A 150 strong Batucada percussion band sounds so awesome!

So awesome that the audience could hardly hear the choir. But don’t worry, I have a work around that.

Luckily Sunday turned out to be a sunny day, after a week full of rain. I headed into town and got to Cuba Street a bit before 2.30pm. Found a couple of other choir members near the Swan stage, but since we had a good half hour before sound check, went off for a bit of a wander.

First I wandered up to 174 Cuba St where we used to have our sifty green and purple bike shop from 1991 to 2000. You might remember the photo of a very young @sift666 outside it, from my 10 truths, 1 lie reveal post.

It’s now a barber shop, so I took a photo:

I wandered back towards the Swan stage, but wasn’t that keen on the band playing there. Their style was described as Gypsy Party Punk, and everybody else seemed to think they were fab, but they somehow didn’t gel for me. So I carried on to the Glover Park stage where a band called Hillbilly Goats, from Australia, were just starting. Their style was Appalachian with a twist, and I liked their groove a bit more.

My photo of them, showing their cool costumes and the little kids dancing in front.

I also found a Youtube video of them playing on Saturday, for your entertainment:

Pretty soon, it was time to return to the Swan stage for our sound check. The choir, vocalist, keyboards and brass were set up on the stage. Alda was looking stunning and we were all colours of the rainbow, as usual. The drummers were to be on the ground in front us, and the dancers in front of them.

Once everything was setup, we had a run through of Bandeira Branca for a vocal warm up. And then, we could hear the band as they came down Cuba Street, approaching the stage. They sounded amazing! This video is of them coming down the street. (1 min 12)

First to come into view were the samba dancers, who passed on front of the stage, and then moved forward for the band to come in behind them. They played on their own as they came into place and into formation. This next video is them coming into the performance area. You get the occasional glimpse of the choir at the left of the screen, behind them. (3 min 46)

The compere introduced us all, and we were away! The one slight problem was that the above stage mics didn’t pick up the choir enough to be heard properly above the band, but Alda could be heard, which was the main thing.

I’ve been holding off with this post in the hope that a video of the rest of the performance would come online, but no luck. What I did find however was a video of one of our rehearsals with just the Wellington band. This was put on Youtube so that the other bands could see how the drumming they were learning would fit in with the singing.

Normally we’re not permitted to put rehearsal videos on social media, but in this case, it’s in the public domain already so I think it’s ok. The main pro of this is that there’s only the one band, so you can actually hear us singing. The con is that it was one of the early rehearsals, so there are a few hairy bits. Bear in mind we got more polished as time went on! (17 mins)

Maybe at some stage we'll do a performance with just the Wellington band - something to look forward to.

Our next gig is less than 2 weeks away. As part of the commemoration of the sinking of the Wahine in Wellington Harbour, 50 years ago, we'll be singing some songs from 1968 in the Wellington Railway Station.

Thanks for reading and listening

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