The day began well for most, early to rise, ready for a quick rehearsal of marching steps and then on to the parade. Some of us, well just myself and two banner holders, were ungraciously late because of unfortunate errors in judgement of the previous evening about just how much alcohol might be too much.
Arriving just in the nick of time, I was lucky enough to catch the dulcet tones of the Melbourne Rainbow Band’s marching contingent finishing up rehearsal in the park, otherwise I probably would have been lost in the wonderful spectacle that is Pride.
Hundreds of costumed, painted, sunglassed, hair extensioned, wigged, wobbly gays running about makes for a difficult (but very lovable) crowd to move through quickly. After some well earned refreshments, our very tanned, muscled and underpants wearing team took off. Oops, sorry they were Asian marching boys… we can but dream.
After some well earned refreshments the blue team with instruments firing on all cylinders took off down Fitzroy St in an effort to wow the crowd (which we totally did on so many levels). The band did encounter several problems though. The wind meant that at certain times we were all guesstimating a certain section of New York, New York. The sheer brilliance of our instruments were like disco balls, sending fractions of light into the crowd and onto ourselves, resulting in tiny moments of blindness. And well, lucky there were security guards there to keep the hoards of screaming gay and lesbian lovers from jumping us then and there… ok so I’ve made that bit up entirely.
Overall it was an excellent the day. The weather was beautiful (apart from the wind), the crowd cheered, we played well thanks to the wonderful Pramote who, as always, led us with style and panache, and when we reached the end we were all smiling so much we played on in the gardens under palm trees. This may have been to try and lure some police officers to join our ranks, as we played Police Academy just for them, with each of us trying to give alluring looks whilst still play properly and not look a fool (so far, I don’t think it worked).
At the end of the day a great many people came and gave us hugs and congratulations which is always most welcome and overall we had a fabulous day!
By Lara H (Trombone)
The day began well for most, early to rise, ready for a quick rehearsal of marching steps and then on to the parade. Some of us, well just myself and two banner holders, were ungraciously late because of unfortunate errors in judgement of the previous evening about just how much alcohol might be too much.
Arriving just in the nick of time, I was lucky enough to catch the dulcet tones of the Melbourne Rainbow Band’s marching contingent finishing up rehearsal in the park, otherwise I probably would have been lost in the wonderful spectacle that is Pride.
Hundreds of costumed, painted, sunglassed, hair extensioned, wigged, wobbly gays running about makes for a difficult (but very lovable) crowd to move through quickly. After some well earned refreshments, our very tanned, muscled and underpants wearing team took off. Oops, sorry they were Asian marching boys… we can but dream.
After some well earned refreshments the blue team with instruments firing on all cylinders took off down Fitzroy St in an effort to wow the crowd (which we totally did on so many levels). The band did encounter several problems though. The wind meant that at certain times we were all guesstimating a certain section of New York, New York. The sheer brilliance of our instruments were like disco balls, sending fractions of light into the crowd and onto ourselves, resulting in tiny moments of blindness. And well, lucky there were security guards there to keep the hoards of screaming gay and lesbian lovers from jumping us then and there… ok so I’ve made that bit up entirely.
Overall it was an excellent the day. The weather was beautiful (apart from the wind), the crowd cheered, we played well thanks to the wonderful Pramote who, as always, led us with style and panache, and when we reached the end we were all smiling so much we played on in the gardens under palm trees. This may have been to try and lure some police officers to join our ranks, as we played Police Academy just for them, with each of us trying to give alluring looks whilst still play properly and not look a fool (so far, I don’t think it worked).
At the end of the day a great many people came and gave us hugs and congratulations which is always most welcome and overall we had a fabulous day!
By Lara H (Trombone)
Comments on this entry are closed.