things like this as they always produce interesting new directions, build shared interests, but ultimately the Mr Elephant workshops will be aimed at the public. Realising there are many levels to this idea, we are aiming to provide many levels of getting involved with Mr Elephant, and are trying not to limit to one age, or demograph. There’s the mask making, and poodle parades, through to the drumming and interactive performance art, and the aforementioned drop in taster workshops through to providing a full programme of professional knowledge.
We hope to faciliate this happening all the way through to a regular mutually beneficial programme, and things are shaping up well. Like the events we aim to make this engaging, and accessible to all people, so they will always be done as grass roots as possible, as we believe that is what allows real mixes of people which has beneficial effects.
Here’s some animation made by kids who’d never done it before, facilitated by the very talented Clare Evans, and if you want to get in touch feel free – mrelephantpresents@gmail.com
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.
Both camera’s ran out, so he’s had to work with some other sources, but suffice to say we are all somewhat blown away with the result!
Mr Elephant’s Second Birthday Review by Dom Brotherton
A Large Slice of Birthday Cake – Mr Elephant is Putting on Weight!!
Mr Elephant by Elin Morgan
Since its inception in 2007, Mr Elephant has been on a steadily increasing diet of eclecticism, celebrating some of the best underground club nights, djs, vjs, live bands, dancers, performers and inhabitants that Birmingham has to offer. Now with 5 residencies all offering different slices of Birmingham’s nightlife, it seems appropriate to celebrate Mr Elephants success by sticking 2 candles in a cake to mark its second birthday, but on the 23rd May there was a whole lot more on the cards than our average birthday party…
Dj & Vj Workshops – Photo by Dan Roblin
Throughout the afternoon there were opportunities for all ages to learn an array of different skills in a series of grass-roots workshops, and in most cases enabling those involved to participate in the performances of the night. Drumming, vjing, djing, beatboxing, poi, animation, etc, all workshops were offered for free to anyone who wanted to try the various creative artforms, and were hosted by an excellent cast of contributors.
Drumming Workshop – Photo by Dan Roblin
As the sun set, the herd moved in-doors to be entertained by a fine hour of acoustic music from two of Birmingham’s most modest stars, namely Richard Batsford and Laura Louise, who both delivered magical performances.
Laura Louise – Photo by Dan Roblin
Rich Batsford – Photo by Dan Roblin
At 10pm the Osmosis hosted Dance Stage kicked off with phat breaks & banging techno, while the Live Stage commenced with the mighty Jam Jah reggae collective, who got people up and grooving, providing the perfect backdrop to those of the audience who were adding the finishing touches to their carnival masks.
Jam Jah Crew – Photo by Dan Roblin
As the crowd welled up, the 1st band of the night Circadia took to the stage with new changes to the line-up adding more seasoning to their tasty flavour of psychedelic ska.
Ciradia – Photo by Dan Roblin
Up next was a crowd pleasing half hour of monkey swing from Marc Reck,
Marc Reck – Photo by Dan Roblin
followed by the now infamous mr elephant midnight parade, which invited all poodle creations out for their midnight dance-floor stroll, and offering two prizes for best in breed.
Mr Elephant Midnight Poodle Parade – Photo By Dan Roblin
Following, was an unexpected drumming jam session with beat boxer and host of the Live Stage, Bass6, who as always, entertained and mediated with more energy than an army of Duracell bunnies.
Mr Elephants Midnight Percussion Jam – Photo by Dan Roblin
With the night in full swing, Bristol beat-boxer extraordinaire, Dub FX took control, complimented perfectly by talented female MC, Flower Fairy. There was a lot of buzz around Dub Fx, and he certainly didn’t disappoint! With just his mouth and a loop station with efx unit, he created phat beats, huge basslines and orchestral melodies that cranked up the atmosphere with each track.
