The Dirt Road Band helped to launch a new art venue within a new live music venue on Broad Street this week.
Artist and bass player Horace Panter, from The Specials, even turned photographer at the O Bar’s opening of its new Birmingham Art Zone gallery on gig night. You can watch our video of the evening here:
Hong Kong artist Ruth Shan had no idea he was about to step onto the stage as part of an all-star trio.
With frontman Steve Walwyn (Dr Feelgood / Eddie and the Hot Rods) and drummer Ted Duggan (Badfinger / The Selecter) waiting in the wings, Ruth asked Horace if he would kindly take a photograph of her standing between her parents and below one of her own oil paintings.
Horace kindly obliged as you can see on our video, which also includes footage of the nearby Ice Skate Birmingham and West Midlands Metro trams whizzing past the venue’s windows.
The fun was all part of another Henry’s Blueshouse night featuring three brilliant musicians with the best part of 200 years between them.
The live music Henry’s Blueshouse evening has recently been ‘rehomed’ at the O Bar on the corner with Gas Street for free live music every Tuesday night – with different themes on Fridays and Sundays.
Promoted by Jim Simpson and Big Bear Records, Henry’s Blueshouse helped to turn Earth into Black Sabbath from 1968 onwards when the evening was originally held at The Crown on Station Street.
The O Bar has also now become a gallery for the Birmingham Art Zone latest exhibition called Art is Here, with works also on display at The Gin Vault next to the Gas Street Basin canal network.
Horace is a brilliant painter himself, with his own striking Americana works in super bright acrylic colours available from horacepanterart.com
Commenting on the O Bar hosting live music as well as an art gallery, Horace quipped: “Where else are you going to go to see this kind of stuff and to hear this kind of stuff? Stuff!”
Ruth said: “Ruth is my English name, and Shan is my Chinese name and my paintings are in oils. I’m a self-taught artist and really pleased to have an exhibition here having come to England with my parents because of the situation back home in Hong Kong.”
All of the ‘Art is Here’ pieces can be viewed for free and purchased either via the venues’ bar staff or by contacting the artists directly to arrange a personal meeting with them at The O Bar or Gin Vault.
Featured artists include Al Monde, Mr Peanut, Brian Prangle, Emma Lane, Gray Hirst, Helen Owen, Kirk Andrews, Mandy Clifford, Moreen McCalla, Paul Seven, Ruth Shan and Steve Sheasby. Celebrity paintings include images of Bruce Springsteen, Heath Ledger and Tina Turner as well as wholly original works.
Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the art group can do so on social media via the following platforms, tagging #BhBAZ in their posts.
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/bazbham
- Twitter https://twitter.com/Birmingham_BAZ
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/birmingham_art_zone/
All pictures and video by Graham Young.
ENDS
