[ Big Ben tolling ] >> One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

>> London, the greatest city in the world.

Every year since 1987, we've been celebrating the New Year with London's New Year's Day Parade.

It's a spectacle of bright, colorful entertainment with participants from all around the world.

>> ♪ Clap your hands and stomp your feet ♪ ♪ We keep on moving to this brand-new beat ♪ ♪ We can teach you how ♪ ♪ Nothing can stop us now ♪ ♪ Watch out, we're here ♪ >> Each year, we invite the best that the world has to offer.

It's 3 1/2 hours of fantastic entertainment, not just for the hundreds of thousands of spectators watching live on the streets of London, but also for the millions watching on television all around the world.

For most of our participants, they will never have performed to such a huge audience.

So there's much preparation that has to go into their performances.

>> Okay, and three, four, three, four, five, six, and one.

>> Two, three, four, five, six, seven.

9!

12!

>> Line off in the two.

Just like that, we get the two.

If we can get -- [ Man singing indistinctly ] ♪♪ >> And as always, we have special celebrity guests, too.

>> ♪ By my name ♪ >> ♪ Call me by my... ♪ This is my little Guild.

♪ Put me through it ♪ ♪ I still be doing it the way I do it ♪ >> For months now, thousands of performers have been preparing for London's New Year's Day Parade, and this is the story of just a few of those.

So, "Let's Go, London 2024."

>> ♪ We're too hot to handle ♪ ♪ There is no doubt ♪ ♪ We're too hot to handle ♪ ♪ We'll knock you out ♪ >> In the next half hour, we'll capture the spirit of Brazilian Carnival recreated on the streets of London.

We'll visit the recording studios of a British-born pop star who now lives in LA.

And we'll head to the wonderful high school in Buford, Georgia, not far from Atlanta.

Let's find out some more.

>> I've never worked anywhere like Buford.

The community support for the school and for the programs and the athletics and the arts is like nothing that I've ever seen in my life.

We are well taken care of.

We are valuable.

We are part of the mission statement of the school, the arts programs are.

And if I had not worked here, you would not have been able to convince me it could be as wonderful as it is here.

The city has done a wonderful job of progressing because, you know, 50 years ago, this was the country.

When the mall came down the road, it really changed everything.

So city hall is beautiful and the community center is beautiful.

The performing arts building that we're in is beautiful.

And all the schools are updated constantly.

There are no trailers, there's no mobile classrooms in Buford.

There never have been.

And I know that they're committed to never having to have mobile classrooms.

Yeah, a brand-new stadium going up.

They just started real construction a few weeks ago.

You'll see the steel going up for the field house.

It's going to have a beautiful field house.

It's going to have almost a hundred-yard-long press box.

It's going to have over 10,000 seats.

We're so excited to play there next year.

>> From beautiful Georgia to the sights and sounds of South America, courtesy of the London School of Samba.

>> My name is Mestre Mags.

I'm a bateria director.

I'm the coordinator of the Velha Guarda, and I'm on the Carnival Committee of the London School of Samba.

In some ways, when the London School of Samba was formed, it was like a cross-section of London, much like it is today.

There were Brazilians, there were.

But the person who instigated the London School of Samba was a South African.

His name is Alan Hayman.

There were lots of Chileans, lots of Colombians, people from the Uruguay.

There were quite a few Brazilians, but there are lots of British people and people from the rest of Europe.

So the creation of the London School of Samba was really historically significant because it was the arrival of a particular genre of music, I mean, it's the national music of Brazil.

But before the establishment of the London School of Samba, that didn't really exist in this country.

So it was a really, really significant event.

It's still an organization which reflects London's diversity, and that's exactly how it is in Rio de Janeiro, you know, or Sao Paulo, where there are samba schools.

A samba school represents all the classes, all the backgrounds, all the ages and sexes of the whole of society.

>> Our special celebrity guest this year is the one and only Chesney Hawkes.

>> Actually, I always like to say I'm a father first, husband, and a musician.

There you go.

So I had -- My first record came out when I was 19, back in 1991, and here we are in 2023, nearly 2024.

[ Chuckles ] I grew up in a very rock and roll household.

My father was a pop star in a band called The Tremeloes, and they had about 15 top 10 hits here in England back in the '60s.

