Tenerife forum

[bardofely]

As an experienced singer/songwriter and musician from Wales (have played Glastonbury Festival and have been released on British labels) who has recently relocated to Tenerife I have been surprised and disheartened to find that "live music" here usually means karaoke or tribute acts doing covers over backing tracks. Fortunately, I have also come across a few bands like the Lizard Kings, T3 and Divine Intervention who can play real instruments and who rock! This form of entertainment seems to be in the minority here which brings me to an unsolved mystery: aren't there any wannabe singer/songwriters and musicians who want to play in bands doing original material and not covers or performing as solo acts, and if there are, where do they showcase their talents?
In the UK very town and city has loads of singers, songwriters and musicians who are looking to get signed by labels and who play gigs they get at local venues and later on at national ones and build a fanbase and get hopefully noticed. Showcase nights for unsigned bands doing original material are a regular form of entertainment which provide somewhere for such acts to play. Also "Open mic" and "Jam night" sessions are another way that acts get to play their material to the public. Doesn't anyone or any venue hold such nights here? Feedback on this is very welcome!

Bard of Ely (fast becoming known here as Greenbeard)
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[Guest]

It pisses me off too, I've got a band over here, we're in our infancy really in so much as our current line up has only done about 10 gigs over a 5 month period, although this is mainly due to us only wanting to play once or twice a week which doesn't suit bars who want a resident band.

On the side of this I do occasional acoustic gigs with a friend playing mainly beatles songs in small bars in Los Cristianos, usually for free.

But yeah, I agree, there should be some way of bringing together all the musicians out there and bringing LIVE music to Tenerife. At the moment there are the following "bands" playing the circuit:

Gazoline are gone now unfortunatley
T3 - 3 piece playing all instruments.
Lizard Kings - dito (they set the benchmark really don't they?)
Christie O'Connors band The Mizfits (although the bass is played on the keyboards, does that count?)
My band - we also play everything live.

Then:

Grand Theft Audio
The Dubliner Band
M4
Stevie C and that bass playing rod stewart bloke plus guitarist in Crows Nest.

And probably a load more duos.


With the possible exception of GTA, I don't think any of the drum machine or midi backed bands come close to a real live bands feel.

[bardofely]

Thanks for your feedback. I am glad to know you agree.

I think there are a lot more people about who like real live music without backing tracks than the bar owners realise!

What's the name of your band, BTW?
Also let me know when you're next gigging and I'll try and come along.
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[Guest]

My band is Loaded we were going to have a break for a few weeks until a younger crowd got over here as we've had a few "tumble weed" gigs with 70 year olds recently!!!!

I have this dream too of forming a Beatles tribute band over here but it's finding the time and finding the members - I think there are plenty of musicians over here who'd do it but there's a lot of sleeping muso's I think.

[Guest]

forgot to say that we may be gigging this Saturday in Las Americas depending on wether or not a bar owner decides to stay open or close til summer.

[Guest]

and I did the Url thing wrong too!

Loaded

[bardofely]

I went to your site from a link left here! Very to see a band doing at least one of their own songs and a band that really plays!

Keep me updated on the gigs! I'd like to meet you all and see you play!

BTW, I think its the older people here that are partially responsible for the prob seeing as they want to hear songs from decades back, like Elvis for example and new stuff and new bands aren't what they are into, plus they don't like loud music. Most UK indie bands, signed or unsigned would have a very tough time here cos of this. I think what another part of the prob is that in the Uk there are loads of bars that provide free live entertainment in the form of a singer/guitarist, karaoke etc and the people who go to these expect the same here. What is needed is a bar or club to take a chance on opening up and featuring band showcases with entry fee like they do in the UK and have it open to Spanish and Brit and any other nationality to submit demos. Also an open mic/jam night could be hosted at same venue for any and all acts that want a spot, and hosted by a resident act and compere, again like you have in the UK. Money can either be from door takings or paid to the resident presenters of the nights like is done in the UK. I am sure there must be lots of would be singer/songwriters and bands that would welcome this and it would be something new so would get people coming along. The acts involved would of course bring their friends.

Bard
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[Guest]

Hiya mate I've signed up now, can't keep posting as "guest"!

Yeah I agree entirely with what you're saying, we do a mixture of old and new stuff, typically we'll play something like: Lynyrd Skynrd, Oasis, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Small Faces, The Jam, Coldplay, Verve, U2, Spencer Davies Group....basically stuff everyone knows weather they're 20 or 60, but we try not to go down the "caberet" route, infact, we're incapable of being caberet - I don't know if that's a downfall or a bonus point!

