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No Sweat - SAMBA HITS OXFORD STREET [see the pictures]
With a delayed start due to uninvited company, we were left rushing to Speakers Corner - 1 hour late and feeling a bit disorganised, but ready to bring on the carnival spirit, bringing the unexpected, encouraging people to question everything.
The police had already had a chat with the Carnival Forum saying that the bus couldn't pass through Oxford Street, and after a quick jam and play, we were informed that our conditions for trying to bring a creative vibe to a consumer space were that we must not stop and no obstructing the road. That was quite some request considering that the pathements are busy and that it was a 40+ strong samba band. We did it anyway while an affinity group took to the back roads, dodging police and winding up in a cafe to dump the drums. There was a quick discussion, the flyer was read out to the camera, a deep breath, and they were off in 2s and 3s headed for Nike town. They'd found suitable objects in the shop to use as instruments (the sofa, boxes, shelves), and using their drumsticks they got straight into the groove, with a call of 'Fuck Nike' in the break. Flyers were distributed that were encouraging others to reappropriate these mass produced objects that are ploughed at us. "Conform and Consume? Resist and Create."
The undercover security, dressed in the sweated for Nike costumes, were on them in moments and one sambista landed up with a nasty cut and bruise to the hip and a grazed elbow when he was thrown from the shop. Off to McDonalds, passed the clowns worshipping those commodities at Sketchers, to check Gap. No good. Back to McDonalds for about 5 minutes of playing and handing out flyers until the manager shouted 'shut up' in the break, with a response of 'Fuck McDonalds'. Job done.
Meanwhile, the rest of the band on Oxford Street had been escorted by 5 police vans as it did its circuits. This actually meant that the police did the job for us. The iconic consumer centre was brought to a standstill. It looked like a number of shops had been closed down for the day and boarded up through the fear of us! The shopper had difficulty entering the shops because of the conjestion and instead, many got into the groove; briefly liberated from the focus on money. Something different had showed up.
The excessive police numbers and facilities surrounding the samba band was a wonderful display to the people of a waste of public funds and the fear of civil disorder.
THEY KNOW WE HAVE THE POWER.
www.nosweat.org.uk
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