Joe Adambery - page 3

I sit in the beautifully decorated Festival Hall at the Caleta Hotel in anticipation to the start of a live concert by Guy Valarino. To all intents and purposes it’s New Year’s Eve (except that it isn’t) and GBC TV is filming a special – ‘An Evening with Guy Valarino’ which aired on the last night of 2021. I have mixed emotions because a chapter of my earlier life as a musician saw me play this iconic venue many times during the festive seasons of the seventies and eighties. Guy Valarino is from a new age of musicians who with technology at their feet can construct and deconstruct live music in front of our very eyes.

Guy is the only true exponent of ‘Looper music’ on the Rock. He will build up phrases by recording, playing back and adding parts to construct a full backing track with harmonies and percussion, a track with which he sings along to. All ‘live,’ all instant and all magical like ‘Shazam’. An acute sense of timing and a solid knowledge of song production techniques as well as a high standard of musicianship are essential. He has all those qualities in spades and is fascinating to watch and listen to. He writes his own material and on this occasion he played two of his best known creations along with a selection of popular covers to an intimate audience.

The Festival Hall is soon to be no more as the Caleta Hotel is being demolished to give way to a Hilton Hotel. I can’t bring myself to embrace the idea that this beautiful and ‘properly vintage’ events venue is to be lost forever. There are so many memories here belonging to many across our community that will only be preserved in photographs, wedding videos, GBC archives and newspaper cuttings. In its heyday this venue could host well over a hundred diners to sumptuous seasonal multicourse menus with live music at the bottom of the elegant stairs in the nook where the gorgeous Christmas tree sits tonight. A lovely backdrop to Guy’s concert setting evoking my memories of the great traditional Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinners which went on until early English breakfast at 430 am – for which everyone stayed on and more came from other venues in search of.

We are briefed by GBC’s Paula Latin before the concert kicks off to react and enjoy ourselves and also to turn off our mobiles. Could I ever have imagined that we would all be carrying telephones in our pockets that have more technology in them now than the first mission to land a man on the moon way back in the 60’s? Guy eases himself into a ten song set which he introduces in his quiet charismatic way and which may seem affable in manner but his skills at this game have been honed while travelling around the UK and continent hosting intimate shows like this in front rooms and small venues.

This is anything but a small venue but he fills it up with a polished performance which has our eyes riveted on his guitar playing, his singing microphone and an additional one to which he adds percussion, and his own harmonies. We are all in awe watching a ‘one man band’ recreating complex music and making very faithful renditions of hits that we all know and love. Hats off to this ‘Guy’! He has the pulse on the melodic songs which touch our hearts. He also has skills and the courage to take them on while surgically reconstructing them before our eyes.  This ‘Looper art’ is better seen and heard in a ‘live’ situation, up close where the magic unfolds as the songs come to life.  

During a break in recording I chat to the show’s producer Paula Latin who is also in love with the Festival Hall and like me will no doubt pine for a similar iconic setting to steal our hearts in the future. Latterly the hall has been hosting the famous Chess dinners with top players who have over twenty years made Gibraltar the home of world chess competitions. Paula reminds me of the Miss Gibraltar shows which have also been televised from here and I nod but my head is miles away still playing those cherished wedding songs, hits in their day, when a young couple would step out onto the marble floor of the Festival Hall and display their love to their family and friends. I’m sure that the romance of a Caleta Palace wedding has produced a young generation which would be hard put to relate to the nostalgia which now fires those memories in me that also told me that “When the father of the bride is much younger than you it’s time to retire from playing at weddings.”   

 If you watched the run up to the GBC TV countdown on New Year’s Eve you saw Guy Valarino and hopefully enjoyed his concert, but if you get the chance to see him live in a small setting or a wedding cocktail event, pay him a visit and admire how he puts his music together. His always polished performances command a lot of respect from the cognoscenti and also from dinosaurs like me who turn up to scrutinize and appreciate his music in ‘iconic vintage halls’ that will be sadly missed by many folk who can (and will) tell you how the festive season used to be. Here’s hoping that the New Year will bring good health and prosperity to all communities that have been touched by the pandemic which we still can’t seem to shake off.

Two years ago I found myself announcing an imminent album release from the Valerga Brothers when they were inducted to the Hall Of Fame Class of 2019. I had been privy to an advance copy so I was confident that the CD would have been well received. Covid delayed that album and forced into isolation, the brothers made good use of the extra time available and started to add songs to it with a view to making it a double album. Recordings went on until finally they had over thirty songs in the bag. That’s nearly a triple album’s worth! This is where we are two years later as Henry Valerga meets with me offering a bunch of new CD information handouts and the beaming smile of a man who has just done his musical best.

“The ‘Soundtrack of my teenS’ by The Valerga Bothers is our ‘opus magnum.’ A snapshot of our early years in pictures and biography, packaged with the soundtrack of the 60’s and 70’s music which shaped our teens. This bumper musical offering includes great covers of big hits from legendary artists and we have also brought in local artists to the party in the hope that Calpe House, a charity really close to my heart, will benefit greatly from the entire proceeds of this thirty two track album.”

The album which has been financed by Kamlesh Krishna Khubchand, consists of a beautiful front cover painting of brothers Henry and Denis by artist Leslie Gaduzo. Stephen Perera has done the graphic design and produced the twelve page libretto which includes many photos from the era in montage using vintage cameras and layout. Henry has thoroughly researched the songs and added written quotes as sleeve liners. The local artists collaborating are Chris Montegriffo on harmonica, guitarist Paul Patrick Cano, Trevor Guilliano of ‘After Hours’ (recording assistance), singers Corrine Cooper and Seila Pavon, tenor Nathan Payas and soprano Claire Hawkins, veteran Rocker Giles Ramirez and veteran Rock guitarist Harry Chichon. The Gibraltar National Youth Choir conducted by Christian Santos, with spoken words by Krisna Gulraj and Michael Cortes, were recorded with Brian Torres and Nicky Gonzalez assisting. That represents a wide cross section of local talent who have rallied round to embellish the project with their contributions.

“As we speak (early November) it’s not yet guaranteed that the release will be in time for Christmas but we are still hopeful. All the music is done and mastered and it’s just the packaging and printing which still have to be tweaked. The songs we have chosen are legendary classics, evergreens from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Kinks, Simon and Garfunkel, Procol Harum, The Righteous Brothers, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Donovan, The Everly Brothers and  many more.”