And they had a number one in America, too, a song called "Silence Is Golden."

A very successful band.

And, so, all of dad's friends were '60s superstars like Gerry Marsden from Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the kind of beat invasion bands like Herman's Hermits and The Searchers and Marmalade.

And dad toured with, like, The Beatles and The Who and all these, you know -- He has incredible stories.

You should be interviewing him, really.

[ Laughs ] So I grew up in a very rock and roll atmosphere.

Guitars propped up in every corner, and dad had a studio in the back of the garden.

And my brother is a drummer, my sister's a singer.

We weren't going to be, you know, accountants, the three of us.

[ Chuckles ] My big break came when I was cast as a lead in a film called "Buddy's Song."

Now, Roger Daltrey played my dad, and it was a very kind of musical-based film, music-based film.

I played a young singer/songwriter called Buddy, and that was kind of like my -- The only reason I went for that part -- I was 17 -- is because I saw it as a potential in to the music industry, that elusive record deal, you know, because back in those days, that was the way you made it, you know?

So, I went for it and was lucky enough to get the part.

And the record deal came from the back of that.

And my first single, which was called "The One and Only," was number one pretty much all over Europe, top 10 in the States.

And I was thrown into that fame bubble, and that seems like yesterday.

And it also seems like a thousand years ago.

>> Each and every one of the performers has to put in an enormous amount of preparation for the parade.

Now here's Erik Mason, the band director at Buford High School, just outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Erik knows London's New Year's Day Parade very well indeed.

He's been before.

>> This was actually the fifth group that I'll be bringing to London.

I started almost 20 years ago.

I brought the South Gwinnett High School Band of Stars, and I brought my band when I was at Mill Creek, we came three times, but it's the first time for Buford.

It's the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that the band has done any kind of international travel, so the students are very excited about it.

I think the overwhelming majority of my students have never been out of the country before.

And I think what's special about doing this parade in particular is you can visit London or Paris or Rome or wherever, and you can see all the sights, but the idea that you're in the middle of the sites, you're walking down the middle of the road, and a half a million people are watching you and goodness knows how many on television, that's special and something that can never be duplicated.

It's really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these students.

There's nothing that can prepare you for that experience.

You can think you're going to be prepared.

We do parades.

We've done parades at Disney World.

We do two parades a year here in our local community.

But there is nothing that can prepare you for the number of people and the grandiosity and the spectacle of a parade of this magnitude.

I love watching the Macy's Parade every year on TV, and when we're not in it, I watch the London parade.

I watch it from start to finish.

I love everything about it.

So I don't know how many people still feel that way, but I love parades, I truly do.

>> There's so much that goes into preparing the students for their big day.

It's not just playing and marching, it's both physical and mental, as well.

Here's Erik's assistant band director, Bridget Wildes.

>> I'm Bridget Wildes, I'm the assistant band director here at Buford High School.

Yeah.

So the kids do their own stretch block, and then they do a dance block.

That's all student led.

And then, we started our basics routine, which we started with posture breakdown, just to get them centered and mentally and physically and make sure that we're starting our practice off in the right headspace and really focusing on our fundamentals.

And then, just warming their bodies up slowly, getting them used to the turf and the grass.

So we do a little bit of just one- and two-step, just to get them moving on the grass and really thinking about their foot shape.

And then, eights and eights forward at different tempos, again, to warm up their bodies.

And then, backwards and then some slides.

We try to just give them everything that they'll do in the show.

>> Of course, every school's marching band's activities revolve around their sports teams.

>> We have a very good football team here at Buford.

We've won three of the last four state championships, and so, we generally play football until mid-December, but this year, we have to rotate our rehearsals.

So once we get to the end of October, the rehearsals go from being Friday night rehearsals to being parade rehearsals.

So we add quite a few extra rehearsals for the kids to learn the music.

We're hoping to play "Werewolves of London."

We're the Wolves here, and so, we think that'll be a fun little nod to everything as we go.

And you know, a lot of it is just making sure the kids are prepared in general.

Again, we do parades here, so they get a lot of practice at marching, they get a lot of practice at parades.

And then, we'll spend some time learning this music, and we'll spend some time preparing for my favorite part of it, which is the grandstand performance at the end.

