Andy Bilham

15 June 2004 10:42

Samba hits St. Ives in September

Hi!
 
Just discovered your wonderful publication, and thought you might be interested in hearing about a 3 day Brazilian samba festival which is to hit St. Ives from Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th September.
 
We have music, costume and dance workshops up at the Beacon School, thanks in no small part to RTZ and his team, we have loads of busking around the town, and 2 evening performances in the Guildhall on the Friday and Saturday nights.  To top this, we aim to put the 12 Cornish youth bands, 3 Cornish community bands (including Dave Brotherton and 'Samba Kernow') and 14 visiting bands from England together on Porthmeor beach on the Sunday at 2,00 pm to link with other samba players (sambistas) all over the world from Brazil to New Zealand to try and beat the World Record for the 'Largest Simultaneous Percussion Performance', which currently stands at 10,102 performers.
 
More details of the whole event can be found at www.encontro-atlantico04.org.uk including how to et involved in the World Record Attempt.
 
Do email me andy.bilham@lycos.co.uk for a chat about the event.  We hope that St.Ives will welcome all our visitors for the weekend and give them a weekend of music and fun to remember.
 
Andy Bilham - Event Organiser

Vile Jelly

16 June 2004 08:53

Sounds fascinating if possibly fraught with difficulties.
 
F'rinstance; how you are proposing to get all those people (and drums) into St Ives and then on to 'Meor on what, I presume, will be the last weekend of the skool summer hols? [For the benefit of the uninitiated - If you've seen the battle scenes in the LOTR films that should give you some idea of what the town (and beaches) are like at that time of year!] Maybe if you arranged the big performance for 2am rather than 2pm you'd have more of a fighting chance of getting onto the beach. Failing that, perhaps you could borrow some of those landing craft from the D-Day bash and re-create a Samba version of the opening scenes from Saving Ryan's Privates!
 
Oh and don't forget to bring some spare electricity with you as a back-up just in case. Judged on past experiences I think St. Ives is ultimately all plugged into one multi-socket adaptor somewhere up the A30.
 
And don't forget to ensure balloons actually inflate before attempting any world records!
 
I'll no doubt be skivvying up t'Castle when it happens but I'll cheer you on from the heights. Hell, if the wind's in the direction I should be able to hear you from the heights. If you do requests can you please play on behalf of all the St Ives unfortunates working in the tourist trade the classic - [That's The Sound Of The Men Working On The] Chain Gang.

Andy Bilham

16 June 2004 09:16

HI Paul
 
Fraught with difficulties yes, but we have a cunning plan!
 
We don't need new-fangled leccie, we are all acoustical - hit it and hope, I believe is the expression!
 
We have allowed 3 hours to get everyone onto the beach, so a steady trickle is intended (that's just from my poor overloaded brain), rather than a mass inpouring at 1.55 pm.  I rather like your idea of landing  craft tho' - would be dramatic, what with the skirl of the pipes and the crash of the drums (as they disappear into the surf) etc.  Only request we will consider is that famous Brazilian toon "Will You Please Shut The Hell Up" - sorry can't remember the Brazilian translation.  We'll wave at the Castle to you (all 600+ of us)
 
Regards
 
Andy B

Vile Jelly

16 June 2004 17:15

Yes, I realised your drumkits worked manually. I was thinking more of your link with all the other bongo-bashers around the globe. Presumably you're not co-ordinating the attempt by post!
 
Wouldn't it be the bagpipers who'd be in trouble when you hit the water as the drums would float? Once you got to the beach you could act as beaters and drive the ems onto the gun emplacements on the Island.
 
I'll keep an eye out for you up t'Castle. If you're waving I'll be the one in the restaurant with the stupid hat on. Which one will you be on the beach?

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