Joe Adambery - page 4

Now training here to go deeper

Dean Chipolina who turns forty this month is a breath holding free diver who has under his belt the title of current UK champion and is still ranked fourth in the world since the pandemic messed up annual competitions. This September however he aims to defend his title again and as he feels he has a good five years still left in competitive diving, he reckons that he could improve his depth again and get into the world top echelons by reaching 100 metres plus. He has an ambition to break the UK record too. 

Free divers have to hold their breath for upwards of three minutes in order to descend to depths greater than ninety metres and beyond. The sport calls on the body to submit to great pressures going down a guide line to the target bottom depth and retrieve a tag as proof of the dive, then return to the surface, not in distress, but in a surface window of only fifteen seconds, recover their breathing and declare to an official “I am OK” in order for the dive to be validated. 

In preparation for this interview I googled ‘free diving’ and various ‘Ted Talks’ given by champion free divers and soon discovered that you have to be more than a little bit special to take on the ocean depths in just one breath. This is where Dean Chipolina comes in. “For the last three months I have been doing depth work locally in the sea and now I have adapted my training to pool work for the next three months until August. In pool work you do not have to risk lung squeeze. It’s still breath holding but without the extreme pressure of depth. You fill your lungs with air and whilst you hold your breath your body converts oxygen to CO2, you train your body to work carrying large amounts of CO2. In another type of pool training called hypoxic training, we train to hold breath for longer periods. In pool training you have someone just a few metres away in a more controlled environment, as opposed to sea training where the next person could be up to a hundred metres above you or more.” 

Not a sport for the faint hearted or the unfit, it’s only for the elite divers who can will their minds to be completely relaxed in a harsh, dark and cold environment with pressures of up to twelve times the surface pressure acting on their bodies trying to squeeze their chest cavity. “Relaxation is the key to a successful dive and I will train to relax totally for up to ten minutes on the surface before I take a deep breath and submerge. In pool training I only need to relax for two or three minutes as it’s repetition and high volume training. When I want to go deep I need to find as much relaxation as possible and will only do one deep dive a day or even two days.” 

“We all have to train hard to ‘not worry’ and detach ourselves from the reality of needing to breath. If you are tense your body quickly uses up oxygen. We have to alter our perception of time so that we come back to the surface after three minutes and on a good day you can feel like you’ve only been down there for thirty seconds.” A simple breath hold challenge of thirty seconds in water at the surface is enough to make anyone realize how difficult it is to not breathe underwater. Multiply that exercise by twice the time and a normal person is really struggling and panicking. No time for that in free diving where panicking can cause a blackout and carries with it the potential to drown. 

“Some free divers practice Yoga and meditation to improve their relaxation technique as you need to learn to ‘bend time’ because your perception of time changes and that’s a skill that we use constantly. During a long dive you have to be mentally detached so that you don’t panic and use up oxygen with the tension and mental anxiety. A lot of repetition training allows the diver to do it without thinking, like riding a bicycle without thinking of falling off it”. 

Dean Chipolina was always keen on spear fishing since the age of nine and scuba diving since the age of fifteen. Octopus hunting and feeling comfortable under water came naturally to him so as a diving enthusiast it was inevitable to take a trip to the Galapagos and snorkel there in what many describe as a huge aquarium teeming with life. “I very soon found myself diving to thirty metres without prior training and realized that I still had it. It was a natural ability for me I found and add to that a great love for the sea which fascinates me to this day. So it became a passion for free diving in spite of a family tragedy which might have stopped any other person in their tracks”. 

“Some years ago my cousin Kyle Bagu drowned in a spear fishing accident which made me decide not to go spear fishing again but helped to push me to go to Tenerife on a free diving course and learn all about techniques and safety. That qualification made me more confident and later in free diving circles I met many top competitors including the current Russian world champion Alexey Molchanov (34) and we became friends. This man has reached 130 metres in one breath and holds the current world record.” 

Dean’s girlfriend is Nicole Endesbo the current Swedish free diving champion (personal best 85 metres) so in training they support themselves by looking out for each other and improving their skills in order to continue competing at top level. It struck me that as a local sportsman competing abroad Dean is unsupported by any Government sports grant and he tells me that as he is not associated here he doesn’t qualify. I thought that perhaps a gaming company might wish to sign him up to a sponsorship deal which would help him with training expenses and travel costs to competitions etc. 

Dean has had professional coaches and continues to use one online but he now designs his own training programme and religiously logs his progress every time he trains. Each time he ticks more of the target boxes and is confident that he knows his strengths and weaknesses too. His main aim is to continue to improve but still enjoying himself and always leaving something in the tank. He doesn’t see the need to beat yourself up if you do your best and then fall short of the glory on competition day. 

His philosophy is to be always humble and above all enjoy diving ‘because that is what is going to make you better at it’. He has beaten some of the top names that I checked out on my Google trawl, even though some are not too helpful he insists that the majority of free divers at top level are quite open and happy to pass on tips and encouragement. He did say that the British UK free diving team were happy to have him on board even though he’s not from mainland UK but would prefer to compete as a Gibraltarian carrying his Gibraltar flag. Hopefully under a different organisation (CMAS) Dean will be able to compete as Gibraltar instead. 

With his impressive attributes he has been used by scientists for dive studies in Croatia and as he is well known in the Tenerife diving fraternity he will be commuting once a week from here regularly in a couple of months, when he has finished all his pool training to concentrate only on deep sea dives in the ideal conditions that Tenerife presents. A far cry from Atlantic diving, his local diving is more problematic to plan. “Here we have surface and underwater currents, poorer visibility, very large patches of tall algae in the bay (at around 60 metres) and also changing water temperatures during a dive (thermocline), where colder water meets warm water and the shock to the body can ruin concentration and considerably lower the chances of a good dive.  

“Sometimes I go 4/5 miles out on the Eastside to avoid all that and the police patrol launch comes out to investigate, which is also a nice reminder I have someone looking after my safety locally. I would like to say thanks to local maritime authorities. It’s a delicate balance as always but safety is always paramount. The Watch Clinic looks after my equipment maintenance and Oxy Ltd supply me with emergency oxygen for my needs.” 

“In competition diving there is a team of safety divers beside the guide line to the target depth and safety boats, so that takes care of the pre-dive stress and enables better relaxation build-up for us competitors. After 50 metres of descent you are on your own and freefalling. You have set an audio alarm to alert you a couple of metres before you reach the target depth so you can get ready to retrieve your proof tag and then start your ascent.” 

“You can’t afford to burn yourself out while coming back and only your repetition training allows you to remain relaxed until you surface. Your heartbeat has slowed down to 15/20 BPM at the bottom and now shoots up to 180 BPM and you only have fifteen seconds to get it all under control and declare to the dive marshal “I am OK.” 

