WELCOME TO AC We are Acid. A zine exploring subculture in Birmingham. Here you will find an in depth look at the diverse culture that makes Birmingham what it is. As the city with the second highest population in Britain, Birmingham is a very diverse city and brimming with subculture, probably one of the best in Britain. With a population of over 750,000 how could it not. Just walking the streets you can find an array of culture not just in the many different people who make up the city, arguably the city’s heart and soul but in the shops and businesses that take residence there. All over
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you can find sparks of creativity and individuality. There many independently owned skate shops such as Ideal Skate shop and Third Foot that support the large group of skaters and extreme sports enthusiasts within the city. This is also supported by Creation Skatepark billed as one of the best indoor skateparks in the UK catering for skaters, BMX’ers and bladers alike. This goes hand in hand with two of Birmingham’s other popular Introduction
CI D MAGAZI N E subcultures, music and tattoos. There is a bustling and glowing music scene, with many underground rock and hardcore bands on the rise. Popularity of this has been supported and spread to the masses with help from Birmingham’s many music venues from the large capacity places such as the O2 arena to the smaller 175 capacity of the Queens head. There many tattoo businesses populating the city which seem interwoven within the skating and music cultures. Tattoos show a whole range of creativity, individuality and is a booming business.
Introduction
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Tattoo Studio Review
BODY GARDEN TATTOO STUDIO Body Garden Tattoo Studio is located in one of the busiest parts of Birmingham, providing good service and affordable prices. It’s style focuses mainly on colour tattoo however if you are interested in black and grey, they will be surely able to provide you with great ideas and service, as one of the employees specialises in this area. I went to the studio, and I must admit I personally liked the design, which definitely have an affect on how the customers feel in there. The atmosphere in the studio seems to be pretty positive, due to the friendly attitude of the staff. The only disadvantage I could possibly mention would be the fact that the studio isn’t open on Mondays and Sundays, however it opens on Saturday, which balances it out. If you would like to find out more about the studio, visit their website at http://www.bodygardentattoo.co.uk/ . It is really informative, with nicely prepared Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) sheet, which in my opinion can explain many things relating tattoos and
possibly help someone to decide whether tattoo is something for them. I have met and spoke to Cesar De Cesaro who owns the place. He seems to be well informed, with wide knowledge of the subject. The fact that he has over 13 years of the experience makes him trustworthy. His background helps to put people at ease when considering a tattoo they will have for the rest of their lives. He previously worked in many countries such as Brazil and Italy, which widens his experience. Working in different cultures isn’t easy and he managed to succeed at that. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in design. It seems that he has been in the art industry for years. If you would like to know a little bit more about great tattoo artist, next page holds an interview with Cesar. Along side Cesar is Michael Philip. who specialises in Black and grey tattoos. He has been in tattoo industry only 3 years, however seeing his work on the studio’s website, he has got an amazing potential.
Tattoo Studio Review
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Interview with tattooist
CESAR DE CESARO
For how long have you been tattooing?
Do you have any favourite tattooists or artists?
I have been in the game for 13 years. I started tattooing in Brazil. I worked in a tattoo shop in Italy as well.
Yes. Loads. I’ll just name a few of them, Jun Matsui is one of my favorite tattoo artists. He only works with black. He’s really good. Super straight lines. Another guy is Rob Oliviera , phenomenal illustrator who works in a lot of fields
Back in Italy was there more competition? More here in the UK - definitely. A lot more customers here as well.
Did you start as an illustrator? Not really. When I started tattooing I started drawing as well. Started back in University doing arts. I actually have a degree in arts.
Interview with tattooist
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What do you consider the hardest part of the job and the most valuable skill of a tattoo artist?
want it. Profitable as well but we’re having some hard times because of the recession everyone is going through. Tattooing is a good business actually.
You have to be always working. Draw or looking for new inspiration all the time. If you stop you lose your hand.
Have you ever considered alternative tattooing technologies, other than ink and needles?
Is the business that you’re running now profitable? Yeah. Definitely. Its cool having your own shop, organizing things just the way you
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Interview with tattooist
Yeah. Like UV and stuff right? Some people enjoy these. The downside of it is that you cannot do really detailed stuff so I don t really like it. I also did branding a few times.
Like a logo? No, you don’t print a logo, you just burn the skin. I did that a few times actually, but that’s like the most different thing I’ve done.
What do you think about scarification?
