Back on the field again
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…