Gigs from Abroad Part 20 – Alicante

Alicante has always been viewed as a strategic military location and a singular key defence mechanism underpinning this is the existence of the impressive Santa Barbara Castle which was built in the 9th century and to this day still towers over the city. I can personally confirm it is a physically exacting trek up the hill to the castle, especially in baking sunshine! The city has an interesting lineage in that they have chronologically been inhabited by Iberian tribes, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Goths (thought they were peaceful!), Moors and latterly the Spaniards.

Santa Barbara Castle. Image Credit tripkay.com

In the 1960’s it began to generate the first inklings of a future tourist destination, and the city was transformed accordingly. Other nearby resorts followed suit, including Benidorm and the success of this new venture was assisted by the closure of the old Rabasa airfield and the corresponding building of the new modern El Altet Airport. Famous people from the city include the tennis players David Ferrer and Alex de Minaur and the black metal band Nahemah.

In 2018, to commemorate our fifty years on this earth, Gill and I decided to undertake two trips around our individual birthdays and on my milestone we decided on a jaunt to Alicante. I took a liking to the city as similar to Malaga it was a bustling modern city with a beach, promenades, marina area and the aforementioned castle.

We found some decent restaurants and a plethora of bars. On my actual birthday we had a leisurely lunch, and wouldn’t you just know it I had lined up a gig for the evening! We headed into what resembled the ‘Northern Quarter’ in the Southern area of the city and our ultimate destination was Alicante Sala Stereo.

On our first pass we thought the venue was closed but Gill reassured me that they would be operating on chilled European hours, and she was absolutely correct as it didn’t open its doors until around 10pm. When there is no live music on, it runs solely as a nightclub and is open between the quite frankly insane hours of 2.30am to 8.30am!   

Sala Stereo. Image Credit youtube.com

I cannot find much history of the venue, but it appears to be still thriving today and on music nights they generally concentrate on homespun acts. It was a homely brightly lit venue with a friendly local crowd. The capacity was 500 and they had the excellent novel touch of beer bottle holders on the side walls to safely house your ice-cold beverage. 

The initial act was a decent singer from Valencia called Sienna followed by a local musician called Olivia. The clock kept ticking and moved into the day after my birthday and still we waited for the main band. They finally pottered on stage around 1am which places it squarely in my latest ever gigs lists alongside Goldblade at Preston Aqualenium and Jesus and Mary Chain at Preston Clouds in 1985, the latter now feels like it was in an earlier lifetime!

The headliners El Mato a Un Policia Motorizado, also known as EMAUPM or El Mato who were created in La Plata in Argentina. Their unusual name derives from a line in a 1987 Spanish movie R.O.T.O.R and translates literally as ‘that boy just killed a motorcycle cop’.  They formed in 2003, and the driving force of the five-piece band is the vocalist Santiago ‘Motorizado’ and they have released five albums with their latest being ‘Super Terror’ in 2023.

El Mato a Un Policia Motorizado. Image Credit diariohoy.net

They were also chosen to contribute a cover of ‘Slippery People’ for a fortieth anniversary tribute album of Talking Heads ‘Stop Making Sense’ alongside artists such as Miley Cyrus, Lorde and Paramore. The record then debuted at the top of the Billboard Compilation Albums chart in August 2024.

The band cite their musical influences as Pixies, Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground amongst others, unfortunately they did not live up to that envisaged sound and to be honest they were a tad limp. Given the late hour I wasn’t too disappointed at this development as after a couple of tracks it allowed us to shuffle out and head back to our digs. On the walk back the town was just beginning to boot up into the busier hours of its nightlife. The following evening, we attended a tapas restaurant called Alicante El Rincon de Alma and saw a local singer called Juan.

Preston Venues 24 and 25

When I left school in 1984, I undertook a one-year course to purloin some more further O’Levels at Newman College based in Winckley Square. I had somewhat to my detriment but to endless fun discovered pubs by this stage and regularly visited Lou’s Longbar in town on a Thursday night as they were somewhat lax in applying the normal age 18 criteria. A further essential part of the social calendar was to attend the legendary college do’s which took place 3 times that year. The very boozy events took place at Clouds nightclub on a Monday night.

At that time, there was a sister establishment in Preston called Tuson College based on St Vincent’s Road in Fulwood. They also held a college do in the same week on a Wednesday and these took place at Brooks Nightclub on Church Street. Rick Clegg and I managed to complete a 100% attendance record at all 6 functions in our college year but on those double do weeks we were extremely jaded come Thursday morning!

Brooks nightclub was based in the former Ritz cinema and was originally Scamps Discotheque and has since gone through various incarnations namely Arabellas, the Place and Aqualenium. Under that latter guise I attended one gig there on 16/05/02.

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Brooks Nightclub. Image Credit Flickr.

I discovered the existence of this hometown gig in a slightly unusual way. Thus, 19 days before I was leaving a And They Shall Know Us By the Trail of Dead gig in Manchester and local luminary John Robb was holding court by the exit door and outlining an upcoming Goldblade gig in Preston.

Calls were made in the morning to gather interest resulting in a group of us, including the enigmatic Matty Allen, gathering in the Black Horse on the gig night prior to heading onto the venue.

As it was a nightclub gig it turned into a very late one and many drinks were imbibed. Goldblade were supported by local band Onset. On a very small stage the main act commenced their performance close to 1am with Action Record’s Gordon Gibson in attendance. I do not think John Robb was enamoured with the sound system resulting in a fit of pique and the microphone being hurled down after a chaotic and very noisy truncated set!   

Action Records located on Church Street is one of those rare but utterly essential independent record stores. It started out as a stall on Blackpool Market before moving to its current location in 1979 and is still run by the indefatigable and Stranraer’s finest Gordon Gibson. I have been going in there since the early 80’s and remember Saturday afternoons delving into the vinyl boxes on the shop floor and unearthing and buying obscure gems such as Dumptruck and Squirrel Bait from my YTS money.  

They have developed their own record label recording output from acts such as the Boo Radleys. They have been a fierce advocate of record store day and have had many in store gigs including performances from Dirty Pretty Things, Bastille, Billy Bragg and a show from a young Muse in 1999.   

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Muse pictured with Gordon Gibson in Action Records 1999. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

On the night of 23/10/05 I was out watching Nine Black Alps in Manchester, coincidentally my 200th gig, and Magic Numbers were playing at the venue next door, and I heard on the grapevine they were undertaking an in store set the next day. So, the following lunchtime I gathered in a busy shop with Algarve Ray in attendance to watch a short set from a jaded looking Magic Numbers who hail from West London but model themselves on the 60’s Californian sound. They provided a soothing soundtrack within the confines of a somewhat unusual setting!