What s like the weirdest place someone wanted to get a tattoo? I don’t see any weird places of the body to get a tattoo. Every part of the body can have a tattoo. It’s not weird. There are some unusual places people want to get tattoos, like inside of their lips, but that’s about it.
Personally I don t really like it. I like it when it’s more tribal, like in African or Indonesian tribes. The way they do it, it’s more traditional, it’s a cultural thing.
What is the weirdest tattoo you’ve ever done? From time to time you have to do like weird things to be honest. I remember a guy who asked me to do a dot on his arm. Just like a small dot. That was really strange. Another guy asked me to do a hoover on his shoulder.
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Interview with tattooist
Ideal ramp skateshoot
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IDEAL Ideal is a small privately own skate Who runs the whole business? shop. The owners and staff are quite Can you tell me a little bit about knowledgeable, being able advice it? anyone, whether it is an amateur or professional in order to meet Well, I run it, and we have been running their requirements. Providing it for about 20 years. Moved into here, range of skating accessories they we’ve been in three different locations, but came out quite successful in the yeah we are happy here, because we have industry. Having a ramp set out for a ramp. the kids also helped to spread their popularity, they don’t charge much Who started it? Was it you who for using their ramp which allows started it all? local youngsters to take part in activities they enjoy, which helps to Yeah, I have started it. reduce the issues related to drugs, alcohol abuse and vandalism. What have driven you to do it?
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About Ideal
Oh, I just came out from university. I
didn’t want to do what I studied and had a really rubbish job for 6 months and there was a gap, so you know, there was one shop in town which wasn’t very good, so figured we will take it over.
Furniture design, three-dimensional, wood work, craft work, cabinet making – that sort of thing.
and wheels, trucks, skateboards and accessories. British brands do well for us, but we support American brands, because American brands are skateboarding. Third Foot is a British brand, they are made in Birmingham, we do loads of those, we do fabric, it’s just you know, whatever you see, we sell lots, that’s why we sell it. Of course the big boys got involved into footwear so we have to sell loads of Nike and Adidas, but it’s popular, so we have to sell it, we have no choice.
How did you get into the whole industry?
So I assume you don’t really like selling footwear?
Well, I was a skateboarded anyways. I wanted to keep involved... opening the shop isn’t easy, but we had (get the stuff in here) business trust, if you heard off that. We managed to get loan out of those guys for £3,000 and that buys stock and new stuff for the place to sell it.
No, we like to sell footwear, but it’s a shame it is getting taken over by the big guys. I rather support skate brands, but they don’t sell as well, so what can we do?
What did you study in university?
Why did you pick the name? Why “Ideal”? 5 letters – it had to have be 5 letters, it didn’t have word skateboarding or anything like skateboards and that was it really. We didn’t want to have a sappy name and “Ideal” was kind of not sappy.
What brands do you sell and what are the main brands? We sell loads of hardware; we probably sell more hardware than most shops in the country. We sell loads of decks Interview with skate shop owner
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Is it only menswear that you sell?
to skate brands, so the “SB” stuff, that aren’t Adidas stuff – you can’t get it on high street. That makes the appeal on that, but yeah we tend to keep it fresh. That’s Yes, I mean we did flirt a little bit with why there’s an appeal in the store really. girls clothing when we had a shop up in Everything we have got we try to move town, but it proved really girls are fickle. I through quite quickly. can sell a t-shirt, that we had for two years you know. If it just left in stock and I don’t How did you get the ramp pull it out, I can drag it out and people started? What was the idea will buy it, where as with girls stuff is a lot behind it? more fluid and these days it is especially hard to get into. The ladies stuff is tricky. So yeah we don’t do it. As much as I’d love That was the point of coming down here. We were up in town on the Cooperation to have much more girls around shop. Street, for 10 or 11 years and we got tired of the location, needed to move. The guy who runs this whole site, actually came to the store few times, and really just said: “Look, come down here”, “come down here”, because they retailed down here, when we moved it was really quiet anyway. He just said I hope you will get a space and put the ramp in. We worked or tried to work with city council to build the skate park in the city, but it hasn’t come to anything, we thought we take it upon ourselves to do, so that’s the reason we built it.
Do you have like any limited edition stuff? Anything which would make you different from others?
What do you think is your biggest achievement while running the shop?
