In the 1950′s, Jamaicans brought the sound of the Island direct to British dance floors. Under the influence of Mento, Ska and Reggae, UK producers, DJs and muscians changed the sound of British music forever. Jungle, Dubstep, Garage, Grime and Hip-Hop are all rooted in Reggae. The Channel One Soundsystem spread pure and undiluted Roots across the globe for over 30 years. Top Cat, a key player in the early days of Jungle, started his career on the Coxsone Soundsystem as a toaster.

The Heatwave Crew embody what this tour is about - a UK Bashment Soundsystem dropping Jungle, Grime, Roots, Hip-Hop and Dancehall in their tear-out sets.
The toasting / MC tradition is represented by RoxXxan, Lady Leshur, and Rtkal -the movers and shakers of the mic scene today and tomorrow.

If you want more, headlining the six tour dates will be Mala, Coki, The Bug and FlowDan. Having dominated the scene with gritty and intense productions, they will need no introduction.

Jamacia Party is bringing all these scene stalwarts together for a six date tour of the UK.

Dates

3 February – World HQ, Newcastle (Deviate)

4 February – Stylus, Leeds (Vagabondz)

6 February – The Ritz, Manchester (Hit and Run)

10 February – Stealth, Nottingham (Basslaced)

17 February – Life, Brighton

24 February – Cable, London (Vagabondz/ Subdub)

Deadline is Oct 31st 2011

Punch is proud to present to you the event shorts from  BASS 2011, including  The Launch featuring Ghostpoet and Sherrazi, Fashion Forward and Hip Hip Revolution brought to you by Tigerbam. We have also included the photos from our amazing Illustrate-Create project

Enjoy!

Fashion Forward was devised and produced by CHERELLE BETHUNE

Friday 14 October 2011 (9pm – 1am)

106 High St, Kings Heath, Birmingham,

Tickets £10 each or £20 for 3 at TICKETSELLERS

Punch, leftfoot and Mostly Jazz presents Felabration

Fela Kuti’s Birthday tribute concert is the annual event to celebrate the originator of Afrobeat. Led by Fela’s Egypt 80 keyboardist and musical director of award winning musical “FELA”, Dele Sosimi who moved to London in 1995 from Nigeria, stands out as one of the most active musicians currently on the Afrobeat scene worldwide. His dedication to Afrobeat has contributed to the development of many musical influences and interests in multi-cultural London. Covering a collection of Fela’s greatest works and tracks from Dele’s critically acclaimed albums “Identity” and “Turbulent Times”.

http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/

For more info contact Paul Fordham on 0121 224 7444

Jamaica Live was an Open Weekend event to celebrate one year to the go to the London 2012 Games and Birmingham’s selection as host for the Jamaican Olympic team, including the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt. The event took place in Victoria Square in Birmingham on Saturday July 23^rd 2011.

The event was a day-long party which celebrated  Jamaican culture, food and arts.

Jamaica Live! Activites Included:

• Our main star of the day was Reggae Reggae sauce icon Levi Roots who performed and did a live jerk chicken cooking demonstration on the main stage.
• performances included Steel Pulse tribute Pulse Beat, The Reaggae Philomonic Orchestra, gospel singer Monique and included a surprise performance from the legendary Dawn Penn!

• Family-friendly comedy from TV’s Annette Fagon, Toju and Tony Hendricks, as well as spoken word artists in our story tent.
• Drumming workshops; Jamaican style. Visitors joined in with our collective drumming groups.
• Freshly-cooked Islands-style food available from local Caribbean chefs and vendors on site.

Jamaica LIVE – Numbers

32,000 people attended Jamaica Live over 8 hours

3,000 people in the square at any moment

Over 20 Black businesses were present

30 separate in-depth media reports from BBC West Midlands, ITV and

3 day feature on Midlands Today

Jamaica Live! was a fun, jam-packed day that brought all the different local communities together. It kicked off the countdown to the 2012 Olympics in style!

In conversation with Pauline Black

Friday 10th June, 8pm

The Edge, Friction Arts, Cheapside, Birmingham

£3

Pauline Black was a key figure as lead singer with Two- Tone outfit The Selecter who revolutionised music
through the Two Tone movement 30 years ago. Over the years she has been variously jazz singer, part of the acclaimed Soul Britannica and actor. As a woman of dual heritage she has endured the twin evils of racism and sexism as she navigated her career through some of the most turbulent times, making her a highly influential
figure in UK Black music. 2011 sees a punishing schedule for Pauline with both a new solo album as well
as a new book ‘Black by Design’. BASS Festival marks this vital figure for women in music by a special event in
the intimate surroundings of The Edge, where she will talk about her career, new book and play tracks from
her new album – and hopefully a few old classics to boot. To mark this busy year she will be in presenting a
special pre-release event featuring words and music from both her new book and album, in the intimacy of
The Edge in the heart of East side as well as pursuing a career as an actor and more recently as part of the Soul Britannica show at London’s Barbican.
In partnership with Ian Sargeant / Friction Arts
www.frictionarts.com

