Hello all, we’ve been having a very busy time, here at the Edge, planning a whole host of stuff that is coming up in the near future, so while it’s seemed a little quiet, perhaps, we’ve been beavering away in the background.  So, announcement time:

First up, we’re starting a partnership up with Sustained Theatre , beginning with their ‘Artist Salon event next Thursday 25th August from 7pm

Sustained Theatre are all about developing the skills of young people and providing opportunities for them to develop their work, around theatre and performance, and diversifying the workforce for the arts.  As this is all stuff that’s close to our hearts, we’ve teamed up with them and will be announcing some exciting news very soon – watch this space.  In the meantime, the first of their ‘artist salons’ will provide a space for young performers to showcase their work in front of a supportive audience and to make new connections, all in the conducive surroundings of the Edge.  Hope to see some of you there.

Second up – Sonic Asylum is coming!  On Friday 2nd of September we’ll be hosting the usual packed night of fun, frolics and musical healing.  Featuring: James Kelly ft Ola Szmidt – Abie’s Musical Tonic - Dj set from PurePhase and a return visit from the Very Reverend Deacon Martin , finishing off his highly enertertaining ‘economics lecture, from March’s edition of Sonic Asylum.  Sonic sanctuary to heal your troubled souls, there’ll be the usual extra special sonic healing fun, surprises and cake!  Featured flyer artist this time is James Dawson;

Lastly for now, and of course not leastly, from the 16th-18th September, Espirito Brum is coming to Digbeth and the Edge! There’ll be a whole host of performances, events and happenings over the festival period and we are very pleased to be helping to make this first UK edition of the festival the success it deserves to be.  Props to Tessa Burwood and Soesen Edan for having the cojones to put this whole festival together against the odds – Friction salute you!  We hope you’ll make it to some of the events, either here at the Edge, or at one of the other events at PST, the Spotted Dog, or one of the other festival venues.  We’ll be putting more info here as the final programme is confirmed, but in the meantime go over to the Espirito Brum website, for a lineup of acts, venue information and more!

 The guys have also put up a little ‘teaser’ trailer here:

And, as for the title of this post?  Well, the great stuff we’ve got going on here is all value, one way or another.  But the title was our one-word summation of the ‘troubles’ we’ve been seeing on our streets over the last couple of weeks, it’s all, fundamentally about values. Everybody’s values, not just the kids who kicked off, the politicians, the police, you, me – we need to have a good, long look at ourselves and make a decision.  Is this the world we want to live in?  If not, then is it not our responsibility to make it so?  Maybe this is the unspecified thing that Nike urge us, and young people, to ‘just do’?  Let’s give it a go…

We’ve decided to extend Echoes From The Edge until Sunday 7th June.  The last few places are filling up and we wanted to give those of you who haven’t been able to visit the chance to see this remarkable show. After that it’ll be gone forever, so get booking now.  Shows run Thursdays to Sundays with morning, afternoon and evening options available, and additional shows available for groups on other days in the week.  It’s always worth giving us a call to check if you can tag along with a special tour. The Saturday dinners have been incredible amounts of fun as always, great food and great conversations, all in the middle of a unique environment. Don’t miss it.

Detail from Echoes From The Edge photo: Chris Keenan

The 'fixings' cart

So we are only a couple of days away from the opening of the show and as you can imagine we are a little busy at the Edge.  The show is going to be amazing, I get spinal shiver syndrome whenever I am listening to the interviews in the installations, so can only imagine what it will be like when it is finished.  we are now fully booked for the first week, so no places available until Mayday, and it’s filling up fast. So just because it’s on for six weeks, don’t leave it too late and miss it, you’ll kick yourself! And remember if you book for a Saturday evening your entrance fee is a home-cooked dish to add to the community meal – well worth the effort as you get to sample everybody else’s.

Shannon left us last week to return home to Boston, she’s gutted that, due to her busy schedule, she won’t be here to see the finished product.  We’re going to attempt a Skype walkthrough of the exhibition, and meantime we held a dinner in the exhibition before she left, starring my legendary gumbo – see the picture below.

