After the success of our “Pied Piper” parades along the waterfront during the Rugby World Cup, the City Council decided to see if it would also work for the Sevens. They called it the “walking bus” in their publicity, and hoped we would get a massive crowd to follow us from the Fanzone to the stadium, in the same way that they did during the World Cup.

The big difference between a World Cup rugby game and the Sevens is that the rugby game has a specified kick-off time and if you’re late, you’ll miss it. So there’s clearly going to be a large number of people all heading to the stadium at around the same time.

Sevens weekend is different. Costumed ticket-holders gather in huge numbers in the bars and restaurants that line the waterfront, but they all make their way to the stadium at different times – they drift along whenever they feel like it and they aren’t constrained by a single magic kick-off moment.

The walking bus therefore became the bus that some people catch and others are just as happy to watch as it passes by – both of which were fine by us! The biggest roar from the crowds came as we marched and drummed past the Foxglove bar on Queens Wharf – the balcony was so tightly packed with revellers, I don’t think they could have fitted in a single extra body, and they certainly responded enthusiastically. Great fun.

Sadly I couldn’t take any photos during the parade itself ‘cos I was busy drumming – but I should be getting some actual pictures of the parade from our photographers soon. In the meantime here are some pre- and post-parade Hipstamatic shots for your enjoyment and delectation:

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…because Wellington goes collectively mad, becomes completely extravert for two days and dresses up in all manner of nutty costumes. It’s totally awesome!

Batucada has been taking part in the Sevens festivities since 2003, and once again this year we were invited to lead the Wellington International Rugby Sevens parade.

It was a good day for parading through the city streets. Sunny but not too sunny (and therefore not too insanely hot for drumming), no wind, and great crowds as usual.

Batucada dancer in the Sevens parade
Photo by Fairfax NZ

At the end of the parade route we line up on either side of the entrance to Civic Square and drum the teams through into Civic Square itself, which is always fun. For a start we get a great close-up view of all those lovely rugby boys, and we also get the opportunity to give each team their own special drumming fanfare – and see which teams respond.

I reckon pretty much all of them had a bit of a wiggle to our music as they passed by – but some teams definitely grooved more than others…

Top prize for dancing to our beat goes to Kenya, who can be absolutely relied upon to dance their way enthusiastically through the samba line. We love Kenya.

This year Samoa and Tonga came joint second, when a number of their players (and coaches) decided to get up-close and personal and dance duets with our dancers (who I’m sure didn’t mind at all).

Here’s a wee bit of media coverage:

Sights and sounds of the Sevens parade

Thousands of people have lined the streets of central Wellington for the Sevens Parade of Nations.

Led by the Batucuda drummers, teams are riding on individual floats themed from their home countries and accompanied by cheerleaders.

Stuff, 2 February 2012

The article includes a really rather awesome video with tons of Batucada all the way through it. Yay! Thanks, Stuff! Check out the video.

Screenshots from the Sevens Parade video
by Hamish Coleman-Ross (Stuff)

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The Johnsonville Santa parade has been a fixture on Wellington Batucada’s annual gig list for quite a few years now, and I can totally see why. It’s completely delightful.

I think what the Jonhsonville Parade has in abundance is a sense of community. It has a real small-town feel that takes you right back to your childhood, and there’s a sense of magic in the air somehow. It’s a real pleasure to be a part of.

Before the start of the parade we were waiting in line next to the local Boy Scouts’ float, so we gave them an impromptu preview of our show, which they seemed impressed by. Apologies mums and dads if any of your kids were all “What?” when they got home that afternoon…

The parade route isn’t very big – just four streets that make up four sides of a square, beginning and ending at the local school, and it was pretty much packed the whole way along with families and people out for an afternoon in the sun, waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa (and us, of course!).

At one point, for reasons best known to himself (yeah thanks Tim!), Tim decided to get the surdos to speed up a bit during the samba – but instead of signalling them to maintain a particular pace once they’d reached the band’s max velocity, he just let them keep on getting faster and faster, which they were more than happy to do (yeah thanks surdos!).

Mayhem ensued, as those of us with *cough* more difficult instruments (which require us to play more complex rhythms with more notes than the surdos) struggled to keep up with the killer pace – the caixas transitioning from samba clavé down to straight samba and then, as the pace continued to increase, dropping a note within the simpler pattern, from four to three beats in a bar.

