Some food-related news from the Custard Factory. First up, the delicious Yumm Deli will be upgrading to the bigger and better Yumm Cafe this Monday 26th June. It’s just opposite the old Yumm Deli unit so pop by to see Catherine and the girls in their lovely new home.
The second bit of news is from Matthew’s Restaurant, who have a new Head Chef Paul Proffitt:
Paul joined us four weeks ago from Mint in Little Aston. He was part of the team that have recently received their 2 rosettes at the first attempt. Paul trained locally at the College of Food (University College Birmingham) and was top of his class. He has worked Stages under Glynn Purnell and was on his waiting list (that was until we took him onboard). Paul is young, but very driven and is focused on producing dishes of the highest quality. We have received excellent feedback from our customers concerning the new menu. We have also made a number of physical changes to the restaurant, which we hope you will like.
Check out Paul’s new A la Carte menu or, if you haven’t time to make a sit-down meal out of it, check out Matthew’s current breakfast and lunch deals.
The ‘Headz’ exhibition of ‘The Photographic Art of Pete Williams‘ opens this Friday at the Sauce Gallery in the Custard Factory, and things kick off with a launch event this Friday 16th July 1pm-8pm – with live music from the jazz-tastic Digby Fairweather.
The exhibition remains in the Sauce Gallery until 4th September.
As well as the usual fantastic programme of arts and crafts workshops there’s a couple of highlights in store at Creative Open Workshops in the Custard Factory. The first is this month’s Handmade Market on 17th July, featuring goods from local artists and designer-makers.
The Trade Secrets Talk will cover topics such as how to start, run & grow an independent creative business; how to successfully sell online; PR, marketing and social media; wholesale and trade shows; and how to deal with the tough stuff like competitors and copycats.
The jewellery workshop will reveal all our unique production methods & materials including how we made our personalised jewellery, enamel & gold charms, glittery broken hearts, printed acrylic pendants, fuzzy wooden animals & mixed media Midnight Forest designs. I’ll also detail the importance of sampling, working with manufacturers, where to source and practical tips on how to get the best results. The techniques involved can also be applied to many other products inc. accessories, clothing, homewares, greetings cards and stationery….
The jam packed 3 hour event will fill your head with oodles of inspiration and a wealth of knowledge enabling you to transform your ideas and designs into awesome products to make, promote and sell.
I’ve been contacted by Phil Hurst, who is directing Even Greedy Bankers Deserve Freedom, a bonkers-crazy play about one credit crunch casualty that’s previewing at the Custard Factory Theatre on 30th July before going onto the Camden Fringe Festival:
Even Greedy Bankers Deserve Freedom asks a questions many of us have wondered about for years – what was going through those banker’s minds?…
Harvey Brian Oliver Simons is a man who has been persecuted since the credit crunch started. His ridiculous bonuses and exuberant wages soon made him top of the list for recriminations. Scared for his own life, he feigns insanity and takes cover in a mental institution. It is only when he meets his roommate – a disturbed man who believes a rock band is following him around – and his doctor – who has not only guessed Harvey’s motives but is determined to oust him as a fraud – that he realises that staying insane will be more difficult than he thought.
All narrated musically by the Dead Crabs (Harvey’s roommate’s band – who are live on stage throughout) the script takes on greedy bankers, corrupt politicians, sneaky journalists, drugged musicians and lazy doctors, before finishing with a spectacular musical finale!
On Saturday I paid a visit to the Custard Factory to check out the MOM exhibition in the Sauce Gallery, which is well worth a look if you get the chance. I also hoped to pick up some vintage treats in Urban Village‘s new store in the Zellig building, which laid on quite a large-scale Modfest for its opening that day.
Gibb Street was packed with incredibly sharp dressers, who could barely move for mopheads.
Shoppers even got to enjoy some lovely live music in the sunshine.
A good time was had by all, especially Urban Village’s Frankie Johns.
Frankie (left) and friend
The MOM exhibition is on display until Thurs 8th July. Urban Village is selling funktastic retro gear in its new Zellig building store 11am-6pm Weds-Fri and 11am-5pm on Saturdays.
That sculpture of falling people in the Custard Factory’s new building Zellig is pretty impressive, so here’s a little about it.
