Batala Portsmouth

Well what a busy first weekend of half-term was had by this fabulous group of people.

Batala London's first gig was in Russell Square - the Bloomsbury Festival - and some of us made it to London to support them.  A  well organised event and Batala proved to be very popular.  Hopefully there will be more to come....and perhaps some more people will join. Well done :)

The Great South Run is held in Portsmouth every year.  The Juniors run on Saturday at which Batala plays - outside the blue Reef .  There are loads of them and they all did very well; some on their own and some with parents or grandparents; a few in wheelchairs, especially one tiny in pink towards the end.  We are lucky to be able to  see all these great kids go past. 

We had 3 callers as well which meant everyone got a chance to play and there were visitors down from London and Bristol to swell the ranks - great.  A social evening which I wasn't able to go to but by all accounts was a roaring success.

The next day there were masses of drummers for Batala, even though some members were away and some were running.  We play in two areas with a 5 minute break to leg it up the road.  I shared a drum with Emily who should have been running but had damaged a tendon so played instead.  I played the first half; she played the second and it was great because I had never heard the Band before, having always been in it - and what a fantastic sound it was.  And it was an experience for Emily who usually runs and doesn't play. Most of us had lunch afterwards at Rees Hall and the staff there have been fabulous to us over the years.  Those are very lucky students :)

Anyway, there are various short videos around on you-tube if you google Batala Portsmouth and scroll down to the playlist but here are two links:

Batala Portsmouth Gt South run Juniors

and

Batala Portsmouth Great South Run 2010

enjoy!