I wind up our chat in the noisy Casemates ‘al fresco’ bar and proudly wish Dean Chipolina all the best of Gibraltarian luck for his next competition in September, when he hopes to attain a new PB depth and retain his ranking in the world’s top breath holding divers. These athletes are the champions of inner space and have superior skills. They actually enjoy the dangers of diving like porpoises and challenging the great pressure of a column of water taller than 100 metres above their heads. 

I hope that this time round Dean can obtain a sponsorship deal for his troubles and can continue to compete at top level for the next five years that he hopes for. Watch this space in the October Insight Magazine and we shall let you know the results of his efforts at top level free diving.

The last time we spoke to Christian Hook for Insight Magazine he had already taken the art world by storm and he was ready to move on to something else – such was his need to take on new challenges and break down barriers all the time. Life is not fast and challenging enough in his eyes and it gets in his way but he always seeks to break the mould and think outside the box. That makes him the great artist that he is today.

“There are two things that I hate a lot – routine and repetition. I am dyslexic and when I took the test for it, done by a professional earlier this year, I found that I was dyslexic. I don’t have it for reading and writing but for the rest yes. One of the things that I have a strong reaction to is repetition. I can’t stand repetition, so if I have a highly organised list of things that I must do in a day, like fifty things, I can’t stand that. Having to be somewhere or having to do something at a specific time gets to me in a negative way. Nowadays even my meetings are not regimented like that so that flexibility in timings keeps everything new for me.” 

That is an exclusive insight into the man who has shaken the art world and is also the mark of evolution of the artist who is extremely talented and extremely restless in equal measure. He has an inquiring mind and gets bored quickly once he has executed his ideas, which are always the most challenging ways to do things, to discover new ways to marry art and science, his favourite subjects and consuming passions.   

“I have already been included in most national galleries although I think there was one still missing. I have already done all the arts festivals in New York. I did an around the world trip with presidents kings and queens. I also travelled in India and many other places and in truth once you have your work in national galleries, apart from the Turner Prize and being included in contemporary history books, which I am, there is little left to conquer.”

 I sense immediately that Christian Hook has moved on and we are going to see less of his art on canvas as he strives to conquer other mediums. His goals are always set quite high and he will not shy away from the impossible. Now influential enough to be heard and followed, he is determined to discover new ways of understanding reality through science and art. 

“In terms of achievement you can only expand financially. For example if the number of art galleries increases so does your exposure. I have always wanted to try other things, like I wanted to extract my art from painting and include it in other mediums. The same process that I would use in my painting I wanted to use for other mediums. Since I started to focus on new things I now have seven businesses apart from art and I always try to get from A to B in every way that doesn’t yet exist. I have to invent a creative way to get there.” 

At this point I remind Christian that this is what he did when he studied Calligraphy – he was trying to measure the energy in his brushstrokes so that he could discover what made them unique and spontaneous. Although my hopeful interruption was in English he continued in Spanish (Yanito) and I followed on too, not wanting to slow down his thought process by having him think and translate. His restlessness and inquiring mind only allows him to share his ideas quickly and I remind myself that he hates repetition so I listen.

“Up to now I had done nothing with Gibraltarians involved so when I came back here before the lockdown the first thing I thought of as a project was music involving local talent. Before I tell you about that I have to take you back to what made me decide on music in the first place. It goes back to Jay Z (Beyonce’s husband) and to a long flight where I wrote down ideas for a film. I told my team in London to get me in touch with him and he liked the idea. I went with his people to see a high profile and sold out Rap concert by ‘Drake’ in the NY City’s biggest stadium.”

 “Although I’m a great fan of ‘Drake’ I was amazed at the high standard of music which I had not thought possible in Rap music until then. When I heard what was happening musically in that concert, I thought that it was really good and totally something else, another dimension which I had not been exposed to and which I had yet to explore.” 

Rap is quirky, angry and challenging musical convention and lyrical content all the time and Hook has been touched by a spark which turned into a fire as he searched for a way to harness what he saw and felt and tried to translate it into music which, he insists, should be done in a different way – by deconstructing it and doing it wrong just to challenge the medium. It’s exactly what he does in his painting all the time. 

“I always wanted to work with top scientists to see whether a new door could be opened through art and science working together. Many breakthroughs in artistic development throughout history prove that artistic enlightenment came after scientific concepts were broken down for artists to understand and interpret in their unique way. I already had this script which I had written for a film where the plot is that I wanted to paint ‘something impossible’ and top scientists would help me achieve it. In reality top scientists like Nobel Prize winners would not want to help me and jeopardise their status and reputation collaborating in my experiment, that is, unless one influential figure among them came fully on board with my idea”.

A year earlier Christian had met one such high profile scientist an Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli whose book ‘The order of time’ and other books are huge best sellers. He is being hailed as the new Stephen Hawkins. Hook was impressed by the latest book too and he had told Rovelli in a meeting that he wanted to work with him on a project. A year passed and they didn’t get together until a Sky Arts team was asked to contact him and revive the collaboration initiative. To Christian’s amazement Carlo Rovelli said yes immediately and unconditionally…and there was not even a project on the table yet!

 For the last few years Christian Hook leads a committed group of high profile ‘enablers’ (my description) whose diverse skills are channelled in order to facilitate the plethora of ideas and projects that flow from the artist. “At the very least they prepare a first draft which captures the idea and spirit of discussions before ‘they are lost in translation’ so to speak.”  Hook’s current fascination with Carlo Rovelli stems from a theory that the physicist holds which is that ‘we only live in a five percent of reality because we cannot see the other ninety five percent’. “I wanted top scientists including NASA scientists to try and measure what the balance of our reality might look like. I wanted to ‘open a new door’ which could be followed in a film documentary which I was embarked on.”

“As I developed a common theme which might unite science, art and hopefully a ‘greater reality’ I hit upon the idea that ‘the sentiment between two people’ could perhaps be measured scientifically. Is love measurable between two people?  Is love a tangible unit of connectivity? When two people are separated by physical distance is their connection severed or does it stay intact? When two people are heartbroken what is happening to their connection? Can these emotions be measured scientifically?”

All those questions and more provided the flesh and bones for his film so Hook selected a long time couple who had split and each formed new relationships, then reunited again later on in life and now they both run spiritual centres because they believe that they have a spiritual connection. Christian remembered that he would need input from Carlo Rovelli who could explain in a scientific way how a connection is made in space- space being here and all around us – so while he was still trying to ‘paint the invisible’ Rovelli’s theories could perhaps be measured and they could break new scientific ground in art.