Eventually, just as the entire band was just about to keel over from exhaustion (and the surdos were about to keel over with uncontrollable giggling) Tim brought the piece to a merciful close, much to the amusement of the crowd. And the surdos.

Excellent fun! Let’s do it all again next year!

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I swear, the Wellington Santa Parade gets earlier every year! This year we weren’t even halfway through November before it was time to don the pohutukawa headgear and get out on the streets in support of the bearded guy in red.

Only a couple of weeks before, we’d been marching through Wellington as part of the All Blacks World Cup victory celebrations, and here we were again – a similar route but in the opposite direction. It was a lovely sunny day and everyone seemed to having a pretty good time, although it was definitely a bit quieter than the total mayhem we’d experienced a couple of weeks earlier.

I think the trickiest thing about parades is timing. Not timing as in keeping in time with each other (although that’s always fun when you’re concentrating on moving forward in a choreographed fashion as well as playing) – I mean keeping in time with the other floats and performers in the parade.

Let me explain.

Wellington Batucada has a number of different patterns that we play, each of which has its own set of pattern variations, breaks and stepping choreography. Once in a while we’ll do a pattern or a break that requires a bit of tricky stepping – like 6/8 where we all turn right round every four bars of pattern 1, or the wave and rock breaks in samba where we lean back and forth in time with the music (and, in the case of the wave break, where we’re all facing sideways instead of forwards). It’s not easy to do any of these elements while on the move, so we generally slow down or even stop moving while we concentrate on the rhythm for that part of the piece.

It’s generally for less than a minute each time, but whenever that happens, the gap between us and the float in front of us gets a bit bigger, and the marshals who are controlling our bit of the parade start to get antsy. They don’t like big gaps between floats because it means the crowd has to wait…

At one point in the parade, when the gap had gotten particularly wide, our marshal signalled urgently for us to “hurry up!!!!”. Tim signalled for us to march instead of stepping in time with each other (marching being faster than stepping), but we weren’t catching up quickly enough. Another frantic signal from the marshal, and all of a sudden we were virtually galloping along the parade route, playing makulele (our fastest piece) while desperately trying to narrow the gap between us and the float in front.

I don’t imagine the crowd on that particular part of the parade route experienced very much of Wellington Batucada at all. Blink and you missed us, pretty much – and all you’d have heard was the Doppler effect of the sound of our drumming passing by at high speed – neeeeeeoooowwwwwwwww. Apologies to those of you in the crowd at that point – we’d have loved to have played properly for you but when a marshal growls at you during the Santa Parade, you have no choice but to obey orders

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There’s a superstition amongst the Wellington Phoenix Yellow Fever that when Batucada performs at a game, the team loses. Oh dear. I believe there’s even a chant, which is probably not repeatable in a family-friendly environment…

We haven’t played at a Phoenix game for ages, but out of the blue we got a call, asking us to play. Superstition notwithstanding, we were more than happy to answer the call.

Crazy hot day (you forget how far it is to carry your drum from wherever you’ve parked allllllll the way along the concourse when the temperature is high), a reasonable turnout from both the Batucada crew and the fans, and a good time was had by all.

We started off inside the gates in front of the stadium, playing for the crowd as they came through the turnstiles and headed off to find their seats. At one point Tim began leading us out across the open space in front of the stadium (we were stuck over to one side at the start), but we soon got shooed back to our edge-spot by security. Drat!

After about 20 or 30 minutes we finished our set and were then escorted down into the bowels of the stadium to wait in the green room for our on-field performance. It’s always interesting performing at the stadium – security is tight as anything, and you get your own dedicated security guard to make sure you stay where you’re supposed to stay and don’t do anything naughty.

On the field at the Phoenix game
Photo by Geoff Infield (click to enlarge)

Eventually we were taken from the green room and through the tunnel, and then out onto the field. They guided us to a spot in front of the general crowd, a block or two away from the main Yellow Fever stands, and we performed for 10 or 15 minutes before being brought to a sudden halt by a signal to Tim from our on-field stadium minder.