It’s called The Deluge, is by the artist Toin Adams (who also created the Custard Factory’s Digbeth Dragon and The Green Man amongst other things) and there is a poem to accompany the piece:
The Deluge
There is a malaise that strikes deep.
It is felt in the heart of Babylon.
The blessed have forgotten their names
Whilst following the hunger to fill the void.
The immediate lost, eclipsed by ambitions which delude
with promises that can never be fulfilled.
A maelstrom of distraction
that stands proxy for reality,
never quite masking that nagging feeling
that something is not quite right.
And still we dream and still we fall and
still we behave like gods…while Rome burns.
It was a very busy and bright afternoon, with lots of pretty things for sale and interesting things to look at when the money ran out, such as the rather good Emerging photography exhibition in the gallery.
And that’s what this post would have talked about – the Custard Factory pulling in lots of people to enjoy the sunshine and while a few hours mooching around the arts, crafts and clothes stalls and exhibition spaces. The nice things I purchased and spotted whilst I was there. But then, at the Urban Music Gathering in Space2 later that night, this goes and happens:
As has been well documented in the local and national news, four partygoers were shot in a fracas at the clubnight. And that’s possibly what will sum up the Custard Factory in many people’s minds for a while, which I find thoroughly depressing because I know how extremely far removed that is from the warm and welcoming vibe of the place. The most sensible reaction I’ve read about the incident so far has come from a person called Kiesnor on the DJhistory.com forum:
The Custard Factory is in Digbeth, an area I love and which is hosting some great nights, from Irish boozers to air/code nightclub, The Sanctuary (formerly the Institute), Rainbow pub and warehouse, Custard Factory and adjoining warehouses, The Irish Centre, Wagon and horses and other underground venues… but I think at one time it did have the worst rates for violence, low population and high number of drinking venues possibly to blame.
Anyway, I really hope this is not a sign of the bad old times returning, I have been feeling a bit uncomfortable walking around the city at night lately and I think there seems a bit of tension, it really is the last thing these venues need as well because the Rainbow has had problems with hosting live music a great deal, nimbys are moving in and the Conservative council seem very unenthusiastic about ground roots music in the city with the last major open air music concert cancelled after poor policing.
Last Wednesday saw the launch of the Bass Festival with the opening of Punch Records’ exhibition Fight The Power, of global protest and propaganda art.
Simon, Sandra and Raycho fighting the power. And each other.
Fight The Power got Simon Walker, Sandra Hall (Friction Arts) and Bulgarian Artist Raycho Stanev in an outspoken mood, which worked well for the following night’s critical debate at The Edge based around the issues stemming from Raycho’s installation The Great Excursion.
Paradox, Raycho, Sandra and Lee at the Critical Debate
I was a little late in joining it, but the critical debate was a lively and much-needed discussion which explored issues around ethnic, cultutal and class identity and how these can affect our own personal identities. Paradox really hit the nail on the head when she quoted Bruce Lee: “I’m a citizen of this planet.”
Birmingham’s City of Culture bid also entered the discussion, with people musing on how it can be truly multicultural rather than what Paul Murphy calls, “The 3 S’s: steel bands, saris and samosas.”
It was an incredibly special evening (which Friction Arts have written a more in-depth post about), which makes it all the more sickening that it ended with The Edge getting broken into after everyone had gone home. As Lee has wisely said, ‘Peace and love to the burglar, hope the karmic burden was worth it!’
Raycho Stanev and his beautiful technical assistant Annie have returned to Bulgaria, but his installation The Great Excursion, about his childhood memories of the expulsion of over 360,000 Bulgarian Turks from his country in 1989 under the socialist regime, is staying at The Edge, Cheapside until 19th June. Raycho’s very personal and touching work is well worth a visit to learn about a particularly sinister yet little-known episode in Bulgarian history that will make you reflect upon attitudes towards race, ethnicity and cultural differences in the UK today.
Created in Birmingham have posted flyers for two impending exhibitions – the first is Exhibit This at The Bond on Fazeley Street, 7th-8th June at 6pm-8.30pm, a showcase from final year Media and Communication students at Birmingham City University.
The second is for a photography exhibition ‘Emerging’ at the Custard Factory between 1-8 June, 10am-7pm.