Christian took a whole year off to make that documentary film which features Nobel Prize scientists. It’s still untitled and yet to be scheduled for TV. They went to the Imperial College with the world’s top neurologist, they used NASA’s equipment and in the course of making the programme they discovered new material which can be called groundbreaking in science and all the while Hook was painting these ‘invisible’ concepts trying to create a new way of seeing hidden reality artistically. In short this film could possibly start a new ‘ism’ in art (as in Cubism etc).

I gradually steered Christian’s attention back to what I wanted to know, which is what he was doing now while still in (February) lockdown in Gibraltar and I was pleasantly surprised that it had nothing to do with painting at all…so he has moved on…his consuming passion is now his new music but composed under his strict parameters of trying to make it work in new ways. The same as in his art, approaching song writing and song producing as paint on his canvass. “Create something beautiful- try to destroy it and then salvage the best parts without losing the essence of the idea (or tune in music) and always trying to find a new way of telling the story.”

“Of course you can’t destroy everything to create new music. You need to hang on to parts that make it familiar to understand and in a sense likeable to its creator. Once I started writing the new music I built a recording studio here at home with great help from Danni Fa and then I wrote some more songs. The first one we worked on was called ‘Safari’ and when we recorded it Dylan Ferro begged me not to destroy it because it was too good to spoil. I went ahead and did the complete opposite and rebuilt the song from scratch without losing the best bits and using my new focus and latest technology.

“I like ‘Cold play’ but I  remember that when I first heard ‘Cold Play’ I didn’t like them as a band but on subsequent listening they grew on me and that is what you need to achieve in music in order to break new ground.  Something that holds your attention beyond first listening until you relate to the new substance and style of it. 

 “In painting you can choose what to like – for some it’s texture, for others the content, or others even the story behind the image. In my new music I rewrite the songs after all the production experimenting has been refined and I then concentrate on my lyrics which provide the story to carry the music. Then I add the textures which are the local talent in my team here… Dylan Ferro, Danni Fa, James P Ablitt, Aouatif Ghabraoui and Tiffany Ferrary and then the songs take on new life.  They have trusted my unconventional ways of making music and we have worked hard to produce something fresh and real. This is a 100 per cent local project and there is a lot of talent here.  It’s been challenging to get here but we are all very proud and excited with the results.

“I have influential UK friends in the music industry who have heard what we are doing and they are excited because it’s new and compelling. I set parameters that this music must be local and all produced here. So far we have a bunch of finished songs with lyric videos” (which I have seen and listened to and can vouch for their impact on me and their likeability factor. Impressive! JA).

“The way I see things progressing is that once we have twelve songs ready (we already have nine), we will release them via a record company for them to promote the music. I have already placed one song in the new documentary that we made for Sky Arts. It’s not yet scheduled for release but that will be a significant window of opportunity for this new music. The songs will also be sent to various other entities and my hope is that our team of local musicians will be able to perform and promote this music in ways that are current and trendsetting. It’s the only way that we can put ourselves out there in the music scene.”

Christian will not be performing his new music. He will be more interested in exploring new concepts and deeper lyrics along with ways of making them work musically. He assures me that the nine songs that I have heard so far are a marriage of ideas which shouldn’t work but through experimentation have been made to work successfully in sound and vision. The excellent lyric videos which accompany the recordings have been painstakingly put together by Hook who is a master of visual art and also a great musician so you do get a sense of his artistic touches coming through all the songs. 

There are various significant projects which he told me about that can’t be publicised yet and at least two of those excite me enough to predict that they might be winners. His lockdown time has been used to create some really beautiful work and I didn’t see a brush or a canvas anywhere during our meeting at his home (I saw his recording studio though).  I came away knowing that I had been in the presence of a creative force that is still at the zenith of art in more than one way. Who knows how the rest of this year might play out for the Hook projects?

‘MAGIK’ was born out of the efforts of two experienced musicians: guitarist/producer Manolo Arias (Ñu, Niagara, Atlas, Arias – Barón Rojo, Iguana Tango, etc.) and British Gibraltarian vocalist Giles Keith Ramirez (H.O.T., Ghost, Reach). After a friendship of nearly 30 years, the opportunity to work together had not yet presented itself until now. From this collaboration came the idea to publish on a monthly basis, a string of cover tracks under the title of “Covers in Isolation”.  Ideally this project aims to offer their particular vision of Rock classics from the 60’s and 70’s. They give the classics their own personal touch, hence adapting these hits to their own musical criteria.

The idea flourished during lockdown, when Giles had been performing and sharing some classic covers through social media. For that same reason, the global pandemic, Guitarist /producer Manolo Arias found himself having to postpone his main work on “No estoy para nadie” and he came up with the idea that it was then the right moment to unite forces with Giles Ramirez and record twelve classics which they will be offering as single releases on a monthly basis. These singles are a pre-cursor to an album of original songs which will follow.

Manolo Arias analyses his choice of the third track for ‘Covers in Isolation,’ Peter Frampton’s iconic ‘Show Me the Way’: “There are certain songs which in one way or another become a part of one’s own history. ‘Show Me the Way’ is one of them. You could say that in my case it was love at first hearing. I also discovered (in Frampton) one of the best guitarists I had heard in my life.”

 For this their third single, ‘MAGIK’ have the collaboration of prestigious vocalist Danny Vaughn who has been a part of such bands such as Waysted, Tyketto, Vaughn, Ultimate Eagles and Danny Vaughn’s Myths, Legends & Lies. Danny and Giles first met during a concert at the London O2 Arena when their respective bands, Tyketto and Ghost recorded the ‘Gods of AOR’ in 1994 for MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. 

Years later they met again in Gibraltar, where their great friendship saw them teaming up on a project they called ‘Harmony Street’, which took them on a small tour of Spain as a duet, performing classic covers on acoustic. When Giles and Arias decide to embark on MAGIK, the opportunity of having Danny Vaughn collaborate with them came up on ‘Show Me the Way.’ MAGIK now offer us their own vision of this emblematic song, 45 years after the worldwide hit achieved by Peter Frampton with ‘Show Me the Way’ in 1976 as the main single from his live album ‘Frampton Comes Alive.’

Their treatment gives the song a new urgency and brings with it an edgy and infectious performance which makes compelling listening. I had just come off my headphones and I caught up with Giles to glean some more information on his exciting project.

I have to say that I was impressed with what I had just heard.

“We now have three singles released and on the latest one ‘Show me the Way’ we decided to guest vocalist Danny Vaughn from American band ‘Tyketto’, as we both share a great friendship and I have worked with him in the past. Danny was really keen to collaborate for ‘Magik’. We thought it would be a great idea to also guest a few other well known vocalists for this project and so far I have had a great response. They will be singing in future singles this year”. 