“Our versions of their songs are backed by rich instrumentation and versatile vocal arrangements which we and the other contributing artists have poured their hearts into. I think that we have achieved a recording milestone in the way that our covers of these classics have turned out. It’s the biggest project that we have ever attempted and we are immensely proud of everyone with the results that we have achieved.”

Henry gave me a sample CD of twenty songs from which I have selected a few to mention as a trailer and ‘The Boxer’ immediately stands out as does ‘You’ve lost that loving feeling’ both great productions. ‘Grocer Jack’ features the GNY Choir on it and has all the tenderness of the original.  Henry’s vocal in Donovan’s ‘Catch the wind’ gives you goose pimples and ‘Universal Soldier’ is a truly epic production. Denis Valerga sings ‘Blackberry Way’ and he has orchestrated a ‘Penny Lane’ type of trumpet solo at the end which is a masterpiece. ‘Ruby Tuesday’ is given a sensitive treatment which evokes all the magic of the early Rolling Stones at their acoustic best and Don Maclean’s ‘Vincent’ is also a truly standout track which captures the beauty and fragility of the original. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the songs.

Having heard the sample CD I can vouch that you will be in for a feast of classics which will make you feel proud of the local talent on display in these collaborations. They really do stand out as special musical treats and I can see many copies of this bumper album package from the Valerga Brothers, which includes a 19 track CD, a 32 track USB and a 12 page comprehensive libretto, selling really well in support of Calpe House. The ‘Soundtrack of my teenS’ will gladden many hearts with the nostalgia and the musical journey of two brothers who have captured our hearts and still endure with their music.

Christmas how it used to is how we all best like to remember our childhood Christmases. I have been invited to recall mine and duly wearing my rose tinted memory glasses I will set about stirring the nostalgia cake mix and we shall see what turns up. I have rewound back seventy years to 1951 and we are at number one Alameda House (Humphries) as the estate was named after the building contractors. That year had seen the tragedy of the ‘Bedenham’ explosion in April and Christmas couldn’t have come any sooner. Our old ‘block’ still neighbours the fire station and the sound of a happy gathering reaches my seven year old ears. The legendary seasonal ‘Comparsa’ (quite unmusical and random bunch of wandering carol singers) from the fire brigade off-duty watches were already in fine form and well ‘lubricated.’ They were ready to set out on their annual boozy sing song on Christmas Eve around the fires station perimeters.

Their loud ‘Zambombas’, a small barrel with a skin stretched on top and a cane stalk tied to its centre (‘Carriso’ or noise activator!) which when wetted and rubbed up and down the stalk would provoke a grunting noise which helps mark time, acting as a rough bass and bass drum combined. The ‘Panderetas’ (skin topped tambourines) were rattling away and the hearty singing (could it really be called that?) sent the celebratory echoes of ‘Noche Buena’ (Christmas Eve) around Humphries estate. 

Empty corrugated glass bottles of ‘anis del mono’ would also provide a squeaking noise when a wine cork was rubbed along their sides. A lone guitar or a mandolin really stood no chance of being heard above all that cacophony and the traditional Spanish carols (Villancicos) announced the imminent birth of Baby Jesus, who probably wouldn’t have chosen to be born to that din when he had choirs of angels at his disposal.

We lived on the ground floor of Alameda House and word had it that if they were tipped off, the firemen ‘Comparsa’ would sing at your door until invited in to feed and drink from the modest table laid out in readiness for the family supper. Just imagine the panic setting in for mum and dad thinking that our modest family spread would hardly last thirty seconds and all the beers and the sweet rough wine from Malaga (muscatel) would also be drank in half that time! Well I seem to remember that we survived the ‘raid’ from the good folk of the fire brigade, however I don’t remember how we re- formatted the house later and re-stocked the table for supper that night. My thoughts were only on Father Christmas as I uncovered my ears after convincing myself that there had not been an earthquake in my home.

In the good old days you were primed about what to expect for Christmas. My uncle Tony who was also my godfather had hinted that I ‘might’ get a scooter, which prompted happy dreams and adjusted my tendency to bad behaviour lest Santa would turn up and just gift me a few ‘coal nuggets’ instead of the coveted scooter of my dreams. In the run up to Christmas my mum who was very good at crib making, would have put up a display of little figurines representing the nativity scene surrounded by brown and grey mountains made out of heavy paper with flour dusted on top to make their snow caps. Everything in the crib (Nascimiento) would be ready except for the arrival of the infant Jesus who would magically make an appearance on Christmas morning as we unwrapped our presents of modest toys and confectionary. No plastics in those days. Painted cardboard, wood and tin toys or lead soldiers (we never heard of a child with lead poisoning). 

Never in my wildest childhood dreams could I have imagined that my uncle would build me a scooter in the Her Majesty’s dockyard where he worked at the iron works foundry. It was modelled on the old ‘Mobo’ or Triang brand of scooters that not everyone could afford at the time. Mine was built to last and it weighed a ton! Had I run into a wall I would have demolished the wall for sure. Not to digress, that night Father Christmas came to 1 Alameda House in the aftermath of the fire brigade ‘Comparsa’ visit and without a word helped my parents clear up before depositing a very large brown paper bag which looked suspiciously like a scooter. I was beside myself with expectation but my parents said that the bag was full of old pipes to be used for repairs to the plumbing.

Did I believe them? Of course I did – against my better judgement. The next morning I was allowed out to practice on my big brown scooter which had yellow trim lines, no brakes to tame its savage momentum and military – like heavy duty black wheels which might have come from wheelie bins, had they existed in those days.  When I look back and compare with the present day I feel sorry for the times that surprises don’t happen too often at Christmas. Nowadays the young ones mostly get what they have expressly asked for (demanded?) and budget is hardly ever a problem.

 At the same time I feel thankful and blessed that those early days in my life gave me a sense of community which is the greatest gift after family and good health. Our rough band of street carol singers – the ‘Comparsas’ of yesteryear, exuded real Christmas cheer without making polite excuses or renaming Christmas as simply a ‘holiday season’. Easy on the sherry and mince pies now and have a wonderful family Christmas full of blessings, just like the pandemic had never happened and we were still safely in the EU!     

