Had a couple of really interesting djing gigs this weekend. One for Adam Regan hosting the Hare and Hounds back bar all night, and one from John Mostyn, hosting the Bham Opera After Party of King Idomoneo in a disused warehouse!
Both were really enjoyable gigs, but with noticeable differences (not just the venue). Friday i took Traktor scratch out, and musically started with chilled stuff like Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister and Cinematic Orchestra. Then i took it into some dj food, quantic soul type business, then into soul and funk, with a little bit of breakbeat, then some more soul and finally into some drum and bass for the last hour and a half.
The chilled stuff got smiles and friendly hand shakes, the soul got the girls up, the breaks a few polish boys up, and the drum and bass filled the dancefloor. I had some problems with Traktor for the first 2/3 hours, but i dont really feel i needed to take it out as there was nothing i couldn’t do with a pair of cdjs.
So Saturday i took out cds to the bham opera gig, and played diverse stuff like mr elephant mixtapes, funky latino stuff like quantic, classic funk and soul, a bit of indie, some ska, bit of dance, then back into soul then mellow love stuff like Al Green, and Massive Attack, etc for the last half hour.
All of saturday rocked, from start to finish. I mean really rocked. A couple of chilled numbers to start, but almost immediately the teen dance crew were up and wanting to dance! There was ages from 16 – 65, and while there were various requests throughout the 5 hours, no-one was difficult to deal, even the teenagers, with because everyone felt catered for with the spread of music, so it literally just got better and better.
Aside from one chin stroking dj, the hare and hounds had a similar vibe, but obviously on a smaller scale.
Both were a mix of people, probably being more diverse at bham opera, and the spaces were obviously very different, but for me as a dj, i was learnt a couple of things from both gigs.
Mainly (a) if i’m going to take traktor out, i may as well be doing something special with it, as often your entire record collection can be more of a hindrance than a choice, and cds can be a lot easier to navigate in the heat of the moment, and (b) that djs that play for the crowd have a lot more fun than those that stroke their chin, (although we’ve all been there, and even they can’t help but dance when everyone else is!
I’ll be doing my best to exploit Traktor at the next project x presents, (which is kinda the reason i bought it)..
Just need to find some time away from workin on these events to actually develop the set now!
The rest of the bank holiday was spent flyering, bowling, eating and drinking.
Oh and i got watch Batman at the Imax on monday..definitly worth the extra few quid
So aside from our Project X Presents Event, which is made up of all different types of Birmingham artists (with a few international ones too), i’m also involved with another event in collaboration with Mr Elephant and The Night Times, which is made up of, and aims to make some collective noise about 25 Birmingham underground events and their residents, and celebrate Birmingham’s underground scene with a big warehouse and beach party on Saturday 20th Sep 2008.
The night will be programmed so that in each of the three rooms there will always be something different playing, and the flow of music will be diverse yet still work well as a whole. In the age of people liking more than one genre of music, to have many styles in one room, and that set over 3 rooms should make the whole night a lot more interesting for the audience, (and hopefully expand that promoters fan base by introduce new audiences to their music.)
Obviously one event is still only going to be one event, no matter how many other events are involved, so aside from features in the Night Times publication about the promoters involved, there will also be regular Night Times Presents events to carry the idea forward, and we’re all also trying to think imaginatively about how this can have actual benefits for everyone involved.
Money, (without headliners and big door prices) in the underground events world is unfortunatly never going to be one of them, however the benefits to the respective networks, and maybe even the city, exist on a lot of other levels and have good potential. We are hoping its possible for the venue, to enable us to host it as a free party, as the costs without any fees are around £2500, and no-one is in a position to cover this. However venues obviously have a lot of their own costs, and while they are destined to make a lot of money on the bar, its not as straightforward as you’d imagine.
Often, it seems that that the underground scene, its venues, and respective promoters often gets missed out of the discussion about why Birmingham is not on the map, which in this city confuses me, as at least from my eyes, the more underground events and venues, have bought a range of different music, experiences and culture to me over the last 15 years. I’ve read a few times, that part of the solution could be more clustering, but with the financial and time constraints of promoting, there are often difficulties of making this happen in reality.
A few ideas that have come up from chatting to some people recently are that promoters could share flyering runs, postering runs, and mailing lists. This would have to be done selectively, and imaginatively for the very reasons that this is not happening, but ultimately could mutually benefit.