What is the Magik project exactly…

“This is a twelve song, one single per month project covering classic 60’s and 70’s songs and once this is achieved, we shall be releasing an original album under the ‘Magik’ banner too. Recordings for the album are well underway with great names too. The bassist we have featured in one of our originals is Billy Sheehan (David Lee Roth, Mr Big, Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, Talas) so that is exciting.”  

I complemented Giles on the dazzling guitar work on their latest single Show Me the Way’ as it turns out that he is Spanish Rock royalty…

 “Indeed Manolo Arias is an exceptional guitarist with miles of experience under his belt playing for the top Rock bands in Spain and producing such bands as Baron Rojo, Niagara, Atlas and ÑU. He arranged and recorded all the tracks in Madrid and sent them to me digitally so I could record the vocals at home in my studio. I then recorded the vocal arrangements, including harmonies, ad-lib and melodies which I slightly changed to give them that extra Rock edge.” 

I wanted to know whether Magik as a band would be coming over to play here… 

“Oh yes for sure! We’re now putting the band together as we speak and there’s lots of interest from musicians. As soon as possible we will bring ‘Magic’ to perform here.” 

Even under current restrictions ‘Magik’ have been busy hence their generic album title ‘Covers in Isolation… 

“Since November last year we have now released three tracks which are, the ‘Doobie Brothers’ classic ‘Listen to the music’, America’s ‘Sister Golden Hair’ and the latest one ‘ Show me the Way’ the Peter Frampton classic. We have other great classics coming up. All our covers can be found on YouTube under MAGIK and all three singles are on sale on digital formats such as Itunes and Spotify etc. 

So to recap on the Magik project… 

“We still have nine more singles to be released (one per month) and we are already talking and planning collaborations with major Rock vocalists and a few top musicians too. The response has been overwhelming and mind blowing for us.  We can’t mention names just in case some are unable to commit at the last minute.”

The ‘MagiK’ original songs album will be released once the twelve classic cover tracks are completed and as Giles mentioned earlier, as soon as they can play live, they hope to be coming to play here “without a doubt.”  If their latest single is only a glimpse into what this band can do then we are really in for a treat when we get to see them live.

Gibraltarian Dr. Stefan Williamson Fa is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist currently working as a
Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and has been responsible for researching and promoting the story of a talented young Sindhi singer and Sufi devotee in the 1930’s who dedicated his life to the exploration of deep connections which he found between Andalucian Flamenco music and an Islamic past.

 Aziz Balouch moved to Gibraltar in the 1930’s and worked here in an Indian shop until he exposed himself to Flamenco music by listening to and meeting the legendary Pepe Marchena in La Linea. He later toured Spain with Marchena in what must have seemed like a novelty act if you can imagine a fusion of the Sindhi religious laments accompanied by Flamenco guitar.

 It’s this fascinating theory uncovered by Dr Fa, about the origins of Flamenco and the discovering of books and recordings by Aziz Balouch which has caught the imagination of scholars and brought Dr. Williamson Fa to the attention of the Ajam Media Collective in London, who dedicated a forty minute podcast featuring Stefan and his research only few weeks ago. We reached out to Dr Williamson Fa to explore his take on the local connection in this fascinating story: 

I asked him first whether Flamenco scholars accepted the theory put forward by Aziz Baluch.

“His own theory remains relatively unknown as he provided little evidence for his claims. However, I think few would argue against at least some influence from the Islamic period or the East/Islamic world. The origins of flamenco are still quite contested. Like everything, people will emphasise different features and come up with theories to fit their agendas. Nationalists have tended to downplay non-European influences in an attempt to ‘purify’ flamenco from ‘foreign’ influence. Others, such as Blas Infante, have emphasised the Arabic origins to reclaim the Islamic past of Anadalucia. Luckily today I think most scholars recognise the multiple origins of the genre, and include the possible Islamic roots alongside many other influences.”

Are you considering publishing a book about your own research (and crusade) to bring the work of Balouch to the attention of other ethnomusicologists?

“I don’t have a plan to publish a book for now, although I am considering other ways of promoting his work and music. This has been a bit of a side project to my other work (I had been busy working on my PhD in Anthropology at UCL which was on a totally different topic and now have a job as a researcher at University of Birmingham). It has been a few years now that I have been researching his life and the connection to Gibraltar has made it quite a personal journey. I have managed to gather most of his publications and recordings and spoken to the few people left who knew him. So far I have written about this in a few articles and papers which I have presented at public events and conferences, including in Karachi, Pakistan. Last year I collaborated with a record label in the UK to reissue his music for the first time. It has been great seeing him receive attention and admiration again after being almost forgotten entirely.”

Did you manage to trace any other local connection to Balouch whilst he was here….where he worked, who for, and if any of the Pepe Marchena shows that may have featured Balouch as an artist ever came to play at the Theatre Royal?

“Aziz Balouch had first come to Gibraltar to work at Hotu Mahtani’s shop. They had been friends in Hyderabad in Sindh (now present-day Pakistan) because of their shared interest in theosophy and spirituality. I managed to contact Monica Mahtani Bhojwani, Hotu’s daughter (who had also been my mum’s neighbour in Irish Town as a child) and she told me that Aziz Balouch and her father had lived together in Hyderabad, Karachi and Gibraltar and were such close friends that her grandfather Khemchand Mahtani had considered him an adopted son- a beautiful friendship considering Balouch was Muslim and Mahtani was Hindu.”

“While he was living in Gibraltar he became good friends with the singer Imperio Argentina, and her father Antonio Nile (who was from Gibraltar and also a musician). There is not too much more information on his time in Gibraltar. He worked in the shop for a couple of years before he started to focus on his music. I have found reports of his performances in La Linea in the local newspaper ‘El Anunciador’ but nothing relating to any concerts at Theatre Royal. I still need to look into this more and see if there is anything in the local archives”.

Having listened to the podcast and read the recent articles by Dr Stefan Williamson Fa, I would venture that this is not the last time that we shall read about his research as he may yet uncover even more local connections to the cultural bridge that he helped establish here nearly 90 years ago. Aziz Balouch and his passion for Flamenco music was fired by his Sindhi musical roots going back to Islam. It’s certainly worth listening to Balouch singing flamenco in his native language as well as in Spanish using the link below.

sufi-flamenco-aziz-balouch/.

Business and commerce have discovered that they have to reach out to the potential customers and trade in a different way. No crowds no footfall and no shoppers are all bad for business. From the comfort of telephones and laptops we are ordering-in and the long established shopping trends are changing with each new delivery. Staying in is the new going out and you read it here first.