This year, the full marching band is around 190 members, and about 145 of those are making the trip with us.

Of that 145, I think 25 or so are color guard members, and over 100 -- over 110 musicians are going on the trip with us.

And of course, it's brass and woodwinds and percussion.

It's actually a very well-balanced group and I'm looking forward to it.

It'll be great.

Well, you know, everything that we do here evolves from the military bands that existed in the 19th century and the late 19th century.

And, so, the color guard were, of course, the people that carried the flags at the front of the parade.

And they were armed with rifles and sabers and marched along with the band.

They were kind of the protective unit for the band.

And over time, that, of course, has changed to be a pageantry more than a military function.

And, so, our color guard, you know, spins flags and they spin rifles and they spin sabers and they dance.

And it's become a very artistic thing.

And we're so fortunate here.

When we started here, our color guard was 18.

And this year, we have over 50 that are in the color guard program.

And, so, it's been a blessing to see it explode.

Our color guard staff, Madison Mitchell and Janet Meador, have done such a great job of giving a home to these young people and giving them something to be a part of, because none of them -- well, not none of them, but most of them are not band students.

And we're so lucky to have a vibrant color guard program here.

We're going to do several songs throughout the parade.

We haven't chosen all of them yet.

We usually take the kids' favorites that we play all fall and we'll do some of those, but we'll definitely do "Werewolves of London" at the end, I think that'll be great.

>> There's a tough schedule of practice for the students coming to London.

Here's Caleb.

>> So, I'm the marching band drum major.

I conduct the marching band show, and I help lead everybody on the field so that they know what they're doing while we're practicing, while we're at the football games, in between games, while we're going to competitions.

No, marching band is not an easy activity, I guess I would say.

It takes a lot of strength, takes a lot of willpower.

And I'm super proud of my marching band and my friends for what they've accomplished.

We practice for three days a week, three hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and then, every Friday, we have a football game.

And then, on certain Saturdays, we'll have marching band practice from 9:00 to 9:00, or we'll have a competition that we go to.

Yes, I am super excited that we got the opportunity to go and take the band international, pretty much, and I'm ready to see what it's like in London and how everyone reacts to our marching band.

>> London's New Year's Day Parade features thousands of students from right across the USA, and these students are amongst the most talented in their class.

On the streets of London, on New Year's Day, you will see cheerleaders.

These are the finest cheerleaders in the world.

Marching bands displaying superb musicianship and timing.

>> Can you dance to the music?

>> But London's New Year's Day Parade is a truly international event.

The London School of Samba brings Brazilian culture to life on the streets of London.

With their colorful costumes and booming drum beats, they've become a parade favorite.

Orquidea Lima is the Passista director and tells us more about the special role that Passistas play within the group.

>> In a Carnival parade, you'll be able to recognize the Passistas by their costumes.

They're most known by their exuberant feather costumes.

The ladies normally tend to wear very small bikinis because, actually, it enhances their movement.

And the more fabric you have, the more it hinders your movement, so hence why the costumes are quite small.

And the male Passistas are known as being Malandros.

So the Malandro is a term associated with a guy who is slick, is a very old character from 1930s, '40s of Rio de Janeiro, and they are very much associated with the nightlife, the good versus evil with that interesting balance that entices you.

The Passistas are the most proficient dancers in samba no pé, and they represent the most iconic samba style, dance style in the school.

They are also responsible, in a parade, to cover the ground between the bateria, the drummers, and the other dancers behind them.

So they have to be incredibly fast.

They have very slick feet and they have a good sense of evolution.

The history of the costumes goes back to Europe and the courts.

So you will see, for example, in the Venice court, that you will have the masks and the masquerades and the carnivàle.

And, so, the costume evolution goes from there, going with the Portuguese and other Europeans to Brazil, and then with the African roots, it just transforms it into something much more fantastic.

And also, the native Brazilians, they also have a feather costume as in part of their tradition.

So the amalgamation between cultures produces these exuberant costumes.

And the theme of the year, it's normally decided once a year for a samba school, and all the costumes are designed according to that theme.

So this year, costumes that will be broadcast at the London New Year's Day Parade are under the theme Samba Through the Solar System.

