Anyone who read last week’s edition of these pages will understand what I mean when I say that the last few weeks have cast us in the roles of extras in every hospital drama on tv. We seemed to be in Casualty on a permanent basis. We missed several gigs we were looking forward to enjoying and, indeed, looking forward to telling you all about, and we apologise that we were unable to do so.
However, in the words of the strangely bearded Canned Heat and ZZ Top, we’re on the road again.
Nevertheless, despite being given a clean bill of health and a certificate of fitness, we then discovered that the first concert we had intended to review for you on our return was in fact an important religious event in the church of Los Remedios in Yaiza. Even when we learned that fact we thought the lovely Ladies Choir Of Yaiza might have been performing but a few quick phone calls to the friends we have in that choir failed to confirm that so we realised we would have to take some sidetracks and detours to find a musical event to review.
Of course, the wonderful thing about Lanzarote is that it is itself a brilliant screenplay to any musical. Seriously who can walk around the island and look up at skies of blue and clouds of white. We are an island of bright, blessed days and dark, sacred nights. We have the colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky and also on the benches as a rest for people walking by. We really do see friends shaking hands and saying “How do you do?” and its their way of saying I love you. I hear babies cry and I watch them grow and I know they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know.
Lanzarote is, itself, a wonderful world.
And just about wherever you are on the island you can find arts and culture and folk lore music within a couple of kilometers diameter.
So last night (Sunday) we headed off into our nearest town of Playa Blanca. We even knew of two bars adjacent to each other which are actually one venue, where the moored yachts serve as stately homes for the summer. Most evenings, The Captain and Tennille step ashore for some fine dining at one half of the establishment: that half being known as the Oasis Asian Restaurant. This sedate, yet sartorial, dining room is tended by polite and friendly staff and a young maitre´d who loves his job and, therefore, is very good at it.
Eight o’clock is a good time to book your table because at half past nine the other half of this venue becomes an open air night club with a floor packed with dancers in front of a male and female duo: the girl with a husky and attractive voice that ranged from Janis Joplin’s throaty growl to Minnie Riperton’s sweet and soulful sound.
The guy had a great voice, if with a slightly different, but complementary, vocal range.
Their voices merged well and created sweet and soulful harmony.
Their Elton John medley was sensational and of all the wondrous sights and sounds I love on Lanzarote I never thought I would add a version of Sweet Home Alabama, originally by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The duo delivered a fantastic version of Have You Ever Seen The Rain, written by John Fogarty and recorded with his band Credence Clearwater Revival.
I usually cringe at Elvis imitators, simply because none of us can copy the unique, but that they put together half a dozen of Presley’s best tracks, beginning with Suspicious Minds was very, very impressive.
Certainly, the dancers were kept happy and the atmosphere was enhanced by the fact that by now darkness had fallen and the lights on the masts of the yachts fifty yards aware created a wonderful low constellation of flickering stars.
One of my favourite songwriters, Rodney Crowell, once wrote of Stars On The Water, and moonbeams on the bays down in Louisiana, and tonight the Marina Rubicon down in Playa Blanca matched all this. The Oasis restaurant sits beside a beautifully shaped and huge swimming pool that was now empty. It was being crossed slitheringly, glitteringly by apparent snakes riding the still surface in reflections of the small coloured lights in the trees.
From any table in the restaurant the dancers on the floor in the nightclub were visible, throwing their shapes in the shadows, or dancing like loons as another popular song would have had it. Written by Marc Bolan Cosmic Dancer was recorded as T Rex, surely its lyrics were referring to these utterly carefree dancers.
We left their company a little early, after a couple of Gin and Tonics, ready for our cocoas and our beds. We hadn’t danced, because we remembered that recent pride had only led to a fall.
Instead we linked arms and walked meticulously towards our car, and never touched a crack in the pavements.
It is our biggest tick as a vote of confidence in the artists when I am still singing what I had heard, as I drive home. However there were other big ticks tonight: The duo picked a simply buzzing playlist. Of course, they were behind a sound desk that contained that playlist and was full of recorded lead lines and rhythm sections that can become oppressive unless employed sparingly.
On the way to the car, we sat for a rest on one of those rainbow coloured benches and discussed our choice of starters, Tacos Mexican, which had been sweet and soft. Our choice of dessert of a Nutella Crepe and ice cream had been so much more than the sum of its parts.
We closed our eyes to think back to our main course: Dee’s was Chop Suey de Pollo and she says it was full of flavour and very tasty.
Mine had been Thai Chicken Curry and I could have dreamed of those mild flavours on that bench all night, but instead I was wakened by the faint strains of what must have been an encore song,
Para bailar La Bamba, Para bailar La Bamba, Se necesita una poca de gracia, Una poca de gracia, Pa’ mí, pa’ ti, ay arriba, ay arriba Y arriba, y arriba, Por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré
My overall memory of the night is of trying to remember the title of a Beatles song, because I know it had a questioning line in its lyric that I wanted to answer,
It came to me before we got home.
The song was Baby You’re A Rich Man.
The line was ¨How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?”
The answer to continue The Beatles Theme was….. I feel Fine !