Dub Fx – Photo by Dan Roblin
With the crowd almost at fever pitch, the 3 piece live dub, breaks & drum & bass act Alphadrive, delivered a slick set of some of filthiest breaks I’ve ever heard come out of a live band, before handing over once again to Marc Reck who delivered a massive drum & bass finale ending with don’t worry be happy as a 2nd encore.
Alphadrive – Photo by Dan Roblin
Over on the Dance Stage techno superstar Jerome Hill was rinsing it out with a hugely powerful set which sent the osmonauts into overdrive, in amongst big birthday sets from 32DM, Hijacker, and the mighty Dk Roon who finished things off with a big bang.
Jerome Hill – Photo by Tina Taylor
Massive applause is also necessary for visuals maestros Blendstate and The Lab for providing some truly awesome visuals; always interesting, innovative and apt for the occasion.
Blendstate & The Lab Visuals – Photo by Dan Roblin
Mr Elephant comes off as a much more dynamic event than your usual club night, and feels closer to a festival than a club night. Always looking to broaden horizons, it off-sets different musical genres and strives to include much more than just DJs, visuals and a space to dance in the quest to create something groundbreaking, inclusive, and celebratory. Adding to the diverse range of musical styles and the conglomerate social strata that regularly appear at Mr Elephant events, even the barrier of age was broken by the scurry of little feet in the workshops that began early in the day, and it’s refreshing to see an event that appeals to such a huge range of tastes, and ages!
Mr Elephant doesn’t have punters; it has contributors; and the evolution of audience participation from an amusing quirk to a fully fledged feature is a wonderful thing to see, because it gives us all more ownership over the event, engaging us well beyond the boundaries of the venue. Even after the final curtain call, the place was rife with chit-chat and the exchange of phone-numbers, and it’s fantastic to experience such a collective engagement, rather than the typical race for an unoccupied taxi. (My own eventual exit was met by communal singing and a drum performance by an enthusiastic fellow whose flow was only ended after 15 minutes or so due to apparent complaints from the neighbours.)
The organisers of Mr Elephant turn clubbing into a real adventure and I love that they want to celebrate the fun of interaction and offer so many ways for everyone be part of the festivities whilst also having a real desire to make elephant noises about their home city of Birmingham. With the Party Rockin Mammal Sessions @ Bulls Head showcasing Birmingham djs, The Live & Free events @ Adam & Eve showcasing live bands, the new Cinephonic & Intermix events @ the Hare pushing dj & vj boundaries, and with the forthcoming grassroots workshop programme, elephant radio shows, elephant tv, and their large website – www.mrelephant.com, it seems that there are now plenty of large tasty elephant portions that we can feast on in between the big festival style events, and it only looks to be getting bigger and more inclusive! Mr Elephant clearly invites us all to join the conga, if not start our own, so let’s put on our dancing shoes, bang on the Brum, and celebrate!
By Dominik Kai Brotherton
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Massive thanks and respect to Dom for that review and to the Night Times for publishing it! Jack Brabant, and Jules Hyland were videoing the event and Jack is putting together the entire 12 hour footage into a 4 minute video, so that will be online hopefully by mid June. Also Tony from the Lab will be putting together the Elephant Tv dvd episodes which will should be online by July.
Feel free to subscribe to the Rss if you want automatic notification, and we look out for more photos and videos as they return, plus a special Jam Jah recording of their set on Mr Elephant Radio, when it finds a new time slot.
Tony from The Lab who hosted vj workshops, vjed all night, and is to be producing Mr Elephant T.v has wrote his review of the Mr Elephant 2nd Birthday, so until he has a log in on this site (big elephant things afoot with The Lab) i’ll post it. The link one of his many excellent sites is http://www.vurt.org.uk
Tony from The Lab hosting the Vj Workshop – Photo by Dan Roblin
After three hours sleep, I’m awake! and running through the final kit checks for the train journey to Brum. Not only the Mr Elephant birthday party, but also my first VJ workshop. This will be seen as an introduction to hardware VJing using the Edirol kit I have now assembled. With an early start to these preceeding scheduled for 3pm, it’s all hands on decks wilst myself and Liam setup the two rooms for the evenings mayhem and merriement. Anyway, the hardware tutorials went (I think) well, and the star pupil without a shadow of doubt was Charly. Talk about getting it quickly or duck to water (or do feel free to enter your own analogy for that matter) anyhow, I digress ….