Networks could be shared in some way, so that the massive costs of organising and promoting an event could be negotiated to be beneficial for all. Having a central promoter calender so as similar events don’t not clash, and opening more like minded venues that can work with promoters could also open more opportunities have been suggested by friends who have lived in places like bristol and manchester as one of the differences between brum and other cities.
These ideas are obviously around in some respects, and often self organise in some almagamation with the existing models available, but i do wonder if there isn’t some way that we can take the massive financial and time costs out of the equation by collectively working in a beneficial way.
Some promoters, venues, djs, vjs, artists, etc, and publications like the Night Times in particular, are active in this respect for the underground scene, and online coverage by venues, social sites like DSI, Facebook, and brum based sites like Live brum and Created in Birmingham, all offer ways to reach new audiences.
However after spending so much time on events this week, before we’ve even started the mass promotion push, and neglecting all the other things i really need to be working on, i wonder if there aren’t more ways that we can find, to make it feasible for people to put on events in this city?
Me and Sam had a great first mix today. With one of us mixing the accapellas, and the other mixing in the tracks. I was quite shattered from chasing everyone for info so i can get this flyer done for the mr elephant & night times event, but all in all it seemed to go really well, and has opened up a whole new world of possibilities, whilst breathing new life into some old breaks.
Not sure if it was my mood, or because i’m really into playing music i’ve never heard before, but the accapellas was the most fun for me.
Next session we get busy with the Traktor features, ready for a possible collab at the next Project X Presents event on sep 13th.
It was ony waiting for one mix, but there was nothing in my box that seemed to fit, so i’ve left it for…..well for months now.
Last night though, i managed to finish it by trying a couple of new tracks with it, which i think fits the narrative perfectly, and by 6am, i had a couple of covers and the tracklisting all done. (The cover incidentally is something i made at school when i was 7!)
So for your listening “pleasure” may I present – “Journey to the Edge of Somewhere”. I really hope you enjoy it, and i also hope you can see some of the hero’s journey in it.
It’s not supposed to be pretty, for obvious reasons, and music wise its based around the heavier end of breaks and drum and bass, as similar to my Fear and Love Mix, it is designed to work on an underground dancefloor, as well as have a narrative.
I didnt have room to put the stages on the cd cover, though i do want to, so until then, here they are for your reference.
The Ordinary World
The Call to Adventure
Meeting The Mentor
Crossing The Threshold
Approach to the Innermost Cave
The Supreme Ordeal
The Road Back
The Shadow Challenge
The Freedom To Return
The Reward
And here’s the tracklisting.
I wanted to host it on my server, so downloading it would be quick for anyone that wants to, and the file size is only 33 meg, so should be fairly quick.
The only downside, is that it wont tell me how many people have downloaded it, so if you do download it, or listen to it online, all i ask is that you drop me a comment, (even its just “downloading/listening now”) so i can get some idea of how many people are interested to hear it.
Many thanks, i hope you enjoy it, and i really appreciate your comments
We’ve had to keep a bit quiet about the venue while it gets it’s license confirmed, but we can now reveal (for the second time!) that its going to be breaking in a new venue called BUSK (which is on Gough Street, opposite the Alexandra Theatre)
This beautiful flyer is the work of the supremely talented Matt Jinpow, who created the image and put the thing together, and i will be blogging more about the event and the venue when there’s time, because its pretty interesting.
For now all i’m going to say is that the theme is about digital distopia, and there was some extremely exciting happenings being discussed at the meeting last night.
Again more news soon, but from my side of things the 1st dj set will be chronological and feature an array of music, with Liam Blendstate flexing his visual light on the controls, and the second set, will feature two percussionists, 6 performers, and my own mask designed by Pyn, and hopefully a jedi cloak if i can get it knocked together with the support from our costume designer!
While it was nothing new as we’ve been talking about the ideas for a while now, it was nice to reconfirm the ideas, and always good to see people face to face, plus a few new faces who had the project x vibes flamin in full force. (i.e not having a particular skill but just really wanting to get involved in whatever is needed).
One interesting thing that i did learn at the meeting was just how much money we spent on food and drink last year…(£1250)
£250 of that was the rider which for 90 people is fair enough. But the rest of it, was on food and drink for the production week! I offered the idea, that if we were spending £50 a day, then maybe we should take it turns to cook, (which hopefully we can do, as long as there arent any restrictions from the venue)
Just how much money in total we need also blew me away, and bought it home to me just how much of a financial risk it is, despite everyone working for free and a shitload of equipment being borrowed! £6500 is base level costs, which means if we dont get funding and half fill the venue, we are going to be couple of grand in debt!!?!