You have to stand on the top of that, because skateboarding has more of the wider appeal. we have to stay on the top of the collaboration stuff and special edition stuff. Um, all the stuff we stock that comes out from big brands is limited
Staying in business, especially over next two years. I am not worried... scared worried, but I am concerned about next couple of years. I think things are going to be hard; things are going to be tough. We’re are the thin end of the wedge where
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Interview with skate shop owner
it is disposable income, it’s pocket money, it’s what parents can afford to spend on their kids. If that disappears, which also could happen, we are the first to get that bit, so I can imagine it might be tough, but we will see. The real achievement is just keeping kids skating, you know, that’s really positive. We just had a dad in, just literally came in and booked complete set for his son, who had his board stolen on Saturday. He just couldn’t have his kid not skating, because he sees how positive it is for boys. Boys have good friends; he’s got a good social network through skating. They are good kids, and then I loved to see that, I was just thanking him for supporting his kid.
What is like your biggest age range? Oh, it’s massive. Like we have got a little dude, comes in on Saturdays, who’s 6. We have got guys who will rent the ramp on Friday night just to have it to skate without kids and they are upwards to 40 so it is a big range.
How many people on average come here to skate? It is hard to say, it is obviously really busy in holidays, up to 50-60 people, can come through on any one day, and then it can be quiet, we can have days and days when it sunny there isn’t anything happening. It really fluctuates with the weather and with
the winter coming up we expect it to be really busy
What would be the advice you would give someone who want to get into the skating? Just to skateboard for skateboarding sake? Just get a board, get something half decent and go to the skate park. Go hang out, you make friends really quickly, most people who skate are pretty positive, so you can just talk to people, they will encourage you, give you tips, get you started, there’s a good network. That’s the first thing what we did when we have started. Didn’t have skate parks, we only had skateboard and car parks. Bombed hills and learnt how to do it that’s what id say.
Interview with skate shop owner
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CREATIO N S creative.
Creation is at the heart of the community, as one of the biggest parks in Britain and ever growing they have come from being a public limited company into a charity. Their location was originally a tram station in 1906-07, which has been through many a face lift – from a bus station in 1949 to a karting centre to becoming Epic skatepark in 2000 until 2007. Creation based their climbing centre here around about 2005 and took over the entire location on 07.07.2007. As a centre accommodating not only the major sports such as BMXing, inline skating, skateboarding and scooting, to hosting yoga, acupuncture and of course the climbing centre. One of their main focuses was to help the community, taking youths off the street and giving them somewhere with a positive outlet and to be
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Creation Skatepark
The welcoming atmosphere at Creative is the home hub for many exceptionally skilled riders whom are sponsored by Creative. Only asking for a little in return, these renown names help with raising awareness of their sport and educating the community in safety and how to handle yourself. The park itself is not only for freestyle, they host a range of lessons from the most basic of skills such as standing on a board or learning to ride a bike, to more expert skills. On going to Creative I met a young nineteen year old who’s career in BMXing is out the roof! Being sponsored by Creative and Oakley, travelling the world and doing what he loves is a regular occurrence. Watching Dean Cueson ride is mesmerising, he is an exceptional
SKATEPARK rider, with Creative as his local, he is going far. There is so much talent that comes through Creative and it’s right on your doorstep! With occupancy levels at an all time high, Creative is somewhere to go to meet new friends and be apart of the community. In my eyes these guys don’t get enough credit for what they are doing. Being totally customer based, your experience at Creative is all about you. There is somewhat of a stereotype that comes hand in hand with extreme sports, hoodies, graffiti, drugs, youths. But Creative have battled for years to get locals on board and stamp out drug and alcohol use. Since being open the local crime rate is going down and there is not as much graffiti. Holding host to a range of all night events and being a safe haven for
children and adults alike. Creative are now looking to open a new location being ranked as a Premiere resort and world class and continue to expand and develop their current location. If you are looking for a friendly and warm atmosphere and somewhere to develop or even learn new skills – Creation is the place to be, I cannot recommend it enough and surely am on the edge of my seat for their next big venture.