So you see things from the sun and the golden chariot of Helios to the birth of Venus to the shades of the moon, to the samba astronaut.

So we'll bring something really special for you this year.

>> LA resident Chesney Hawkes is one of our star attractions for 2024.

Music has been a huge part of his life since early childhood.

>> My dad actually owned John Lennon's piano, so I grew up playing that.

That was my first instrument.

Piano has always been my first love, and I always felt like I had John Lennon under my fingertips in a way.

You know, I think "Imagine" was the first song I ever learned to play.

I used to come home from school and just lock myself in the lounge and just play piano and write songs and, yeah, even as young as, like, 13.

♪ I am the one and only ♪ ♪ Nobody I'd rather be ♪ ♪ I am the one and only ♪ ♪ You can't take that away from me ♪ >> Once again this year, London's New Year's Day Parade is going to be spectacular, and our visitors from around the world are really looking forward to it.

But there's no doubt performing to such a big audience can be nerve-wracking.

>> You know, one of the things we talk to the kids all the time about is that nervous and excited are the same chemicals.

And, so, we try to teach them that, if they feel nerv-- Nervous plus confidence equals excited, and excited plus under-preparation equals nervous.

And, so, I think all of us get butterflies, which we work really hard to try to teach the kids how to handle those butterflies and make sure that they don't let that overcome them as they perform.

There's no question that, at the beginning of that parade -- I've done it so many times -- you turn that corner at the Ritz Hotel, and you're looking down Piccadilly all the way down, and it is an overwhelming feeling, and there's so much excitement.

And then, you see all those people, and your heart skips just a little bit.

And I can't wait for them to feel that and experience that.

I have no doubt that they'll do a fantastic job, but I know that they'll be excited/nervous for just a minute for sure.

Bridget and I came here together.

We both taught at Mill Creek High School before.

In our first year here, there were 52 students in the marching band.

And, so, to be able to travel with 140 plus almost 30 choristers from our chorus program, to be able to take a group that large this quickly, in just four years, it -- There aren't words to describe how proud I am of these kids and how proud I am of what we've been able to do here.

>> Erik's got every reason to be proud, but of course, everyone is looking forward to seeing the sights of London.

>> I'm going to London.

It'll be my third time.

Because Erik and I, this is our 11th year working together.

So, our first time here with Buford, but my third time going and being the parade.

They're going to love it.

It is the most amazing experience.

I love every second of it.

That picture that we take at the end and passing through Westminster and finishing there, it's beautiful and it's awesome.

Once-in-a-lifetime experience.

So I'm so excited for our kids to get that all together.

>> So we caught up with some of the Buford High School students who are coming to London this year during practice and at their regular Friday night football game.

Now, it can be quite noisy.

♪♪ >> It's pretty true.

She's one of the loudest people here.

>> Yeah.

>> Go, go, go, go, go!

>> [ Shouting ] So my grandparents also went to London when -- Like, my grandma lived in Germany for a while, so she saw London quite a bit.

She told me she was at the Queen's coronation back in the day, and she showed me a book on it a couple of years ago -- or a couple months ago, I think.

And I was looking forward to going to the Big Ben.

I'm also excited to see the -- just like talk to people and try cuisine.

I'm a big food person, so I'll try new cuisine.

♪♪ [ Singing indistinctly ] >> We're really excited.

>> Yes.

We worked a really long time for it, so we're really excited to go.

>> It's old.

Yeah, there's a lot of history.

It'll be great.

>> I'm, like, absolutely thrilled.

I love traveling and I actually haven't been outside of America yet -- like North America yet.

So I'm absolutely thrilled.

I actually lived in Canada for 12 years, so I very much have been to Canada.

Well, a fair amount, especially since, like, in Canada, since we celebrate the Queen -- well, now the King -- you do get to learn a fair amount of Great Britain and just like political systems and all that.

So that's really helpful.

Yeah.

Honestly, museums.

I absolutely love history.

Oh, I love art.

Like, I love art museums so much.

I think every place is really different.

Like, definitely there's some similarities, especially everybody speaks English, but there's always so many differences between countries.

And I absolutely love learning about those differences in those countries and learning about the culture of each location.

Totally.

Like, marching band, in my opinion, is really awesome.

