Tag: Buddy Holly

Gigs from Abroad Part 10 – Puerto Del Carmen

As cited previously in my Gigs from Abroad Part 4 blog I have undertaken several trips to the Canarian Island of Lanzarote and mainly visited the Puerto Del Carmen resort, which lies about five miles from Arrecife airport.

On the island In September/October each year they hold the Arrecife En Vivo over four weekends over four stages in the capital and the person who guides you to the next stage is an Elvis impersonator with a large foam hand! I have not yet managed to time a visit to coincide with this event but hope to rectify that in a future year.

Many of the gigs that follow below are generally low-key cover acts but adopting a completist mode I must document every single event that I have attended, otherwise my story would be unfinished!

We had one separate holiday in the other resort of Costa Teguise in 2012 and whilst in residence we visited Costa Teguise La Vida where we saw Dale Sullivan play.

There is a coastal path/cycle route that runs from Costa Teguise, through Arrecife town, past the airport and Matagorda to reach Playa de los Pocillos. This is a sleepy resort and I witnessed here a chap called Joshua play in the Lanzarote Chill Out Bar and Pedro perform in Lanzarote Rocos Blancos.

We walked back one evening from the resort to Puerto Del Carmen and there was a late set on from River Mills in a restaurant called Lanzarote La Avenida. Between the resorts is the Lanzarote Plaza de Nationale, which has a mini amphitheatre where on one occasion there was a local festival taking place and on a temporary stage the Desi Jockeys were performing.  

After walking past the excellent yet challenging crazy golf course you enter the mile long strip at Puerto Del Carmen and at the Lanzarote California Bar, I saw Hazel White play. Beyond there you reach the casino and Lanzarote Café De Ola which sits behind it, and you can watch the sea and the sunset. We have twice seen Storming Thunder who were half decent, but their stage banter was distinctly lacking in charisma, I have also seen a saxophonist called Jake Hanson play there.    

Cafe de Ola. Image Credit tripadvisor.com.sg

Next to the casino resides the first ever bar we entered on our inaugural trip to the island called Lanzarote Golden Corner, where I have seen Mark Spulzenberger and Pete Edwards play. Across the road is the Lanzarote Goofy Burger, outside of which they have a regular singer called Carlos. He may be in his elder years but has a terrific voice and I recall him doing an excellent cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’.

Five minutes’ walk away, opposite the Tourist Information resides Dos Mil, an unprepossessing supermarket café, but they serve the most wonderful pastries and cakes. Just beyond is a fantastic oriental restaurant called Asia Delicious where we have frequented many times, and that is where we sampled the local liquor Caramello for the first time!

A doorway next to there takes you down into the dingy den of Lanzarote Mulligans where I have seen Brian Duke, Los Handos and Nigel Hardacre perform. Back on upper street level brings you to one of my favourite bars Lanzarote Africa Bar, where you can play pool, sit on beer barrels facing the sea or watch the pretty good bands on stage. I have seen the Usual Suspects, Aftershock and Africa United there.   

Africa Bar. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

Continuing down the strip and you arrive at Lanzarote Tequila Bar where I saw a ‘Spinal Tap’ inspired band called Question play. Beyond there is the Lanzarote American Indian Café which is a restaurant by day and then converts into an enjoyable music spot in the evening. We have spent a few nights suppling ice-cold Mahou’s and munching on Frutos Secos, I have witnessed Perfect Circus and Alanis Band perform there. I recall once our waiter suddenly scampering off and the reason for this action then became abundantly clear as he walked up to the microphone and undertook the guest vocals on the next track!   

The end of the strip is signified by the famous Linekers’s bar, though in reality it is bit of an uninspiring establishment. Shortly after you locate Lanzarote Lava Bar. When we were in residence there was some fine-looking tucker arriving from the kitchen and Gerry and Gina were tinkling away on the piano.

Subsequently, you then arrive in the old town and harbour where there are restaurants where you can watch locals playing some very high-quality boules in the adjoining sand pits. You can also undertake the hour long walk across a very dusty and warm cliff top path to the resort of Puerta Calero.

In the old town there is a more traditional music venue called Lanzarote Electric Island which is a fun place to visit. We have attended there twice watching the Electric Island house band and supping their Malagan beer which for some undiscernible reason makes us sway on the walk back!   

Electric Island Bar. Image Credit tripadvisor.ca

Finally, some steps take you up one of the resorts best fish restaurants, namely Lanzarote Mardeleva. It is constantly booked up but one night we managed to fortuitously grab a walk-in table and it was worth the effort. In the doorway there was a highly traditional artist called Monty Montana playing and we were hoping but ultimately without success that he would play ‘Quando Quando’!

Gig Miscellaneous – Part 1

Over the next few articles, I am delving into the extensive miscellaneous minutiae of all things gig related. The first question I would pose here is why would you choose to listen to or want to see a particular band?

Initially for me this was influenced by my background and my dad who was a music fan and had a decent back catalogue so I first picked up on records by Del Shannon and Buddy Holly moving onto Bob Dylan and also instilling a life long devotion to Neil Young who also contributed (not literally!) one of the songs for mine and Gill’s wedding.

Then the pervasive influence of schoolmates kicked in resulting in an Adam Ant and a mercifully brief Heavy Metal phase. Around 1982, a significant event happened where as a stunningly shy 14-year-old I was navigating the unremitting awkwardness of a school disco where the DJ was spinning the soporific tunes of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. Suddenly an Irish lad called Aidan Callaghan requested ‘At the Edge’ by Stiff Little Fingers and then proceed to pogo around an empty dance floor for the next three minutes. I was spellbound by the joyous urgent racket and his unabandoned enjoyment, it was literally a life changing moment for me that music like this existed. I still adore that track to this day!

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Stiff Little Fingers. Image credit Discogs

My elder brother also introduced me to various below the radar American indie bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen and Meat Puppets. Those specific bands reminded me of a decent book called ‘This Band Could Be Your Life’ penned by Michael Azzerad. This commendable tome covers 12 bands between 1981 and 1991 and outlines the commercial constraints of the pre-internet age and the more imaginative way (i.e. flyers and fanzines) they chose to spread their gospel though quite often being restricted to pop up gigs in basements and shop doorways. One unusual stat for you, the Meat Puppets referenced above, generated the longest gap between the first and second time I have seen a band. I saw them play their first ever British date on 18/09/87 and didn’t see them again until 03/09/15 – just shy of a 28-year gap!

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Meat Puppets live. Image credit WordPress.com

It is somewhat difficult to imagine now with all information at our fingertips (arguably too much!) that it was very much a word of mouth existence to keep yourself updated. To exemplify this, I recall Rick Clegg and I on our first holiday in Majorca in 1986 trying to find out the latest Preston North End score. There were very limited options available to us, one an eyewatering cost to ring home and the second to wait for the English papers to arrive which would be 3-4 days later. We managed to circumvent this via a third option by identifying a dingy bar that had World Service transmitting via a tinny radio. It was all worth it as it was announced that we had beaten Cambridge 1-0.

The weekly music magazines Sounds, Melody Maker and especially NME greatly assisted in identifying new bands. I learned to became somewhat adept in gauging my future interest in a band from reading their LP or Live reviews. Their periodic 45’s and more so C86 which was a fine influential mix tape of new shoegaze type bands introduced me to the likes of The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, Half Man Half Biscuit and We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It.   

I soon discovered at this point after dabbling with various instruments, guitar and drums that I was musically inept, so my future lay in being a listener only, but I was going to make sure I was damn good at it!