“Wha…? Wassup?” we all wondered. Ah – the power of television. I think. There was an interview going on up in the stands, so we had to be quiet so that they could be heard on the big screens. Fair enough – we are pretty loud. We stood around and waited for a while, then the interview concluded and our minder decided that we didn’t need to play any more, so off we went with a bow to the crowd and a big cheer and applause from them. Very nice.

The Phoenix had very kindly given us tickets for the game, so a bunch of us stayed to watch. I’d better not tell you the score…

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Monday – Auckland, Tuesday – Christchurch, Wednesday – Wellington.

On Tuesday morning I was vaguely wondering where I should stand to watch the All Blacks victory parade in Wellington the following day, when an unexpected BatMail from Caroline arrived in my inbox.

Subject: URGENT RESPONSE REQUIRED!!! BATUCADA IN THE TICKERTAPE PARADE TOMORROW!!!
Importance: High

The email began with “Good morning everyone and whoopdeedooo!!!” and closed with “DRUMMERS ONLY if you are keen and available for this please email pronto as please with YES YES YES TO THE ABS PARADE in the subject line.”

Yup – Wellington Batucada had been invited to perform in the All Blacks Rugby World Cup 2011 victory parade. We’d be playing in what would turn out to be Wellington’s biggest ever event of its kind, and I went a little weak at the knees at the prospect. Whoopdeedooo all right!

Wellington Batucada in the RWC 2011 All Blacks victory parade
Photo by NZ Sevens (click to enlarge)

By the end of the day Caroline had more than 40 YES YES YES TO THE ABS PARADE emails in her inbox (not bad for less than a day’s notice) and we were all set.

The day dawned, it was windy and beginning to rain, but I don’t think anyone who was planning to be in central Welli that day minded one bit. We were there to cheer the mighty All Blacks and to get a glimpse of the World Cup trophy and to share in the joy of winning it again after 24 years. It was going to be HUGE!

In the thick of it
Photo by Aaron McKirdy (click to enlarge)

Memories of the parade

• Having gathered near the entrance of Capital E, sheltering under the sail to keep ourselves dry before kick-off, we were right next to the steps where the All Blacks made their entrance into Civic Square. Awesome! We jumped up and down, cheered them all as they made their way up the steps, called their names and waved frantically, and Richie waved the cup in our general direction and smiled. Yeehaaar!
• Wondering how on earth they were going to get all 40 of us through the crowds in Civic Square and inside the barriers to take up our position in the parade, and being very impressed with the way the volunteers and organisers gently escorted us through the throngs of people and into line.
• Walking past the final ute to get to our place just in front of it, looking up and seeing Richie McCaw holding the cup, Piri Weepu, Brad Thorn, Mils Muliaina and Ma’a Nonu standing beside him, with Graham Henry and Wayne Smith up at the front grinning like Cheshire Cats. We were this close!
• The enormous number of people lining the route from Civic Square to Parliament – 10 deep in many places – all singing and dancing and cheering, waving flags and home-made banners, all unbelievably excited to be part of this little piece of history. And all of us grinning like loonies as we marched and played ahead of that final ute, knowing that we were on the biggest stage of our lives, and loving every minute of it. 100,000 people – that’s half the population of Wellington – and the All Blacks too. What an experience!
• About halfway along the parade route, as the crowds pushed ever-closer to see their heroes and our progress slowed to crawl, we caught up with the ute in front of us, on which, amongst others, stood Ali Williams. Well, when I say “stood”, he wasn’t actually standing still, he was dancing – to us! Cool! Darren was directing us and turned to see Ali getting his groove on, so he walked up to the back of the ute and handed Ali his drumstick, motioning him to take over directing duties for a while. Awesome! I doubt if Darren will ever part with that particular drumstick. I wonder if he sleeps with it under his pillow. Tee hee.
• Looking up at one point to see dozens and dozens of people looking down on us from the roof terrace of one of Wellington’s many tall buildings, waving and cheering as the All Blacks passed by. Nudging Angie who was playing caixa next to me, so that she would look up and see them too. There literally wasn’t a spare seat in the house that day.
• Marching through the gates of Parliament and seeing the slopes of the Parliament grounds absolutely covered with thousands of fans, all cheering and yelling for their team – and then coming round the corner up the steep pathway towards the Beehive and gulping as the view opened up before us, the slopes on either side of the path crammed with people, the Beehive behind them, its balconies also filled with cheering onlookers, and everyone’s going completely mental as they catch their first glimpse of the final ute behind us…

What a day!