Amazon and the like don’t spend money on prestigious shopping centres, they have gargantuan warehouses and have AI led profiling which will show you, the potential customer, what they think you might buy. Whether you need it or not is bye the bye, they will insist until they make a sale. Their products are in your personal in-tray daily. Unsubscribe or fall victim to ‘online shopaholic blues’. A new ill which makes you feel guilty about not ordering anything online on a regular basis. There is no antidote vaccine for this and no research is yet in place to find one either.  

In the Arts the hub of every society, the long term impact of isolation is yet to be felt worldwide but in the short term, huge artists and performers have been offering up their work for free. Concerts are more intimate now, stripped back of the glitz and glamour for which in pre- Covid19 times we were paying a fortune to attend. Now we are seated up close and personal, warts and all, but happy to share and comment as we follow them around the virtual entertainment universe for free.

A very welcome challenge is that we will have to become increasingly aware of each other and in turn, perhaps kinder and more circumspect in our ‘keyboard warrior’ excursions and put-downs. Coming together as we have recently done during this crisis has also strengthened our community bonds in a virtual way at least and it remains to be seen whether this new broom will keep sweeping once we leave our homes again after lockdown two. Chances are that it will have tempered our resoluteness and forged a tougher ‘Yanito’ metal. That would be a good thing.

Let’s examine the term ‘herd immunity’ by removing it from the medical idiom and asking ourselves whether the indifference to news in general and to the plight of the planet in particular, is not another form of herd immunity that we may well have acquired? Marketing wizards, who are always six jumps ahead of the rest of us, probably have strategies up their sleeves to try to overcome the social distancing that is being created by this indifference to advertising. Notice how sometimes the volume of the TV seems to increase during the ads? For sure that’s no accident.

The challenge to provide new information is good for free thinkers and bad for movers and shakers including news makers. Some of us have learnt not to be too reliant on news led TV.  It’s important to be well informed by serious newspapers and national broadcasters must not be ignored in these times. In the last year the planet has perhaps rebooted and certainly taken a breather from pollution. There is a challenge in not spoiling its honeymoon and a challenge also in filtering what to believe from the glut of information that is being speedily dispensed on the WWW.

Multinationals had already tried subliminal advertising and didn’t succeed because it was made illegal. That would not have stopped them looking for new ways to ‘penetrate’ our subconscious. We may be reading up on the pros and cons of 5G and whatever noises are made against the new technology, it’s only a matter of time before we will be made out to feel backward or technologically deficient if we don’t embrace that futuristic nettle. That is one major challenge that we face in a post-Covid 19 world. 

The Telecoms giants will have been emboldened by the sudden surge in our reliance on the virtual communication tools at our disposal. It won’t have gone unnoticed too that working from home reduces overheads and streamlines the way that new business and commerce is conducted. Transforming our homes into workplaces may seem a convenient thing at first glance but what will happen to the good old fashioned activity of ‘switching off’ in the longer term? That is also an important challenge that we must face up to.

All is not doom and gloom though because the new vaccines are being rolled out at the speed of light- now that will certainly be a challenge- to beat the new strain of the virus before it does more damage. Happily in Gibraltar we are small and the vaccination programme will be easily implemented and carried out. We could all be safe by summer if not sooner, now there’s something to be optimistic about. Where do I sign?

‘These are challenging times that we live in’ may be starting to sound clichéd and weary for most but let’s pause for a minute and examine some of the challenges posed by the near world-wide isolation that the Corona virus pandemic has imposed on society and the way that many things have been done hitherto. Nothing will ever be the same again because most of us have found new ways of doing things. There is a challenge in managing a new found digital independence that kept things ticking over while the lockdowns prevailed.

As I introduce my second column of the New Year we find ourselves still struggling with the Pandemic. When we went into isolation for the first time in March last year I published some poems that were written with the best intentions to promote solidarity and perhaps raise a smile in those dark days which have still not left us. The four selected poems are called ‘Blue Angels’ ‘Lockdown’ ‘Again’ and ‘Deliverance Day.’  I think it’s fair to say that we still have some way to go before we can shake of this bad dream and return to some semblance of our old normal. It is in that spirit that I hope my words will be read and hopefully enjoyed too.

Blue Angels

Mostly they are blue but not always so and we love them to bits

They wear different colours and have different wings but they all matter to us

They have manifested their selflessness to rally against unknown odds

Fate has rolled the dice all over the table and the six has never come up once

Uncertainty and infection were seemingly insurmountable stumbling blocks at first

Blue angels got past the hurdles but yet their folks at home wouldn’t listen

They wouldn’t listen because they were not in that mindset and were not yet ready to obey

There were messages of staying indoors that were being misunderstood unheeded and certainly abused

The threat was still invisible to the naked eye but the havoc it was wreaking everywhere was real enough

World news is somehow still seen as detached from here because local stats are comforting at first glance

Blue angels and all the other divisions of frontline fighters are much loved and appreciated because we know that they will be our heroes

Yet somehow a number of noisemakers at the eight pm balconies rendezvous also make it outside next day – undoing all the good work done the day before

Blue angels are disheartened but they will never gave up on their folk

Day by day and night by night they fight their battles for them 

They are determined to win at all costs and there will be a cost

The fat wallet and the donations cannot buy time and still folk are not listening

Blue angels sometimes cry into their gowns when no one’s looking

Lockdown words

Unexpected unprotected
Segregated isolated disinfected
We were ready we made plans
Top of the list washing hands
Fight this war and win first battle
Still in hiding penned like cattle
Great outside we’re wishing for
Families meeting outside the door
Someone’s coming let them through
We like to ask how do you do
Suspicion lingers just enough
Spoils the moment life is tough
Smiles unseen behind their masks
Frontline heroes do their tasks
News is good what food is news
Life is changing TV views
We just listen – no debate
Unfolding drama at the gate
Are we there yet are we winning
Seems like so but few are grinning
Crystal gazing self effacing
We can’t lose our sense of humour
Don’t stoke the fire in the mill of rumour
Nose out of joint what’s the point
Staying indoors will set you free
Empty chairs just two for tea.
Cupcakes for you sandwich for me
Mortdella lucky fella
Not the way we it used to be
Happy families the more the merrier
Tasty scraps for cat and terrier
Over the top and always noisy
Happy birthday aunty Rosy
Missing that and missing more
Walks along the seashore
What to do what to say
Have to wait another day
Catching flies wishing ‘n’ hoping
Prefer blue skies to indoor moping
Never mind let’s just be kind
Let’s stay bright fit and sane
It will not have been in vain
Well worth staying alive for
That’s who we are resilient to the core.