Itss weird to think, that if it were to be costed with people being paid fairly for their time, maybe in the same way that organisations like birmingham royal ballet, or bham opera are, (of which i only know total figures so dont quote me on that), but at a reasonable rate to each participant nonetheless, then we’d be looking at at least 120 – 150 times that figure!
Something i mentioned previously, which is (a) an extension of the Mr Elephant Workshop of the World idea, and (b) something i’m hugely excited about, is a website /idea that is currently in development called Share to Create. com. Here’s the tip of the iceberg, beautifully written by Dubber as part of the uce transfer of knowledge fellowship i’m involved with.
“Share to Create is a website that draws on the creative talents of ordinary people in local communities, and provides a platform to develop, share and promote those skills”
As it’s being currently being built, I can’t really go into much detail at this stage, though suffice to say there a many strands to the basic idea, all of which address different social needs, and while there are various similar ideas around, the project as a whole is only made possible by bringing the ideas and skills of some extremely skilled people together, which more and more is to creating it’s own niche.
Anyway, more on that later. Today i had the opportunity to put some of the idea in action in the real world, with my first skill sharing session with local singing teacher, Rebecca Schwarz. I swapped an hour of professional singing tutoring, for an hour’s cubase surgery, and suffice to say it went really really well!
I now have a new confidence and understanding of singing, and Rebecca can now confidently record her own vocals, whenever and wherever she likes.
Next week we are going for lesson two, with the added addition of recording a demo for her. Not only will be both be learning more of what we want to know, but with the added bonus of this recorded material, which is great for us both as it offers a potential remix possibilites.
Maybe it wont be long before i’m remixing my own voice. And for me that would be cool!
After a great week celebrating Pyn’s birthday and our anniversary, it was full steam ahead this week, starting with 2 very productive meetings with 3 of Birmingham’s favourite promoters. Aside from being an opportunity to spend some very pleasant time with some very inspiring people, it has also led to some great opportunities.
a new bi monthly gig in the Bulls Head starting on Saturday October 11th
a big celebration of Birmingham’s Underground on for the Mr Elephant / Night Times event on Sep 20th at the Rainbow Beach / Warehouse,
and a role as breaks reviewer for the Night Times!
Following the continuation of being missed off all promotion material for this surfs up festival, i’ve been thinking about how local artists are represented, often by their local promotors. Suffice to say, it was really refreshing to have this meeting, as it seems that both of the events will hopefully provide platforms to shine a light on local artists.
For me, as both a promoter, and dj, this is particularly important, as it seems we are increasingly in an age where local artists don’t get the support or promotion that the big names do. While this are many possible reasons for this, and filling a large venue without a headliner is no easy task, it does seem a shame that in this online age, that the people who often play for free, and in many cases rock the party a lot more noticeably than the paid headliners, are not promoted, linked to, or even mentioned in the same way the names are.
That said, with the very best intentions, things can always get overlooked, and good promotion, filling venues, and building good relationshops is ultimately very hard work. It seems that while a headliner can provide a quick fix, there is nothing like building mutually beneficial relationships with people you like working with.
Certain promoters actively realise this, and in my eyes are really trying to build the local Birmingham scene.
Hare and Hounds, Bulls Head and Leftfoot Promotor Adam Regan, is one of these people, and has pioneered really positive change in the local area over the last ten years. Since re-opening the Hare and Hounds, Adam’s picked up on the Mr Elephant events, and has been increasingly supportive of my djing as a whole. To date i’ve had the opportunity to host 2 packed events and play 4 great gigs at the venue, which i’m pleased to say has really been mutually beneficial for all involved, which on a local level has felt really positive.
Whats been nice about working with Adam this last year, is his understanding of both promoting and djing, so it was nice (and synchronistic) to get a call to host a bi monthly event at the Bulls Head From October. Not only is it an opportunity to spread my wings as a dj, play a wide a range of music, and invite local guests to a venue that already draws an open minded crowd, but also it will provide an opportunity to generate an income stream to go someway to support the huge amount of time that goes into djing, and promoting a night.
Event starts on October 11th 2008, and should be a scaled down Mr Elephant Presents with a range of multi genre party rocking music.
Another promoter and dj who is doing some great stuff in the city, is Breakthru promotor, and Night Times editor Ric Woodall, who has continued to provide platforms for local artists with his events, and much needed nightlife publication, The Night Times. After a set at Custom Made in 2007, he has also been really vocally supportive of my djing, and has recently asked me to be a resident at his new night Times events (and dj his wedding reception!)
