Dj Marc Reck Djing Events Tutorials and life in Birmingham

Last week, our Finished with the War piece seemed to go down real well at New Vibes 2008, and since then i’ve been continuing on my crusade to get all my open loops, ideas and projects into thinking rock… (for which there seem to be literally hundreds!)

Its a good feeling to know that most of the ideas and projects now have next their actions defined, and can now be taken forward without neglecting other projects, (and an equally good feeling to have stopped smoking again!) However some of the ideas and projects are often difficult, (and in some cases impossible), to move forward without the technical know how to make them happen, (or of course the money to pay someone who does!)

This week,  i’ve noticed 3 ideas i’ve been working on for Mr Elephant, spring up online in various almagamations, and while i don’t doubt that the similarities are coincidental, i did start getting a little worried that one of the bigger ideas i’ve been investing a lot of time in, and it kick started me into thinking how i can make it happen with my current resources.

Its a common challenge for anyone “starting up” for want of a better term, as obviously lack of money can often mean you have to do most things yourself, and that normally involves learning and developing new and sometimes quite technical skills to a decent level.

The more you learn, the more ideas, you have, the more ideas you have, the busier you become, the busier you become the less time you have to learn, and quite soon you can find yourself working for days on things that you never expected or even dreamed would be part of the plan, project, or big picture in the first place.

Obviously all that learning has great benefits too, and having many strings to your bow takes you in all sorts of directions, and can offer many opportunities.

Over the years, as a result of all the ideas and projects, I’ve learnt how to make and edit video’s, design and produce flyers, create and manage a variety of websites, organise and promote all manner of events at various levels, write, record, and produce music, evolve pretty much all aspects of djing, host and create workshops, teach and share various levels of knowledge, and have gained a pretty broad understanding of online technologies, (and the wealth of ideas they create!), with even some business and management knowledge along the way.

There are many things however, that you can’t do on your own, and its important to build a strong network, by creating mutually beneficial ideas and opportunities, and obviously good bonds. Thankfully through the events, projects, ideas, and courses, and often of course just life generally, i’m fortunate to have met, worked, learnt, taught and befriended some very talented and lovely people, and together have created stuff that wouldn’t have been possible on our own, and often has produced much better results and mutual benefits, than if it would be have been a “pay and display” type affair.

This said i’ve often been cautious about asking friends and “de network” to get involved, often thinking they might be too busy, that i should just learn/do it myself, and/or sometimes because i’ve been unsure or unclear about the end result, especially with the bigger ideas, and that i should work out the whole picture, and all its steps to completion before involving anyone else.

That waiting for feeling was however, often a product of having so much stuff going on, and not knowing the next action. Now that all is getting into thinking rock, or the Getting Things Done system i’ve been able to see where the projects were at, what i’ve got going on, and then took the plunge so to speak with inviting people i thought may be too busy to collaborate on the things i’d really like to make happen.

And i’m pleased to say that this week, i have found the dj partner i’ve been looking for, (who was also apparently looking for me), the workshop of the world idea is actually going to be built properly using Rails, together with a friend who recently built the livebrum site, and i’ve started three mutually beneficial business ideas to take forward the mr elephant workshops.

This week, i’ve also started training again, which i’ve really missed, i’ve been cooking up some innovative ideas with my favourite vj, and yesterday it was all crowned with receiving my 30th birthday Djembe, hand made, with a sound similar to the very best you can buy, (for a third of the price), and hand carved with the Mr Elephant Presents Logo!.. (And while writing this, i’ve just been offered a residency for the Night Times new event)

So if i could share anything useful from this week i guess my top tips would be, to get organised with the help of getting things done, share the ideas you believe in with people you trust , and who have skills you don’t, and when the time’s right, have a look at stopping smoking, cus it’s really made a difference to me.

I’m going to be blogging the process of my approach to the getting things done idea, as its been quite a long ride with it all, and the relevant or useful bits might help someone else in the same boat.