Fame at last
Photo by Aaron McKirdy (click to enlarge)

Here’s some of the media coverage:

100,000 fans scream for All Blacks – Wellington goes wild for boys in black

- and check out the video All Blacks celebration hits Wellington – you can hear us from 1:42 onwards and you get a little glimpse of us drumming behind Ali William’s float at 2:51.

Live blog

12.22pm: I just got a pat on the head from Graham Henry – he said it was “going great”. The ticker tape is flowing. The band Batacuda has now started up and the noise is deafening.

12.33pm: There are no barriers on Willis St and the crowd is pushing up against the trailers as people clamour to touch the All Blacks. It’s pretty intense. There are barriers on Lambton Quay where the last truck is turning into.

The three girls who lined up from 8.30am are still on their bench. Alicia Murden said she stared into the eyes of Israel Dagg. Maddie Barnett said she touched Dan Carter and screamed with excitement.

The crowd is going crazy and dancing to Batucada.
Dominion Post, 26 October 2011

Wellington on a high for ABs

The players were towed from Civic Square on five black trailers emblazoned with the words “Thank You New Zealand”.

Local hero Piri Weepu, clutching his one-year-old daughter Keira, danced to Brazilian drummers Batucada then grabbed a microphone to perform as the impromptu “MC Piri Weeps”.

“We love you Wellington,” he shouted.
Dominion Post, 27 October 2011

All Blacks victory parade sets record in Wellington

You can hear us from 1:26 onwards and we’re featured at 1:34 for a few seconds. W00t!

TV3 video, 26 October 2011

Screenshot of Wellington Batucada on the telly (click to enlarge)

All Blacks parade takes place in Wellington

We’re in this one as well – also at 1:34. Don’t we look happy!

TV3 video, 26 October 2011

Fans fill the capital to celebrate World Cup win

Check out the RAW VIDEO: All Blacks victory parade – you can hear us through quite a lot of it – from 1:26 onwards, from 2:54 onwards, from 3:37 onwards, playing samba from 5:26 onwards and samba reggae from 5:59 onwards.

TVNZ video, 26 October 2011

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Well OK, our awesome All Blacks did it – but I’d like to think the stadium of 4 million may have helped just a little…

Wellington Batucada has been honoured to play our own small (and loud) part in the Rugby World Cup 2011, and we’ve had an absolute ball performing as part of Wellington’s Festival of Carnivale. The fans have been fabulous, the games have been thrilling, and the end result couldn’t have been more exciting if it’d been written as a Hollywood movie.

Those last 10 minutes – oh my gosh – talk about tense! In case you’ve forgotten what it felt like, here’s a wonderful video by Jared Brandon Productions that’s been making the rounds – focusing on the fans watching the final in central Auckland:

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This photo says it all, really…

Pied Pipers at the Rugby World Cup 2011
Photo by Paul Redican (click to enlarge)

…but here’s another one anyway because Tim’s looking very smiley here:

Batucada (with a smiling Tim) at the Rugby World Cup 2011
Photo by Paul Redican (click to enlarge)

…and one more for good luck:

The Wellington Batucada crew at the end of the parade
Photo by Geoff Infield (click to enlarge)

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The New Zealand vs Canada Fanzone-to-stadium parade – notable for the enormous fake beards (at least, I assume they were fake!) worn by some of the Canadian fans, and the fact that this was Wellington’s one and only All Blacks game during the World Cup.

Oh – and also that our semi-official photographer, Geoff Infield, deserted us halfway through the parade to take pictures of the Air Force Red Checkers aerobatics display.

Ah well – we had fun even without ya, Geoff!

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It was cold and wet for our Cuba Mall gig, which was a pity, as Cuba Street is something of a spiritual home for Wellington Batucada and we love playing there.

So cold and wet, in fact, that our normally staunch dancers ditched their flimsy costumes and performed in their normal streetwear instead.

So cold and wet, in fact, that this may well go down in the Batucada archives as one of our briefest appearances ever – not much longer than 10 minutes by all accounts.

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