Category: Gigs Abroad

Gigs from Abroad Part 23 – Belfast Part 1

Perhaps in comparison to many other European cities, Belfast has encountered a particularly varied and challenging history. It all began as an English settlement in 1613 and evolved into becoming the capital and the primary port of Northern Ireland. Along the way they had the small matter of a rebellion in 1798, joined the GB union two years later and gained their city status in 1888.

They were the largest linen manufacturers in the 1900’s and also utilised the waterfront with their huge shipyards which covered around a quarter of all UK trade. One of the chief proponents were Harland (not the Manchester City player!) and Wolff, who were responsible for that big ship called the HMS Titanic which they built in 1911 for a cost of £1.5 million, which now equates to a contemporary cost of £180 million. The company still have their famous landmark (known as Samson and Goliath) within the now titled Titanic Quarter and their vastly overpriced museum. The structure has been utilised as a backdrop to many TV shows.

Harland and Wolff cranes. Image Credit Northern Ireland

The ‘Troubles’ commenced in the 1920’s with an astounding occurrence of over 2000 bombings in a single kilometre area of the city centre between 1969 and 1977. Anyone who lived through this period even from a geographical position from across the water will recall that you eventually became somewhat anaesthetised to the regular bloody headlines on the daily news feeds. I have worked in government offices all my life and I recall the monotonous regularity of bomb scares, and in those days you didn’t argue and ensured you exiting the building post haste!

There is a recent BBC documentary titled ‘Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland’ which has interviews with people from both sides of the divide, many who had never publicly spoken about it before. It is an astounding bruising watch and investigative TV at the top of its game.

The historic Good Friday agreement was struck and signed on 10th April 1998, memorably prefaced in Billy Bragg’s idiosyncratic style on his 1996 track ‘Northern Industrial Town’ off the ‘William Bloke’ album. This has resulted in the regeneration of the central area of the city into a vibrant tourist location, but the old hostilities remain in the suburbs and will probably take a generational change before they hopefully finally dissipate.

Billy Bragg. Image Credit theconcertdatabase.com

Perhaps understandably set against that tumultuous backdrop the city was immersed in the punk scene with my faves Stiff Little Fingers early output including ‘Suspect Device’, ‘Tin Soldiers’ and ‘Wasted Life’ which literally oozed with barely concealed anger and disillusionment. Fellow city residents were the Undertones who were managed briefly by Terri Hooley of the Good Vibrations record shop and label, who famously dropped a tape into John Peel of ‘Teenage Kicks’, and the rest as they say is history!

They are the smallest city to host the MTV Europe Music awards in 2011 and in 2021 became the third British location after Glasgow and Liverpool to be awarded the UNESCO City of Music. They have two universities and two airports, the George Best Belfast City in the centre and the International airport located fifteen miles to the west. Many famous people have Belfast as their place of birth and these include David Trimble, Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, George Best, CS Lewis the author of Chronicles of Narnia and the musician Van Morrison.

I have visited twice, and the first trip was with Gill and a couple of friends in 2009. Fortunately, Blackpool Airport was still operational then, so we headed out from there with only a handful of customers on the flight whilst encountering the novel situation where they deliberately spaced us around the plane to ensure the required balance! We then traversed in on the 45 minute shuttle bus ride and had a hotel near to, but not in the Europa which is the most frequently bombed hotel in Europe.

Hotel Europa. Image Credit drifttravel.com

With a remarkable flurry of late results my football team Preston North End had managed to secure an unexpected end of season play off tie against Sheffield United. However, the kicker was that the first home leg was on the day of our outward travel. So, it transpired that I was watching the first half in a very busy bar on a small TV with no sound from a fair distance away and randomly swore at one point with other punters looking at me askance!

At least we had a better viewpoint and a seat in another bar to observe the second half. Still no volume, but we had cold Harp (tastes sharp until the bottom of the glass!) on tap. We drew 1-1 that night but unsurprisingly lost the second leg three days later. We had a fine 48 hours there and took a liking for the vibrant student areas and had a fantastic meal at the Red Panda Chinese restaurant located very close to the famous Crown Liquor Saloon.