And on that note, I’m off to prepare some records, and go celebrate Anne-Maries leaving do. (We’re at the Lamp if you want to come down)

So this thursday is the screening of the Finished with the War Piece as part of this years “New Vibes”.  It’s a dance on film piece choreographed by Lucy Nicholls, directed by Liam D’Authereau, with performances by Saffy Setohy, Pippa Lund, and Krista Vuori, and also features my first 12 minute soundtrack.

 This is the first time i’ve been asked to compose a track for a dance on film piece, yet this will be my second outing as part of new vibes, as a dj/vj/dance piece i worked on with Birmingham Dance Collective (originally for our peace not war room at drop beats not bombs) was featured at last years New Vibes.

This has been a really good experience for me, and again i’ve learnt a lot from working in collaboration with some real talented people, in areas that are relatively new to me. I’ve been learning quite a lot from the studio point of view, and seem to be constantly reaching new levels with my music. While i still feel i’ve got a long way to go, i’m pretty excited to be previewing the finished piece of our collective efforts in such a forum, (especially as i didn’t get to see last years, as i was djing at the Anti-World Festival.)

After looking at over 30 venues, (and having to say goodbye to some real life financial support from New Generation Arts because of it), i am pleased to announce that we have finally found the perfect venue to house, our 3 stages and 80 participants for our forthcoming Project X Presents event, to be held on Saturday September 13th 2008… Birmingham United Services Club!

Now i know it looks like an unlikely venue right? First a skate park, …then a warehouse, …. a brief experimental x-lab to break in Concrete ….and now… a working mens club!??

Well, aside from needing at least a week setup time for the production of the show, it needs to be somewhere that’s big enough for three stages in the main room, and can accomodate an audience of at least 300 people in their, ideally have at least 2 other rooms, with a suitable smoking area, and of course be somewhere that we can make all the ideas generated by 9 months of planning and meetings happen to maximum effect.

This seems to that venue, (and there’s even a smoking area next to the main room, so you can still watch the show while you smoke!)

It’s also becoming a bit of a tradition to “break in” new venues before they open fully to the public. As Rich pointed out, what we’ve done  in each case, is got involved with a venue as it is becoming a venue.  That is, at a time when it’s in the process of development - that “twlight zone” when it has some or all of the facilities we need, but isn’t yet a regular venue.

This venue in about 4 weeks time is of course going to be completely refitted, and in october will open as a full nightclub, with a huge soundsystem playing host to some of Brum’s more established club events like Edwards, with some big live gigs in the pipeline.

 Before then however our merry band of participants will be continuing to work hard on developing our biggest show to date, with all manner of ideas being put into action to explore and create an unforgettable multi-sensory assault based on the theme of Digital Distopia, inspired by 1984, Bladerunner, and the impending threat of I.D cards.

With our full line over at least two rooms, of musicians, performers, dancers, djs, vjs, percussionists, comedians, poets and installations already confirmed and collaborating, Saturday September the 13th 2008, is most definately a date for the diary, and i for one really hope you can be there to experience it.

B.U.S.C or (Birmingham United Services Club) is on Gough Street, Birmingham, B1.

Gough Street is directly opposite the Alexandra Theatre, and just round the corner from the mailbox, hard to find records, richer sounds, etc. By the roundabout with the pergoda, y’know.

A map is here, and a somewhat rubbish picture i took of the front before the refit is below!

was a lovely evening with highlights from Aa’shiq Al Rasul, and its curator Rich Batsford. Here’s a little video of Rich performing one of his latest tracks entitled Chromazone.

This weekend started with the gig at the Hare and Hounds. Giles Peterson was upstairs, and me and Sam Redmore were downstairs. I didnt get any time to check out Giles, as it was going off downstairs, but i bet it was good. Here’s a little bit of the end of my set (before the Aphrodite/Bobby Mcferrin/Al Green/Nitin Sawhney encore)

Its important to mention that the drum n bass only came out for the last 20 minutes btw. Before then from my side, was 3 hours of Quantic Soul Orchestra/Dj Food/Dj Shadow/Coldcut/Kruder and Dorfmeister/Mr Scruff, that kind of thing, alongside classic soul tracks, some underground funk, and of course a few musical numbers.

