From our Mr Elephant Website about our recent Celebrate Birminghams Underground Event.
to all of you that came down on saturday!! It totally exceeded all of our expectations, and the response to the poodles, the music, the visuals and the performance has blown us all away, so first off a huge and very sincere Thank You, from all of us at Mr Elephant Presents and on behalf of Ric and Nik from the Night Times who have been two of the most hardworking and easy people we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
So for anyone that wasn’t there what happened?
Well we began at 5pm with Loafers on the decks, 2 huge video projections from Liam Blendstate, and with a host of local creatives hosting their own stalls, all expertly handled by our very own performance and arts co-ordinator Pyn Stockman of Dramask fame.
The stalls featured local alternative fashion designers Youth Decay, recycled tetra purses and charity shop clothes from Lentil aka Lyndall Fitzgerald, and of course our very own Poodle Making Parlor, expertly hosted by our very own Pyn, and a very talented and lovely animator called Kate (website coming soon)
A little later in the eve we were joined by the ever friendly Martha, who runs our favourite local shop on Poplar rd, and who bought a host of traditional Jamaican food. We at Mr Elephant like to feature different local businesses at each one, but i think Martha will have to be at the next one as it worked really well in that venue.
Jam Jah were up next in the beach hut, playing on one deck (until the replacement had arrived) with their residents Robin and Damo on the deck, and mc on the mic, and with effortless class played a blinding set as the sun delivering some of the best music this side of jamaica!
Bass 6 also started flexing his hosting mc muscles, and from start to finish proved himself as one of the greatest hosts you could ever hope to have at your event. Really vibing the crowd up and effortlessly switching from music styles to happenings in the event.
Next up was local legend Sam Redmore representing Leftfoot and his own ecletic night Freestyle. Switching it up from reggae to funk, to soul to house, he got the whole room a shaking with some amazing mixes!
By the time Matt Tilley from Bunka had taken over, the beach was nicely full and his minimal house took the levels up and got those asses shaking. Over in the warehouse things had started kicking off, with the Night Times awesome line up, but to be fair we can’t report on that as we were busy all night with the beach.
The poodle making parlour was in full swing, and the vibe was ecletic to say the least, with a really diverse crowd of people and an infectious festival type vibe. Obviously one of the aims was to introduce crowds to other events and it was so nice to see really happen.
All of the 10 drummers had by now arrived and a stack of djembes some of them hand made by a very talented man called Rich, (who you will soon be able to purchase your own from, through the forthcoming Elephant drums nonetheless), all ready for the customary Mr Elephant Midnight Masked Parade, this time with poodles and scratch club at the controls.
Before then however it was Funkatronic’s Dani C who absoultly rocked the crowd with some big breaks and beautiful basslines! One of the sets of the night, and an extremely talented and versatile dj.
By 11.30 the Mr Elephant performers had come out, featuring Pyn and Lucy who last week performed at Project x Presents, and this week teamed up with other Mr Elephant performance resident Adam Skerrit and after her first fantastic performance at our birthday bash, the inspiring Izzy/James, all appearing as the Tourists.
The normal chaos and interest ensued, and the crowd got right behind the interactive characters, not only helping them to find out where they were on their map, but also playing beach games and paddling in the pool!
Then the clock struck midnight and it Bass 6 (who’d been rocking it alongside the djs) stepped into his own, and announced the start of the midnight parade. The drummers congregated by the beatboxer and drummer, and laid down the beat while Automaton and Bass 6 rocked the glitchy hip hop sound you can find at their seminal scratch club events.
The sound of the live drummers by our local favourites along with the electronic sound of the decks all tied together with the elegance and energy of Bass 6, created an experience yet unmatched in the midnight parade. If you look back at the previous events you will see how the parade has evolved, involving more and more local people and elements. Each time the crowd has got right into it, but this one it was great to see the crowd joining in on the djembes themselves!
12.30 and it was time for the poodle promenade, with the call the the creators to step up, and parade their pooch. There were some great entries and through a process of audience voting/shouting, the rosettes were awarded with the top winner also winning some customary Mr Elephant booze!
The venue was now packed out with smiley happy people from all walks of life, and the vibe was getting postively commented as we walked the venue. Blendstate’s visuals not only further created the festival environment, but were generating more comments from the audience, and even got him a rock gig residency from one of the party goers!
The man puts so much work into his craft, and we are very lucky to have him as one of residents, and we have big plans for the future so keep an eye on his work via his site – www.blendstate.com
Next up on the decks was Custom Made maestro Mark Smallman, an extremely talented promoter and dj. Despite more technical problems from the venue equipment, he effortlessly built up the vibe reaching a crescendo which had the whole crowd rocking.
Bass 6 was still on the mic rocking the crowd, and the dj passed over to Russ Caine, who was reppin Drop Beats and Dj Joust, and someone we’ve been wanting to get down to mr e;ephant since seeing him play back to back with our resident Marc Reck at the Anti World festival.
Russ was also one of the co-promoters of Marc and Boogies breaks night Rockfall so it was great to see Boogie join Russ behind the decks, and Mr Elephant favourite Vj Chromatouch jumping on the visuals, and destroying the dancefloor with a huge b2b set.
By now Bass 6 had had to retire due to almost losing his voice, but the packed beach crowd and amazing atmosphere remained. On the decks it was down to our resident and music curator Marc Reck, to finish off what had been one of the most amazing events we’ve ever had the pleasure to be involved with.
Effortlessly switching from techno, to all manner of phat breakbeat, and then taking us into a proper mashup of old and new drum and bass, the energy and dancefloor went off in proper party style, finishing with the perfect end of night track (Harry Belafonte’s classic Banana Boat Song)!
All in all we feel that we really did celebrate Birminghams Underground, and not only that, but celebrated ourselves in that true Mr Elephant carnival style party. The Night Times will be taking the idea into a regular thing, and we are working on the next big Mr Elephant for 2009.
You can catch a new little elephant night at the Bulls Head in Moseley from October 11th 2008 (with the next on December 12th 2008 for your diaries), featuring some of our Mr Elephant friends, and the diverse party rocking style you’ve come to know, and alongside the local family events, we will also be launching some more local creative opportunities, working with our network and local people over the next few months, so as always feel free to get in touch at mrelephantpresents@gmail.com.
If you’d like to keep updated, please join the mailing list, or subscribe to the rss if you are familiar with that, and check back for the radio shows, reports and the forthcoming Share to Create.
Oh and there are loads more pics and videos from the night, which we’ll be posting very soon.
If you were at the event we would REALLY appreciate any feedback or comments you have in the comments section of this post, and we wish you a beauiful autumn season.
One love
Mr Elephant