Even when I cheekily stepped away from the mixer for a bit and watched, I was bloody impressed! Hopefully though, the participants of the said workshop enjoyed themselves and have a smidge of a better understanding of what a hardware VJ actually does (apart from getting asked to put on some abba or R n bloody bee). Throughout the workshop, Mr Elephants two superb guest camera ops (Jack Braybant and Julie Hyland) were running around the event capturing loads of footage from the setup, the workshops and into the night. I can’t wait to see the footage and begin the editing for Mr E TV!
The night kicked off with a superb loop set from Laura Louise in which I had the oppertunity to play with the mixer and get in some nice feedback effects for her entire set with additional content coming from Liam (Blendstate). Caught up with Mike Freear of Alphadrive before his gig too, absolute top bloke !!! I loved the music! (I danced the whole set!), the energy (did I mention I danced the whole set?), and the reaction of all those sweaty, jumping about bods that were at the front of the stage! and then the finalae from Marc Reck himself was a joy to VJ to. This gentle reader then led to an early morning unwind back at the hostess of the night’s abode. Thanks must go to Laura for the music, hospitality and tea.
As per usual though, there were so many people that came together to macke this an absolute blinder of an event, and I’d like to thank Marc and Pyn for encouraging me to actually begin with the workshops that have been on a drawing board for so long, Liam for lights, visuals and his siter workshop on software vjing, Rich batsford for an amazing set, the osmosis boys for a storming night of techno and heavy breaks (class work!), Charley for participating and playing!, Laura for a storming opening set and hospitality, and Mr Mike Freear and Alphadrive! Hope to catch ya when you visit these lands further south.
Sleep however, never came … and around half nine I was off on my train travels again back to Leicester for the finale of my weekend!
It’s something else to actually see some of the energy and preparation that goes into creating such a mammal and Marc and Pyn have it down to a tee. The revellers were taken on an ecletic evening of sound and light that puts all of the Leicester events to shame. I look forwards to working closer with Marc and Pyn over the coming months and can wholeheartedly recommend that everyone has to experiance a Mr Elephant party at least three times in their life.
These three workshops have all come from one of the core members of Mr Elephant – Pyn Stockman. No stranger to running workshops and having been trained by the best in business Pyn has over 20 years experience, a committed passion for masks, theatre and community arts, and runs leading arts organisation Dramask
In between her own workshops in schools and community settings Pyn has been one of the backbones of Mr Elephant, bringing many of the interactive elements, and mucking in with many sides of the events on the evening. Despite possessing a glimmering cv, and with her own masks appearing in venues from Cbso to the Town Hall, and at events from Project X Presents to Shambhala Festival, Pyn still found the time to organise and curate the mr elephant workshops, with them growing from the mask making at Epic Skate Park, to a full programme of tasters and drop ins at our 2nd Birthday.
Pyn will be showing us all how to make those poodles, alongside our other community arts resident, Jenny Commins, who ran the mask decorating at our family day back in 2007.
Poodles and Masks will be judged in the midnight parade, and the workshops in the day will be open to all ages.
Beatboxing sounds really cool if you can do it. A quick google and a few beardy man or dub fx videos provide plenty of inspiration but a quick attempt leaves us sounding somewhere between a spitting dog, and a discontent business man.
Never fear though because the host with the most, Mr Bass6 will be coming down especially early to share some of the basics (pardon the pun) of the beatboxing artform.
Get yourself ready for the midnight mask parade with live drumming workshops from Circadia’s very own Jon Elliot. He’s beaten the drum at many a mr elephant event, and at our 2nd birthday on Sat May 23rd, he’ll be showing us all how he does it.
