Gigs From Abroad Part 25 – More Spanish Gigs

I have visited many places in Spain, including the islands of Majorca, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and several trips to Lanzarote. In 2003, we undertook a backpacking trip utilising the staggeringly efficient trains (like most of Europe!) starting in Seville, a city that we aim to revisit one day. We then gravitated northwards to Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona.

About ten years ago we obtained a large villa in San Pedro and jetted off with all Gill’s family, making a grand total of thirteen of us. There were challenges in booking restaurants on the nights we decided to eat out as in some smaller places we took up half of the establishment! There was a pool table in situ and an epic doubles match ensued, with the final nights play live on Sky Sports! The youngest brother-in-law Phil and I eventually triumphed 17-15 after a titanic battle.

There was a coastal path from there which weaved you through to the town of Marbella where the ‘beautiful’ people lived! Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger things fame was born there, while Rick Parfitt lived there for many years as did actor Mike Reid. Thinking of Mr Reid, his Eastenders stint doesn’t come to mind, but what I recall most fondly is his presentation of the children’s TV programme Runaround, with his cockney catchphrase ‘Runaround Naahh’!

Mike Reid on Runaround. Image Credit dailyrecord.co.uk

In 2016, Gill and I stayed in Torremuelle, which is situated between Malaga and Fuengirola. There is a superbly handy train that runs between those two towns, and I can proudly say in the entire fifteen days we were away; we did not catch one single taxi as we walked or used the trains each day benefitting from the fact that there is also a stop at the airport. Remarkably though we didn’t manage to witness any music on that trip but enjoyed the culmination of the Euro 2016 football tournament and Andy Murray winning his second Wimbledon.

In August 2019 we had a cheeky week away with Gill’s sister and brother-in-law in Marbesa which is located close to the areas above and is within the Costa Del Sol enclave. There were a plethora of resorts nearby including Cabopino Beach were using old vernacular the ‘lucky lucky’ chaps endeavour to sell you their wares including one who had an original sales pitch by stating that the products were ‘genuine genuine fakes’!  

One logistic problem we identified en arrival was the dearth of a local supermarket, so there were daily trogs of a mile each way, the out route obviously being up a steep hill in blistering sunshine, the upside being that it kept us fit with weights training of hauling the bottled water back to base!

There was a smattering of restaurants on the seafront nearby with the centrepiece being Marbesa Simbad Restaurant & Beach Bar where we had a couple of meals and imbibed several cold ones. The restaurant has apparently been there for over 25 years but some of the recent reviews suggest it has now lost its way. On one of our visits there was a Kylie Minogue tribute act playing, though she was admittedly a very pale imitation and from the non-Australian city of Cardiff.

Marbesa Simbad bar. Image Credit vitadent-clinic.com

In late summer 2025 we headed away again with the same group, this time to Calpe, which is located in the Marina Alta beyond Benidorm, and we travelled in via Alicante airport. Their economy is based primarily on tourism and fishing and imperiously overlooking the resort is the Northern Rock signifying the start of the Penyal d’Ifac Natural Park. Apparently from the top vantage point you see as far as Ibiza.

It reminds me a little of pictures of the Rock of Gibraltar, but more so its resemblance to the alien artefact that Richard Dreyfuss constructed out of mashed potato in the Steven Spielberg Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie.    

Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters. Image Credit ar.inspiredpencil.com

There was a restaurant near the hotel called Calpe El Chiringuito where we saw a chap called Pedro playing and adjacent to there was the large Calpe Unusual Hotel where on a pop up stage, we saw Beko performing. Even nearer to the hotel was Calpe Rocce Club where we witnessed an artist with the unoriginal name of Party Singer.  

Behind the resort a sharp incline took you up to the old town where there was located a plethora of places to eat and which had more ambience and atmosphere than the seafront area. At an open-air establishment named Calpe Los Dos Canones Raul was providing some acoustic tuneage. Down another winding alley from there brought you to Calpe Restaurant Con Alba where we saw Rafa performing.