Re Open mic nights, I think the reason no one doesn them is because most people wouldn't have their own gear and therefore the bar would have to provide for them, and we all know that people don't treat other peoples gear with the respect they do their own - and you might even have an SM58 go walkies!

I'd love to get a gig together where all of the bands out here played all night long one after the other kinda like the One World Beat gig at Pleasure Island last year only with all the real bands rather than the Keyboard/guitar duos.

I can dream!

[Loaded]

this is me.

[bardofely]

Hi Loaded!

Well, I am incapable of being a cabaret act too although people are trying to make me into one! I am getting told I need to get midi-files and practise singing over them and other such crap which just isn't me! Ans although I got, audience participation, an encore and people in the audience coming up and shaking my hand etc at the Tropical Park in Callao Salvaje the Entertainment Manager said I wasn't what they were looking for even though the main act (a crooner doing karaoke Sinatra and Tom Jones etc) was not going down as well as me!

BTW if you have a look at the OWB thread you'll see that I managed a small event this year and I proved that live covers without backing tracks can work cos I ended up headlining cos Terry Whelan who was supposed to couldn't play, and I went down a storm as M4 and Arturo amongst others could testify! What I was leading to though is that Dodi who runs El Granero in Playa de la Arena might be the answer to your dream. Bob of Old Dogs New Tricks put me in touch and told me they keep open into the early hours and have a stage that can handle proper rock bands. I spoke to her and she was interested in doing a OWB gig but couldn't fit me in the week I wanted. As OWB is extending its time period to accept gigs at other times in the year, perhaps we could sort out another big one there and your dream could become a reality?

I have discovered that no one seems to do any Neil Young here or Bob Marley. I do both but wondering if you guys do any of their songs?
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[Loaded]

We don't do Bob Marley but we do Hey Hey My My by Neil Young and have done since our first few gigs at Shakers in 2001.

I'd love to help in anyway possible of getting a OWB gig going, I've no experience of actually managing a gig but I'm always interested in learning new things which are music related.

[bardofely]

I do that one too but also 'Rockin' in the free world' is one of my faves and 'Too far gone.'

Some other covers I do: 'Stand by me,' 'Love you' (Syd Barrett), 'Sloop John B,' 'Let it be,' 'Horse with no name' (America), 'What's going on?' and 'Redemption Song.'

Well, I now know that to raise money at gigs here you have to put on raffles and get people to donate prizes, and also that you can ask businesses in the area to donate. I was not used to this side of it at all and was short on time. Given more time and with more people helping it should be possible to put on a big event. Connie at OWB was very pleased with my efforts anyway, and I was happy to have achieved what I set out to do even if on a very small scale. Jose from M4 said the Moonlight bar would have been a good venue too.

I think we need to see who is up for this and aim for a summer event to give us all enough time to sort it out well in advance.
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[Loaded]

Moonlight would be a good venue but somewhere like O'Reillys would also be good - what was wrong with pleasure island?

Yeah I like Neil young, got a few cd's of his such as Harvest, Rust never sleeps (live) and one other which escapes me at this moment....we also did Stand By Me at one gig but we didn't do it justice and haven't done it since.

Also, if you do get a OWB concert did take off this year (and count me in on helping in any way) maybe it would be a good idea to hold it over 2 nights (friday and saturday or saturday and sunday) because the only fault with the last one was that each act got about 20 minutes if memory serves, this could get more artists involved too.

[bardofely]

I wasn't living here when the last big one happened and I have no probs at all with Pleasure Island. Sounds fine to me. What happened was that Connie at OWB put me in touch with Jacqui here who did last year's and I was hoping I could be an act on the lineup if she was doing it this year, and that I would help with promoting it and writing about it for the media. But Jacqui told me she was taking a break till next year and so I thought I'd soldier on regardless! It was then that I found I had taken on more than I'd bargained for due to how different it all is here!

Personally if we had a 2-dayer, whilst I can see the advantages, I wouldn't want to do it if it meant I was doing a lot both days! I have done Glastonbury twice as an MC and that's for the whole festival and I can tell you it get's a pain if you're chained to a stage so to speak. In 2003 I was lucky enough to have got the Sunday afternoon free by doing all my shifts before then. It would depend how many people we had compering and organising it. I was watching Chris Elkington at the Tsunami event at the Soul Seller earlier this year and I have to admire him for the amount of work he was putting in there both on and off the stage! BTW, I am sure he'll help promote it if we sort a gig out.
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[Loaded]

What was it like doing Glasto by the way and how long ago did you do it?