samba and the infernal noise brigade
i was also deepy impressed by the fantastic talents of infernal noise brigade, and felt like they showed up rhythms of resistance somewhat... but then i sat down and talked with them about how they do it. here is what i learned: they are a closed group, if and when they need to boost their numbers they hold musical auditions, usually having invited the applicants in, and they rehearse three times a week.
they are an entirely different thing to rhthms, the samba band some of you love to diss so much. rythms is open to anyone who turns up on the streets or at a (once weekly) practise meeting. people join who have never ever played any kind of music before, as well as very talented muso's sometimes. people come and go freely, meaning the actual folk performing under that name can vary entirely from one gig to the next.
what rhythms does is so much more than what you see on the streets, to really understand their contribution you'd have to talk to one of the many who personally and politically gained or is gaining so much from being part of this unique group, often going on to all sorts of wonderful projects from there.
altho i left the band months ago, i retain a lot of respect for their work at inclusiveness (and the fact that its so female dominated - a rare treat on the london scene!) and for keeping on doing it in the face of so much slagging. the homeless projects, the demos where only 5 sambaistas made it but still we doubled the crowd size for an unpopular cause, the funds raised for other groups and actions, the fucking hard work involved in keeping it going, and how they deal with the extra work involved in keeping such a concensus-led group open to newcomes in a genuine way. true tolerance of diversity, whether its language, mental health, being a parent, whatever barriers a person finds to joining other groups, they simply aint barriers to rythms.
infernal are great and i love them, other activist groups are also great, but rhythms is unique and so comparisons cannot work.
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) is a much better strategy. Their image suffered enough from their treatment of tough miners in the 80s - they'd look really smart if they started laying into someone for sticking flowers on them!