A postscript this week is that I have hit a literary milestone of 200k words in total thus far in my 293 articles. For the record, the 100k word was Manchester and slightly anti climatically the 200k word is ‘place’, though pertinent as either the venue or in this context as city of birth.

Gigs from Abroad Part 22 – Valencia

Valencia is the third largest city of Spain with 2.7m punters within the province and is also one of the most populated cities in Southern Europe. It is bordered by the Mediterranean sea and on the northwest side by the hilly Sistema Iberico area and the foothills of Andalusia on their eastern and western perimeter.

That latter location reference resulted in me embracing my inner Black Francis and singing ‘I am un chien Andalusia, wanna grow up to be a debaser’ at regular intervals! Continuing the Pixies theme briefly I must pay homage to their recent menacing cover of ‘Que Sera, Sera’ which is used as the theme tune for the terrific ‘From’ TV series. Their version could not be further away from the Doris Day original and the one used in the 1983 advert for Birds Eye Steakhouse Grill which contains the refrain of ‘will it be mushrooms, fried onion rings?’!

Birds Eye Advert. Image Credit tvark.org

Valencia was founded as a roman colony in 138BC under the name of Valentia Edetanorum and was a major silk manufacturer in the 18th century and also had the distinction of briefly being the seat of the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War in 1936-37. In 2003 it became the first European city to host the America’s Cup yacht race and was selected as the European Capital of Sport in 2011 and the European Green Capital in 2024. They also have the unusual accolade of having two American football teams, namely the Giants and the Firebats.

We decided to make a visit there in 2019 and we incorporated in the trip an initial jaunt to Madrid. We enjoyed one of the comfiest and effortless train rides and travelled into the city at over 200kmh, but it felt as smooth as silk, Northern train it was not!  Finding our accommodation proved to be a bit trickier as it was a tad buried away down a back street, though there were a couple of fine restaurants and bars in the surrounding suburban streets.  

We were blessed with glorious sunshine and pottered around all the tourist sites and walked for miles and the city is the home of paella so obviously we had to partake of one whilst we were there. By a quirk of fate, Valencia were in European action playing against Arsenal on our second night there. We deliberately stayed out of the centre that evening and hit the outskirts but in one particular bar we did encounter some animosity from a couple of locals, either they were surmising incorrectly that we were Arsenal football fans, or a more likely scenario is that they were just unpleasant individuals!

Our accommodation was very close to the start of the expansive Valencia Jardin del Turia that was built in 1986 on the original Turia river. The original river was diverted and drained after the Great Flood of Valencia in 1957 which claimed 81 lives. The whole site covers 136 hectares, passes under at least 20 bridges and stretches for 8.5 kilometers with further plans for an extension of that length.  

Jardin Del Turia. Image Credit ovigem.org

We hired bikes and cycled all the way down the gardens with the orange and palm trees and cafes dotted at regular intervals and if you maintain a straight line, you can reach the Port of Valencia. Whilst en route, we located a pop-up stage where a local brass band were playing.

We also spied a festival site being set up at Valencia Alamada Square, so decided to return that very evening. We purchased a cold beverage and watched a local band called Rumbo Ye Sevillinas on the main stage. It had a chilled family vibe apart from a couple of kids nearby with pyrotechnic tendencies trying to set fire to pieces of wood! Later that evening the festival procession headed down the winding streets and at one point we couldn’t find a way past to head back to our digs as at every turn they seem to follow us. It felt like we were in an extended movie scene!  

The following night, I recall us visiting a restaurant where they sold bocadillos and tapas where you could choose from a variety of items and then count your sticks at the end of the meal to work out your bill. On the nearby Valencia Mons Restaurant Square we saw an act called Tiux Music playing some reggae tunes.

Plaza Le Virgen. Image Credit vrbo.com

Around midnight, we chanced upon Valencia Plaza Le Virgen, which is located directly in front of the Cathedral. A large crowd had gathered there, and the reason became instantly evident when we heard the soothing music provided by the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana (OCV) who were founded in the city in 2006.