SongWriter's Cafe Music Event Massive Success at Custard Factory
BRUMMIE MUSIC LOVERS WERE TREATED TO A FEAST OF LIVE MUSIC AT THE CUSTARD FACTORY IN DIGBETH ON SATURDAY 24TH JUNE AS LOCAL MUSICIANS HELPED TO RELAUNCH THE SONGWRITER'S CAFE
The event was the first SongWriter’s Café gig in 7 years and featured well known Birmingham based artists such as the legendary Steve Gibbons and the superb Simon Fowler of Ocean Colour Scene (below right).
In the tradition of SongWriter’s Café this was a free gig open to all and there was a cool 
family atmosphere and a rich diversity of music lovers of all ages and backgrounds. The event was part of the vibrant RootsdeVille Midsummer Festival at the Custard Factory in Digbeth.
In the late 90’s c21VOX, the brainchild of Bournville based musician Paul Murphy, established SongWriter’s Café as a free weekly Sunday afternoon gig in the city centre to promote the regions songwriters. It provided a vital showcase and networking opportunity and spawned many new musical collaborations.
Many well established songwriters supported the initiative and made regular appearances alongside new talent. It fostered a spirit of co-operation between artists and audience and encouraged many new writers through its website, publications, and tours. By 1998 it had taken over a vacant bank in Digbeth to create the first SongBank but its plans were cut short by the untimely death of one of the co-founders, Paul's wife Honora Murphy in the summer of 1999.
During the intervening years c21VOX director Paul Murphy received requests from many quarters to get SongWriter’s Café back on the road but said "until now I haven’t had the heart for it and poured my time into other c21VOX projects and activities"
Find out more about c21VOX at this website www.c21vox.tv
Paul continued:
"However, Roots De Ville was a request I couldn’t refuse because of its vision and the great leap forward it represents. This is a city buzzing with great musicians across a whole range of genres and instruments. It is a fantastic 21st century melting pot of influences and the spirit of collaboration and integrity between musicians is inspiring. 
The festival met it's promise to be a brilliant manifestation of this. This was an appropriate setting for the return of SongWriter’s Café".
The event included 2 X 1 hour slots: which saw Carole Palmer, Tom Martin, Gilly Dangerous, Steve Gibbons, James Somerfield, Daniel Rachel, Micky Greaney and Simon Fowler take to the relaxed mid-summer stage. Some of the names were familiar, others not but anyone interested in well crafted songs and passionate performances by gifted writers can not fail to have been impressed.
Big n Bostin founder Pete Millington went along with his 9 year old son Patrick who was so impressed on hearing the revered Steve Gibbons (delivering a characteristic rock n roll balad about a Brummie called Graffiti Joe who got caught nicking spray paint as he left his shift at the Austin one evening) for the first time in his tender young life that he was inspired to take a hearty glug of his traditional recipe cola and enquire, "cool, can we come here more often please dad?"
To which, in emulation of our most sublime Brummie wordsmith, maestro and senior rock 'n' roll statesman (pictured left), I nonchalantly replied: "sure thing kid"
Check out the websites of some of the artists who performed at the Songwriter's Cafe:
Simon Fowler – http://www.oceancolourscene.com/
Steve Gibbons - http://www.havic.com/artist/S_Gibbons/SGFrame.html
Daniel Rachel – www.danielrachel.com
Tom Martin - http://www.roadhouse-birmingham.co.uk/tower.html
Paul Murphy told Big n Bostin:
"There are many other songwriters that we would like to have included had time permitted but the selection who played is a cross section of Songwriter’s Café favourites. I’m delighted that they have made themselves available for this gig"
Paul played some of his own material later on at the festival including ‘Out of Babel’ with The Destroyers and Samba Central. He said "I wrote this song in 1998. It’s a vision of the city and the role music can play in the journey, from the babble of misunderstanding between cultures, towards a harmony that celebrates and cherishes difference. That’s what Roots De Ville is all about and why I’m delighted to be part of it. Out of Babel appeared some years ago on a GCSE music examination paper. That felt strange!"
If you are interested in listening or downloading first demo of the song produced by Tony Keach (1998) click http://www.c21vox.tv/programmes/full.php?id=258 Then try to imagine it several notches upbeat against a swirling backdrop of Eastern European influences, 16 piece Destroyers, add Samba collective.... whoa!!!
So spread the word, the legendary Belfast beatnik and the Songwiter's Cafe are definitely back in town!
Contact Paul Murphy C21VOX
+44(0)121 433 4107
paul@c21vox.com
Post script: When my son and I were explaining the story of Graffiti Joe to my good lady wife at Sunday lunchtime today, she was reminded of a character named Joe the Pole who worked with her father Ned on the track at Longbridge in the 1960s. Apparantly Joe the Pole also had a penchant for sneaking car paint out of the Austin, but this Joe (presumably a Pole) used it for creating, for want of a better word, oil paintings. One such masterpiece Joe painted from a photograph of Ned's favourite Jack Russel dog, Patch, which to this day takes pride of place in my mother-in-law's country parlour in her retirement cottage in county Offaly.
