Foxwood Steel at Manchester Carnival Sunday 2017

And here we are again, at Manchester. Today we are again me, Debs, Sheeks, Sophie, Wanda, Fehmina, with Guest Pippa. We have lost Gary and gained Charlotte.

with Liz and percussionists

And today, yippee, we meet Liz from Unison again, who is backing percussion for as long as she can leave the stall.

We have a dinky little stage on the grass and we can play from 2pm for as long as we like. We played our hour long set with as much enthusiasm as we could muster, we have finished off poor Varshika who has offered to play kit today for us, not her usual instrument, but she is still in the top five with all those who can actually play, and not those of us who can just keep a beat.

Wanda decided to change into her vest [on stage!] 

The trouble is, and it's not confined to Manchester Carnival. It is just a competition: who can be the loudest. And a sound system plus person with microphone wins. We abandon all our subtle static tunes and belt out all the loud and fast [and old] ones.

2015 film-maker looking for steelband at Carnival

With our support Damien is trying hard to keep the authentic in Carnival. (two years ago, a film-maker came up,to us, saying Oh my dears, I have been thinking where are the steelbands, and here you are. [Yes, we were, yes we are.) 

We gathered a nice big little audience; we gave the kids tambourines and woodblocks and we had joyful moments.

with percussionists

Now, how to get back to Leeds. Wanda was our metaphorical flag waver. When she came across the police horses, they suggested that she moved out of the way of the van behind, "Neigh", she replied, "I am asking you!" lol and more lol. We're thinking hi viz vests. 

Foxwood Steel play Manchester Carnival 2017 on da Float Saturday

Earlier this year I gave a presentation on the Carnival Conference at Leeds Beckett on the Importance of steelbands at Carnival. I made four main points:

1. That Carnival is not Carnival without steelbands, and really this should mean not just the one.
2. That steelbands in the early days of the UK Carnivals (70s, 80s, early nineties) were more numerous, but today they are an endangered species.
3. Running a steelband is already a magnum opus, but combined with h and s rules (some sensible, some over the top), the marginalisation of music and the arts in education, the power of the sound systems, it is even more difficult.
4. And really the pay, if any, doesn't match the time and effort put in.

So, I take my hat off to Damien from Manchester who has, over the past decade or maybe more, fought for the inclusion of steelbands in Manchester Carnival. When he first contacted us and put us on a float, we were one of five steelbands on floats. The last few years it has only been us, and we have also played in the arena (as in the centre of Alexandra Park)

dragon deflated after leading the parade

I use the word "fought" advisably, but am not elaborating today. 

photographer being photographed

From my point of view, it is very hard, getting our bands together for these all important summer Carnival gigs. Besides players we need drivers. Besides transporting people we need to transport pans. As for getting together to rehearse, impossible. We have to use old core tunes, and add fresh ones where we can. 

easiest songbook

Way back in the 80s and 90s I devised this system of notation; I named Foxwood Songsheets after the school where its need became apparent and I dedicated it to the late and astonishing Jan Holdstock who pointed me in this direction.

With the songsheets the less able are able, and the amazingly able can sight-read amazingly hard tunes. (Or, in Gary's case, sight-read the bass lines for Wings of a Dove, and on triple basses that he has never played before!). In short, for a band on the road, a big repertoire, and all the more interesting to play for all that. 

Where's Sophie off?

This year we have our same lovely driver, Tony; we are the only steelband; we are the lead float. Tony asks, have you got a full complement this year? What does he mean?

in the park waiting to set off

We are a full band this year including Number One Drummer [and Number Four, or whatever she is in the rankings this week]. Nine players. Luckily not a big truck. Unluckily Unison is not able to be with us today ( and that's a long story not for here).

posing in the sun afterwards

on the A62. Lol

So I come over in the van with Fehmina and Gary taking the A62; Wanda setting off an hour or so later (lol) can zoom along the M62 with Sheeks, Sophie and Natalie. Pippa lives in Sale and brings herself on the bus. Debs is on the train from Huddersfield. 

It's all about the Money, Money, Money!

Half way along the parade we lose a laminated copy of MoneyMoneyMoney; next minute Sophie has jumped off the truck and gangling along the road to retrieve it. 

We get filmed for this, as we always are, and Pippa later finds the footage. It's not too bad at all. Recording a moving band from a distance with half the band facing the other way . . . 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNmjHsxzPw

The dragon extended to lead the parade

This parade takes 3 and 1/4 hours. OMG! No tune gets played more than three times. We had decided to drop Clocks till it is revamped, but towards the tired end of this route, I shout It's 3 o'clock and point to my watch. Clocks? Shouts Sheeks, and we do it in relief that this is only the once.

I stand next to Gary so that  for any song that he has absolutely never played the tune for before, he and I can swop. Well, he played bass at school, and you can tell! And I loved the change.

Everyone else goes back to Leeds (and Huddersfield); I take my precious cargo and stay with Pippa, so we will ready and fresh for Round Two in the arena on Sunday. We write out tunes and pan and piano all evening. Ace.

waiting for the lights

Foxwood Steel plays Manchester Carnival Saturday

In our new van free world we are pleased that this is a small steelband again. We are me (Victoria), Bex, Vicky, Fehmina, George, Wanda, Chloe W.


But we have a secret weapon, namely Manchester Unison, Black Members Section, who are are our percussion, dance and decorating section. (Also Unison have just gone public supporting a new old style left wing Labour party, which makes me even more proud to be associated with them.) Unison are Liz, Sonya, plus.

We take our eight pieces of pan and kit in three cars; George arrives from Birmingham on a train; Fehmina already in Manchester; the rest of us drive over from Leeds. Getting in and out of the park is its usual fraughtness. 

The float is the lead float again. Excellent. With scaffolding again. Excellent. We play our tunes a few times over in the next three and a bit hours. I ask Liz Unison, after two hours how close are we to the end. Not close enough she says. We are exhausted, but that is Carnival!

The usual stuck in the park happens now. We load up my car up to the brim, then it's over the fence for the rest into Vicky and Wanda's cars.  Well it would be, then Mr Jobsworth calls over and says It's against the rules. As the police had not stopped us passing our own equipment over the to the street, we opine that we don't really have an option.

It all gets a bit heated, then we agree to stop.

And wait till he is out of sight and get the last three over, then Wanda and Vicky can drive the others off back to Leeds, and I brace for the four hour wait till I can move my car.

Fehmina and I chill for a bit with Matt and his mate, then I settle down with tea and chips from Ifty who is helping his mates with his mates Fish and Chips van.

Read my book, take a walk, brave the toilets, talk a walk around the area, which by now is just competing sounds and pointless expensive bubble guns.

Read more pages of This Changes Everything.

At 8.15 I drive v slowly and quietly to near the arena [I can feel myself not breathing aloud]where all the other cars will spend the night. A steward stops me as I park and tells me I can't move now. Fortunately I have already moved as far as I need. Ifty says he will keep an eye out on my car for me.

I walk to Manchester Oxford Road, in my usual can't wait at a bus stop, oh there's an 85 going past, says Piccadilly on the front! Oh well, nice evening for a walk.

At Oxford Road someone finds a ticket for Leeds, hears that I am going to Leeds, gives me gratis a ticket for Leeds. This is such a nice thing to happen that I feel good all the way home.

Back home at 10.30, that was a long day but more restful by train. And tomorrow is another day at Manchester Carnival, so rested is a good thing.