Gary Beaumont
HAVING always been interested in new and original music, a derisory comment by a friend of my daughter’s that “all Spanish music was flamenco or Europop” led me to explore the local music scene deeper and see if she was in fact correct in that assumption.
Now I was well aware of the huge number of covers bands and singers, entertaining their audiences in the myriad of bars, restaurants, hotels and chiringuitos, some of whom are very good and some of whom are, well let’s just say not so good, but I had never really delved into the local music scene, or was even aware of its existence up until a few years ago but once I started a whole new world of music opened up for me, and since then it has been my aim to bring this world to the many people, who like me were/are totally unaware of its existence.
First of all to respond to the original statement, well we soon debunked that theory. Yes there’s a shed load of flamenco and Europop, some of it better than others, but there’s also some great hip-hop, reggae, jazz, blues, funk, rock, and every other genre you can think of, often with an Andalucian flavour, and often fusing genres in a way only Andalucian bands seem to be able to get away with, bands like Trashtucada mashing up ska, rock, and reggae, with a dash of mariachi trumpet, other bands like Breed77 and Alhandal fusing heavy rock with flamenco, and O’Funkillo mixing rap, rock and funk, and so the list goes on.
So, why am I telling you all this, well whilst I know a lot of people prefer the comfort of music that they know, songs they can sing along to, etc., I also know there are a lot of people out there who are more adventurous in their musical tastes, the BBC 6 Music listeners, the ‘Later – with Jools Holland’ fans, and it is for you I will be writing this column about the music scene in Andalucia and Gibraltar. I shall be bringing you news and reviews of the latest album releases, tours, concerts, festivals, and so on.
