Statement regarding incident on Saturday 12 June « Custard Factory – An official statement from the Custard Factory about the shooting on Saturday night:
We are deeply shocked by the tragic incident on Saturday night when four people were shot at an “urban music” event in Digbeth. We are hoping against hope that the gun shot injuries inflicted are not life threatening. Thankfully present indications are that they are not.
We are concerned by suggestions that the Custard Factory was somehow associated with this event. We were not. The “urban music” event did not take place in the Custard Factory – it took place in a converted factory next door.
The “urban music” event not hosted organised or managed in any way by the Custard Factory. It was organised and managed entirely by a company called Factory Events Ltd. The Custard Factory has no connection with the ownership or management of Factory Events Ltd.
Pending the result of the police investigation which is now under way it is difficult for us to throw any more light on this tragic incident.
Although the mistaken connection is unfortunate, it’s easy to see how it’s happened. Factory Events clubnights are often seen as ‘a night out at the Custard Factory’ and I was under the impression that the Custard Factory owned the Space2 building. For a long time now people haven’t seen the two as separate things in their minds, but I’m guessing from now on the difference might be marked out a bit more clearly.
Was the event at Space2?
It’s difficult to read the statement and get facts out of it — it doesn’t say that it wasn’t in Space2, nor does it say that Space2 isn’t owned by the same people as the CF — just that they don’t consider it to be a part of it?
Ownership of that area is a bit complex but to try and simplify it, Bennie Gray’s companies own The Custard Factory and a shedload of buildings down Heath Mill Lane and Floodgate Street. Space2 is one of those buildings. It’s part of the “Custard Factory Quarter” but then so is Fazeley Studios, the Wild Buildings on Floodgate, Eastside Projects and countless others.
Space2 is a warehouse that is leased to Factory Events in the same way AIR or Maverick or Eastside Projects lease their buildings from Bennie. If there was a shooting at AIR you wouldn’t say it happened at Custard Factory even though they’re owned by the same people.
For a long time Factory Events have traded off the Custard Factory brand (which has no real ownership of afaik) to the detriment (imho) of the wider Custard Factory’s image. My reading of this statement is CF-proper has finally woken up to this and are putting some distance between the two businesses.
There’s also a bit of background to all this in the comment to Michael’s post last year:
http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/09/22/small-but-significant-changes-that-the-custard-factory-should-make/
Cheers Pete, much clearer in my head now!
It does beg the question though, did Bodies (run by Factory Events and Big Cat in Space2) not take place at the Custard Factory then?
@pete – something the Custard Factory seemed to be more than happy to be associated with….
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