In July before the World Free Diving Championships which were held in Limassol (Cyprus) in mid September, high ranked local free diver Dean Chipolina was asked by his UK teammates if he would step up and take on extra diving disciplines as one of the UK’s four man diving team had pulled out. With time against him and at the risk of messing up his own training regime he agreed. The UK free diving team is currently ranked number one in the world due in no small way to Dean’s extra performances against all odds. The weather played havoc with the championship, which requires ideal surface conditions and little or no underwater currents to make for safe deep diving. Dean Chipolina is currently ranked number six in the world and that is a remarkable achievement.

During the competition on September 23rd, Dean messaged me to say that despite horrible conditions (all diving was cancelled shortly after his successful 85 metre attempt), “Despite the weather I managed a beautiful dive to my announced depth.” I immediately went on line and watched his graceful dive on Youtube and I recommend anyone who is interested in water sports to do so too. It is beautifully filmed and a testament to the meticulous preparation and execution by this gifted local athlete who we have featured on ‘Insight Magazine’ before.

Fresh back from the championships (having lost eight kilos of body weight through exertion) but looking relaxed and quietly proud, Dean sits across from me sipping coffee. He has just shown me a glowing letter from the Chief Minister and messages from the City Hall. Everyone wants to toast him and yet if everything had gone his way he would now be World No 4 because he still feels he has more to give. In a sport notorious for divers suffering surface blackouts due to exertion, Dean knows his safe capabilities and has never blacked out. He always leaves something in the tank and although now forty he is still at the top of his game.

“In Limassol during competition the weather was always a big factor, one day you had terrible surface conditions and good underwater conditions and the next day it would be perfect on the surface but with strong underwater currents which is worse.  A dive is a carefully planned sequence of events and all your training is geared to making those events perfect in timing and in technique. You have to be in the right place at the right time for the dive to work. It’s like clockwork and a few seconds lost here and there is always leading you to a blackout if you are pushing to your limits. I don’t push to those limits. I leave a safe margin and train to always have something left in the tank. I take a step back and the ego is something that I keep in check. I am not reckless I want to enjoy the sport for a long time so I don’t want to do things which make the sport look bad or unsafe.”

To put things into perspective here – a breath holding dive to 70 metres and beyond in any discipline, raises the free diver into an elite class of athletes who are constantly challenging the boundaries of inner space, the domain of fish and not one for faint hearted humans. The deep blue is the most unforgiving world and the only mammals which thrive in it are whales and dolphins – supreme breath holding divers.

“To compete in four disciplines like I just did you have to train for a year. You need to get your body used to each discipline one day on and one day off. You cycle that so that you don’t get tired and you can adapt and switch from one style to another. At the high level that I dive now each discipline is a whole different world. Your freefall speeds, your ascent speeds, the muscles you engage and the lactic build up in them are all different. Only the most experienced divers can cross over each discipline with any degree of success. That was one mistake I made this year, when my UK team mate diver pulled out there was a bit of pressure on me so I took on extra work which tired me out more.” 

“I used two earlier competitions in the Triton cup held in Kalamata, Greece to asses myself in the extra disciplines. I announced a dive to 61mteres with no fins and as it was only 10 metres above my personal best it was easy so I went up in the rankings. In the European cup which followed I did another 66 metre dive with no fins and the ranking came up again. Any dive near the 70 metre mark and you are up there with the top divers in the world for that discipline.”

 At around competition time Dean received a new pair of bi-fins in the post so during training he undertook a couple of successful practice dives with them which ultimately led to the beautiful 85 metre dive that he did on September 23rd. The stress factor in the world championship is very high with over a hundred and thirty divers competing and twenty safety divers and TV crews it gets very crowded. Add to that bad weather or underwater currents which cause divers to overstretch and have surface blackouts, the pre-dive relaxation routines are very difficult to focus on. It has to be said that surface blackouts are not fatal and even underwater blackouts are managed safely. In spite of the hostile environment free diving is considered quite a safe sport. Statistically there are no deaths and it’s safer than cycling!

“When I arrived in Limassol, Cyprus for the Worlds, I was already quite tired from the two previous competitions in Greece. I had competed in the Triton Cup and the European Cup in Greece so I took four days off to recharge my body.  In competition at the Worlds there was one dive which got me a yellow card (penalty) for returning to surface earlier than announced. That discipline was the free immersion which is where you pull yourself down the line and then up again. There are no fins to help you and there is a lot of exertion involved. There was an underwater current on my dive and as I was using up extra energy this slowed me down changing the sequence of my dive. I decided to abort early rather than risk a blackout. I am glad that I opted for that as free immersion is not my strongest discipline. I could have protested that dive as after I came up they suspended competition because of the poor conditions.” 

You win some and you lose some as they say because there are too many factors involved in free diving and if you are a well trained disciplined athlete like Dean Chipolina you can take it on the chin and hope that next time conditions will be better. I am convinced that this man will still be making his presence felt in the free diving world for some time to come.  This year he learned that his body needs more time to recover between dives and that he should not have taken on the extra disciplines for his team. He now has a new mono-fin and new bi-fins which he’s very happy with and has just retained his coach to help him achieve his full potential for next year. 

There is a Country Rock band in Nashville who had been nudging big time success when the world got wrapped up in a pandemic and they went off the public radar. Not completely though as fans will point you in the direction of a number of celebrity duets which they were a part of on Zoom during the dark days of lockdown… when playing in a band meant that you were playing in your front room and other band members in theirs. Local singer and composer, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Simon Dumas was tracked down for a chat.

It’s great to hear that King Calaway are touring again after the lockdown. How did it feel to be playing to live audiences again?

“It’s been really incredible to be performing again. Dates have been slightly scattered in terms of where and when. A few of the gigs have been rescheduled shows from 2020 but all in all it’s been so rewarding to get back on stage. As we release our new EP we still have local shows booked in Nashville including at the Grand Ole Opry.”

The pandemic rudely interrupted your well charted course which was on track to make your band bigger and more widely known… what changes have been made by your management to bring King Calaway back into the public eye again?

“Collectively we agreed it would be best if the band used the time off to write new songs, rework our sound and to get ready for when the world reopened. We are so grateful for the support from our record label and management team who have put together some great opportunities for us in the hope that our music will reach as many people as possible.”

How did you manage to spend your time between Gibraltar and the US during lockdown and when did it finally become possible to be a band again and play in the same room together?

