Brummie band of the moment The Destroyers are to launch their UK and Ireland tour with a Summer Gypsy Ball in the new Digbeth music venue The Crossing at South Birmingham College on Milk Street. The gig this Fri 4th June will also feature a performance from East London’s Urban Vodoo Machine, live visuals from Syzygy and DJ sets from the Jibbering collective and Marc Reck.
Tickets are £10 in advance from The Ticket Sellers or £12 on the door (though I suspect this may sell out beforehand). If you can’t make what promises to be a seriously cracking gig, the action will be live streamed via The Destroyers website. As I’m on me holiday, I’m going to be well lazy and copy and paste rest of the press release below. The Irish Post have also done a feature on the gig.
The Destroyers by Pete Ashton
The Destroyers’ Summer Gypsy Ball coincides with the beginning of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month in the UK and will pay homage to a nomadic culture rich in both tradition and musical exploration. With careering Klezmer rhythms, Mariachi brass, Balkan strings, traditional Irish melodies, uptempo ska, gypsy jazz and punk-polka amongst other ingredients, The Destroyers have embraced this genre defying approach, and in doing so reflect the cultural and musical make-up of their home city as well as a love of gathering and interpreting new and established influences.
On debut album Out of Babel, the song Torregaveta paid tribute to two young Roma sisters, while the lyrics “Intorno al mondo la musica attraversa la frontiera (around the world music crosses the frontier)” sung in Italian by band member Leo Altarelli in Questa Canzone has become an unofficial mission statement for the group.
“Gypsy music has been a source of immense inspiration for us – the word gypsy itself conjures up many things. Firelight and painted caravans. Swirling skirts and stamping feet. Hand clapping and stirring guitars. A people for whom music is life-blood. I don’t have to be a fortune-teller to predict that The Destroyers’ Gypsy Ball with the Urban Voodoo Machine is going to be one whirling spectacle of a gig. Only the dead won’t dance!” Paul Murphy, The Destroyers
Urban Voodoo Machine, described by the Washington Post as “Nick Cave in a dark mood fronting a drunken Dexy’s Midnight Runners” supported veteran Irish folk-punk band The Pogues on their recent US tour, have recorded a cover of AC/DC’s Hells Bells to Classic Rock magazine’s Back in Black 30th anniversary tribute album and host the regular Gypsy Hotel night at Barden’s Boudoir in London.
Between them, Jibbering DJs and Marc Reck are responsible for programming and promoting some of Birmingham’s most eclectic and groundbreaking events, including the sell-out Mr Elephant nights at hip venues The Rainbow and Hare & Hounds and have brought internationally renowned artists such as Keith Murray, Horace Andy [Massive Attack] and The Black Seeds to the city.
2009 saw The Destroyers release debut album Out of Babel and embark on a 24 date tour, which took in single launch parties in London and Birmingham, five shows at Glastonbury in four days, an impromptu set at a tiny Norfolk village fete as well as triumphant shows at Trowbridge and Shambala Festivals.
Out of Babel was produced by influential recording engineer Gavin Monaghan [The Editors, Scott Matthews, The Twang] and Louis Robinson, a founding member of The Destroyers, at the Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton. Following its release the album garnered critical acclaim, including a four star review from world music bible Songlines.
Last night Boxxed opened the doors to its new home of The Wild Building on Floodgate Street, which has formerly hosted the Flatpack Festival and Jibbering Art, amongst others. I’ll let Boxxed’s About page do the introductions:
boxxed has been created to provide a unique and meaningful programme of arts exhibitions and music events, alongside providing services, space and support to local artists, musicians, creatively minded individuals and collectives.
Alongside that core ideal, the directors of boxxed have partnered with local educational institutions to provide equipment, services, workshops and space to teach their arts & media orientated courses. [The main local educational institution Boxxed are currently partnered with is Birmingham City University.]
Boxxed kicked things off with an art exhibition, courtesy of local lad Chu & Tiger Beer, who are celebrating the New Year of The Tiger with 5 exhibitions across the UK. Chu’s creation is a big box in the middle of the warehouse space, the inside walls painted with red-and-blue outline images best viewed through 3D specs.
Using his own bare hands he’s put together a huge wooden 3D cube inside our warehouse, and after putting on the magic specs, intrepid art goers…will get to see the end result of Chu’s stunning work. He’s composing a piece of art that’s not only in ’special glasses’ 3d, but in physical 3d, melting the edges of his giant wooden box. Genius? We think so.
I’m not sure how long the exhibition is on display for, or what’s in store for Boxxed, so watch their space and call in if you can.
Again, Jibbering used the space brilliantly. You can visit just to admire the great array of art on display, which ranges from the sweet to the scary.
Or you can pick up some pieces to jazz up your home. There’s a sale room of work under £75 for those of you on a budget. As with the Mayday Art Crawl, we had the phenonemmon of the invading bikes riden by incomers to Digbeth.
This is Jibbering’s third art exhibition at the Wild Building on Floodgate Street. As with previous exhibitions the art has escaped the venue and spilled out onto the street.
