Amazing vibes and inspiring performances from everyone involved, Mr Elephant is full of good vibes after last night.
Massive love, props and gratitude to all who bought the vibes and all who made it happen.
Together we raised just over £300 for Haiti, and created a night we wont forget.
Here’s a little video of some footage of a few of the artists caught on camera last night, until the “proper” footage shot by our man Jack, gets edited together.
Mr Elephant favourites Munchbreak, (this time with multi genre skills of Home Cooking djs) & the mighty Jam Jah once again showed us why Birmingham is packed full of flavour with 2 inspiring live performances and 4 dj sets which kept our last live and free event of 2009 nice and toasty all the way until the 4am close.
Here’s a little video of part one of Munchbreak where they took us back to their seminal jam session days.
Despite being probably the wettest, coldest night we’ve had thus far, nothing seem to hinder a whole pub full of revellers. Robin from Jam Jah kicked things off with their unique blend of roots, reggae, and dancehall.
Followed by some choice genre hopping funk style crowd pleasing cuts from Maxwell from Home Cooking
Then it was time for the headline live act of the night in the first of two sets. First the Jam session you can see above, and then their full live set. Here’s a little more footage this time from their 2nd set.
and if you want more, do go check out their album. It’s well recommended
P.s there are more photos here and our mr elephant facebook group is here.
Following sensational sets from the Heels, Hidden Half & Flame of Fervour last month, its almost time for our 4th Live & Free event @ the Adam & Eve in Digbeth – this Saturday 25th July.
This month we’re on an alternative, indie, and rock tip with 4 great brummy live artists, and some top alternative djs
Black Heart Generator are our special guests this month, and no stranger to tearin up the live circuit, with each member being in some Birmingham’s best alternative bands on the local scene such as Baxter, Egososo, Koala Grip and The Starries. - http://www.myspace.com/blackheartgenerator
Geordie Blake from Shana Tova, himself as a legend on the rock / indie scene, sharing a history with members of Black Heart Generator back when the Starries toured with Idlewild, will be performing a special one off acoustic set - http://www.myspace.com/shanatova
Also performing will be the inspiring Barnesy who be showcasing his unique blend of acoustic music and street poetry – http://www.myspace.com/barnesyboy86 …Really someone not to be missed!
And to keep things diverse, we are also welcoming the front man of Recall 34 in his solo guise of Andre Aristotle, with his very cool one man and box electro style outfit. - http://www.myspace.com/andre48k
And joining us on the decks this month, we are very pleased to welcome The Other Woman Club who are taking a night out of their busy schedule to come and host between the bands and keep you all dancing and a-singing until 4am. - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48705022394
There’s a load of festi’s on this month, but if you’re not already booked up, come down between 9pm – 4am for bouncing, singing and merriment for what promises to be a great night of live and djed music.
Project X Presents was, and continues to be a huge inspiration to Mr Elephant. Some of us have been involved with Project X from the start, and Mr Elephant was born out of the experience of the first Project X Presents Event, the early Rockfall events, and a lot of what was going on in Birmingham at the time.
One of those things that was going on in brum was the noise abatement orders Our first home for the first Project X Event, and the first Mr Elephant festival style events – Epic Skate Park, ended up being shut down due to one obsessive complainer. Then followed the first home for the Mr Elephant Family Events – The Prince of Wales, which Keith & Diane were again really keen to use for arty and community events, but yet again they are facing more and more restrictive legislation, which pretty much stops them doing anything.
All of the above events were very safe, full of lovely people, incorporated both family events in the day and music events on the evening and generated a wealth of positive response from all ages, yet both events were not able to continue at the venues, because of the restrictions imposed upon them by the council. Its worth noting that our 6th event host – the fabulous the Rainbow Beach for Celebrate Birmingham’s Underground was also under scrutiny, and it seems that all these venue owners, (promoters and collectives) are all just trying to do great stuff for Birmingham, always at great financial risk, but seem to be constantly limited by the very council who is looking to put Birmingham on the map with the big city plan!?
Following some initial conversations with John Tigue and John Mostyn, the stirrer and created in birmingham was the first time we read about all this online, and it inspired 3 investigative reports from Ruth Robinson on Digbeth (who herself has a deep interest and experience in the development of areas). They raised an interesting question of whether the complaints were also linked in with the developers plans, and whether the intention to close venues down was not because of any real problems or issues, but to develop the vision of splitting Digbeth in quarters, as part of the Big City Plan, regardless of the impact on business and the city.
We’re not sure, but it leads really nicely onto this insightful Project X Presents video – Music Is Not Pollution, with interviews from John (Spotted Dog), Keith (Epic/Prince), Kent (Rainbow), and an abacus resident, all of which raise some very interesting points. One of which being why would the council want to stop such venues when there is such a huge support for them and only a handful of complaints, and when they are wanting to put Birmingham on the map in such a big way.
If you have anything to say, please feel free to comment. Now we’ve got the website going again, this video has inspired us to follow up some interviews we did in 2007. We’ll post links to any further debate from the Project X Presents collective, and anything else we can find, and feel free to add links yourself in comments
