Thames Festival Sunday 14th September 2008

pictures

LONDON, 20.12, was about the time we finished the Thames Festival Night Parade.

Another first for Toque Tambor, fifty band members and supporters boarded the coach early Sunday afternoon to venture down to that London to take part in the Grand Finale of the annual Mayor’s Thames Festival.

We joined forces with a great group of kids from Hillmead Primary School in Brixton. They danced their socks off, and even played drums with us, during the (almost) 2 hour parade along the Embankment from Waterloo to Blackfriars Bridge, over the Thames and back down to the National Theatre.

At one point in the proceedings we noticed a big woolly sheep passing by, only to realise later that this was Boris (the mayor of London)

The streets were packed with thousands of onlookers.

Some were doing the typically British imitation of a statue, not daring to move a muscle as this mile long procession belted out all sorts of carnival music, accompanied by fabulous costumes and dancers from around the World. Most, however, were cheering and dancing along as we played samba, funk and our favourite Marcha to a very appreciative and vocal audience.

It was probably our finest parade to date, and everyone in the band thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing in this great event, and also warming up before the parade, alongside other Samba groups, in an atmosphere of Sambista friendship and support.

The evening finished with a well earned wet refreshment, and a spectacular firework display (which, I assume was laid on to celebrate Toque Tambor’s amazing performance !!) before a weary crew made their way back to Hertfordshire in the capable hands of our driver, Paul, who says he wants to drive on our next outing too (Didn’t have the heart to tell him it’s RIO !!) It just gets better …………….

Hot from our fabulous weekend at Rhythms of the World, Toque Tambor took a small band of about 18 players to WOMAD, for our first visit to the WOMAD festival at its new venue in Charlton park, Wiltshire.

A few of us ventured down to enjoy the whole weekend, to chill and take in some great performances from the likes of Sharon Shannon, Bedouin Jerry Can Band, Dengue Fever and believe it or not …………… Monobloco, who put on a fabulous show and were one of the highlights of the weekend for the many thousands attending.

On the Sunday we took part in the afternoon parade, and whilst some of us had been on site for a couple of days by then, Dave and Olly arrived about ten minutes before the off – and left almost as soon as we had finished. Two hours of driving, a 45 minute parade in incredible heat and two hours back home again – True commitment ………….or True Madness!

The parade was a great success with the crowd dancing, cheering and clapping us all the way. One very nice lady appeared to offer J P a full plate of food half way around, but actually she was asking him to take a booking for the band whilst he was still directing us.
Unfortunately JP was not carrying his laptop at the time – how forgetful.

Another success for TT in what is probably our best year yet for gigs.

See you at the Thames River Festival on Sunday 14th September for the Night Carnival

Click for videos, pictures or audio of the show.

Rhythms of the World moved to it’s new site in the grounds of the Priory for this year’s festival, and what a great move it proved to be. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, and the true fans of Rhythms enjoyed a weekend unspoilt by incident, in an arena virtually free from rubbish.

By Sunday afternoon the crowd were settled, enjoying their picnics and quietly passing a very pleasant day. To say the place was chilled is an understatement. Chilled, that is, until 6.30pm, when Toque Tambor took to the main stage with their friends from Rio, Monobloco.

The crowd was cheering, screaming, applauding and generally going wild – and all we had done was walk on stage!

We kicked off with our introduction, Abertura. (We’ve learnt over the years that the best place for an introduction is at the start of the set). We sounded great, and we felt great on stage. This audience was up for a big, big show and that’s what we gave them.

The music was tight, the swing was even swingier than a swing, the bateria played probably their best ever, and the guys from Monobloco were having a mad party on stage.

Our dancers joined us for some samba. Romero, with a surprise (and surprised) partner, Delsha, came on for E Baiana and their feet were moving faster than the dials on a petrol pump. Then the full troupe came on stage for E Hoje and gave a fabulous debut stage performance, which the audience loved.

That was followed by Antonio spinning his pandeiros (five at a time at one point) and really getting the crowd involved in the show.

We closed the set with a stomping version of Taj Mahal, Fio Maravilha and Pais Tropical.

The crowd were amazing.

SO …………. We formed up again and did an impromtu gig in amongst them, leading a Pied Piper like trail through the festival site towards the South corner of the arena.

Another 20 minutes was just about all the band could muster after the efforts on stage, but the crowd would have danced all night.

What a show, what an audience! The band was brilliant, Monobloco had a ball, the dancers were amazing and Antonio had us all in a spin. A fabulous show and a fabulous experience.

If you saw us, why not come and join us. If you didn’t then, in the inimitable words of the Australian Tourist Board ….”Where the bloody hell were you ???”

