Tag: New Model Army

Gigs from Abroad Part 18 – Madrid

I have discovered I have a particular affinity to visiting Spanish cities as I love the vibe, bustle, ethos and cuisine and my personal favourite would be Madrid as the buildings and architecture to a degree remind me of Manchester. Our first visit was as part of a backpacking trip across the country in 2003 encompassing visits also to Seville, Zaragoza and Barcelona.

Our trip to a staggeringly hot Seville took place about a week after the Uefa Cup final between Porto and Celtic and I think the Irish bars were probably still restocking and recovering! Zaragoza was intriguing despite the train station having moved location since my Rough Guide tome was published, however we had a couple of challenging circumstances in Barcelona that probably meant we didn’t see the city in its best light.

The history of Madrid dates back to the ninth century and the extensive Ferrocarril Metropolitano (Metro) was subsequently introduced in 1919 which now provides easy access to the Aeropuerto from the city. They suffered a terrorist attack in 2004 when 118 people perished from bombs placed on busy morning rush-hour trains. Famous madrileno include Penelope Cruz, Placido Domingo, Julio Iglesias and the excellent garage rock band the Hinds.

Our mode of transport on the 2003 trip was the uber efficient trains including the AVE on the Seville to Madrid leg completed in under 2.5 hours, a train so punctual they begin to compensate you if over 10 minutes late! We visited the Prado Museum, had an aperitif on Plaza Major and basked on the vast El Retiro Park. The cultural highlight though was via a train trip to nearby Aranjuez where we visited the Royal Palace there which was an astonishing place to behold.

We stayed near the Puerta del Sol suburb which contained a rabbit warren of dusky streets with a suite of fabulous bars and tapas restaurants to weave in and out of. We also paid homage to a superb rice restaurant called Arroceria Balear Pozuelo.

A young David Beckham in PNE shirt. Image Credit www.bing.com

Whilst we were in the city there was blanket news coverage of David Beckham transferring from Manchester United to Real Madrid. Quite often forgotten is the fact that his first ever professional appearances were when he was briefly on loan to my team Preston, a fact he graciously referenced within his Sports Personality of the Year acceptance speech. We chortled though when the reporter referred to them as ‘Preston Norte End’!

We visited again a few years later and this time ensured we included a trip out to the old walled city of Toledo. As you exit the train and peer up the hill to the city you could imagine you are on a ‘Game of Thrones’ set.   

In May 2019 we returned for our third and most recent visit though the trip started in chaos from the point we landed, as our suitcase had the brazen temerity to not arrive with us. Emergency shopping trips and considerable hassle ensued, but after many phone calls, we finally managed to reconnect with the missing suitcase three days later.  

Our carousel looked like this! Image Credit bigstockphoto.com

Just prior to traveling I identified that the prestigious Madrid Open tennis tournament coincided with our visit, so we headed out to La Cala Magica to attend. It was a superb set up and we saw Petro Kvitova and Elise Mertens competing, however we unfortunately could not gain access to the court where the best named tennis player ever, Juan Martin Del Porto was playing. I had a close sighting of Novak Djokovic and a more distant sighting of one of my sporting heroes, Rafa Nadal. One thing Gill and I both observed and commented on was that all the players were astoundingly lean and generally very tall.

As ever, I scoured the lists and managed to locate a gig taking place at Madrid Sala Caracol which is located in the Palos de Moguer suburb.  Prior to the gig we visited a terrific bar across the road, where on a muted TV they were showing Liverpool’s remarkable comeback in a Champions League semi final against Madrid’s arch enemies Barcelona. In those circumstances I thought the locals might be animated, but they were very chilled and almost ambivalent about it.  

Madrid Sala Caracol. Image Credit ideasala.blogspot.com

The Caracol was a small stylish venue with vibrant lighting and an unobstructed view to the stage. Previous bands to have played there over the years include New Model Army, Editors, Suede, Mark Lanegan and even Mogwai on an early tour way back in 1999. It operates traditional Spanish opening hours from 5pm to 5am, but thankfully our gig didn’t have an am start time attached to it.

We were there to see a six-piece country rock band from Texas called Whiskey Myers who released their debut album ‘Road of Life’ back in 2008. They received a significant boost when they were featured on the ‘Yellowstone’ TV soundtrack and were also in one episode playing on stage. They put on a decent set but were a tad country lite when I was hoping for a bit more of a ‘Crazy Horse’ crunchy sound from them.

Gigs from Abroad Part 14 – Lubeck

The annual lads trip returned to Germany in March 2017 to visit Lubeck. The city is in Northern Germany and is South westernmost city on the Baltic Sea coast and was originally part of the Hanseatic League and created its own Lubeck law in 1226 and remarkably retained its status as an independent city right up to the eve of the Second World War in 1937. During the war it had the dubious privilege of being the first German city to suffer a significant RAF bombing attack, where 20% of the city centre was destroyed.

Lubeck panorama. Image Credit fotocommunity.de

Lubeck old town is Germany’s most extensive UNESCO World Heritage site and quirkily has the highest number of tall church towers worldwide, with 6 church towers exceeding 100 metres. The city is also famous for Lubeck Marzipan, which has a museum dedicated to it. They also had the honour of hosting the G7 conference in 2015.

There was an art scandal there in the 1950’s where a restorer was tasked with renovating old paintings rediscovered after World War 2, but he rather cheekily painted new works and passed them off as restorations. This scam was not discovered until decades later and the writer and Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass covered the tale in one of his novels in 1986, Gunter being a nearby Lubeck resident in his later years. 

Lubeck Marzipan. Image Credit blogspot.com

They have their own regional airport in Lubeck, but we travelled through Hamburg International Airport and the commute was very easy as the train line lies on the Vogelfluglinie which could take you if you wished to all the way through to Copenhagen.  

It was our first trip abroad since the Brexit vote the previous year and I recall it generated a discussion topic with one bar owner with us disavowing responsibility for the decision as not one of us had voted for it. One of the worst implications of Brexit is the creation of unnecessary impacts on musicians touring to Europe with additional expenses caused by extra red tape requirements of multiple visas that is now enmeshed within this process. This could have been so easily averted with a small amount of enlightened thinking when our government was negotiating the agreement, but averted it was not!

On the second day we undertook our traditional train trip, in this instance this was a short commute to the 19th century seaside town of Travemunde, which as the largest ferry port on the Baltic Sea has direct connections with many Eastern European countries.

It was wall to wall sunshine on our visit and we ensconced ourselves in an outdoor area of an Italian restaurant for a few drinks and resultant pizzas. We watched a huge car transporter ship passing by in the dock and one of our party who shall remain nameless tripped up entering the building and nearly took out the dessert display cabinet!

We returned late afternoon and had a sally around Lubeck and admired the old-fashioned vibe of the city, despite going into one somewhat dubious bar where there was brazen drug dealing clearly taking place in the establishment.

We visited Lubeck Finnegan’s which is an Irish pub located on Mengstrasse within the old town overlooking the River Trave. Whilst we there an artist called Steve Highway was playing, not to be confused with the similar named Irish Liverpool footballer of the 1970’s!

Lubeck Tonfinks. Image Credit veganfreundlich.org

We then traversed on to Lubeck Tonfinks Kulturecafe & Bar which is a multipurpose establishment which is a café by day and an inviting cosy bar at night. They also have a book exchange, readings and exhibitions alongside live music. On the night we attended there was a local band called Maces playing. The bar was in a busy area of town that regretfully we only discovered late on Day 2 so we may have to return to investigate another time. Half of us headed home the following morning while the other half kept rolling on to nearby Kiel for a New Model Army gig that evening.