Again

We shall dance in the supermarket aisles again
We will have our May Day Rally and concert again
We shall eat ‘calentita’ in overcrowded Casemates, again
Maybe not so soon this time but again

Maybe not too long from now we shall be smiling again
Again we will do our Red and White
This is not a shutdown it’s just a temporary glitch
Mother Earth is breathing easier, pollution resting, looking bright
Give her a break while we make our pitch
A vaccine will be found of that we can be sure
It’s waiting in the shadows for science to procure

Since we’re stuck in this together and it’s not of our own making
Let’s all stick to the plan. Let’s share some home baking- not for real- just onscreen
We can’t be too careful if outside we may have been
We shall laugh again, high five again and hug again
All those noisy things that make us who we are
We know we’re blessed, we have a lucky star.

Deliverance

There was joy in the air and we were running because we had to get there
This was going to be the day when most of us would sing and dance
We had found a new way to live because we had left nothing to chance
Far too long we had been quiet and still – very much against our will

Today would be the day that we could abandon precautions
Once again we could cast fate to our wind from the east
What will be will be and hopefully come in the right proportions
Many a tinge of sadness yes but mostly gladness – we had slain the beast

We had to isolate for a while and we had suppressed many a feeling
Time now to let it out with screams and shouts and hugs and many a kiss
Recent memories of fervent prayers and dark days that we wouldn’t miss
So dancing on the ceiling today would be a welcome break from kneeling

A million happy tears have rolled away the years – now we are all the same age
We have been reborn and we should write ourselves a new page
There was joy in the air and we were running because we had to get there
None of us would be late but the gathering crowds had the same idea

Let’s all go there early and get a view that’s clear
No room for moving with so many familiar faces packed in such tiny spaces
Expectation in the air- hearts in our mouths when we finally got there
Today we’re going to celebrate our deliverance day party in Casemates Square.

Suddenly I wake up and reality is clear this D-Day party’s not happening I fear
Would be playing into enemy hands with so many people to each other so near
We shall have to wait and see and those who believe continue to pray
That we come through this lockdown safely and gather to party another day.

Dead City Radio on their own words

It’s time to get your record players and your turntables up to scratch again (pardon the pun). The vinyl record album is back and local Rock band ‘Dead City Radio’ are the first band here to release an album in this format instead of the usual CD or digital downloads.

It’s a brave new world and as there haven’t been any local releases by anyone in this fateful year DCR, with support from the Gibraltar Cultural Services have took the initiative to release a vinyl record album in time for Christmas 2020. 

Vinyl is the traditional way of capturing studio performances on record and the vinyl sound, although for the purists it is considered the Holy Grail, has not got the ultra clean sound attributes of digital formats, however the gramophone ‘needle in the groove’ sound has more warmth and vintage charm than the ‘hear a pin drop’ clarity of digital recordings. Hence the comeback of the vinyl format and the growing trend in record sales as opposed to CDs.

‘Dead City Radio’ have been around for a few years now and their ‘take no prisoners’ approach to Rock music has seen them featured in various GMFs where they have carved for themselves a niche group of fans who seem to go for their ‘Led Zeppelin’ type of vocals for which front man James Culatto is locally revered. They are more than that. They put in a lot rehearsal time to forge their original material into concert shape songs and have probably spent even more time recording their musical progress with former ‘Taxi’ guitarist Danni Fa who is responsible for having engineered the sound of this album. 

Rock music is difficult to capture on recordings as high level signals compete with each other for space in the final mix and there is always a danger that taming down the sound of a lively band can totally ruin their projection on the record. This album cheekily titled ‘Album of the year’ by ‘Dead City Radio’ features 8 tracks, among them two new songs and a reworking of an older song, does not suffer from weak sound. It is a challenge on the aural senses and homespun Rock which is not for the squeamish. Original classics which the band are well known for like ‘Valkyrie’ ‘Goddess’ and ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ are reassuringly there. New songs are ‘Fire’- (track1) and ‘Up in Lights’ (track 3) are an indicator against which to compare their old material with the new. In ideal circumstances we would get to see them perform this at a record launch gig but alas this is not possible for now. However take it from me this is a worthy album to add to your Rock collection.

The band is made up of James Culatto – vocals, Robin Batchelor- guitar, Daniel Ghio – bass and Michael Gomez – Drums. Nicholas Anson is credited with drums on the two new songs (tracks 1 and 3) and Richard Camilleri on bass on the reworked ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ (track 8). The album has been produced and mixed by Danni Fa and the cover artwork is by Kane Matto. The album retails at £20 because production costs are higher for vinyl but it’s a fair price to pay to bring back gramophone music into your collection.  You can still get yours now and support local culture.

I recently asked the band to describe their music and the direction that they are taking and bassist Daniel Ghio was the first to reply.“Hard Rock! Our influences range primarily from all sides of the Rock spectrum and I think it shines through on our songs. Our direction has always been to compose, gig, record and enjoy ourselves as much as we can. Looking back on 2020 it has been a challenge for everyone and especially people in the arts. No gigs, no plays, no shows etc… It’s frustrating because the live aspect of what we do is very important to us. We love playing live, playing our own song… for us, it’s a means to de-stress. During the lockdown, many musicians pulled together and started doing loads of live shows and pre-recorded shows for social media with James Culatto covering quite a few songs during the lockdown and beyond with several other musicians.”

The drummer’s seat remains empty-yet to be filled in 2021, have you got any candidates in mind yet?

“We’re currently started working with a new drummer so things are in motion and we’ll hopefully be ready with some new material” was the reply from Daniel, whom I then engaged on how did they come up with the idea of releasing a vinyl record? Front man James Culatto took up the story…

“We had toyed with the idea a couple of years ago and once we’d secured the funding and had the music ready it was a case of shopping online for the right people to work with. That didn’t take long and it was certainly worth it, however nothing’s set in stone for the future, this time we were able to secure the funding by applying for a cultural grant to assist with the costs and we’re thankful that we were able to ‘tick off’ a goal from our list, but it’s a shame that we haven’t been able to officially launch our album with a party and a performance… but who knows …maybe in 2021.” 

How bands work to come up with original songs varies from band to band and I wanted to know how DCR forge their inspirations into songs…

“Usually collectively at rehearsals” said Daniel, “We start jamming or if one of us comes in with a riff or progression we work on it together. I’m pretty sure James’ iPhone is filled with hundreds of ideas that we record as we go along. Some make it into songs others get abandoned and then resurrected along the line. James is quite good at having vocal melodies or even lyrics ready on the spot which he then works on at home.”

My parting question was whether they were already making plans for next year and what goals might they have set for themselves…Daniel replies:

“I guess we all just want to start playing gigs again. I think it’s safe to say most artists miss that the most. We have a good amount of original material now and we’re already working on new ideas but we can create and create however nothing matches the rush of performing live in front of people. Hopefully, once things ease up, we can start looking at booking gigs at home and in Spain… but for now, we’ll continue to work behind closed doors in our band room”… 

One of the first bands that you might wish to check out this year as soon as live music in venues is allowed again because they have a commanding presence and a strong musical statement to make as well.