£3 on the door

Director / Filmmaker: Faisal Hussain (Faisfx Productions/Punch Records)

Original Concept & Narrator: Mad Flow (Big Dada/Punch Records)

Producer: Ammo Talwar (Punch Records)

Your port of call to apply would be a not for profit organisation like Punch. We would be delighted to support producers/composers of Black music.

Deadline for Punch proposals: Monday 20 September 2010, 5pm.

If you’re a producer/composer we need from you:

• A4 proposal for your idea with a plan on how to deal with engagement, youth, internationalism and legacy.
• Supported material should be included such as; Youtube/MySpace links or 4 CDs of your music.
• You may even wish to include a short sample of your proposed new work (although not essential).

If you are interested, please email your proposals to gurpreet (at) punch-records.co.uk and post any hard material to the Punch address below:

For more information, please click here.

Good luck!

JAH SHAKA KING OF DUB – JAH SHAKA ZULU WARRIOR

Rainbow Warehouse 10pm-4am Saturday 25th June 2010.

This exclusive event will be Roots Rock Reggae Music at it’s finest with the spiritual messenger JAH SHAKA at the controls in an all night session.

JAH SHAKA is the King of Dub – a Producer, Selector, Chanter, Messenger and phenomenol Vocal Artist.

With over 35 years in the business Shaka’s message is coming to Birmingham!

Early bird tickets £10, regular price £13.50 (more on the door)

Tickets available from Hatman and Summit and also from TheTicketSellers – 0844 870 0000.

Check out the footage below of Shaka performing live in Brixton back in the late 1970′s:

FAITH47 was one of the key artists we worked with during BASS 2008.

http://cultureserve.net/blog/wp-content/Issue10/faith47.pdf

Pioneering typographer, sleeve designer and artist Swifty will be setting up shop at the Sauce Gallery in Birmingham’s Custard Factory from Saturday 12 December. Everything from originals and one off prints to T-shirts, skateboards and stickers will be for sale in The Swifty Pop Shop.

The Pop Shop,will feature Swifty’s Newsagents installation.This life size shop front was partly inspired by Peter Blake’s ‘Toy Shop’ and the artist’s fond memories of a local village newsagent in Lancashire .

The Shop will also be home to the A-Z of Swifty Show, including pieces based around everything from Action Man to Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout.

The Pop Shop will be open to the public at the Sauce Gallery, 5 The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth and has been extended to run until the end of March 2010!

Listen to a great interview UK vibe did with Swifty and check out some more of his images by clicking here.

Check out photos from the fantastic launch night and the final preperations below:

Below are photographs of Swifty at work putting together the billboard for the exhibition.

Punch Records have come into possession of the Lemi Ghariokwu archive and have taken the unique opportunity to set up a touring exhibition of the very best and rarely seen works of the Nigerian artist.

Travelling throughout the UK, this new exhibition has a changing, modular and interactive aspect to it, encouraging people to interact and communicate in order to gain a deeper understanding of Lemi’s development as an artist and of the themes his work approached.

Lemi Ghariokwu is the creator and illustrator of Afrobeat’s legend Fela Kuti iconic album sleeves, which represent African artistic benchmarks as well as political statements of the Nigerian musician orginating from Lagos.

After a successful run at Rich Mix (London) and Birmingham Central Library the exhibition continued on to Peepul Centre in Leicester and is now taking bookings from further venues for 2010 onwards.

The guys at Folded Wing have produced an excellent podcast to support our Lemi Ghariokwu exhibition. Featuring Tony Allen, Dele Somimi, Charlie Dark, Wunmi and many others. Listen to it below:

AOKPodcast by punchrecords

We also appointed a dedicated blogger to keep you updated with all the latest developments in this project. Through the blog we aim to inspire stories, comments and feedback so please get involved and visit the blog here.

For more information on Arts Own Kind please contact Ammo on 0121 224 7444.

In June  2007 one of the all-time greatest MCs,KRS-ONE came to Birmingham’s Custard Factory!

The lyrical legend perfomed as  one of the highlights  as part of the B Boys For Life Conference.Furiously political, KRS-ONE is known for being one of the first MC’s to speak out against violence and ignorance within hip hop culture; a true example of a controversial figure that forced people to think.

Check out some photos of the event below: