Tuesday the 29th of September midnight!
We load up at Jam Studios in ....Amsterdam.... and head down south for a 3 day wild tour of our beloved Espana!
The road crew includes us and our jefe and all round hustler Jules and our driver, roadie extraordinaire, soundman and diver Laurens.
First up it’s a long drive to the south of ..France.. to the beautiful town of ..Cohors.., where we’re going to recharge before we head down to ....Madrid.... for our first show on Thursday.
After about 12 hours we arrive to Cohors and are greeted by our friends with sun, wine and duck meat! Great lunch is followed by a short drive up some hills to the house where we we’re crashing that night. When we arrive the sight is beyond our wildest dreams! Simply put its paradise. A big beautiful house on top of a hill with a swimming pool and a lounge in the middle of the valley in front of the house.
We crack open the beers, jump in the pool and work on our tans for the rest of the day which is followed by a dinner with more wine and duck! We hit the sack early and it’s on to ....Madrid.... the next morning.
Thursday the 1st of October ....Madrid....
It’s a 7 hour ride to ....Madrid.... and we get delayed a little because of an accident involving a huge truck. We arrive in ....Madrid.... at 19.30h and head straight to the venue. It’s Wurlitzer Ballroom, one of the premier Rock & Roll places in ....Madrid....! During our sound check we hook up with a bunch of our friends form ....Madrid..... It’s great to see Willy, Juan, Rosa, Gema and all the others again! Unfortunately, our booker Alberto of Los Chicos is away on band duty and left us in the hands of the mysterious Arni. We finish the sound check and go to the restaurant serving hard core tapas and await the arrival of Arni. We go all out for the dinner, despite the fact that it’s already past 22h and we should be on in little more then an hour...Blood sausage, ham, octopus, hot peppers and the piece de resistance fried pigs ears! I just can’t hold back with a plate full of beautiful fatty, crunchy ears!
Soon in comes Arni and to our surprise and approval Arni is a girl! She passes the dirty jokes test with flying colours and is one of the boys in no time, well not really one of the boys but you know what I mean. Unfortunately she also has previous commitments, she’s off to another show (there’s a lot of shit going on in ....Madrid.... at the same time) but will hook up with us later at the club.
First up on the bill are Journal Job a surf/punk/instro band with a strange name but a cool show. We learn our first lesson on playing in Spain that night, nobody leaves their house before 23.00h and the guys are pretty much playing for their friends the bar crew.
Just before midnight we hit the stage and the place starts filling up with people. We travelled thousands of miles to play the show and as usual we don’t hold back! Some of the kids really go crazy when we do a few covers of Birdman, Groovies and Stooges and our final song being our version of the Dictators ‘NY, NY’ called ‘Mokum, Mokum’ really gets them going with a bunch of them singing ‘Madrid, Madrid’ instead! After the show the pigs ears start kicking in and I start regretting being so greedy earlier that evening. We hook up with Arni again and head for her place where I spend most of it on the toilet...Anyway, a very cool start to the tour, a cool show and Arni was an absolute doll with us! It’s off to ....Alicante.... the next day...or so we think.
Friday the 2nd of October ....Alicante.... (Orihuela)
We leave ..Madrid.. early and are off to ....Alicante..... The weather was great anyway but it’s getting even hotter as we head more to the south. We arrive in ....Alicante.... in the afternoon and immediately hit the beach! While doing more swimming and frying in the sun we also enjoy the view…there’s something for everyone MILFS, teens the Works!
After a few hours we’re back in the van and ask our Uncle Tom Tom for the directions to the club. It turns out that the club is in a little town of ....Orihuela.... so we have to hurry up.
We do kind of make it to the sound check just before 20.00h. The club is called La Gramola and is an absolute little rock & roll gem! Only in ....Spain.... baby!
We’re also expecting a very special guest this evening, none other that our legendary harmonica man Leandro Caragillo! In real Leandro style he shows up just minutes before we hit the stage! He’s a whirlwind of a guy and really lifts the musical mayhem to another level. It’s a great show again it ends in absolute madness with us doing NY,NY this time with the chants of Orihuela, Orihuela! We meet some great folks after the show and they are totally into what we’re doing and dig our brand of high energy R&R. The owner Jose is a great dude and plays some of our favourite records of all time as the party goes on into the night! Big thanks go to Pedro of Sonambulo Records and the guys from Motorcross for helping us get the gig!
Since we don’t have a sleeping place in Orihuela we hook up with Leandro and drive another 2 and half hours to his place in a little town of ..Bunol.. near ....Valencia.....
Saturday the 3rd of October ....Medina.... del Campo
Before we head back north we make a little tour of Bunol. It’s a stunning little town in the hills north of ....Valencia.... and hosts the annual tomatino festival that attracts people from all around the globe. There’s a great old fortress where you can get a fantastic view of the surroundings. But we’re back on the road in no time and are heading towards ..Valladolid.. to the town of ..Medina.. ....del.... Campo.
The show is at Café Tal, a very cool place but one that doesn’t seem to have a sound man that evening! In steps our roadie Laurens and saves the day by hooking everything up and delivering the best possible sound with very limited resources! It turns into a very WILD night…The show is great and Leandro makes sure there’s some extra fireworks again. At one point we even have to stop, because there some cops outside the club but are soon cheered on by the crowd to carry on playing. As usual we end the show rocking amongst the crowd to the screams of Medina del Campo! Cheers to our buddies Los Idiotas for booking the show and yet to another Jose!
It’s the last show of the tour so we embark on a monumental drinking orgy! We head off to a night bar in the neighbourhood and the minute we step in we’re greeted by the heavy riffage of The Who doing ‘the Seeker’. Beer, tequila and what not are consumed at a frightening pace and at the end of the night we have some casualties… luckily no permanent damage is done at least not physically…
Somehow we all make it to the hotel (some with extra assistance) and pile into the 2 rooms we have at our disposal. They booked only for the 4 band members but we also have Jules, Laurens and Leandro with us…we do a little sardine act and somehow pass out on the beds.
In the morning I hit the toilet and am greeted by the sight of Laurens doing his impersonation of the Billy Murcia drowning in the bathtub routine! Luckily he makes it…other members of the road crew wake up with big black holes in their heads and partial photographic evidence of last nights excess…
In the morning we score some sausage, ham and cheese at a great local market and then its 2000 km ride back to stupid reality again.
http://www.rockandrollarmy.com/fotos/main.php/v/EnVivo/LA_GRAMOLA/THEWORKS/