I got some decent scratching practise in (after Andy the hare sound man, had valiantly sorted a working 1210 from the bulls head out), and Sam kicked us off with his own unique blend of soul, funk, reggae, and personal edits that he is fast becoming known for. Sam’s a thoroughly lovely chap, and a really talented dj. He runs a night at the bulls head called Freestyle, and he edits pretty much all the tracks he plays. Check his myspace for his forthcoming gigs.

The rest of the weekend was spent half with my lovely girlfriend, and half completing the final draft for the Dance on Film Finished With the War piece, ready for shooting on monday. We had to edit a couple of my favourite bits, so that they work with the dancers, but i’m really feeling like this could be the one that also doubles as my first breaks release..There’s a fair bit to do on it, before releasing it into the wild, but its definitely on the right lines.

Oh and tonight i wanted to mention that my good friend Rich Batsford his hosting his fantastic Music by Candelit evening tonight in Moseley. Well worth a visit, and something that seems to be growing with each year.

I’ve been getting some really interesting djing gigs this week, so thought i’d post them.

Tonight, i’ll be hosting the back bar again, this time with local legend Sam Redmore, and in between checkin out the man Giles Peterson.

Actually i need to go do some prepping, as i been working til 6 in the morn this week on the dance on film piece. Its going well, with the rough 12 minute track now with the dancers, and rehearsals have started, with filming to begin next monday. Its been a lot of work but i think this track could also be my first breaks release! (cut down of course)

Anyway provisionally here’s my current gig list..I’ll add the links when i have more time.

Fri 27th Jun 2008 - Giles Peterson @ Hare and Hounds
Sat 5th July 2008 - Scratch Club @ The Rainbow (if back in time)
Fri 18th July 2008 - Big Beats Fun Fair Festival @ Custard Factory
Sat 26th July 2008 - Custom Made @ Rainbow
Sat 8th Aug 2008 - Ultra @ Custard Factory
Fri 15th Aug 2008 - Surfs Up Festival @ Newquay
Fri 22nd Aug 2008 - Shamabhala Festival (t.b.c)
Sat 13th Sep 2008 - Project X Presents 4 @ Busc
Sat 20th Sep 2008 - Mr Elephants Beach Party @ The Rainbow Beach/Warehouse

This taken from our Mr Elephant website sums up just how much fun it was in that back bar on saturday! So many lovely people, and such a fantastic atmosphere, it was a really great djing experience, and we’re all really chuffed by how well received the room was.

“A massive shout to everyone who came into our room on saturday night at the aforementioned Longest Day Festival! It’s certainly fair to say that you (and the Mr Elephant djs and vj), created one of the most electric atmosphere’s ever seen in the back bar at the Hare and Hounds, and huge thanks once again to Bazaar for making it all happen.

Sound setup was handled expertly by Andy the sound man, with our resident visual artist Liam (and Charlie), setting up a huge video screen ready for his inspiring projections. Emma and Bazaar had invited Zen and a tarot reader down, and there was a friendly masseur who gave great head massages.

Pyn made the place look more beautiful with some nice bits supplied by Emma, and we welcomed Justin from Loafers Lounge back, who kicked things off with his beautiful blend of diverse sun kissed electronica and downtempo.

By 7pm the back bar was unusually busy, and it time to invite Olly Badaboon, (our “newcomer dj” from our first Mr Elephant event at Epic in March 2007), back to see where he was at musically. Just off a plane from Ibiza, Badaboon has certainly been honing his skills, and took over the decks with some new and classic funk and some choice scratching, raising the tempo and shaking some asses, as the place filled up, (and Chris the chef got his head massaged!)

