Tenerife forum

[princesswarrior]

Hi!!,

Just found your forum whilst browsing for some entertainment agencies in Tenerife. Can anyone tell me ( I'm a singer ) if there are any decent agencies or know of a band/duo/caberet ( urgh, I'll explain myself later!! ) who need an exceptional!! female singer for regular work?.

I remember when I lived in the North but was commuting to the UK for gigs and session work, there were a few "acts " of the caberet ilk who performed for 20 to 30 mins in a hotel, sold a few CDs at reception, got paid then went on to the next gig on the same night. They earnt good money all in all, yet were crap!!.

So, if anyone knows of a similar situation or has a vacancy within a band etc, please let me know.

I'm a session singer but also have lots of live experience, mostly in dance/trance and have had a couple of tracks on MOS and clubland. I sing all genres however, so it would be great to get something started over there as I would like to move back . I can send an mp3 and would really appriciate some help as I haven't found anything for Tenerife while looking over here, plenty elsewhere just not in Tenerife!!

[vvv]

Tenerife Club land is basically cabaret singers.45 minute spots are the general rule. There are not many bands over here,and the money for bands is not good anyway,nor is it for duos. A general duo who play in a restaurant will pull in maybe 120 euros for 3 hours entertaining,so divide that by 2 and I'll let you work out the rest for yourself!!!

If you are of a high standard and are seeking fame then I do not reccommend Tenerife to you as the place to make your money and stardom.
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[bardofely]

Hi Princess Warrior!

Like yourself I have been amazed to see crappy singers earning money as you described and on the whole I have been very disappointed with the music scene here. Real live music acts, bands and good venues and opportunities are something I do miss from the UK. I am hoping I can find my way here and hope I can in my own small way help change things. If I fail I have my writing to fall back on and other things I do.

However, if you don´t mind doing glorified karaoke cover songs over mini-disc backing tracks you could probably do very well here! As far as I can tell the agencies that are here are just looking to churn out more of these types of acts. Original songs and music are very rarely heard too.
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[vvv]

Bard.................please do not tar everyone with the same brush!!! Yes there is some CRAPPY singers over here, but there are also some excellent ones!!!

Some have been thoroughly trained, others are glorified karaoke singers!!

I cannot ever see live music taking over here.................look at it from a bar owners point of view!!! Lets be realistic, people buy a business to make money, no matter what morals they may have, at the end of the day, what is the point of bringing in a 4 or 5 piece band and paying them a hell of a lot more than they would for a one-man act or duo??

The same is happening in clubland too in the UK, it is dying a death, no-one is interested in seeing the ¨Turns¨.

As for original music, lets be fair, people who come to Tenerife on holiday want to live , eat and breathe familiar things.....with sunshine!! So, it is very unlikely that anyone would want to hear a band playing original music.
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[bardofely]

Yes, I agree there are some good singers who do perform here but they all do covers. One point I would make is that originality isn't encouraged and it's not just holiday makers that should be catered for. What about all the people who live here or were born here who are interested in music? In the UK every town and city has local bands, duos and singer/songwriter solo acts who have a go at getting somewhere with their music but surely there is no encouragement for anyone here to try and do this if they know that there really are no venues to showcase their work at, no labels, no radio shows, no promoters etc and all they can hope for is to get work doing covers or move away!
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[Loaded]

I'll put in my 2 cents here me thinks.

VVV has good points about the cost of a band compared to a 1 person show - its easy to see which is better for that aspect. Also the point about people on holiday want familiarity but with sunshine basically hits the nail on the head.

HOWEVER!

A lot of holiday makers want to see live bands, you only have to look at the popularity of the Lizard Kings to see that. In many respects the Moonlight bar had it made - they had the larger side doing cabaret 1 man shows and Abba duos which entertains one part of the holiday makers crowd....and the smaller side had the Lizard Kings, which means the bar had the best of both worlds.

Now they've got rid of LK's and have the same shite in both bars. Which rather defeats the object.

Ah but the guys on the LK's stage play the same sort of music as LK's! I hear you say.

Yes they (probably) do (I've not seen them) but no one, no matter who they are, or what music like, are going to think a duo are more talented or better to watch than a full live band. You just can't replicate the feel of live music with a backing track no matter how good a guitarist/singer you are.

A great voice can be admired in the one person shows, but once you've seen MOST (not tarring here!) of these acts once theres no reason to go and watch them again because usually their act is the same from one night to another - particularly if they're a tribute such as Madonna, Freddy Mercury, Robbie Williams etc. I've seen all those tributes and although they're mainly pretty good - their act is limited to what the artist continues to release. And if the artist is dead, then they're f***ed for any long term appeal from residents - which is why caberet works so well for tourists but not residents.

