Words by Lily Higgins / Pics supplied by Erdington Arts Forum
Erdington’s longstanding arts and music showcase, the Evening of Creativity, return to Oikos Café on Friday 17 May – running from 6:30pm – 9:30pm at the popular Erdington High Street venue.
Organised by the Erdington Arts Forum, the Evening of Creativity is one of Birmingham’s longest running music nights and will be approaching its seven year anniversary in June.
Sicilian singer Manuel Cangemi is travelling all the way from Germany for the event in May. His passion for music started at a young age, merging opera, classical music, and together – accompanied by his Sicilian origins. He will be singing songs by legends Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and others.
Drums Aloud will be performing rhythms which have been taught to them by master West African drummers. They will have up to eight drummers at their Evening of Creativity performance, playing on djembe – a hand drum, and dunduns which are bass drums played with a stick with a bell. Nigel Saddler of the group has been teaching drumming for 14 – 15 years.
Also performing are the two piece band Skint, from Tamworth. Skint perform country style music which they call “council estate poetry”. They will play a set of originals tracks which talk about dealing with being ‘skint’ in England in 2024, including songs ‘Cost of Living’ and ‘Cash Converter’.
When you put your hand in Grandma’s biscuit tin you never know what you’re going to get… which is how the band Grandma’s Biscuit Tin invented their named. An ensemble consisting of five 5 eclectic musicians, the band are classically trained musicians with a huge passion for jazz.
Grandma’s Biscuit Tin have been together for about a decade, who just started out as friends and family having a jam session, and their repertoire includes trad-standards with their own twist.
The International award winning Birmingham Opera company will also be performing at Oikos café.
Jobe Sullivan told Erdington Local: “I think Erdington needs to trumpet loudly what a brilliant achievement the Evening of Creativity is. Seven years, 84 events… not including all our satellite events in Kingstanding, Castle Vale, and other places in the constituency.
“It’s so great to have acts visiting us from around the world – Joana Carvalhas on her world tour, a touring group from New Zealand, an opera singer who flew in from Germany the night before.”
He added: “But our bread and butter are the community. Featuring visual artists, and encouraging choirs, bands, from everywhere – and Erdington is at the heart of it. Erdington has a huge heart, and we’ve been quietly kicking-ass here for seven years, come hell or high water.”
The next Evening of Creativity events will be held at Oikos Café on 17 May and 21 June, between 6:30pm – 9:30pm.
For more information and links to online ticket sales visit: www.facebook.com/ErdingtonArts
This content was generated and supported by GET WRITING GET WORKING and LOCAL AMBASSADORS – to get involved in local journalism and find opportunities in the creative industries email [email protected]