8.30 came and the mighty Dani C from Funkatronic was up.

Dani is a great dj we’ve been wanting to invite down for a while now, and it certainly became apparent why, when after a few records, he had people coming up and shaking his hand and pulling all sorts of shapes to his summer and latino style house! A sure sign of an old pro

While our rooms was free entry all night, the two rooms upstairs, hosted by Bazaar, and B-Music were open from 8pm and were £7 quid entry to cover a great line up of musicians and djs. We managed to sneak a peek at around 10.30, when dropping up a backup deck (thanks Rob!) after one of the hired ones had gone down. While there wasn’t many people around yet, it looked fantastic, and full of promise to go off in true solstice style, with a bevvy of instruments adorning both stages.

Back downstairs however it was (fortunatly) rammed to capacity and time for our resident dj Marc Reck to take to the decks. The dancefloor was now nicely full thanks to some great mixing from Dani, and Marc dropped his diverse blend of cut up trip hop, classic soul, and upbeat swing, which got the place shouting, and the people smiling.

It was nice to see some scratching from Marc too, before he raised the pace into his more familliar breakbeat territory. Liams blendstate’s visuals and intelligent use of colour set the ever changing mood with real skill.

By 11.30pm, the back bar was now full to capacity, with people from the more chilled out front bar apparently taking it in turns to come and have a dance! This all paved the way for a return set from our friend (and headliner from our first event), Mr Boogie Dave.

Boogie most known for his pioneering dubstep, and of course the legend that is Drop Beats Not Bombs, threw down an amazing set of booty breaks, which got the crowd shouting and jumping, and ended with the most amazing remix of Rage against the Machine’s classic “Killing in the Name Of” track.

It was great to see such a huge reaction, as Boogie is a great and well deserving dj, and sometimes dubstep can be a little hard to grasp for some dancefloors.

12.30 upstairs, and there was some great music being played by some of Birmingham’s most talented musicians. There was some apparently some confusion as to who was actually playing as the flyers had been printed early, but we imagine that it was suitably going off, and the price had been thoughtfully dropped to reflect the time of night.

Unfortunatly we couldn’t go and see for ourselves, as 12.45 downstairs, the temperature had raised to sweating temperature! Dani C was back on the decks and by the time he dropped a huge remix of Cj Bollands Sugar Daddy, the whole place was on fire (literally!)

Handing over to Marc Reck for the last stretch, (who was so excited by this point he was bouncing around like Tigger on speed…or Marc on Staropramen!). Marc raised the pace with each record, quickly switching into Drum and Bass, and igniting the crowd into a jumping bass driven mass sinaglong!

All in all a most memorable night, and an atmosphere created by the local people in a local pub that will be very difficult to forget.

The full set of pictures we’ve got so far are here (thanks marc), and there was also a roving professional camera man (who had a proper camera, and was asking people to pose, etc) so there should be some good ones on the way.

We’ll post them as soon as we get a copy, and if you want to be notified when they are up, click on the rss subscribe button, and they will be delivered automatically to your chosen rss reader.

Wishing you all a most glorious rest of summer.

One love

Mr Elephant x

“

I’ve copied this from our Mr Elephant website, as it’ll be a djing gig for me this saturday, and i havent got time to write a post about it! (Plus it’s got the links to the people involved)

I’ll be djing some downtempo type stuff, and then hopefully we can pick it up a bit after midnight. Hope you can make it as looks like a great event

“Hey humans.

Firstly, apologies about the lack of posts these last two months. We realise they’ve all been about the events, (which to be fair have been dominating our focus since april, alongside switching servers), but we will be back on track very soon, with your tasty tips (thank you!), Ruth’s next installment of her reports on Birmingham, and Marc’s 3rd Mr Elephant Radio Show.

Remember Elephant’s never forget..its just takes them a little time to work out technical bits and bobs.