“In Gibraltar I spent time with my family. After a whirlwind two years with KC it was really nice to hit the pause button and just spend time at home. It was also a good chance to reflect on all that had happened and that alone inspired a lot of song writing in the evenings via Zoom with Nashville writers. I did more song writing once I got back to Nashville in August of 2020. It was great to be reunited with the band. In the New Year we went to Asheville, North Carolina in February for three weeks in order to record our new material.”

I’m assuming that the band’s song writing would have come along nicely with all that time on your hands during isolation …will these new songs make it into your next album or will there be additional material from other writers involved?

“Yes indeed. We’ve all been writing a lot of material. I’d say between us we were narrowing down choices from a pool of eighty songs that each of us had co-written. This new four songs EP will feature 3 songs with at least one KC original, and one ‘outside cut’ as they are called over here. I co-wrote two of the songs on the EP, ‘More People’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ and I’m really excited about all the other songs which will be released at a later date.”

Previously you have played for ‘Rascal Flatts’ when they were on their last tour before the pandemic and it was on the cards to happen again…is this opportunity still being actively pursued if or when they tour next year perhaps?

“Our first and only time we played opening for ‘Rascal Flatts’ was phenomenal! It was at the Ascend Amphitheatre in Nashville to a couple thousand fans. Unfortunately the pandemic seems to have cancelled that farewell tour which we were going to join, however I do hope it will be rescheduled!”

From a personal perspective since you have tasted some success and high-profile gigs on TV and concerts do you feel any nearer to making it big time or is your musical dream realized already?

“I’ve spent my whole life imagining what it would feel like to ‘make it’ in music. 2019 was for me truly a bucket list year, performing in US Bank Stadium to 70,000 people, also playing live on the ‘Late Late Show’ with James Corden and other TV shows. At this point I’m taking every day as it comes with a tremendous amount of gratitude. I still have my aspirations as a songwriter (both for King Calaway and for other artists). I’m also hoping that our band can get out and play on a headline tour once it’s safe to do so.”

Can you give us an insight into which songs might get into the final cut of the projected KC album which are already recorded?

“This new body of work is inspired by our stories and our journey. Musically we really channelled a sort of ‘California country’ sound with Rock influences in some other songs.We are really proud of what we’ve created and feel it’s the most authentic version of King Calaway to date.”

If there has been a negative it has to be the band’s time apart during lockdown, which I know you are catching up on…has this separation dulled your collective drive as a band and is everyone still 100 percent on board to Rock the rest of 2021 and beyond?

“We are all 100% on board! We are hungry, motivated and ready to pick up from where we left off in 2020. However with new momentum, live shows and excitement!”

There is little that we can add to that sentiment other than our best wishes that dreams may continue to come true and that this talented band that are ‘King Calaway’ take their place in the US music charts and who knows, if they tour Europe in the future they could be booked to perform here once again on Simon Dumas’ home turf. Take a listen to their new music on Spotify or any of the other music platforms it’s good music on the rise.

Sir Joe Bossano who was Chief Minister in 1992 travelled to the United Nations forum in New York to advocate for the right to self determination for the people of Gibraltar to decide their own future. It is against that backdrop that the idea of our ‘National Day’ was born. September 10th commemorates the first referendum held here, when the people of Gibraltar in 1967 voted overwhelmingly to remain British. In September 1992 at the Piazza, John Mackintosh Square, the first National Day was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of that landmark referendum. I was there and the overriding memory of that first rally is the emotion I felt then as in subsequent years when those balloons went up to tell the world who we are. 

No one at the time thought that we needed a National Day in order to celebrate our unique status of British birthright. A Mediterranean people who had endured countless sieges were about to be emancipated by acquiring their own voice and demanding the right to their homeland, which was and still is under threat as the historical Spanish claim on the sovereignty of the Rock gathered momentum.  In the new dawn of a Gibraltar outside of the EU, the Spanish claim is still a potential threat to our future prosperity and well being. It is right that we have to continue to uphold those values that make us who we are and we still have a duty to stand up and be counted as we proudly wear our Red and Whites on our National day.

Joe Bossano is the father of our National Day celebrations as he is also the father of our parliament. It was he who obviously thought that we should celebrate our being ‘LLanito and British’ in equal measure and that the message needed to be shouted from our rooftops, so together with the ‘Self Determination for Gibraltar Group’ the Gibraltar Government fostered the consolidation of a festive political rally which has grown exponentially over the years and is now firmly established as our red and white day as well as our red white and blue day. 

This year the same as last year due to the ongoing pandemic, the celebrations will again be somewhat muted with the absence of the traditional Casemates political rally and associated entertainment programme which starts early in the morning and ends with the Rock concert in the early hours. However the growing tradition of family BBQs on the beach will surely fill the void left by these crowd led events.  I remember that from many years ago people would throng onto Main Street from early in the morning and await the parade that used to march all the way down from the cable car station at Alameda Grand Parade where the children’s National Day fancy dress parade and prize giving had already taken place.

Whole families many with pets festooned in our national colours, would have already secured tables al fresco for English breakfast and await the parade, the passing of which was the queue to up sticks and follow them down to Casemates Square and stand shoulder to shoulder by the thousands to await the start of the political rally at 12.30pm. The rousing speeches by visiting  UK politicians and our own chief ministers would then give way to the release of the 30,000 balloons (alas no more) to the strains of our own national anthem and the adopted ‘Llanito’ anthem by Pepe Roman ‘Llevame Donde Naci! The thunder of fireworks and confetti bombs was the backdrop to crowd hugs and kisses, when thousands of emotionally happy compatriots struggled with ‘frogs in their throats’ and happy tears as they tried to out-sing each other in the colourful cacophony that is now firmly established in the DNA of National Days to remember. 

For that unique invention of ‘our own day to celebrate ourselves’ we owe a debt of gratitude to Sir Joe Bossano and to the chief ministers who have followed him into the spotlight to make us feel very good about ourselves as a very small nation with high aspirations of staying Red, WHITE and FREE. Long may it be so and my best wishes that you may all have a happy and peaceful National Day 2021.   