Over the last weekend one of Albert Hammond’s greatest songs charted in the UK album charts. This would make it the third time lucky for the composer. I ponder on some special musical memories as I write this. First I am reminded by my phone that it’s exactly six years ago (Nov 7) since Albert Hammond came to play two live concerts here at the now disappeared Queen’s Cinema. 

I remember going with my daughter Vanessa who has just texted me…”What a night that was”. It came up on her FB memories too. Indeed, those two shows were a long time coming and it took a shrewd and brave James Neish, then of GBC and now an established UK journalist and a colleague Chronicle feature writer, a giant leap of faith to have staged the ‘Hammond’ concerts. They were a resounding success.

Albert’s ‘homecoming’ concerts had been long overdue and they were what everyone expected and more because we had never seen the man sing his legendary songs made famous by many other great artists. His melodic and bilingual songs are in fact the soundtrack of our lives. His earliest hit ‘Little Arrows,’ which was sung by Leapy Lee, is now fifty two years old! Yes it was released in 1968 and time flies like a thieving crow! Let’s take a moment to assimilate the hugely successful catalogue of hits written and sometimes produced for major artists by Albert Hammond. 

Last weekend the prestigious UK paper ‘The Guardian’ wrote that Sir Cliff Richard, now 80 “has become the first artist to reach the Top 5 of the UK album chart across eight consecutive decades. His new album ‘Music…The Air That I Breathe’ reaches No 3 this week” (Nov 6). The title of the new hit album is inspired by one of Hammond’s greatest songs and it’s featured on Cliff’s album as a duet with Albert. I spoke to him recently and asked him why he still tours, as he plans to start touring again as soon as the Covid crisis allows. All concert touring has stopped and artists worldwide have been cancelling shows because of social distancing rules.

“You know that I no longer do this for fame or money, I do it for the time when backstage after a concert, a grieving mother comes to collect an autograph and asks me to sign an album which she tells me that she will treasure because my songs remind her of good times and her son. That time that I spend with my fans is my legacy. That’s worth more than an award or chart hits for me. I have earned that reward by putting in the effort to write the best songs that I can write so that I can continue to make people happy.”   

In our privileged chat where many other things were discussed, I picked up on that reply and asked whether I could use it because it struck me that tender moments like these really are the ultimate validation that artists receive. They all want to be appreciated and when someone tells them that they are then it makes everything worth it.

Coming back to the memory of his two concerts here six years ago, I remember being impressed with the quality of his voice which was in peak form at the two ‘Legend’ album sessions, CDs which saw him re-launch his solo career and later take to the road with a full symphony orchestra behind him touring Europe to sold out theatres.  Through live steaming we were able to enjoy a concert from that tour here on TV and it was called ‘Albert Hammond in Symphony’.

If his success at that time ever needed a boost that tour and the ‘Symphonic’ record of his best hits put the gold seal on a career as a solo artist and legendary composer who has now been famous for over fifty years. He doesn’t fall short of Sir Cliff’s enduring longevity but then Cliff has not written the big songs that have inspired so many A-list artists internationally. Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves about a number of major artists who scored hits with songs by Albert Hammond.

Think Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, The Hollies, Leo Sayer, Starship  and you are in the ballpark of what it means to be the composer whose songs are now considered classics and are destined to be around for a long time. Hammond has no intention of stepping down any time soon and although Covid has put his concert tours on a temporary hiatus, the big wheels are still turning in the background so that when he emerges onto the concert trail again his status as an enduring music legend will not have diminished one iota.

After watching the Diamond Boys rehearse at Ross House ‘lavadero’ a group of friends from the south district (Europa) decided to try to form what was then known as a skiffle group. So in theory we had a band but we had no instruments, just five friends with big ideas about how to follow in the footsteps of Albert Hammond and the ‘Diamond Boys’ who were later the first band to leave Gibraltar in search of fame and fortune as Rock’n’Roll musicians. Four of us had an ear for music, all of us had a fascination with it, but none of us had a clue how to make it. We could pose gamely with a ‘Teddy’ boy quiff though! It was 1961 and with basic instruments and an eye on the girls we gradually learnt to imitate the sounds we heard on radio and gramophone records.

We thought we were great because the innocence of youth made us invincible and we believed that we could be a dance band and play at tea dances. As soon as we had learnt enough songs off by heart we got a contract at the Catholic United Services Club, a dance hall on the site of Ocean Heights today, where we were playing top twenty chart covers for the RAF, soldiers and sailors who would dance or collapse on the dance floor, sometimes both at once. When the fleet was in port guest bands from visiting ships would play there too and we would support them and soak up their performance skills.

‘The Silhouettes’ were originally Joe and Eddie Adambery, Richard Yeats, Ernie Picardo and the late Denis Bossino. Later on Ernie came to the front as main vocalist and the late Richard Porro became the drummer. With a two guitar line up, an accordion and a double bass, dance music provided the gigs and the finance for improving our basic instruments. We invested wisely in equipment and smart uniforms too. In those days musicians were suited and booted but you had to be good and thick skinned to take on an audience of servicemen on shore leave, mixing with services personnel who were stationed here and not easily impressed by the visitors, let alone a new band of local boys who got the eye from the girls that they fancied to dance. There were a few awkward standoffs but we had our fans and friends in the services who defused those situations.

Hard work in our rehearsals and residency work in night clubs like ‘El Polvorin’ (underneath the City Walls opposite Midtown today) gave us confidence and polish and eventually we won the first ever ‘Silver Disc Competition’ at the Alameda Open Air Theatre in 1963. A year later while playing at the Whiskey A-Go-Go we were ‘discovered’ by a car dealer from Portsmouth, a lovely man called Eddie Elliot, who saw a spark in ‘The Silhouettes’ and had the faith to take us to the UK at his expense and launch us as professional musicians. He had to do a lot of haggling with our parents but he convinced them that we could make it over there. At last we were on our way (early November 1964 – we sailed on the SS Canberra – Southampton bound) and we were getting better at playing pop music with a Latin flair which the English audiences would love and which made us different too.

Our musical journey had now started in earnest and life was good when we lived in Portsmouth/ Southsea and played at the Pavilion every night.  While there we also played with Shirley Bassey at the 3000 seater Portsmouth Guild Hall. We were becoming well known and the following year moved to the Isle of Wight to take on a summer residency touring the Warner Holiday camps dotted across the island. During that year (1965) we were entered by Eddie Elliott for the ‘Southern Counties Beat Group Competition’ hosted by Radio Luxembourg, which we won on the strength of our Latin roots making us original and different. We also had a very polished act while the competition were all playing the same rhythm and blues. Our prize was to be signed to the Phillips record label in London and we made three singles for them. We got a London management contract with Sidney Lipton and Cyril Stapleton, both of them famous band leaders, who offered us work as cabaret supporting their band gigs in the lucrative London society balls circuit. We were going places and earning good enough money to be able to afford to live in a mews flat off Baker Street, sharing the 25 guineas weekly rent between five. We were now known as Los Cincos and had variously changed our band’s name to ‘The G Boys’ in Portsmouth, Los Cinco Ricardos in early London days and then we cut that to ‘Los Cincos.’