“Drumming: Learn the basics of hand percussion: about the drums and instruments, their origins and uses, how to play some basic drum and percussion rhythms – e.g. African, Indian, Cuban & Brazilian, and play together as a group.”
Jon Elliot is part of the luvvitarts based co-operative, who provide music, performance, media and education services through a network of pleasant, talented and reliable people.
Also from the Luvvit co-operative is the talented Poi spinning and Juggling maestro Alice Branson, who will be offering a drop in workshop also open to all ages to learn the skills for juggling and poi
“Children of all ages, come along and learn a new skill. Learning poi increases your flexibility and spatial awareness, as well as looking cool! Juggling improves hand eye coordination and means you will never be lost for a party trick! Provided you want to learn, I will teach you to perform at least one amazing trick with these disciplines”
Claire, a local animator who helped to run the poodle parlour at our last big event is also a very talented animator. She has years of experience in educational and community workshops of all ages, and will be offering a chance to get an insight into how she does it at our 2nd birthday on Sat 23rd May 2009 @ Hare & Hounds.
The theme will be Mr Elephant’s travels, and participant’s creations will be used as part of the footage on the visuals for the event on the evening. The workshop is a drop in, and open to all ages.
But very few know how these masters of visuals paint with light. At mr Elephant we’ve been fortunate to work with 3 of the best, and at our next mr elephant event in may you can get the chance to not only learn, but also perform with them yourself!
Yes thats right, Liam Blendstate, of Blendstate visuals, and Tony from Edirol sponsored “The Lab” will be hosting 3 workshops at the next Mr Elephant on sat 23rd May 2009. Suitable participants over the age of 18 will also get to perform with Liam and Tony at the event on the night.
Liam is also looking for a vj partner, so if you’re interested in vjing, this could be a great opportunity to get things moving.
For anyone who is interested in trying out the free mr elephant workshops on saturday here’s the programme.
All workshops are FREE, and are aim to give you a taster of various creative artforms in a grassroots stylee.
Some are drop in, Some are tasters, and some will enable suitable participants to perform on the night.
If you want to try out any of the workshops, booking will be on a 1st come 1st served basis from 2pm as from the drop in workshops.
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Main Room : (These workshops must be booked from 2pm on the day)
3.15 – 4.15 – LYRICS and LOOPS – Laura Louise – All Ages
4.30– 5.30 – DRUMMING – Jon Elliot – All Ages
5.45 – 6.15 – BEAT BOXING – Bass6 – Adults
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Room 2 : (These workshops must be booked from 2pm on the day)
3.00 – 3.30 – V.J WORKSHOP The Lab/Blendstate – Adults
4.00 – 4.30 - V.J WORKSHOP The Lab/Blendstate – Adults
4.45 – 5.15 – D.J TASTER WORKSHOP – Marc Reck – Adults
5.30– 6.00 – V.J WORKSHOP – The Lab/Blendstate – Adults
6.15 – 7.00 – D.J SCRATCH WORKSHOP – Jerome Hill (t.b.c) – Adults
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The Garage : (Drop in workshops from 3pm and 7pm – no need to book)
ANIMATION – (to be shown as part of the V.J set on the night) – Claire Evans – All Ages
MASK DECORATING – (Decorate a card mask/elephant flyer) – Jen Commins – All Ages
POODLE PUPPETS – (Poodles will be part of the performance) – Pyn Stockman – All Ages
POI SPINNING – (Festival style poi in the Sun) – Alice Branston – All Ages
(All ages welcome (children must be accompanied by an adult at all times)
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The sun is shining, and the forecast for saturday is hot, so here’s the evenings entertainment for our 12 hour 2nd birthday this Saturday @ the Hare & Hounds.
Please note the Acoustic & Live Stage will be in Room 1 & the Osmosis Room & Dance Stage will be in Room 2.