A new film about our recent history

A quite significant historical documentary called ‘Times of Closure’ of our border with Spain has recently been shown at Leisure Cinemas. The two hour film brilliantly put together by former GBC TV producer and freelance cameraman Stephen Cumming over a period of twenty years, first started life as a documentary highlighting 300 years of British rule here. Budgetary constraints throughout the early production schedule resulted in delays and storyboard adjustments so that the intended 2004 screening was never met. Other projected screening dates were missed too but perhaps this has been fortuitous for the film’s relevance as we now sit at the doorstep of a ‘new treaty’ which will supersede the scope of the Treaty of Utrecht. With the United Kingdom and Gibraltar now out of Europe, a new treaty with our neighbours to the north seems the only way forward. 

As Stephen delved deeper into political research for ‘Times of Closure’ he discovered other angles that he explored through interviews with key political players of the era and also at a human level, the La Linea workers who were the hardest hit by General Franco’s draconian policy to close the frontier, in a what turned out to be a failed attempt to bring Gibraltar to its knees. The original storyboard grew exponentially with every new historical thread uncovered and as new material was filmed, the scope of the film’s original remit was widened to accommodate new footage and the ever changing political dimension that is the perennial ‘Gibraltar Problem.’  

We spoke with Stephen Cumming to learn further about his crusade to bring the closed border story to the silver screen. “The final script evolved from one that I had started writing in 2000. I was hoping to produce something for 2004 and the anniversary of the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. It covered the whole story in less detail than this film. It was not to be, so when the frontier closure anniversary arrived, I literally extracted that part of the script and expanded it. I drew on sources like the public archives, historians and academics. People like Dr. Jenifer Ballantine Perera of the Gibraltar Garrison Library and UK based researcher Tommy Norton at University of Nottingham. Both of whom had carried out a great deal of work on this already. In true TV style the script was still being developed right up to the last few weeks as more information was found.” 

“The public response to the film has been generously positive. I’m not sure if it’s because I know most of the audience personally, but seriously, I think people have been suitably impressed and interestingly, for different reasons. Some were impressed by the nostalgia that the archive images bring, others by the beautiful imagery that the cinema screen affords and others by the sheer volume of information that the documentary delivers.”

When I saw the film at its premiere my first thoughts were that such an admirable effort to bring together the story of the closed border years through the eyes of politicians, historians and other key players cannot be limited by reasons of copyright constraints to a cinema viewing public only. This is a historical document that has to be shared with the wider local public and perhaps even included in our school curriculum. That raises the problem of licensing the archive film clips, which bring to life the narrative illustrating and also punctuating the interviews as the film unfolds. We touched on the complex licensing arrangements that still lie ahead for Stephen Cumming as he now tries to find a way to exploit the film outside of our shores, through Blu-ray for home ownership and importantly for local educational purposes.  

 “My growing concern was to get the film finished this year and after I had edited the footage I set about securing the licensing agreements for cinema only. It was a nightmare to get the licensing agreed. The archive and library footage probably takes the biggest bite out of the overall budget. I found them from over thirty sources worldwide. Each source has its own licensing agreement and coverage restrictions. This turns the whole exercise into a veritable nightmare. The result though has been worth it. It’s such a joy to see Gibraltar as it was at the time. It also brings a sense of reality and sadness when you watch the classic ‘closed frontier’ scenes. For this and for all the other costs I think Gibraltar owes a debt of gratitude to our partners in this project, the Government of Gibraltar, Hassans, Imperial Group, MH Bland, Parasol Foundation and Bassadone Motors. Also my business partner, Odette Benatar’s efforts in securing this support has been absolutely crucial.”

Among significant discoveries made by researchers stands out the fact that the 1967 referendum idea for Gibraltar was first promoted by the Americans and not the British as is widely thought. Their wider strategic interests included control of the strait and their base at Rota against the backdrop of the Cold War, so the continued British presence in Gibraltar had to be secured by a mandate from the inhabitants of the Rock who voted overwhelmingly to remain British. At present Stephen is involved trying to edit down the film to an hour for TV consumption in the UK the US and in Spain. This involves redoing the narrative in Spanish. He believes that due to its length perhaps only Canal Sur would be interested in screening the full two hour version of the film.  

“There may also be an option to do a limited run of 1000 Blu-ray copies for local consumption in the run up to Christmas, that would be ideal but again licensing is complicated. What that format would include would be the full interviews and some of those interviews are a joy to watch for history buffs.” I remarked on how well the former Spanish Vice President Alfonso Guerra comes across… “You have no idea just how good that interview was. We discovered as soon as we started it that here was a top level politician who is also a very learned man and a key player in the PSOE policy that eventually unlocked the border and saw improved relations between the Rock and Spain.”

“The Pandemic and the subsequent lockdown helped tremendously in that long hours of editing were done at home, where I first had to learn to use my new camera that filmed everything in 4K. I soon discovered that 4K files are massive and I quickly run out of storage space and had to acquire a great deal more. That was a huge learning curve. I am hugely indebted to Beatriz Galeano a Spanish TV reporter friend who helped me set up the Spanish interviews including Alfonso Guerra and with academics and former diplomats in Spain” 

 By a wonderful coincidence, as the film starts with the Treaty of Utrecht, the EU commission, Spain and the British are now at the point of drawing up a new treaty on Gibraltar three hundred and eight years later. This could be a major treaty that will impact on our future and that of the hinterland and it remains to be seen how that will unfold, as the interests of the players are bound to present great difficulties to those tasked with drafting a complex and forward looking agreement which will shape our lives for generations to come.

“People might expect the story of the film to be Gibraltar centred and only about how bad things got here but because La Linea got the worst deal out of the closed border, we had to look at how work suddenly dried up there. Don’t forget that La Linea was born out of Gibraltar’s labour requirements and it survives because of Gibraltar’s work and when the Spanish government creates a choke point at the border they deny their own people in La Linea the right to a peaceful and prosperous relationship with Gibraltar.”

If you have not yet seen ‘Times of Closure’ and have a keen interest in our recent political history, especially in the period of the closed frontier days, you will enjoy learning about the background of the geo-strategic considerations of the Americans and the British in keeping the Rock British in the face of a pressing Spanish claim which remains firm to this date. If the film eventually makes its way to our television screens and our schools it will be a triumph to the tenacity if its creator who has spent the last three years editing a wealth of material which should not be confined to gather dust in the editing room floor. The regular screening will soon move to ‘The Queens Picturehouse and Eatery’ at Casemates Square. 