In early 1966 we landed a residency at the famous Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane and moved to London to play there for nearly two years every night. It was our shop window and we had been persuaded by our management to wear frilly ‘Bolero’ shirts and capitalize on our bilingual Latin roots. The English audiences lapped it up and we became the toast of the town, always featured at the top hotel functions. For those gigs we hired some extra equipment and in our breaks from our two nightly cabaret spots at Grosvenor House, a taxi would whizz us around London to play as cabaret in most of the top hotels. The Hilton, The Dorchester, The Savoy, The Royal Garden and others were our musical stomping grounds and finally we managed to pay off our substantial loan to Eddie Elliot and parted friends with him.

All during that time we wanted to be famous like ‘The Beatles’ but our management wanted us to be a ‘new Latin fashionable band’. Of course ‘Carlos Santana’ came along in ‘66 and put paid to that dream but we continued to make headway in recording and were always in good cabaret work until 1969/70 when the band members gradually drifted back to the Rock. There was one notable exception however. 

Albert Hammond, who for a while had been our main vocalist at the Grosvenor House residency, had written a hit song for an Irish singer known as Leapy Lee. He had a big hit with ‘Little Arrows’. The rest as they say is history. The rise and rise of Albert Hammond, whose talent for songwriting we failed to recognise in our band ‘Los Cincos,’ who gamely peddled his catchy songs across UK and later the US, is a well known story. Ultimately he became one of the world’s best recognized and successful song writers. In retrospect I suppose that heralded the end of ‘Los Cincos.’ We still recorded with him and made an album for him (later shelved) but there was no stopping Albert Hammond, he made it big and we still remain very good friends to this day.

What did we miss? We had failed to notice his self-belief and his uncanny knack of writing the simple beautiful melodies which have become the soundtrack of our lives for over fifty years now. We didn’t spot his gift and star quality but all in all, our short journey with him in London were good times, which Richard Yeats, Richard Cartwright, my brother Eddie and me will cherish forever. Our late drummer Richard Porro and our first main vocalist Ernie Picardo were also important travellers in our musical journey. 

A couple of years ago, Eddie Elliott’s daughter Dee got together with me and gifted her scrap book and photos of our days in Portsmouth. It was so good to see all those photos validating a part of ‘our musical journey in the sixties’ and to also hear an early audio tape of a homemade recording on a reel-to-reel tape recorder which we made in her house in 1964. They are priceless memories indeed, as the song says ‘those were the days my friend’…..

Some of the best words that I have written over the last twenty years have been about music and yet music is not about words. Yes it’s true that some of the best songs ever written have lyrics which paint a picture that together with music makes their tunes memorable by capturing our imagination. Tugging at heart strings, elating our moods, evoking memories of a love found, or sucking us into a sense of loss when love has been betrayed, is all part of the gravitational pull of music.

Words are not needed to move the spirit though. Great music such as classical composers wrote, only used instrumental passages to move the spirit with rich orchestral tapestries or inspired solos as a means of telling their story. Fashion, snobbery and their own need to eat shaped the careers of the great composers. Kings and queens sponsored the great composers and commissioned music for their courts. Up to that point in history the mass enjoyment of music was just not possible. Music was only for the elite.

Until the gramophone was invented in 1877 and gradually evolved, musical performances were not captured for posterity. With these early recordings the   music industry was born. Nobody could have foreseen the exponential growth and the increasing relevance of music in our lives. Personal music as in our headphones nowadays is a new drug and its audio quality is ever improving. The musical universe is only a fingertip away thanks to technology.

As we know there is music for all occasions, from praising the creator in worship or celebrating victories after wars, to epic cinematic soundtracks. Music is now truly universal in its scope and reach. The large scale music concerts which fill venues across the world are predictable phenomena of our times because there is a marketing strategy behind them and a demand for tickets. That takes nothing away from the ‘joy’ that concerts bring to millions worlwide.

The music industry is constantly evolving, mainly by bringing new artists and trends to our attention, thus creating a perceived need for us to see performers ‘live in concert.’ Few events can compare with the emotional, visual and audio gratification that attending a good concert can bring to the heart and soul, because in reality we also ‘feel’ music when we enjoy hearing it. A modern concert can transform those feelings into unforgettable memories.

Here in Gibraltar we are privileged to have enjoyed concerts by great artists of different genres and to a greater or lesser degree, have lived the ‘joy’ that only a good concert can bring. There is a sizeable bunch of regular concert goers in our community who frequently travel abroad to enjoy their favourite artists in concert and they enrich our community when they bring back and share their memories, which in turn whet our appetite for more concert experiences. This burning desire for music in concert will now have to take a back seat for a while longer.

This year a change is upon us. It’s still unfolding and unwelcome though it is, we have to ponder on the uncertain future ahead for  humanity and to mention some more elements, the concert industry, the travel industry, the cruise industry and many other ‘joys’ that we always took for granted. The world was caught unawares by Covid 19 and unwelcome changes were forced upon us by those who have our best interests at heart. We are still winning but we also are still fighting it.

Yes it will all pass and things will hopefully find their own level in the ‘new normal’, but that won’t stop us missing what we had and what we have been used to as far as musical entertainment goes. In this era of binge watching Netflix series and using our smart phones as entertainment platforms, even the long established daily TV watching routine at home has been lost. Reading conventional books and overeating, along with decreased physical activity (as in lockdown), also became part of the ‘new normal’. This has been as unwelcome as having to wear those awful face masks now while trying to make ourselves understood behind their cotton fibres.

Our recent National Day was by necessity pared down to a whisker of its annual glory and thankfully we have been promised the biggest party ever for next year. I missed our Music Festival and the National Day concert too and no TV substitute was ever going to fill those gaps. We live in the fervent hope that all will be well sooner rather than later.

To our rescue and to help us in our day to day existence, our smart phones and other media platforms have become almost crutches, but they also give us back some of the ‘joy’ which we need to survive these dark times. If music be the spice of life shake that spice rack and bring it on…’Joyful, Joyful’ as in ‘Sister Act’ I say… and my advice as always is, breathe music because it’s cleaner than air and it’s food for the soul too. Till next time and remember to make happy listening a part of your new normal.