Carnival 2000

This year was possibly Real Steel's best coming away with 2nd place (to Ebony) in the 'band on the road' competition, the float looked brilliant and the band sounded even better!

The float

As part of our sponsorship from Lenor we were able to enlist the services of Kaos Design to co-ordinate the decoration of our float. Our float featured an amazing pair of banners designed by Hilary's sister Lucy. These were intended to be fixed to a large aluminium frame on the roof making our float an amazing 12 feet wide, 50 feet long and almost 20 feet high. These plans were amended a little when we discovered the railway bridge on Ladbroke Grove only gave 15 feet of clearance! The end result featured a healthy amount of fruit and a big dose of spangle! It was a accompanied by Real Steel flag wavers and our driver Colin who for some unknown reason was dressed as King Louie from Disney's Jungle Book.

Hard at work

The route went well until after around six hours the Police directed us off of the route and onto Harrow Road, a London high street complete with parked cars, lorries and buses! Dan from Kaos Design performed a 'parting of the Red Sea' and managed to direct the queues of oncoming traffic away from the area to let our massive float through. The next point of interest was when we managed to find our way back on to Ladbroke Grove and promptly blocked it completely with our 50 foot trailer after the brakes locked on!

We'd like to offer our thanks to all of the many people who organised and helped during the event including:

  • Hilary Campbell (who's leaving us to become a teacher (we don't think she'll be able to keep away))

  • Dan from Kaos Design

  • Lenor for their valued sponsorship

  • Our pair of well-humoured (luckily for us!!) drivers

  • Lucy for the amazing banner designs

  • Toussaint for all his assistance

  • Dan Sadler, Laura Eade and Emma Lipscombe of Sounds Of Steel for supporting us on the float

  • All of Real Steel for an amazing performance!



The float

See many more pictures of Real Steel at Notting Hill 2000 on our photo page