 I for one look forward to the prospect of owning a Blu-ray version of it and watching the full interviews of some of the players who helped make the film what it is, a well researched historical document for which Stephen Cumming does not want full credit for but fully deserves it. The film succeeds on many levels and deserves to be widely seen and acclaimed as a high water mark in documenting an important part of our fascinating history. 

The story of Violet Buchanan one of the first four policewomen who patrolled our streets in the mid sixties has done the rounds in the local press lately but what if I told you that she has been a lifelong friend from Witham’s Road and that being an ex WPC does not really define her? 

Precisely because she is a friend I had intended to bow out from the media frenzy but my dear colleague Jean King at ‘Insight Magazine’ shunted the proposed article about her on me after a few phone calls thus saving me having to ask Violet for this interview. It fell on my lap-and so we met for an extended coffee and chat which had to start with how she applied to become a police officer. It turns out that she was almost pushed into it by a mutual friend.

“We were strolling past the old Police Station and my friend Janet told me that applications had been invited for Police women (something new for Gibraltar then) and since I had just come back from UK and was job hunting I should apply, so I was nudged into the office and filled in the form. I was nineteen at the time and that very afternoon the phone rang inviting me for a test, a written exam almost like a general knowledge test. Anyway two days later after a quick interview with the Commissioner I was in. There were only four of us but you have to remember that in those days it was an all male force so local girls were very shy coming forward.” 

“After leaving school I had gone to live in England with my sister and after three years there I came back and I had suddenly found myself landing a uniformed job. Just imagine that-but it was no career move though, they just wanted a body and I was it. I don’t think they even did a background check on me as they would do nowadays. I spoke good English as I was fresh back from UK so I fitted in with what they were looking for. They said that after training our duties would be the same as the policemen except that we would not be doing night shifts. It would be a day job but we would have the same status as our male counterparts.”

Four women and two male recruits completed the eight week training course throughout which the girls were still considered a novelty. They got measured for police uniforms which were made by Ellicott the English tailors by the Church of Scotland. The hats and shoes were UK issue and the girls had to learn marching and drill just like the men. “I used to hate marching but I loved the uniform, although at first walking down to town along ‘La Bateria’ (Rosia Road) I felt self-conscious and also proud to be a police woman. At first we girls felt that the men had been told to be on their best behaviour and indeed they were on their toes. We were highly respected and can only praise them for it.”

“We were quite protected and almost handled with kid gloves but we each got assigned to different departments. I went to the Traffic section and I immediately loved it there. Every month we were rotated and probably assessed too, but it was great fun and always a new challenge. I loved Traffic so I was a Traffic girl and remember that in those days there were no traffic lights. You had to be on point duty directing traffic by hand signals. The bigger the intersection the more I liked it as a challenge, so the Trafalgar intersection was my favourite as it was the busiest.” 

“Memories of those days still come back and I remember that the ‘cats eyes’ road reflectors had just come on stream at the time. I also remember the Traffic section chief inspector Mr. Ellis who used to live at the bottom of Witham’s Road at the old Jumper’s Building police quarters. To me he was a man ahead of his time. I don’t think people realized how smart he was. He was well read and on the ball and I remember that I used to get lifts from him going down to the station. I was only in the police force for four years but they were very happy times for me. I was the last woman to leave from our group as the three others had moved on by the time that I had left for the States. On reflection I would probably have made a career of it had I not met my husband who was posted with the US Navy here, working at ‘The Tower’ where the US Naval Liaison office was also situated.”

 “Had I not been in the Police force I might never have met him, because I didn’t mix in his circle, but as we girls regularly got invited to mess functions our paths crossed. He used to drive a big grey Dodge transporter which he said hardly fitted through the old ‘Southport Gates’ (now Referendum Gates) and as I remember it, one day I was on point duty and signalled him to stop but he drove on and ignored me.  I was livid and perhaps I should have arrested him. That incident was always a running joke throughout our married life.”

Violet’s late husband was Ritchie Buchanan who later had a basket ball trophy named in his honour and which is still played for annually. Those involved in early local basket ball will remember that he was a top class player in the original ‘Blue Stars,’ he loved Gibraltar but his orders came and he was posted back to the States, taking with him the young Violet Schembri to live in Brownsburg Indiana, a small town in the mid west just ten miles from the state capital Indianapolis. 

“I married Ritchie after courting for nine months and it was during my third year in the police force so by that time more women were joining up and I was already an old hand by then. We never got the opportunity to march on parade but we were always on show at the changing of the guard or the ceremony of the keys. I think that they were quite proud of us and I was still in love with my job but my husband to be was soon to be posted back, so we got married and I was gone. I always stayed in touch with Elyeen Byrne, she was in the immigration section but she died a few years ago.”

 “We had great times and we never had to arrest anyone. On a few occasions we were called to do body searches on women (mostly prostitutes) but only rarely. Apart from traffic point duty my job was mostly clerical and when the home fleet was in port we were kept discreetly out of sight and not ever on foot patrol. There were fewer private vehicles around at the time, mostly military transport and against that background various fellow police officers from Traffic took turns to teach me driving. I really struggled with clutch control on steep hills and when I started dating Richard, the chief inspector thought it would be prudent to discontinue my driving lessons since I had indicated that I would be leaving soon. We married in December of 1968.”

Before he was posted to Gibraltar Ritchie Buchanan had volunteered for Vietnam and when his orders came up he asked Violet whether she wanted to stay in Gibraltar after their wedding or go back and be a naval wife in his hometown of Brownsburg, Indiana. Violet made a brave choice (I think) and opted for the latter, thinking that like in the days of old, sailors always left their girls in port and never came back! As soon as he left for Vietnam on a fifteen month posting she got a clerical job in the state capital Indianapolis and she soon got used to commuting daily.

 A friend had offered her the chance to share petrol costs for the daily commute and she took it, so time passed quicker with no time for moping at home. In those days letter writing was the norm with few ( short) trunk telephone calls (‘conferencias’) to mum  only tempered with the hope of coming back to the Rock for holidays which kept her spirits up. Her mother only went twice to visit her in the States and only after she was widowed, but Violet had to face her father’s passing alone and was unable to come to his funeral. Life was good but it was tough too, so she had vowed always to come back here for holidays as frequently as she could afford to. That’s why she has stayed in touch with her childhood circle of friends to this day.