So last week was the wonderful Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, congratulations to Ian and the team who did an incredible job.  There was a real buzz around our beloved Digbeth and, what with St Paddy’s day as well, a weekend to remember was had by all.  The two events at the Edge were wonderful.  First up, on Saturday was ‘Outersight’. the psychedelic psynema night, which showed the usual great mix of shorts with some great musical backing, with the central feature film being a film by William Castle using amazing ‘Illusion-o’. So you were given a set of glasses with blue or red lenses and if you wanted to see the ghosts haunting the hapless all-american family in the film you used the red filter, if you ‘didn’t believe in ghosts’ you use the blue filter.  A great interactive film experience all round, tons of fun, I especially liked the ghost lion and lion-tamer, and developed RSI by trying to watch the film with red, blue and no filter simultaneously.

On Sunday Friction had our Flatpack Picnic, which became a celebration of the pubs, past and present around Digbeth.  The Edge had loads of bar accoutrements in, a cafe serving pub food, darts, bingo, skittles and of course beverages for the punters.  There was table service from the ‘Two Dorises’ (Sandra Hall and Mitra Memarzia in performance mode, slightly evil waitresses you would tip to leave you alone) and every variation on the cheese cob you could imagine from the frustrated tea shop owners of Twinkle Jones – I particularly enjoyed Mark Storor stopping the quiz to announce that there were still ‘corned beef specials’ available and almost forcing Battenburg cake on unwilling customers.

staff photo

Ben Waddington gave the required gravitas to a great quiz with lots of nice ambiguous questions, mostly about pubs, but also looking at other Digbeth-centric topics.  What does B My Chip mean?  Harry Palmer and Dr David Ethics got the improvised bingo randomizer out looking even more Heath Robinson than ever and Jackie Roxborough led the assembled throng in a couple of Brummie folksongs – complete with ‘bouncing ball’ lyrics, courtesy of Si Walker.  A proper afternoon of fun and a fitting start to Echoes From the Edge. We are launching phase one of the project next month so look here for more information and to book a place on one of the tours.

bingo

It’s time for the wonderful Flatpack Festival again and this year the Edge is hosting two events.  On Saturday 14th March it’s ‘Outersight’, the psychedelic psynema night, this time with incredible ‘Illusion-o’ and on Sunday Friction are hosting a picnic with film screenings, a unique pub quiz and bingo , all in their usual eccentric style and with tea served by Twinkle Jones, see here for more info.

Due to the ‘severe snow events’ (or a little bit of snow as us older folks call it), we’ve decided to extend the Ilandlife exhibition until next Friday the 13th of Feb. The feedback has been great so we want as many people as possible to see the work (and our beautiful boat) while they can.  So pop along to the Edge next week, between 1 and 6pm and see some ‘Iland Lives’ in action.  See you there.

Well – it is based around a boat, isn’t it? The exhibition opens on Saturday 31st at 6.30pm with a special performance by young people, telling their elder’s ‘iland life’ stories, all based around the interactive boat-installation created by Pete Hadfield and Lee Griffiths.  Remember if you can’t make the launch on Saturday, the installation is open from 1pm until 6pm Monday to Saturday, with a ‘landing party’ on the 7th and another chance to see the young people’s performance.

Sneak preview below:

Hello Everyone, things have been a bit quiet for the last few weeks as we’ve been over in Western Australia for a while.  We had a wonderful time, meeting a whole range of artists in Perth and delivering talks at Symbiotica at the University of Western Australia and at Mandurah, South of Perth.  We’re definitely returning and have many Tipodean and Antipodean adverntures planned – watch this space, meanwhile, here’s a photo of us and our new Australian buddies at the Symbiotica event.

Iland Life

Our Iland Life Exhibition opens on Saturday 31st January at 6.30pm at the Edge

There wll be performance by young people and the grand unveiling of the installation created for the event, based around on old fishing boat, salvaged from the far north of Scotland.  If you can’t make it to the ‘launch’, there will be a ‘landing’ event on Saturday the 7th at 6.30pm.

Check out the Iland Life website for more information