For the acoustic sets (9pm – 10pm) we will have tables and candles, so please arrive early in order to get a seat and relax with a beer, so you can see the very special acoustic gig from Rich Batsford & Laura Louise.
Acoustic Stage (8pm – 10pm)
8pm – Doors Open (Live Stage) – Soundtrack music
9pm – Laura Louise (Live Loop Pedal / Flute / Beatbox / Vocals)
9.30- Rich Batsford (Piano & Vocals)
Live Stage (10pm – 3am) (Hosted by Bass6)
10pm-Jam Jah (Reggae)
11pm – Circadia (Live Instruments, Electronics, & Skankin)
11.30pm – Marc Reck (Monkey Swing Set)
12pm – The Mr Elephant Midnight Parade (Hosted By Bass6) – Parade Your Mask & Promenade Your Poodle – Prizes for best mask and poodle plus the Percussion Jam (Drummers welcome), Interactive Performers (Their Dogs may bite) & the return of the Kazoos.
12.30 – Dub Fx (Amazing Orchestral Beatbox!)
1.15 – Alphadrive (Live Dub, Breaks & Drum & Bass)
2am – Marc Reck, Bass6 & Mike Freer Celebration Rinseout.
3am – Banana Boat Song!
Dance Stage (10pm – 3am) – Hosted By Osmosis
10pm – Hijacker (Osmosis Resident )
11pm – 32DM (Very Special Birthday Set)
12.15 – Jerome Hill (International Techno Breaks Legend)
1.45 – Dk Roon (El Presidento)
3am – Just one more!
As always if you’d like to get involved with Midnight Parade and/or win a prize, then make sure you make your mask (Cut out/Decorate Mr Elephant flyer) before midnight , or create your Poodle in the day.
If you are a drummer and want to have a jam at midnight, then bring your drum or email us at mrelephantpresents@gmail.com
N.B – Please note that this is a Not for Profit event, and tickets are (always) based on the venue’s maximum capacity to cover as many of the costs as possible.
NB 2- Entry into the the event will be from the back of the Room 1, (which you access from the “rear smoking garden”) & there will be a steward on the stairs to guide you if you haven’t been to the venue before.
Hope you have a huge bank holiday celebration whatever you do, and the doors always open if you want to get involved with the next Mr Elephant event or workshops – mrelephantpresents@gmail.com
P.S In order to thank everyone for the huge amount of work that has gone into this event, we will be having a free party the following week at the Adam & Eve on Sat 30th May til 4am, so please look out for the invite.
After 2 years and 14 events at 6 of our favourite Birmingham venues, the time has come to celebrate Mr Elephant’s 2nd birthday with our biggest festival style celebration to date, featuring lots of interactivity for all ages, the launch of Elephant Workshops in conjunction with Dramask, and the community based Elephant Tv project in partnership with The Lab.
On Saturday 23rd May 2009 @ the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham, we have a 12 hour, 4 room event over 3 stages, featuring a great lineup and a 3am license. Alongside some groundbreaking international artists, we will also be shining a light on some grassroots workshops and inspirational birmingham artists, promoters, bands, djs, vjs, and local orgs, with plenty of ways for everyone of all ages and tastes to get involved with the festivities.
A Live Stage, A Dance Stage, An Acoustic Stage, A programme of workshops, and local stalls will be the main focus of the 12 hour celebration at the award winning Hare & Hounds venue in Kings Heath Birmingham. As always local artists, and local promoters will be the main feature, though this time we’ve invited a few international artists too.
N.B - Here follows a little background on the workshops, so scroll down if you’re more interested in checking the music side of things
At the first event back in 2007, we invited all to get involved by either playing percussion with our Samba guests, decorating a mask and parading in the midnight parade to win some booze, dressing up and interacting with our interactive performers aka The Tourists. A year later, and the percussion parade, and interactive performance is now totally made up of Da’locals, with local organisations, the midnight parade has grown with each big event, and local shops and creatives are hosting stalls, with many friends of the elephant now developing their own creative practices by being more integrally involved with the events in whatever their area of interest is, mainly on the events side and workshops side.
