Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Birmingham Semi Final - phill blake vs newso / agent vs kungfoienihi - 2 battles, one huge night

my morning after blog..
also at spinnermagazine.co.uk
- seeds



i'm weak at the knee's, i've had about 2 hrs sleep - i think i'm still mildy intoxicated but i have to write this up before it starts slipping from my memory..

so its 9pm, there was hardly anyone about and i thought to myself "maybe we're gonna have a quiet secret wars semi final here?! surely not..?"

but surely not indeed, as the door starts getting a pounding by half past and a ton of secret wars fans started flooding in.. as the clock hits 10 i thought we'd better get started, and with the 4 artists finally collected together (phill blake v's newso / agent v's kungo) we take a stroll out to the smoking area and discuss who's gonna get the board with a slightly dodgy join in the middle of it (no one really wanted it, although it really weren't that bad lol)

after much coin tossing and general drunkeness i eventually get the artists to pull straws... an unlucky newso got the shortest and therefore the gnarly panel.
and off they go..

"unleash the lions" said sloba..
and they were all growling from the outset :)

Agent, looking quite hammered, went straight in big and attracted the crowds attention immediately with a mad head with its lid removed..
next door to him his opponent Kungfo was furiously hammering lines of perspective out, to his right Phill Blake slowly kicked off with a selection of "ladyshapes" beginning to appear and then Newso with his "bad" board was in the same frame of mind as Agent with big stuff going straight in..
it was apparent that all 4 wanted to win, badly. you could almost smell the hunger..
a huge crowd looked on.. pressure built by the second.

dj Skunkboy and Heartless p totally tore the roof off for an hr and we were in full swing..
then (as no Reeps 1 appeared, what happened to you mate??) Basix (Rupert) from scratch club birmingham did a showcase human beatbox set.. damn that guys hyperactive!
judges boogie Dave (drop beats not bombs) the go go plastics crew and Mikey sweden all looked on with their work obviously cut out.
and all this time, more and more people are flooding into the jam..
bigger than barry gets the rainbow rammed out, but it was literally as busy by half 10/11ish..
big ups to everyone who reached. you made the walls sweat.. we love you.

a few audio tech problems later and Evolucian, Elliot fresh and Heartless wreck the backroom with dope live uk hip hop, and the front of the pub is bouncing with Adamn noise and Didi giving it some heavy stepper bussssinizzzzzzz..
the artists had an hr left and everyones work was top notch.. it was anyones for the taking by the half way mark.. gents lift off head character was forming nicely by now with a variety of odd stuff coming out the top, Kungfo's lines were now becoming a mad grid full of his trademark cats, and Phill's ladyshapes had now become "secret whores".. Newso now had a giant beast up and some very nice lettering going on..

we open the 5th box of grolsch and everyone in the place is enjoying the secret wars vibe..

so its crunch time.

we started with the crowd votes for Agent and Kungo..
and there was hardly anything in it, but Kungfo just took it by a decibel or 2
then we moved to the next crowd vote for Phill and Newso
again hardly anything in it, but Phill took it...
1 vote for Kungo
1 vote for Phill
so i pull out the envolopes from the judges and felt a bit like we were at our very own secret oscars.. a vote for Agent.. and another vote for Kungfo.
finalist number 1 is declared - Kungfo
same deal with 2 more envolopes..
but unluckily for Phill, Newso gets 2 staight judges votes and takes it..
and we have your second finalist - Newso

and there it is.. breathe out.

everyone proceeded to party hard for the remaining couple of hrs, big props to everyone involved in making the sounds so dope.. and a massive shout to all the punters who really did make some noise all round..

now there can be only one

NEWSO V'S KUNGFOGIENIHI
MARCH 22nd
THE RAINBOW WAREHOUSE

you know what to do.. ;)
flyer on its way

quality photo's from this semi coming real soon
(if your one of our photo folks, get at me!* i left my phone in sheffield friday night so email me yeah ;) ..doh)

congrats to the winners and unlucky to the losers

"there's a war going on outside, no one is safe from.."

get ready for the final

;)

SEEDS

props out to all the artists
lyd x
slobadan the man that can
holly
ad, lee and the rainbow crew
skunkboy
evolucian, elliot fresh + heartless p
basix
adamn noise, eva, verity, all staffs crew
carlos and asif on the door (we'll sort you some tee's, i threw em all out into the crowd)
didi
mikey
boogie dave
go go plastics crew
sasha
jimmy, n4, salter, tra, nuk, mandoo, leyton, linds etc
all the brum peeps
base (mad mate!)
skank at the bench
pete and the bar staff (fine work ;)
everyone who came out and represented.
edding
ecko watches
and all the sponsors
and a big shout to skink and el tel

now i sleep lol

back soon with vids and stills galore..
i did actually have a camera's worth. Until i lost my camera in the chaos
however, we have poloroids, digitals and video coming, stay tuned.

Seeds (big up sloba!)
Spinner?
lml
Secret Wars Birmingham

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