Check out some of the pictures and here's a clip on the aould youtube

We had a great start to our year with a trip to Dublin, to play in the St Patrick’s Day Parade with our new friends, MaSamba, the city’s top samba band. If you’ve ever been to Dublin you’ll appreciate that words like sleep, rest, and sobriety are not commonly used terms. We rehearsed hard for two days with MaSamba and with three guys from Monobloco. We then felt obliged to party hard in various Dublin hostelries, taking in some samba, some diddly-dee (traditional Irish!) music and a generous amount of the local brew. We survived to take part in the parade on the Monday, playing to a crowd lining the streets of 670,000 people, plus a few dogs and a cat. The parade was more of a gallop at times but what a great experience for the band.

Click for Pictures or Video

As soon as the Dublin parade finished (literally) we ran to the coach for a desperate drive to Ardee – we were over an hour late setting off and a “No-Show” at Ardee would have cost us dearly – but in true showbiz fashion we parked up the coach just as the final “float” was moving off. Running from the coach, some of us still getting our costumes on, Toque Tambor set off at the back of the parade and played our little hearts out for JP in his home town. Tears flowed as his dad met up with his prodigal son (we all assume they were tears of joy, but we never have discovered why JP left Ardee in the first place, and it could well be that his dad was upset!). Ardee had never witnessed anything like TT before and the locals were left so stunned they inadvertantly invited us to return next year… For the band it was the bestest gig we’ve ever played.

We were invited once again to play at the Mas Camp, held as the official start of preparations for Luton Carnival (which we eventually missed due to a third year of heavy rain – well actually we only missed it ‘cos it was raining on the day – it hadn’t been raining non-stop in Luton for three whole years). We were joined by Mariana, dancing samba in one of her many delightful costumes, but failing totally to distract one young lad in the audience from his GameBoy. He’ll learn…

One of our longest serving (but certainly not one of our oldest) members, Lucy was married on 26th April to Simon. TT played as the newlyweds had photos taken and then we led the wedding party through Hitchin High Street, to their wedding lunch. Lucy’s poor dad offered to buy all the band a drink – I’m sure he didn’t realise how many of us were there! - but it was much appreciated on a very special day for both the happy couple and the band.

We were close to being rained off for this gig too, and in order to get the parade of cubs and scouts inside St Mary’s church before the rain came (when I was a scout we never sheltered from rain), Toque Tambor set a new world record for the parade, finishing in a time of just under 15 minutes. Bring on the Olympics!

Playing for the first time at Buntingford carnival, and for the first time with our very own dancers, we put on two stage shows, a workshop and took part in the festival street parade.

Just a week after Buntingford and again we put on two stage performances to wow the crowds. Another first time visit for TT, we hope to continue playing new venues.

Our spiritual home, RotW is the breeding ground (sorry that doesn’t sound right!) main recruiting gig for new members. TT was formed out of RotW and, after the event every year, we start a new group for beginners with a free workshop for the band, and (for the first time, this year) for the dance group too. In the past we have always paraded, and traditionally opened up each of the stages around the town. Last year we put on a huge parade with about 150 people including the band, joined by Monobloco, carnival characters in costume, dancers, street entertainers and singers. Then we joined Monobloco on stage in their headline show on the Saturday evening (TT was the first group outside Brasil to play with Monobloco on stage). This year, with Rhythms moving from the town centre to a new venue, we were not able to parade but, in a reversal of roles, Monobloco are joining TT in our Stage show. That’s followed, believe it or not, by a party. Apart from putting on great performances TT members are not averse to a bit of a jolly now and again.

Another first for this year, Toque Tambor are parading at WOMAD on the Sunday 27th. Also there will be performances form Monobloco and Los Rumberos de Cuba.

We hope this will be the first of many visits to WOMAD and other major festivals.

The good times continue as we take part in the brighly lit night parade alongside the Thames, at the end of what is always a great musical and carnival weekend in the heart of our Capital City. Yet another first for us. As I said at the beginning, we’ve had an eventful year, and it’s not over yet.

Yes, although about 3 years ago we had a riot on our hands if we ventured more than ten miles from Hicthin, you can see from our busy calendar this year that distance is not an object when TT are asked to play. We hope that a small group of us will make it to Rio Carnaval in February 2009, where a few may be invited to play with Monobloco on stage in the home of Samba. Not bad for a group that started as an offshoot of Rhythms, just as a bit of fun.

It’s still great fun, and Toque Tambor are now amongst the finest exponents of Samba music in the UK. We continue to look for more local, national and international gigs, but continue to support local events like the Christmas fair in Ware, and hopefully next year return to playing the annual Vasakhi parade with the local Sikh community in Hitchin. 

We are starting a new joint venture in September, with a Salsa dance group, running Latin Carnaval party nights at Que Pasa in Hitchin, and we will continue to run workshops both for potential new members and for social or corporate groups who “just want to have a go”.

If you want to “have a go” at playing or dancing with Toque Tambor, you’ve already found us on our website, now come and find us for real at our dance classes every Monday at Que Pasa in Hitchin, or our band rehearsals every Tuesday at the Ravidassia Centre in Hitchin. I look forward to seeing you.


Bob Brogan

Chairman