The main addition/difference this time will be the evolution of the mr elephant workshops. The workshops began as decorating card masks, followed by 2 family/all ages welcome days, which featured a range of drop in activities for all ages from mask making and djing to drum skinning and juggling.
We always wanted the workshops to enable the participants where suitable to perform at the events in a more involved way, so we are very happy to say that this will be a part of our 2nd birthday with a range of free workshops open to the local community of all ages. Drumming, Beatboxing, Poi, Vjing, Animation, Mask Decorating, Juggling, and of course poodle making will all feature from 3pm – 7pm in our workshop area from a host of great workshop facilitators, with the masks and poodle making materials available on the evening too.
The poodles have been so well recieved that they will also feature in the performance (another open door for any budding performers, no experience necessary) with all poodles being judged in the midnight mask poodle percussion parade. Masks will also as always be available to decorate (the flip side of the flyers so keep hold of them) with materials (and masks/flyers) being provided for all.
Participants of the animation workshop will see their creations live in the visuals on the nights on either the live or dance stage. Participants of the vj workshop will get the opportunity to capture, and perform live in front of a full audience, with online support after the event, and the drummers will be invited to perform in the midnight parade (providing we can find enough drums), and there will be range of other interactive workshops and demonstrations to give the local community an opportunity to try out these various creative practices, all for free in a grassroots, comfortable and accessible environment.
We are and have always been not for profit collective, and are currently not funded in anyway with all of us involved with the event,( including all workshop providers working for free, with costs of the event at just under £2000.
We have a commitment to keeping the entry fee at the minimum, as want the event to be accessible to as many people as possible so there are some £5 early bird tickets available for people on low income, with the main advance ticket price at £7. As the capacity is around 300 at the hare and hounds, there are only 50 of these available.
Grassroots approach seems to be working though, as we’ve already had already a huge interest from workshop providers and people wanting to get involved with the next event, and we will be applying for our first funding to support another full programme of workshops at the next big mr elephant due for the summer.
This is kind of an elephant experiment and can only work with the support of the local community, so if you do like what you see, please think about passing on the email to 10 friends, and if you are on facebook, we really appreciate inviting as many facebook friends to the event, and/or the group as you have time to click on… Really does make keeping in touch with interested or local people a whole lot easier.
Alongside the workshops (3pm – 7pm folks) there will be stalls from local people from reflexology to local art, sone fine drinks promos courtesy of the hare and hounds, interactive performance from james, dom and the crew, the mr elephant midnight mask poodle parade featuring local percussionists (with prizes for best mask and poodle made), multi projector visuals from Vj Blendstate & The Lab, and a whole lot more….
We are more than excited to have this guy down from Bristol on the 23rd May 2009. He’s one of the best beatbox and loop pedal artists we’ve seen, and just check out his youtube videos for what you can expect. On heavy rotation on the mr elephant radio show, and one of Bass6’s recommendations, Dubfx is an inspiring artist, and we are going to be making a lot of noise about his incredible skills. He has a new album out on May 30th, and his last cd is available from his website… well worth a tenner.
An introduction to what he does (worth watching these through)
Jamming on the street
At Glastonbury Stone Circle
At Glastonbury on stage (Apologies for sound quality)
Our other headliners for the 2009 may bank holiday gig on sat May 23rd, these guys are quickly gaining a reputation for being one of the freshest live dance acts around showcasing “a perfect fusion of danceable dub, breaks and electronica” (Raise the Roof Festival”. Following a string of high profile appearances at UK festivals and club nights, this up-and-coming live trio have supported acts such as: Atomic Hooligan, Beardyman, The Bays, DJ Deekline, Tayo, Rogue Element, Scratch Perverts, and DJ Yoda. Definitly one to watch.