Creation Skatepark
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With a pretty immense track record, Fallacies are one of the Midlands hidden gems. As a five-piece hardcore/Post-rock band the lads are revolutionising the hardcore “scene”. Fallacies got together from a previous band and wanted to make and play hardcore music with an edge. Keeping it fresh with long instrumentals and aggressive vocals, Fallacies are one to watch! The lads consist of Mark Al-shemmeri (vocals), Daniel Pratley (Drums), Joshua Eggerton and James Gandy on guitars and Reece Hayden (bass). The ethos of the band is all about the music,
“We don’t think we’re rockstars and there is no alter-ego with us. We just love playing music, that is all we’ve ever been about” I feel that with Fallacies there is no posing, and hiding behind a niche, they are down to earth guys that just want to make amazing music,
“We lose money on our band because of financial issues at times, but its all worth it . If people like it enough to go somewhere and listen to us then that’s cool. I’d love for more people to hear it, but for that reason to have that connections and meaning to people not to be pretentious and think we’re above everyone because we’re in a band” It’s a given that the boys work hard on what they love, coming from local gigs around the West Midlands to touring the UK, Fallacies are looking to embark on a world-wide tour as soon as they release their new album. If you haven’t listened to Fallacies before I suggest you go check them out ASAP. The boys are on the rise so keep a look out!
Fallacies
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BYT are a gnarly five-piece hardcore band from the West Midlands, that play “straight up, no bullshit music”. The band consists of the vocals of Mike Drury, Luke Holloway on bass, Jay Barrett and Ross Taylor on guitar and last but not least Brad Edwards - the drummer. The band originally started around 2008 when all the band members previous bands fell apart BYT was formed, they strive off passion for music and break the stereotype of hardcore music. Edwards states “we play is hardcore predominantly, but with elements of old heavy metal, taking influences from more underground hardcore bands such as knuckledust, diction, nine bar and injury time mixed in with old metal legends such as black Sabbath”
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Bide Your Time
BYT are just a group of local lads who have a passion for aggressive music. With a good three years behind them it’s no wonder they have shared the stage with such big names as Trapped Under Ice, Stick to your guns and Madball at various venues across the Uk. In my opinion these lads are well on their way up and are hoping to embark on an overseas tour in the next few years, all I can say is look out Europe! I really suggest if you get the time to go check out the guys at one of their gigs, but a word of warning it can get quite brutal! BYT’s ethos is to, “keep bettering the music we make, keep it full of passion and keep people moshing!” Bide Your Time
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Digbeth Institute is a civic building in Digbeth, Birmingham. It is now operated as the HMV Institute, a 2,400 capacity music venue. It has three rooms: the main auditorium with a 1,500 capacity which is usually used to house mainstream bands, the smaller library which holds up to 600 people and the 300-capacity room known as ‘The Temple’. The exterior of the building is very stunning and it has an old ‘vintage’ feel to it, it is a mixture of red brick and grey terracotta. The grey terracotta forms the more ornate features of the façade including the three towers, the 1.65 meters tall allegorical figures and the window and door frames. The six allegorical figures are believed to be the work of John Evans, the chief modeler for Gibbs & Canning. Two hold open books and two have musical
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Venue review
instruments (a third’s instrument is lost). The HMV Institute showcases the best in live music, from up-and-coming musicians to established artists, it will house all types of bands and musicians and all music genres, whoever you feel like watching live, there’s a high chance, sooner or later, the HMV institute will have them play at there venue. They also hold a regular student night called “Propoganda” which is always a highlight in the student calender. The institute hosts to an array of major names in the music industry as well as more underground artists. As the venue is quite small, the atmosphere is cosey and allows you to see your favourite artists in a more convenient environment.
The O2 Academy is one of my favourite venues in Birmingham. It was formerly known as The Carling Academy and in the 1980s and 1990s as the Hummingbird and previously the site of the Rank Ballroom. The venue underwent refurbishment in the late 1990s and opened as the Birmingham O2 Academy in 2000.
underground bands that are not that well known. The Academy 3 is the smallest of the three stages and it is only capable of holding 289 people, this is mainly used for local bands. The venue is also known to hold small festivals, they will open all three main stages to house up to 20+ bands playing in one night and you can go from room to room, depending on who you want to watch perform live.
Whether you are into Heavy Metal, Rock, Punk or Hip Hop. The O2 is As well as gigs, the academy is also well there to accommodate all your music know for holding club nights, and stutastes. With a full service bar and staff dent nights - the weekend is when the that will attend to all your drinking main nights are hosted. All rooms are needs, toilet facilities and three performance areas, Acamedy 1 is capable of open and accommodate a wide range of music genres. I feel that this is one of housing a capacity of 3,009 people. It is mainly used for popular, mainstream the main venues to socialize and enjoy bands, where as Academy 2 is a smaller a night on the tiles. As one of the most renown venues in Birmingham, it is room and has the capacity of holdseriously worth checking out! ing up to 600 people, mainly used for Venue review
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