Anyway we have some news and yet another invitation for you! This week we have been asked to host a room at the Longest Day Festival! It is to be at the Hare and Hounds this Saturday (21st June), and its being organised by local promoter and Bazaar’s very own Emma Cutler.

We will hosting the back bar all day and night, and will be inviting some of friends from the previous Mr Elephant events to come down and play stuff they might not usually bring out (and some they would).

Our room will be free entry all day and night, and will feature some mr e style treats from Bazaar such as knitting (with instructions), a bbq, jewellery on sale, tarot readings, massage, origami and a host of other treats.

The upstairs rooms (one of which will be hosted by B-Music btw), will be £7 in after 8pm, and will feature some great live music from local bands like the Mama Matrix, and djs such as the bee’s tour dj.

All rooms will be on til two in the morn, and it should be a fitting local celebration of this years summer solstice.

Details are actually a little incorrect on the flyer for our room, as we have different timings and running order than those advertised, but suffice to say it promises to be a lovely day out, with a host of great music and activities, so hope you can join us.

Music wise our room should look like this :

Justin Bond (Loafers Lounge) - Eclectic Summer Chillout
Marc Reck (Project X Presents) - Eclectic laidback Mr Elephant type diversity
Badaboon (Digi phunk) - Funky biznizz
Dani C (Funkatronic) - Diverse downtempo up through to choice house
Boogie Dave (Drop Beats Not Bombs) - (Chilled Electronic Breaks up to more dancefloor breaks)

All of us from midnight with our party style tunes), and visuals will be hosted by our resident visual artist Liam Blendstate.

Happy Solstice to you all”

I’ve just checked out this very interesting post from Rich Batsford in response to this other 2 interesting posts from Simon Jones and Pete Ashton . It inspired me to write a very long comment, so i thought i’d blog it (now we back to normal transmission again!)

I’ve been keeping a keen eye on this debate on brum’s talent for some time now, and it seems with blog posts like this and Simons/Pete’s that its getting another welcome ignition of interest again.

It seems that one common thread is that the Birmingham venue owners, promoters, artists, and audiences often seem pretty well connected with each other in this city, but that the national media and the council don’t really get behind whats really going on, therefore meaning the view of Birmingham from other cities is somewhat different from the reality?

I don’t think things like so much money being spent on shopping malls, buildings that are structurally sound, and broad street’s nightlife do much for the cities cultural reputation, and i wonder what i might think if i’d just got off a train from another city/country, and how easy/difficult it would be for me to find out about all the stuff we have going on.

This from a tourist point of view i imagine keeps things more underground, which while it might have benefits in terms of creative freedom, might also be contradicting that tagline of Birmingham as a global city with a local heart.

I expect the current housing developments and “eastside regeneration project might further affect this perception, but i do often wonder what it would be like if a tiny portion of the money could go to support promotors, and if there is a way of creating a dialogue with the people who make the decisions and the local promoters who create the events.

The process of funding applications don’t always seem to lend themselves to the nature of building up events, and i wonder if there could be also be a dialogue between local companies or suitable sponsors?

Also having events which happen in areas of our city, which might not have been utilised, like green spaces, and disused buildings could also be another great way of shining a light on our culture and bringing it to different demographs, (i.e those that dont go to night clubs), although from what i gather it seems that is increasingly difficult, extremely expensive, or impossible to do, because of the amount of red tape you have to battle with.

I don’t know very much about the workings of this side of things, (hence the reason for the latest Mr Elephant exploration), but the support seems to be the difference from other cities, and certainly is internationally, which i assume is more to do with the national government, than local?

We all know how time consuming and financially difficult it is to promote events, (and of course the real reasons for doing it), but i imagine if there was financial and promotional support from the council, and to(and from) all the venues, then it would allow a lot more growth, collaboration, and freedom for people who work hard to create these events, and the city’s culture would have a much larger platform to express itself.

Then maybe our visiting tourists and the national media would be able to see a lot more of what’s going on, and everyone could benefit?