This has paved the way to collaborating on the next Mr Elephant event, which aims to shine a light on Birmingham promoters, something important to both of us, and intrinsically important to brummy legend and House Of God Promoter Nic Wells aka DJ X & PCM, who has been involved with, and actively promoted Birmingham’s underground scene for about 20 years now.
Initially i was going to do a manageable event with a host of other people, on the rainbow beach for the 5th (and proabably final of 2008) Mr Elephant, trying to feature as many promoters and their respective residents that we could feasibly fit in. Now however, with the addition of the launch of the Night Times event, and the 700 capacity rainbow warehouse, that 350 capacity event has now exploded to feature over 20 promoters and their residents, with 3 well programmed rooms featuring a variety of underground music.
We were all quite clear that we wanted to charge no more than a fiver, so the the thought of filling the 1200 people space was initally a little daunting, but if we can get the venue to support us, it could potentially be a big free all night celebration of Birmingham’s underground scene….And as its Mr Elephant Presents hosting the beach, you can expect the usual interactive and carnival esque additions, only this time x 10!
For more information thus far, check out www.mrelephant.com, and keep an eye out for next edition of the Night Times, and of course the flyers (which will have a mask on them!)
Here’s a list of pretty much all my gigs (that i can remember) to date taken from my cv
Sat 20th Sep 2008 – Mr Elephants Promoter Beach Party @ The Rainbow Beach
Sat 13th Sep 2008 – Project X Presents 4 @ B.u.s.c
Fri 15th Aug 2008 – Surfs Up Festival @ Newquay
Mon 28th Jul 2008 – Ric & Una’s Wedding @ Chi Bar
Sat 26th Jul 2008 – Custom Made @ Rainbow
Fri 18th Jul 2008 – Big Beats Festival @ Custard Factory
Sat 5th Jul 2008 – Scratch Club @ The Rainbow
Fri 27th Jun 2008 – Giles Peterson @ Hare and Hounds
Sat 21st Jun 2008 – Mr Elephant at The Longest Day Festival
Sat 24th May 2008 – Mr Elephant’s Family All Dayer @ The Prince
Thu 9th May 2008 – Newman College’s 40th anniversary party @ Botanical Gardens
Fri 25th Apr 2008 – Mr Elephant’s 1st birthday @ Hare and Hounds
Sat 23rd Feb 2008 – Subvert with The Heels @ Wagon & Horses
Fri 22nd Feb 2008 – Project X Presents – X Labs @ Concrete
Sat 22nd Dec 2007- Rockfall Xmas Special @ The Custard Factory
Sun 16th Dec 2007- Custom Made @ The Rainbow
Fri 7th Dec 2007- Funkatronic @ Rooty Frooty
Fri 30th Nov 2007 - Rich n Lyndall’s leaving party @ The Prince
Sat 3rd Nov 2007 - Project X Presents @ Gigbeth @ Rainbow Warehouse
Sat 13th Oct 2007- Rockfall (Mechanoise 10th Birthday) @ The Custard Factory
Sat 15th Sep 2007- Waveform Sustainable Festival
Fri 14th Sep 2007- Drop Beats Not Bombs @ The Re Opening of the Que Club
Sat 8th Sep 2007 – Boogie Dave’s 41st Birthday @ The Medicine Bar
Sat 1st Sep 2007 – Sam’s Wedding @ Edgbaston Palace Hotel
Sat 24th Aug 2007- Psychedelic Beach Ball Festival
Sat 19th Aug 2007- Custom Made with Dj Derek @ The Rainbow
Sat 28th Jul 2007- Rockfall vs City Breaks @ Custard Factory
Sat 07th Jul 2007- Anti-world Festival @ Secret Location, nr London
Sat 29th Jun 2007- Sex Education @ The Boiler Room
Thu 14th Jun 2007- Rumble In the Jungle @ Custard Factory
Tue 12th Jun 2007- Rockfall @ Vale Festival
Sat 2nd Jun 2007 – Mr Elephant 2 @ Epic Skate Park
Sun 27th May 2007- Rockfall vs Subvert F.O.E Fundraiser @ Epic Skate Park
Sun 27th May 2007- Secret Garden @ The Prince
Sat 26th May 2007 - Grassi Roots with Cut La Roc @ The Cross
Sun 20th May 2007- Custom Made with Mixmaster Morris @ The Rainbow
Sat 5th May 2007 - Drop Beats Not Bombs 7 @ The Custard Factory
Fri 4th May 2007- Peace Not War @ Drop Beats Not Bombs in The Hidden Factory
Fri 4th May 2007- Rockfall vs Sexual Allstars Dj Battle in the Pool @ Drop Beats Not Bombs
Sat 14th Apr 2007- Our Birthday Celebrations @ Peckers
Tue 10th Apr 2007- Vanfest @ Actress & Bishop
Sat 31th Mar 2007- Mr Elephant 1 @ Epic Skate Park Sat 24th Mar 2007- Jump, Shake Rattle & Roll @ Rooty Frooty
Sat 10th Mar 2007- Sexual All Stars vs Rockfall @ Epic Skate Park