Manchester Venue 192 – Palace Theatre

As you stride down the hill from Oxford Road train station you reach the junction of Oxford Road and Whitworth Street where Manchester Palace Theatre is located, situated across the road from the Refuge Bar. The grand old building designed by architect Alfred Darbyshire at a princely cost of £40,500 first opened its doors in 1891, and at that stage was known locally as the ‘Grand Old Lady of Oxford Street’, and the sister theatre The Opera House across town on Quay Street are owned by the same company. 

Manchester Palace Theatre. Image Credit ticketsonsale.com

Their first ever production was a ballet version of Cleopatra where they had a seating capacity of 3,675 though that figure has reduced significantly over the years to its current number of 1955. The theatre struggled initially but garnered more success when they had more popular performers playing there. Luminaries such as Lillie Langtry, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Gracie Fields, Danny Kaye and Laurel and Hardy have graced that very stage.

It had an extensive refurbishment in 1913 and was reopened seven months later by Harry Houdini. It was unfortunately struck directly during the Manchester Blitz of 1940, but then had successful productions of Guys and Dolls, Hamlet and Look Back in Anger running during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

It had a fallow period in the 1970’s and was threatened with closure but the intervention of the Arts Council saved the day. As a result, some further renovations took place before reopening again in 1981 with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 2009 as part of the Manchester International Festival a premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna opera was staged there.

Musicians to have performed there include the Platters, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Johnny Cash, Damon Albarn, and the indefatigable Sparks were astonishingly playing there back in October 1975!

Sparks. Image Credit pinterest.com

The current layout contains three tiers of seating in the Stalls, Circle and Grand Tier. On our first visit in the early 1990’s we were sat in the vertigo inducing cramped seats ‘in the Gods’ watching West Side Story where we had a literal vertical view of the stage, but lessons were learned and never again have I ventured back up there! There are a plethora of amenities including the appropriately named Stage Door Bar and the whole venue is available to hire if you had the urge to do so!

I have cogitated long and hard regarding what may constitute a gig and have surmised (at least in my own head!) that in the scenario where bands are essentially part of the story of the theatre production that criteria is fulfilled.  

Thus, in September 2022, Gill and I had an outstanding credit note from previous shows that were cancelled during the pandemic so we utilised that in purchasing tickets to go and see the longstanding production of Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You, which had originally opened in the West End in 2002.

For the uninitiated the show was about the band Queen, and it is apparently classified under the category of a Jukebox musical, for which the definition is that it contains an abundance of pre-existing well known popular tunes, instead of songs being written specifically for the musical. Despite all that, the show personally didn’t work for me, and I found it all rather disappointing.

On the converse side, the other musical School of Rock that we saw earlier in that year was on a completely different level. It was an adaption of the original Richard Linklater movie released in 2003, which is an excellent feel good movie with a starring role for the effervescent Jack Black. Jack himself is a talented musician and was one half of Tenacious D who had a big hit with ‘Tribute’ which featured a cameo from Dave Grohl playing Satan.

The movie is based around the premise of Dewey Finn (Jack Black) impersonating a substitute teacher and turning a class of talented kids into a rock band in order to perform at a Battle of Bands contest.

Some of the children have had interesting lives since the movie with Lucas Babin who played lead guitarist Spider going on to be a district attorney in Texas. Miranda Cosgrove who was the agent Summer Hathaway was at the age of 19 in 2012 the highest paid child actor and has also released a few records herself.

Letter to Brezhnev. Image Credit imdb.com

There was also Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli who played classmates Marta and Frankie who met years later and subsequently got married 22 years after the original movie. This also brings to mind the two main actors Alexander Pigg and Peter Firth in the 1985 flick Letter to Brezhnev, who married other people but then later wed each other in 2017. I have recently watched the film again and it certainly stands up to scrutiny and my abiding memory from its initial release was the phrase ‘Kirkby Girls’ being uttered by Margi Clarke in a deep scouse accent!

The theatre show was a faithful reproduction with extra gags included, and the child performers were absolutely superb making it a very fun night. It was topped off perfectly with the show finishing in synchronicity with us able to catch the last train home from the station opposite.