My Trip To Spain Part One - Not Primavera Sound 2009

It is finished and I have had my lungs cleaned out and my feet replaced so I can think straight now. Sorry it has taken so long but after Primavera we pretty much went straight to Galcia and did the last 120km of the Camino Francis to Santiago and then moved round Spain till arriving back home last Wednesday. In all our travels I could not find access to computers to do anything except transfer the recordings to thumb drives at a Internet Cafe for safety [and for my troubles I picked up a virus at some cafe while doing that]

I am still going through the recordings in Barcalona as I have some issues with the sound on a couple. A few more days for those. In the meantime if you haven't already seen them, there are streaming set on the website of WFMU FM of many bands. and a few available for download at the Free Music Archive.

But you didn't think I would go to spain for 6 weeks and get just one festival, did you? No.

After we left Barcelona we walked the Camino and ended up in Santiage De Compostella as you do. There we saw a The Kapsberger Ensemble, a mainly Scandinavian Modern Baroque Ensemble who were magnificent. The leader pretty much shredded the Baroque Guitar and the upright bass [is that very baroque?] was cool as fuck. Unfortunately my rig was in the post from Barcalona. If you get a chance to see them take it.

Got to San Sebastian and as we wandered I saw this poster and thought well when am i going to get the chance hey?

till I saw this one and realized it was closer and free.


So
Los Creyentes

are a Spanish rockabilly band, the whole quiff, white uniform and black braces, call and response by the crowd trying to pronounce english words they have never heard before thing. great fun.

Phantom Surfers

were way cool.

Ivan Julian

played Blank Generation and Love Comes In Spurts as well as his own recent material and it was not too bad.

Roy Loney

is crazy and put on a great show. Sang Teenage Head [still in my top 5 ever songs] and he must play a lot in Spain cause the crowd knew a lot of his material. It was great.

Chesterfield Kings

were disappointing. The band were OK but the lead singer looks like John Cooper Clarke acting like Steve Tyler trying to mimic Mike Jagger in an Arkansas accent trying out for the New York Dolls. Funny as fuck for all the wrong reasons.

In Seville got a Flamenco Club set and a recital in a local church by the Peterhouse Chapel Choir from Cambridge UK. Great stuff. My dad will love it. He sings Bass in the Mackay Choir.

So to Lisbon and lo and behold I see ads for Delta Tejo festival which is pretty much all latin music except for

Buju Banton.

Not gunna miss him so 1 Day ticket in hand along we went. He was great. Started with some dancehall then a long set of his conscious stuff.

But to top it off last saturday night we along with 6500 of our closest Portuguese friends [i hadn't realized before how many of them were gay] went to the Atlantic Amphitheater and saw

Kylie Minogue.

Brilliant Stuff.