Look at the man with a smile on his face (Jonny Lang)
Look at the man with a smile on his face (Jonny Lang)...
Why is he starting this latest epistle from La Safor with the lyrics from an American songwriter/singer, you all ask? You didn´t? Oh! Well, I´m going to tell you anyway …..
So, first of all, I may have mentioned before that this area proliferates with bands, who play in a multitude of cafes and bars and other custom-made venues. All different genres and levels of skill and experience, from one man and a backing track machine to full on rock bands with managers and everyfink! The latest of the latter is the LA Experience. This is led by ex-Thin Lizzy/UFO guitar virtuoso, Laurance Archer (hence the LA part – Ed). He is a founder member of the big time Grand Slam (current Album residing in the rock charts) but also encourages amateurs to improve and play in public. His latest offering being LA Experience. Just up the road a way from our Villa is the retirement casa of a certain Graham Foster of The Graham Foster Band. I say retirement in that he doesn´t make albums and tour any more, but he and the band still play a couple of venues every month and encourage new musicians to join in their ´jams,’ to give them live experience. So, the title above first off refers to the musical side of living in this area. There´s a LOT of it! You rarely have to pay to be entertained. The general deal is that the bands advertise to their ´followers´ where they are performing and the bar/cafe benefits from a large influx of customers and pays the band out of the increased profits. Obviously, this is not a get rich arrangement for the bands, who are largely retired or have other jobs to earn their living, but it does mean that you can be royally entertained for next to nothing and they get the experience of playing their music to a live and generally appreciative audience.
How do I know all this? Well, I originally formed a band myself, having always wanted to play in a band but always been too busy working and making a living to achieve the dream. Having retired over here, my lovely Lady wife suggested I give it a go and off I went, so to speak. Within a few months I had a band and a few weeks later started playing the odd gig. The band continues, although I left to start a new band, which is currently working on its playlist and practising to get up to public standard, hopefully in the late autumn. We have actually already played one self-started gig, which was well received, but we need to add much more material before we really go out to the established venues.
So, the title above firstly refers to the fact that this is a very musical area with a wide range of talent available to entertain you. The second connection, I guess that you could link to the first, but also refers in a much wider respect, in that obviously being able to make and enjoy music generally raises a lot of smiles, but also that just being here and enjoying the change that living here and the upheaval involved creates, does tend to cheer one up immensely. Is it paradise? No. No where is, let’s be fair. There are always going to be the negatives or problems that have to be overcome or accepted, wherever you live. But they certainly seem to be more tolerable or solvable here with a bit of local experienced assistance to guide you along.
The big answer to most issues and queries is to plan as far ahead as one can and make full appropriate preparation and take as much advice as you can get FROM PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY KNOW THE ANSWERS! Like anywhere else, there are those who ´know everything’ and suck teeth in answer to a question from a ´Newby. ´ Don´t! Take advice from professional experts. Everyone is different in what they expect and can achieve, so taking advice from “Oh, I´ve been here for years and I can tell you…..,” really is not the way to go. No matter how well meaning, one person’s advice to another will so often end in a broken friendship. Having said that, of course, peoples´ recommendations of local professional experts can be invaluable in helping the recent arrival to navigate the number of worthy and less worthy professionals, whether that is sorting out your residency or having a wall built. It really can make the difference from wearing a frown or a smile on your face.
In a similar vein, there has been much scare mongering in the British press about rules and regulations making life difficult for potential new ex Pats. So much on social media about picking on Brits arriving at airports and being harangued for causing problems with local people being unable to afford accommodation or live a decent standard of life. This really is grossly exaggerated. It is a fact of modern life that it is increasingly expensive to afford accommodation in any Western country and Spain is no different. The Brits haven´t exactly covered themselves in glory with the plethora of drunken stag and hen groups in certain locations and general lack of self-control when in groups of holiday party makers. We have witnessed a little of it first hand and it is reprehensible, shameful and downright disrespectful, but it has to be said that Spain has encouraged them to come and spend their money getting drunk and is now paying the price for that. And as far as the accommodation that is aimed at holiday makers is concerned; the vast majority of it is owned by Spanish landlords, not non-locals, who tend to have properties back in the UK to rent out. Saying all this, we do empathise with the problem facing so many young folks trying to get a foot on the ladder. Our own children faced the exact same issues as they tried (now successfully) to buy their first properties in the UK. The problem as we see it, is that if you shut down the AirB&B´s and only had hotel accommodation, the local area income would shrink by a huge amount. So many hotels are now ´all inclusive´ and the tourists holidaying within them spend next to nothing on food, drinks, trinkets and services which are currently supplied to the private holiday makers and are the backbone to the local economy. I remember a few years ago talking to a group of holidaymakers on Majorca, who had been going to the same hotel for over twenty years, but had never even been to Palma, a twenty minute bus ride away, and took a packed lunch, provided by the hotel, with them to the beach, so that they didn´t have to buy anything from one of the cafes.
So, I digress from the root conversation. (How unusual – Ed). What is the real message here? Do your homework. Take professional advice, and enjoy the music, and you too could be one of us with a smile on your face. Hey! You might even start a new band!
Nos vemos pronto, compadres.