“We were fortunate to be adopted by Mgr. Carmelo Grech who put St. Joseph’s church crypt at our disposal for a youth club in the late fifties. Because of that facility we learned to live with boys and vice versa because there was no co-education then. We grew our teen years there, a small group of well adjusted teenagers none of whom has yet gone off the rails thankfully and some who still keep in touch to this day. We are thankful for that steadying influence and the platform to life that it provided.”

“In America I went into the child day care business from home and it was my business for forty years. My over riding memories are of a very happy childhood here and it never entered my head to be a police woman in America because in the States they carry guns .”

With her husband away on long overseas postings after the war in Vietnam, Violet threw all her energy into giving the best child day care service that she could, having adapted their large house to cater for up to sixteen children, from 7.30 am to 5.30pm when she had help, otherwise she would only take twelve children but always juggling the business and bringing up her young family. She told me that she never considered herself brave in doing that, giving the example of the many Vietnamese who immigrated to America after the war and settled there without the advantage of speaking English or an education. “They were the brave ones and they did so well to go into education and get to medical school, law school, engineering school and other vocations. I was fortunate and privileged to have been a naval wife with a good education and language skills. I look back on those days now and always come to the conclusion that somehow growing up in Gibraltar prepared me well for the life I had chosen.”

 Violet’s children Monica and Keith are now 50 and 46 and she remembers well that when Keith was born her husband was at sea in the Mediterranean, so it wasn’t always easy juggling family life and  a day care business- however she has no regrets. Her daughter Monica was born after Ritchie came back from Vietnam and at the time they were stationed in Chicago for five years. It was a shore posting for him at the US Navy recruiting office. “My day care business initially started out in Virginia while we were still living in navy quarters actually, but it continued and flourished in our own adapted family home in Brownsburg, Indiana after he had completed his twenty year service and retired at 38.”

   Violet takes holidays here every two years and tries to keep in touch with her old fellow police officers, like Peter Mc Guinness who rose through the ranks. She remembers giving Peter his application form all that time ago. He retired as Chief Superintendent. She also remembers the late Horace Zammitt of the CID and that the old Magistrates courts were housed at the police HQ in Irish town.  “I still keep in touch with my old Sergeant Ernesto Lima who is a wonderful man, the father of former Mayor of Gibraltar Tony Lima. There are others, too many to mention and some no longer here with us unfortunately. My mother was a great letter writer and I also kept in touch that way. I suppose that there’s something to be said for the old days and the old ways of keeping in touch.”

“You know Joe I would do it all again, especially being a policewoman. They were happy times. I was single and living at home with my parents, my mum was doing the cooking and the ironing, what was not to like? I feel very fortunate to have lived in these times. I have a large circle of friends in the States, larger than here but you guys are my childhood friends who will always have a special place in my heart because we grew up together in the 50’s.”

 Nothing can change that special bond of friendship. We are all in our mid seventies now but the years melt away when every couple of years Violet Schembri comes here for a holiday with every intention of reminding whoever one of us she meets up with, that we were the ‘kids from St. Joseph’s’ and we still have a special place in her heart as indeed does she in our hearts too. In that aspect I’m sure that I speak for all of us.

They got hooked on her dream too and the last five years have seen Layla fronting her own Country band, writing and recording her songs and through hard work at school, recently getting accepted to study for a degree in media at a university in Nashville. In a few weeks time she will be living her long held dream and hopefully putting her music ‘out there’ as well as learning how to be a media person. She sits across the table from me poised and confident that she has done all she can to make her dream happen thus far and is determined to stay the course that she has charted for herself for the next four years of her life.   

“From around the age of eleven I discovered out that I could live in Nashville if I went to study there, although at the time I wanted to make it over there as a singer I soon started looking into universities to see what I could study over there and follow my music dream too. The government funds my degree to the same amount as a UK degree and we have to pay the difference.” I wasn’t about to ask how much that difference is but she told me that it is a big difference. We can imagine that most musically inclined students in America would want to study in Nashville so getting accepted on her grades and after an interview at the American Embassy in London was not going to be easy. Good fortune smiled on her and after spending three weeks in London, isolated at the height of the pandemic, she passed her interview (in ten minutes!) at the US Embassy and got her student visa. 

“I had to take a gap year last year because in the American Universities they  don’t take you on with predicated grades as in the UK, so I took a gamble knowing that If they didn’t take me on I would have to apply to a UK university. Because of Covid I couldn’t travel to see the university In Nashville, I couldn’t get a student visa before passing the interview so a lot of time was lost, but for me it came in handy as I concentrated on my music and wrote and recorded new songs.”

“I’m majoring in media studies and minoring in music studies, hopefully that means I will get a Bachelor’s degree in media and also a qualification in music.  Nashville is a close knit town and the people you meet there will connect you to its music industry so I hope to start playing my music in ‘open mike’ evenings and try to get noticed that way. At first I will probably be playing in small town bars to five people watching and as I’m only nineteen I will have to be out of those bars by midnight. Ideally I want to get ahead as a solo artist mainly because I’m very touchy about how I want my music to be heard and Nashville is the song writing capital of the world.” 

“Once I’m there I want to find a promoter within my university who can represent me and get me known. I have already made some enquiries via Zoom calls but for playing I will take anything that’s offered in order to get my music out there.” Layla doesn’t write corny ‘moon in June’ rhyming songs, in fact ever since I first heard her songs five years ago I noted that they are adult and sometimes dark themes. She is very mature and experienced in concert situations and has a very supportive dad Jonathan in the band. The Layla Rose Band consists of Chris Cavilla on lead guitar, Jonathan Bugeya on guitar, banjo, and assorted instruments, Chris Calderon on keyboards, Victor Calderon on bass guitar and Tristan Tonna on drums. Layla is the main vocalist and strums the acoustic guitar on which she fashions her songs. The Layla Rose Band made a seven song CD album called ‘Postcards’ which has been the backbone of their live repertoire. They have a current single called ‘Soul on Fire.’

 Layla has more songs ‘in the can’ (recorded) and in her back pocket too and not many young aspiring singers have that. “I’ve already sent some of my songs via a Zoom platform in order to get professional feedback but really it will be better to do that once I’m there. Over here I have loved playing with my band because if I were to mess up I know they have my back. My confidence has been boosted by playing in this band where energy bounces off each other and ideas are pooled to develop songs further. When I first write a song, whether on my own or with my dad, we tidy it up and then take it to the band room and there each one adds their own input and that is a lot of fun.”