It, like, hypes up the crowd.

They absolutely love it when we play.

We've done multiple parades here and, so, everybody, like, the crowd loves it.

So I do think they'll really enjoy it.

>> We know that their visit to London will be the trip of a lifetime, and indeed a first for most of them.

Here in the UK, the 1st of January 2024 will kick-start a very special anniversary for the London School of Samba.

>> For us, it's our 40th anniversary, so that means that the whole year is going to be a party year.

I'm a party girl anyway.

I don't need an excuse to party, but it's going to be a fantastic year.

And come and see us.

I've been in two London New Year's Day Parades, and it's so exciting.

You meet so many different lovely people, Colombian people in their beautiful costumes.

I love the marching bands and also the girls and boys that dance with the marching bands.

That's always fun.

The Pearly Kings and Queens.

Other samba bands.

Lots of other musical bands, as well.

A lovely Asian drum band.

It's just so diverse.

It's fantastic.

Really good experience.

We get very good reactions from crowds.

There are people that we do know sometimes, which it's always fun to see someone you actually know.

But it's the smiles.

You cannot buy a smile.

It's genuine, it's fun, it's great, and the people are there to experience different things.

And they certainly get that with the New Year's Day Parade.

They really do.

>> We love performing, especially in front of a massive audience like that.

The energy that we get from them gives us energy to give back to them, and it's just this cyclical thing that is amazing.

Well, for us, we tend to get our drummers ready because we know it's, for us, quite a long parade.

And we don't mind that.

That's what we're meant to be doing anyway.

But we try to encourage people that have only started drumming earlier, as well, to also be on this parade.

Once you've done the London New Year's Day Parade, you're ready to go out and do samba anywhere.

It's an amazing feat of color and vibrance, and for us, we tend to make sure we've got our music right, make sure we've got our dancing right, make sure we've got our costumes right, and make sure that we're processing and giving that right energy to London, as they will give it back to us.

I feel there's a warmth that comes from the London New Year's Day Parade.

There is a strange way of meeting people that you probably wouldn't have met before.

Had a really wonderful discussion with, I think, a group, they were from Texas.

And they had an eagle that was singing a song about doing running man on a beach, and for me, that literally just made my New Year from day one.

>> The London School of Samba certainly capture the essence of our New Year's Day proceedings.

Let's move from Brazilian-inspired drumbeats to the beat of rock and roll.

Chesney Hawkes may live in California, but he hasn't forgotten his UK roots and his love of London.

>> Well, London is the greatest place on Earth, there's no doubt about it.

You know, New York will give it a run for its money, as far as a city, greatest city on Earth, I'd say.

You know, I grew up in London, and I just love the atmosphere.

You know, just walking around the streets, it just feels like home, you know?

And I'm always proud to introduce, you know, friends that are not from London to the city.

You know, obviously, I have a lot of American friends that come over, and we love taking them around and showing them all my favorite haunts and places in London.

It's, you know, the history.

That's the other thing I miss about, you know, about this country.

When you're in America, you know, it's a young country.

It's really only 300 years old.

You know, I live in -- Here in England, I live in a house that's like, you know, three times that, you know, and just -- I love seeing the faces on Americans when you bring them over and you say, "You see this abbey here?

That's 11th century."

You know, it just blows their mind.

I mean, there's so much about London that's just incredible, I love it.

>> Well, the rehearsals and the practice are just about complete.

And now Buford High School Marching Band... the London School of Samba... and Chesney Hawkes are all ready to entertain the world at London's New Year's Day Parade 2024.

We look forward to wishing you a very Happy New Year on January the 1st.

See you then.

>> It's bringing people together, not just in London, but worldwide.

>> So I'm excited to just to soak up the atmosphere for a start, you know?

Yeah.

I'm just really looking forward to being in London that day and having a crowd.

It's going to be fun.

>> Happy New Year.

>> Happy New Year's.

>> ♪ 'Cause we're all invited ♪ ♪ In London, you're united ♪ ♪ Watch out, we're here ♪ ♪ Everybody stand clear ♪ ♪ We're too hot to handle ♪ ♪ There is no doubt ♪ ♪ We're too hot to handle ♪ ♪ We'll knock you out ♪