Am I ranting?

[bardofely]

You're not ranting, Johny, unless I'm a ranter too! But you did use the F word which I don't think is allowed here!

I assume you refer to M4 as the duo at the Moonlight Bar. I have seen them a couple of times and am friends with the band and they are really good but as you point out cannot deliver a full sound like the Kings because they are 2 guitarists and both sing, BUT they use backing tracks for the rest of it as expected by the audience and promoters here! they don't have to because they sound fine without but this island seems to expect duplications of the hit records down to the last detail. As a point of interest I did a short spot there one night and discovered this: the audience was happy with an original song of mine I sang and just played guitar to and had José (of M4) on second guitar, but when we did a cover of 'Stand by me' that didn't go down nearly as well (because they expected the drums and bass etc on the record).
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[Loaded]

Or it was a s**t version

We've actually had the same with that song although I think the tumbleweed on our version was because it was under-rehearsed and the singer was off key!

I played 2 songs in a pub in Los Cris on guitar once, P***ed out my head I decided to do 2 songs - one of mine and a cover - the one of mine is really power poppy which didn't go down too well and the other was Live Forever by Oasis, one the guitar strings snapped half way through so I ripped it off and carried on - and they liked that one!

So I don't know what to think about my own music now!

[Loaded]

Didn't even realise I'd used an F-word- good job we're all adults eh.

[bardofely]

Johny, I haven't even heard your music but you have scored top marks from me for writing original songs and for having a bash against this crazy scene! I haven't forgotten the idea for an OWB gig late as it now is!
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[Loaded]

OWB doesnt' have to be in the summer does it? Plenty of time to do one without rushing.

[bardofely]

No, it can be whenever we can sort a date out!
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[princesswarrior]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your comments. I expected more or less what has been said.
HOWEVER, there are a few Live venues in the North which is where I used to live. Granted, not many tourists know of these places and probably wouldn't go due to their locations, ie; Tacoronte and La Laguna etc. I know the bands wouldn't have been paid very much as most were students making a bit of beer money while doing something they LOVED which is original material along with some covers. I remember seeing this small canarian guy who sang almost identically to BB KING!!, PLAYED THE GUITAR brilliantly AND COULD SING VERY WELL IN ENGLISH ALTHOUGH COULDN'T SPEAK IT MUCH lol, oooops caps are getting carried away with this topic!!.

Also there are a couple of local labels in Santa Cruz, one though is more or less for Latin/spanish artists ( Manzana/OYE )and the other one is more mixed but generally Spanish( Multitrack )

I understand about bar owners needing to make money, which is more of a reason to start something different as in a cool Live music venue, where people come because of THE MUSIC and general ambiance, not just " to get pissed!! ". That way being one of the ONLY bars/clubs to offer that would make it SUCCESSFUL. I'm sure locals as well as tourists would go and once word got round I'm sure it would/could take off.

I think Location is one of the most difficult things in order to get a good regular following and mix of clientele.

If I had the money I would definetly start something like that!!, maybe one day, who knows........................!!


ps,

where is everyone based over there?

[princesswarrior]

Oh yes, forgot to ask, aren't there a couple of Jazz bars with Live music somewhere in the South?. I remember reading a few years ago about Cleo Laine singing in one on the opening night?

[bardofely]

Hi Princess Warrior! Thanks for sharing some info here of interest to me. La Laguna is a place I love and stayed in the first 2 times I came to Tenerife and is on my list of places that I would strongly consider moving to at the end of August when I intend leaving where I now am in Costa del Silencio. BTW my good friend Priscilla Hernandez - www.yidneth.com -is a gifted singer/songwriter and she comes from La Laguna but has relocated to mainland Spain now. Before she went she was featured on several Spanish TV and radio stations here and in the Tenerife News paper. There are a couple of restaurant/bars down this way that offer various types of live music: Vai Moana at Las Galletas offers rock, jazz-funk, reggae, DJs and dance, and other types of performance, and las Brujas off the road between El Fraile and Guaza does regular nights of the same sort of thing plus they recently had a jam session. It is a great pity there are not a lot more venues willing to do this. As you'd know in the UK 'Open mic' and jam sessions are always popular and are common in most towns and cities so I don't see why you couldn't have more of these here. Most musicians are willing to play to get seen and for the joy of it and any money usually goes to the act that is hosting it.

I will have to track down that second label in Santa Cruz you mention so if you have any further details I would be very grateful. My reason is that I am in the process of recording some original songs with a couple of friends I have met here and we would like to try approaching a label. 2 of the songs are already on my Soundclick.com site.

I agree with you that it would be possible to run a proper live music venue here and the bars I mentioned above show there is a call for this sort of thing.
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