Sat 27th Jan 2007 – Sexual Allstars vs Rockfall @ Epic Skate Park
Sat 13th Jan 2007 – The Freestylers @ Custard Factory
Sat 16th Dec 2006 - Rockfall Xmas Party @ Air
Sat 11th Nov 2006 - Drop Beats Not Bombs @ Air
Mon 25th Sep 2006 – Live on Influx Radio
Fri 8th Sep 2006 – Boogie Dave’s 40th @ Air
Sat 2nd Sep 2006 – Sshh @ Epic Skate Park
Sat 2nd Sep 2006 - Influx Sessions @ Atticus
Sun 27th Aug 2006 – Jon’s Tribute Party @ Private Club
Mon 21st Aug 2006 – Live on Influx Radio
Fri 11th Aug 2006 - Crash Launch Party @ Bash Bar,
Sat 5th Aug 2006 - Anne-Marie + Pyn’s Birthday @ New Inn
I finally had a meeting with leftfoot resident Sam Redmore yesterday to discuss and show how we do what we do, with the view to starting a dj partership.
It was nice to see a deeper level of geekery with the organisation of music, (and thankfully one that is imperative if you want to break barriers with it)
t was also interesting to see that although we have very different styles, and approaches, that there was a whole load of common ground, which should make this one very interesting collaboration.
Sam’s a resident at Leftfoot, and he is fast becoming known as one to watch, as he re-edits all of his tracks, so most of the stuff you hear is going to be original in some way. One of the main reasons for this is not to remix and put out a sam redmore style track, but so that he can smoothly mix music that isnt designed to be mixed, i’e live music.
The way he categorises his music utilises a well thought out system, 3 cd wallets, and a laptop with a spreadsheet on it! While this sounds strange it enables him to at a glance see what goes with what, what the bpm should be, what the key is, and where he can go with his mix.
The preedited stuff means that each mix has often been (prepared in a way) so he is free to work on the actual creative side of djing, as opposed to getting the beats to sync, or finding the perfect place to drop it. This makes a huge difference with the actual mix, and means that you can hear a wide range of music djed in the same way that you can hear dance or electronic music played.
Its similar in a lot of ways to djing withTraktor Scratch, which enables intelligent ways of storing and using your music, plus if you beatgrid all the tracks, determine the bpm (necessary if you want to beatmix live music due to its fluctuating time scales, or use the sync buttons) and the key, opens up all sorts of possibilities.
Sam it seems has built the Traktor system in a way which now seems old school?!?
Maybe its the beard though.
Its interesting…when i first moved to cdjs 8 years ago, i was moving from analogue to digital. Then when i incorporated Traktor Scratch into my setup this year, i’m now using cdjs and vinyl to control the digital music on my laptop. Sam is using a similar method but without the laptop, which seems in a lot of respects analogue now, (which it obviously isnt, but you get what i mean.)
Anyway…
The other thing we are going to be incorporating is 2 mixers. This resounds back almost 10 years ago to my first residency, (interestingly organised by 3 of our cities online gurus Stef Lewandowski, Antonio Gould, and Ed Russell!) whereby me and Yoda (not the cut n paste dj), would play a vs set on 4 decks and 3 mixers.
The technology, (and obviously my music and hairstyle!) have changed dramatically since those days, which now means that between us, we can busy on 6 decks, 3 efx units, 2 mixers, one microphone, and our combined music collection!Endless possibilities, and with our current plan, one which should see something quite special for one of two sets at our forthcoming Project x Presents event on September 13th 2008.
We’ve also just confirmed that we will have the mighty Subsource playing!
The show is always eclectic & put together with a lot of flow, so check the tracklistings to get the vibes of various shows. Your comments and feedback are always welcome so feel free to comment if you get chance to check the show.
Night Times Breaks Reviewer
I also review and play all sorts of music for my radio show so feel free to send anything
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