Line Steppers, following on from Gallery 37 and 7 Inch Cinema’s residencies here, is helping to establish the Wild Building as a versatile local arts venue. So it’s such a pity that landlords The Custard Factory find themselves unable to support it, and build upon their invaluable contribution to Digbeth as a cultural quarter, by letting one of the many interested creative parties take over the lease. Rumour has it they have instead opted to rent it to a car valeting company. This interesting space will be a sad loss to the local creative community.
Video from Birmingham | SCHUDIO – online Chu – Grafitti artist Chu is filmed decorating Adderley Street and preparing for his Jibbering Art exhibition, Fifty One Degrees at The Wild Building, Floodgate Street.
Jibbering Records in Moseley to close – But Moseley’s loss is Digbeth’s gain because ‘we are all set to move into a new multi-use venue/arts centre in Digbeth, The Wild Building.’ More ‘details and rumours’ will be available soon.
Eastside City Farm – Another great idea for guerilla gardening, this time from Andrew Hemmings. Turn all the building sites abandoned due to the credit crunch into gardens, allotments and mini-farms. Bloody brilliant idea, count me IN!
Blog Action Day social media surgery at BVSC tomorrow – Nick Booth serves a reminder by taking stock of who’s coming and what’s on offer for voluntary and community groups coming in need of advice. Social media surgery is tomorrow (Wednesday, October 15th 2008) at BVSC 5.30pm to 7.30 pm. ‘Come when you can for some free, friendly, one to one support.’
Plus+: Call for volunteers – Plus is looking enthusiastic, hardworking and motivated volunteers, with a passionate interest in graphic design and the creative industries in general, or arts festivals in particular or those who just want to share time and energy for the event. Plus 2008 is going to be held in Digbeth at Fazeley Studios from the 5 – 8 of November.
On Thursday evening I went to Jibbering’s Shambala Art Exhibition at the Wild Building on Floodgate Street. It was a great ligging opportunity with widely-advertised FREE BEER, although you’d have to have been a heartless soul not to donate something when all profits were going to the Banunule School for Orphans, Kampala, Uganda & Malawi Education Project, Malawi.
I felt a lot more relaxed than I normally do at these art launch events, probably because it didn’t feel as self-consciously uptight as most. There were crowds of people chilling out in the back yard and the only hint of officiousness was the pretty girls with clipboards taking bids for the art pieces.
But I must admit to getting a lot more excited by the YrWall in a side room than I did about the artwork. It’s like a giant telly screen you use a spray can topped with an infa-red light to graffitti over, or in the designer Tommo Hogan’s own words:
‘YrWall is a new and exciting interactive drawing tool where users create images on a large wall using a modified spray paint can. The can contains no paint, only a button and an infrared light which is tracked using a computer and a camera. A digital palette is provided on the left side of the wall which enables the user to work with digital paint, images and animated clips.’
It’s loads of fun and according to my new friend graffiti artist Newso, pretty close to the real thing. It’s been doing the festival rounds this year and has been really successful. I can see why, when users can email themselves their creations to come home to festival souvenirs in their inbox, which they can forward at will. ‘This email will have a link to the YrWall website, from which t-shirts featuring their design, with the option to include your festival logo, can be ordered.’ This guy’s a genius.
The Shambala Exhibition remains on display in the Wild Building until this Friday 17th October, open 10.30am-6.30pm.
Well, I simply had to stop and talk to this man once I saw his T-shirt (vintage shop purchase, apparently). And I’m very glad I did – turns out he’s one of the artists in Jibbering’s Shambala Art Exhibition that’s launching in the Wild Building, 104 Floodgate St tomorrow evening. A cunningly disguised Newso is standing next to his artwork, which isn’t in the gallery but on the outside wall opposite. He plans to decorate a lot more walls and public spaces in Digbeth, with their owners’ permission, naturally. Catch the rest of his and other artists’ work from 7pm tomorrow.
Custard Factory – Lost in S.P.A.C.E. – That’s lost in the ‘Society for the Promotion of Artistic and Creative Enterprise’. The first exhibition will be held in the Custard Factory Gallery and runs from Thursday 23rd until Thursday 30th of October and features work from painters, furniture makers, jewellery designers and milliners amongst others. Entry is free, so becoming the next Saatchi and Saatchi art collector needn’t cost the earth.
Make Thursday 9th October an essential date for your diary! – Jibbering is proud to invite you all to the Birmingham leg of The Shambala Art Exhibition Launch, at the incredible Wild Building, 104-108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, from 7pm til Midnight. The exhibition features the work of 30 heavyweight, cutting edge, internationally acclaimed artists.
Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty – Birmingham does it with a Social Media Surgery for Birmingham community and voluntary groups 5.30-9.00pm on Wednesday 15th October at BVSC, 138 Digbeth B5 6DR. If you’re social media savvy and have the time to spare, get in touch with Nick Booth.
Emilie Autumn at Barfly on 3rd October – bit of a shaky Youtube camera video, but I missed the performance and this makes me think she’s kooky-bonkers-crazy in a kind of good way.
Digbeth/Deritend Conservation Area – ‘Birmingham City Council has prepared a draft Conservation Area Appraisal and draft Supplementary Planning Policies for Digbeth, Deritend and Bordesley High Streets (Digbeth/Deritend) Conservation Area. Public consultation on the document will run for a period of six weeks from Monday 6th October to Friday 14th November 2008. Your comments are welcomed.’