What can we say about the beatboxer Bass6, a true grassroots star in our opinion. With superb hosting skills, a inspiring attitude and a huge range of skills from beatboxing to workshops, this guy really brings the vibes, with his own productions are opening doors all over the country. He hosted our Midnight poodle parade on the beach at Celebrate Brums Underground, and he’s back for our next big event on Sat 23rd May 2009…not to be missed.
Hosting our last mr elephant midnight poodle parade competition
These guys have really come into their own this year, and one of the reasons why we are chuffed that they will be performing at our 2nd birthday. They house a great line up of talented musicians, which include multiskilled instrumentalist Jon Elliot has been one of the percussionists since our 2nd event.
Osmosis is a a co-operative run by a group of people who are passionate about their music and sharing it with like minded people. Each member of the crew has given their talent, equipment and time freely with any money made being ploughed back in to improve lighting, decor, sound, produce free CDs, and if we’re really lucky, buy us a couple of drinks.
Supported by the vibrant and eclectic venue, Rootys (rip), Osmosis has developed a reputation for it’s atmosphere, music and support of local talent, with names like Paul Damage (1881 Recordings/House of God), Sir Real (House of God) , and Sub Citizen (Resistor Records/Inukshuk) joining Residents and local heroes DK Roon’, Mack, Dr Pepperspray, HijACKER and M-AK.
A huge techno and breaks artist, and an international legend in his own right, we can’t quite get our hat on that he’s going to be headlining the dance Osmosis stage! Prepare yourselves.
Live at Glade (Apologies for Sound quality)
Scratch Practice
We couldn’t find any footage of their residents aside from the osmosis myspace link, so will be looking for mixes to help promote in the next week or two. Suffice to say Osmonauts need no introduction, and their programming and residents skills are hugely respected in the Birmingham Underground. Osmosis have organised legendary packed out parties from day one, and always attract the friendliest crowd of people you could hope to meet on a night out.This will be their first outing at the hare and hounds, so we look forward to a lot of warmth and phat music on the evening.
The other dj appearing is our own resident Marc Reck who will be playing either swing or a live eclectic set on the main stage, or a big room breaks techno, and drum and bass set on the dance stage. Here’s a recent clip of the end of his gig at the Night Times at the Custard Factory.
A core member of Project X Presents, one of Birmingham’s finest piano players, and all round top bloke, Rich Batsford is one of Birminghams’s musical treasures, and his music has been compared to that of the great steve reich, Keith Jarret, Michael Nyman, Claude Debussy, and Brian Eno. His debut album is currently free to download on his website, and his live performances are not to be missed. Check the valentines day Mr Elephant Radio show for a live recording of a gig from 2007.
Rich Batsford – Namaste
Live at Project X Presents
Laura Louise – www.myspace.com/lauralouiseowen – Hailing from New Zealand, Laura is a huge talent, and somewhat undiscovered on these shores. An amazing voice, and multi instrumentalist, she creates beautiful layers and well crafted songs with her loop pedal and a microphone. She performed a great set at the gigbeth fringe show, and we look forward to welcoming her back for our our 2nd birthday.
Cover of Fat Freddy
Laura Louise – So many days (Apologies for first 30 secs of sound ..worth watchin past)
So thats an overview of the eve, more to be added so feel free to subscribe to the mailing list, or facebook group for updates and info over the next fortnight.
All that’s really left for this post is to invite you to come and join the celebration. Its free til 9pm and tickets are needed for main stages entry upstairs
P.s here’s a little footage hashed together of our last 3 bigger events to give an idea.
On Rainbow Beach in 2008
At Hare & Hounds in 2008
At Epic in 2007
Oh and if you want to take part in any of the workshops please get in touch via email, or get there at 3pm. Timings will come soon, and workshops will be Beatboxing, Drumming, Animation, Vjing, Juggling, Poi, Mask Decorating, and Poodle Making. Seperate blog posts will give more details so subscribe to mailing list, facebook group, or the rss feed for instant notification.
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
