On Tuesday 22 October we were part of the 100-year celebrations of the PSA (Public Service Association) parading from the Cenotaph to the grounds of Parliament, then performing in front of Parliament after the speeches.
We were really honoured to have been invited to play at such an important celebration day for the PSA, and we had a ball. Continue reading
We were really honoured to have been invited to feature at the Whanganui Festival of Cultures this year. I think it’s the first time we’ve been up to Whangers as a band, and we had a completely brilliant weekend.
It’s quite a drive from Wellington, so we booked a couple of mini-buses (with trailers) to take the majority of the band up there together. Just like a school trip! Fun! Especially when you get to play “Boat, goat, float” (with a side order of “Horse”) on the journey. Continue reading
Oh wait… we do that all the time (run wild through the streets of Wellington, that is…)
Bikes and skateboards, rollerblades, scooters and pedestrians will take over Dixon and Lower Cuba Streets as part of Wellington’s – and the country’s – inaugural Open Street Sunday on 22 September.
The event, being run by Greater Wellington Regional Council in partnership with Living Streets Aotearoa and local businesses, coincides with International Car Free Day.
Open Street Sunday is modelled on Open Streets held around the world, where vehicles are excluded from suburban and CBD streets to enable people to enjoy car-free streets.
Scoop, 13 September 2013
We’d been asked to open Open Street Sunday (for want of a better phrase!) and so an enthusiastic group of us showed up at the appointed hour to play. It had been a big weekend – the massive gig at The Grand was the night before, but you can’t keep a good drummer down, so here we were once again. Continue reading
We knew this one was shaping up to be a good-un. A confirmed audience of 1000, a great venue, and a crowd that was very likely to have a love of, and an appreciation for, music from South America. 23 members of Batucada playing – a “large small group” of some of the more experienced players in the band.
For this kind of gig you simply have to have a warm-up/practice beforehand. We play so much better when we’re warmed up a little – and with an audience as enthusiastic as this one, it was vital.
We had decided that a good place for a quick 15 minutes of playing was down in Waitangi Park (as we had no indoor practice venue that we could use) – within walking distance of The Grand on Courtenay Place, decent parking nearby (no small consideration on a Saturday night in town when you’ve got heavy drums to lug around), not too close to any apartments – and hopefully if our sound did carry a bit, anyone living nearby would be used to a certain level of weekend noise, seeing as they live in the CBD. However, the best laid plans and all that, and we did actually wake someone up, which was unfortunate. We’re very sorry!
Having quickly completed our run-through, we headed off to The Grand, which is a fantastic old brick building on multiple floors in the middle of Courtenay Place. The place was packed, and we could hear the DJ spinning some mad Latin choons upstairs. Once we were all sorted and ready to go, we headed upstairs and gathered outside the doors of the main dancefloor area, drumming along with the music being played by the DJ. The room was jammed – and it took quite a while for us to work our way through the crowds and onto the stage. Only enough room on the actual stage for our line of surdos (who looked awesome up there!) with the repiniques on a riser off to one side – and the rest of us in two rows, one behind the other, in front of the stage – in the amount of space normally reserved for a single row. It was certainly a squash – and the audience couldn’t have been closer! Continue reading
What can we say about the Hastings Blossom Festival?
We go every year, we love it – it’s like an annual school trip for the band, we get to stay over and hang out at the marae and do daft party-piece performances for each other, and best of all, we get to hang out with sambaistas from some of the other batteria around the country and perform together in the Blossom Festival parade. What’s not to like? Continue reading
We had a brilliant time down on the waterfront before the Bledisloe Cup game. We were invited to lead the fans from Queen’s Wharf along the waterfront to the stadium, Pied Piper style – a bit like what we did for the World Cup games.
After sending a few drummers off to various parts of the fan trail to drum up support, we gathered under the sails for a short impromptu gig-ette, and then headed off down the waterfront with a large contingent of fans following along behind. Once at the Stadium we played a few more numbers for the fans heading along the walkway to the game, then most of us headed back along the waterfront to find somewhere good to watch the game – pausing for a quick jam with our friends Niko Ne Zna on the way. Continue reading
Relay for Life is an amazing event, with an incredibly loving, giving, and celebratory atmosphere. We were really honoured to have been asked to take part, and to lead the cancer survivors and their caregivers around the track for the first lap of the 24-hour relay.
From the Relay for Life website:
Relay For Life is an inspiring community event that gives everyone a chance to celebrate cancer survivors and caregivers; remember loved ones lost to cancer; and fight back by raising awareness and funds to support the work of the Cancer Society. Relay For Life is for people of all ages and fitness levels. Anyone can take part!
Team members walk and jog through the night, symbolising the fact that cancer never sleeps. However, people taking part may come and go as they like.
Our Brazilian friends had set up a Footvolley Championship on the beach at Oriental Bay, and asked us if we’d come and play to open the competition. We were delighted to do so.
We gathered at the beachside on Oriental Parade and watched the footvolley teams warming up and going through their paces. It’s such a skilled sport, requiring some serious foot-eye co-ordination, very fast and athletic. It’s fascinating to watch.
Then it was our turn to provide some early afternoon entertainment before the tournament matches began. It’s surprisingly hard to do our choreographed stepping on sand, but in such a beautiful setting, and on such a gorgeous day, with a lineup of footvolley players very keen and eager to be our dancers for the afternoon, it was a pleasure: Continue reading
The Newtown Fair is always awesome to be a part of. It’s vibrant, noisy, multicultural, jam-packed, and has the maddest, most celebratory atmosphere you can imagine.
This year, for some reason, that jam-packed madness was multiplied 10-fold, and we had one of the best parades I think we’ve EVER done.
We were planning to parade down the full length of the Fair in one direction, and then turn around and parade all the way back again in the other direction. Based on previous experience, we estimated it would take us between 30 minutes and an hour.
Boy, were we wrong this year.
It took us an hour and a half to get most of the way through the Fair in one direction – and we didn’t even attempt to turn round and go back the other way, there were just too many people!
It was quite, quite, mad. At times we’d be standing still, playing, rather than parading and playing, because the sheer number of people dancing in front of us (into the hundreds) meant we couldn’t go anywhere!
Completely brilliant. At the end we said a noisy (and rhythmic) farewell to Ang, who’s heading off back home to Ireland. We’ll miss you!
What a wonderful day.
Newtown Festival, Wellington 2013 – video by Benjamin Humphrey
