Six Summer Saturdays

Clare and I had a trip into Birmingham yesterday. Clare needed to get a few things in readiness for Moseley Folk next weekend.  After a bit of shopping we headed to The Arcadian to catch a couple of performances from the Six Summer Saturdays programme.

Six Summer Saturdays is the idea of Birmingham Hippodrome and aims to bring the arts to the masses by providing free street entertainment.

We decided to go to Poppy Red, found a table outside and over a couple of bowls of chips watched the acts.

First up was The Spurting Man by Avanti.  A bizarre thing where a man becomes a human fountain set to Ravel's Bolero.  I really enjoyed this if only for the incompetent assistant, who was very funny.

Next came Muchuu. A male/female duo who performed lo-fi ambient music.  It was OK but nothing special and did not pull in the crowd that The Spurting Man did. Background music for the diners around The Arcadian rather than something to stand and watch.

At this point the rain started and so the set was cut short and I decided to go and do some record shopping.  Having bought a couple of Catherine Wheel 12"s and a Caribou promo CD we headed back to The Arcadian.

The last act we saw before heading home was a group of drummers, on stilts and dressed as ants.  They had good rhythm but the whole act consisted of them drumming and walking around in a circle.  A good spectacle for a couple of minutes but it soon runs out of steam.

All in all a mixed bag but a great idea. Let's hope there is more next year.