In early August Layla leaves to pursue her dream but there is already another Gibraltarian following his music dream and living in Nashville, Simon Dumas of ‘King Callaway’. “I’m in contact with him and we have agreed to meet up once I’m there. It feels so nice being able to count on a fellow Gibraltarian for moral support. Since I was eleven I’ve been saying that I wanted to live in Nashville and now I have this big chance. Right now I have eleven songs recorded and another fifteen which are nearly there. I have been in contact with some students from my university through Zoom calls so at least I’m not going over completely blind. One of them is studying music production so that may come in handy too.”

The next time we see Layla performing here may be next summer and by then she will have new stories to tell and hopefully she will have taken the first steps to get noticed in Nashville. I can see that she has the drive and confidence to give her dream the best shot. Her media studies will keep her away from our shores on and off for four years but for a young and talented songstress who knows what the future holds?

One of the great joys of poetry is its imagery. Pictures conjured up by weaving words together in an inspirational manner are one thing but when music is added to the equation and the formula is enriched by its live performance, poetry becomes three dimensional and more inclusive. This shared experience between poet, musicians and audience works best in intimate settings where words are not lost in translation.

Gabriel Moreno launched his latest album ‘Whiskey with Angels’ at the Kasbar recently. He was accompanied by three ‘Quivering Poets’ (the name of his band whose members are all poets in their own right). Fiona Bevan is a violinist, Ned Cartwright a pianist and Adam Beatie is a bassist and they regularly perform in London, Gabriel fronting the band with his poems in songs which bask in the light of the eternal Leonard Cohen. The fibre of this music poetry offering is best digested in taverns where the conviviality of the genre is worshipped by revelers who are usually only metres away from the artists.

When Gabriel summons the poetry muse here, we all win because the heady mix of whiskey, angels, poetry and music transforms the occasion into a memorable experience shared by his fans who feel privileged to have participated in the feast. He accomplished this recently on three occasions during his lightning tour which saw the ‘Quivering Poets’ perform twice at the Kasbar and once at Latinos, all sold out. Adam Beatie and Gabriel have played here before but Fiona Bevan and Ned Cartwright are both Gibraltar virgins. I spoke to them after the gig and they loved it so we may be fortunate to see them again soon, perhaps in October.

There were two special guests who sat in with the ‘Quivering Poets’ at the Kasbar gig on Wednesday June 16 which I attended. Jensen Callejon the enterprising local percussionist who always pulls many strings to bring Gabriel Moreno to perform here and Joni Belaruski who is an Irish artist and drummer with a Punk Folk band called ‘The Great Malarkey’. The contributions from both brought colour and rhythm to songs which they were invited to perform in. The magic totally came from the man who has a gift for poetic imagery. Gabriel curates and hosts many Poetry nights across London and is currently making inroads into promoting new talent and rekindling the embers after the pandemic all but wiped out the poetry scene over there.  

From the first strums of ‘An Angel sleeps in your Mirror’ (track 2) to the last strains of the spirited chorus of ‘We can write England all over again’ (track 1) at the encore, we were held spellbound by captivating hooky songs and profound insightful ballads like the promised new single ‘Angel of Joy’ which is out on July 9. When you can hear a pin drop and a tinkling piano or a guitar arpeggio directs your senses to tell you that you are in special company, you too have been touched by the spirit of the muse evoked in words that have come from his innermost thoughts that give birth to poems that later become the bewitching music that embraces and transports you to a word heaven that beckons. I often wish I could write phrases like ‘Nose diving into the Night’ (track 6).

This ‘taverna’ music poetry which Gabriel Moreno dispenses, transcends time so that after two hours with only a short break for refreshment, the show has ended and you are back into the night air, albeit with an afterglow as you remember all those quirky tunes and spirited choruses sprinkled with good words which you promise to check out again and again when you listen to the CD (or vinyl LP in my case). I promised the man that I would catch up with him properly, meaning a coffee fueled long chat where the world gets righted and we renew our friendship across a table and not a tablet.

There were a number of artists and close friends attending the soiree and the message will spread as indeed it is spreading in the London poetry brothels. His new single out this month ’Angel of Joy’ is a timely departure from the style to which we are accustomed. It’s a beautifully crafted song which draws you in from the first listen. We were indeed privileged to have heard it live here on its first outing. As my title suggests when Poetry, Whiskey and Angels summon the muse, something magical happens and it’s a kind of magic that we need to have more of because poetry and music are food for the soul.

“An offshoot of Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. I love it.”

Cerys Mathews, BBC6 Music

Angel Of Joy is a song written during lockdown about the lockdown itself and how the lack of randomness, absent human connections and general frustration has summoned a longing for the nights we shared pre-plague times. During the most difficult moments of the Covid 19 Pandemic there was an inclination to believe that performance and art would not come back. It was during these times of uncertainty that this song appeared after a long dream about a drunken night in London. The Angel of Joy represents the moments of plenitude and human bonds which are so key to our psychological well-being and hopefulness. This is not a religious angel but rather an urban apparition who reminds us of the good times we hope will be back soon. The single is a taster for the upcoming 2022 album, THE YEAR OF THE RAT.

Angel Of Joy was written and performed by Gabriel and recorded in Florence Terrace isolation home studio, South East London and mixed at Cowshed Studios, North London.

Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian poet and singer songwriter who has been performing for the past twenty years in Gibraltar, Peru, Italy, Spain, USA and the UK. In December 2019 he won the Introducing Stage at the Great British Folk Festival. He has ten poetry books published by Omicron and Orion in both Spanish and English. His folk songs are both poetic and political, mining the same rich seams as Leonard Cohen, Fabrizio Dandre and Georges Brassens. Gabriel is also the curator of three important music and poetry nights in the London scene, nurturing new and established talent – ‘The Lantern Society’, ‘Poetry Mondays’ and ‘Notes from Underground’, with stellar regular performers including Romeo and Michele Stodart (Magic Numbers), Ren Harvieu, BJ Cole and Piers Faccini.

He has released three albums, ‘Love and Decadence’ and ‘Farewell Belief’, “Whiskey With Angels” on Amber Records, and his EP ‘Poetical Resistance’ with which he toured the UK and Europe.

For more information and the latest news, please visit www.gabrielmoreno.co.uk