Tag: Abba

Gigs from Abroad Part 8 – Madeira

In late August 2022, we visited the island of Madeira for the first time, it has had an interesting history since it was first discovered and inhabited by the Portuguese in 1419. Their initial chief export was in the sugar industry, but this trade was eventually superseded by the infinitely more successful Madeira wine. They like many other countries sat under the auspices of the British empire before being returned to Portuguese rule in the 19th century.

They finally received their independence and autonomy on the 1st July 1976, and they are evidently proud of this status as they are mainly reliant on homemade produce with very few imported goods. One of these that I sampled regularly was their devilishly good pastries and cakes, especially their pastel de nata custard tarts! They even had a Cake of the Day at the hotel, now who could resist the comparison challenge set there! It was also refreshing to see that they served only the island brewed Coral beer.

Pastel de Nata cakes, don’t mind if I do! Image Credit My Gorgeous Recipes

The main town Funchal is an intriguing place to visit with its vibrant old town and keeps you fit via walking up some seriously steep hills. The island is the birthplace of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and he has an airport and a hotel named after him and a statue situated on Funchal harbour front.

We rode the scenic cable car up from the town to the top of Monte, but I did find it a challenge from a vertigo angle, so needed to find an alternate way to return down the hill. The toboggan was not running but the No 22 Bus was available. The subsequent bus ride turned out to be one of the highlights of the holiday as he literally flew down the hill round hairpin corners and woe betide anyone in his way, and then there was the dramatic braking to stop at the sporadic bus stops en route!  

On a musical front, we caught a singer called Sonia who was playing in Madeira Carlton Pestana Pub, which was located at the top of a particularly lung-busting incline. On the harbour front there was the Madeira Promenade Kiosk were a band called Kawana Pacha performed, and I recall them playing a rather dodgy Abba cover!

We were fortunate that whilst we were visiting the seventeen-day Madeira Wine Festival was taking place on the walkway of Avenida Arriaga in front of the Cathedral where you could sample many of the local vinos. On the night of our attendance the musical backdrop was provided by Sena Collective.

Mr Ronaldo and I. Image Credit Gill Crossthwaite

In the old town there was a terrific open market called Mercado Dos Lavradores where they had on display amongst many other items an extraordinary amount of vibrant looking chillies. Attached to the market was the Madeira Apuaza Café where we saw the Jazz Quarter play.  

If you turned left out of our hotel away from the town, this took you to the more hotel touristy area. One decent bar on this route was the Madeira Hole in One, where a local act Gustav was singing, and he performed a decent version of the archetypal ‘Quando Quando’.  

Further down this road brought you to a fine bar called Madeira Nos Copos Cocktail Bar. They have bands on there every night and to a sufficient demand that there is a makeshift stand outside the venue that we were too late to access. As a result, we grabbed a spot in the adjacent bar next door to watch a decent band called Hoje Para Animar.  

Our hotel room was up on the 13th floor and provided a fine view of the Madeira Carlton Pestana Pool Bar where wesaw a local singer called Gabrielle play a set including a commendable but somewhat extended loungecore version of ‘Wicked Game’ by Chris Isaak.   

The following evening from the exact same vantage point we could see over to the adjoining exclusive Madeira Reid’s Hotel. This viewpoint was now resembling a lite version of the flats overlooking Castlefield Bowl or Lytham Festival!

There was a wedding taking place and the singer was approaching the end of their set. Now you would surely in the circumstances expect happy ‘looking to the future’ tunes which made the choice of the penultimate song even more bizarre, as she then broke into the unmistakeable intro of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’!   

Preston Venues 37 to 38

At the tail end of 2005 I read an article in the Friday entertainment section of the Lancashire Evening Post which provided detail of an interesting sounding gig in January 2006. The gig was to take place at Preston St Bede’s Club. I had never heard of the venue and located it on the map to the bottom of Brownley Road off Chorley Old Road in Clayton Le Woods, above five miles outside the centre of town.

I still had limited familiarity of the area so decided to undertake a field trip in the car beforehand to case out the joint and work out feasible travel plans and surrounding hostelries to visit beforehand. I found the building nearby to the Church and attached Presbytery of St Bede’s, the latter sites having been Grade II listed since 1984.

The 125 bus was decided upon as the most practicable commute option. So, on a particularly baltic Friday night I met Uncle George at the main bus station, and we boarded the bus that traversed its meandering way through Bamber Bridge, past Junction 29 off the M6 to our drop off point very near our first watering hole the Halfway House.  The bus continues past Chorley Hospital and eventually arrives at its end destination of Bolton a week on Tuesday!    

The 125 bus with Preston Bus Station in the background. Image Credit flickr.com

We visited a couple of other pubs, but I forget their names, I recall in one the jukebox had Husker Du ‘Don’t Want to Know if You Are Lonely’ on so that was obviously selected. In the other I encountered local comedian and Phoenix Nights star Dave Spikey in the lavatories!  

From there, there was an alley that cut you through to the venue. The concert area was a large, packed room in a social club setting where the audience was very respectful, so you had to tiptoe to the back of the room. George said it resembled folk clubs of old.

The support act was Corb Lund who is a country and western singer from Alberta in Canada. He has been on the scene for many years and a long-standing member of the Corb Lund band. On the night he played a solo set and was very engaging and enjoyable. 

The main act who had originally sparked my attention was Chuck Prophet. The Californian had first crossed my radar as a member of the 80’s desert rock band Green on Red. I used to play their records a lot, especially their debut album ‘Gas Food Lodging’.

I recall an interview at the time with Neil Young on the Old Grey Whistle Test where Andy Kershaw played some of the record to Neil, who listened for a few seconds and then drawled ‘sounds like Crazy Horse’! I got a chance to see them once supported by Steve Earle at Manchester International 1 in March 1987, but they produced a crushingly disappointing set.

Obviously, lessons were not learnt as unfortunately, this was little different as the gig was limp and his banter was surreal and unamusing. We left prior to the end of the set and arrived at the bus stop and prepared to wait more in hope than in anticipation, though the gods were smiling on us as a bus arrived within a couple of minutes to take us back into the city. The evening ended with a late drink in the Roper Hall club.

Nearer town on the same bus route on Preston Road, you would find the Preston Pines Hotel.  The venue was a famous local establishment and had been open for fifty years for cabarets, functions, school proms and weddings and I had personally attended a couple of weddings there myself and stayed overnight in the thirty-five-room hotel. It was owned throughout this period by the Duffin family before eventually closing in February 2017 and making space for 40 apartments and a Lidl supermarket.

Preston Pines Hotel. Image Credit pinkweddingdays.co.uk

They had a large function room where in 2006 Gill and I were roped in to attending a friend’s birthday party. The ‘entertainment’ on the evening was a local Abba tribute band called Mamma Mia.