'The Boss' or Boss Sounds? You decide...

'All Reggae to the People' featuring the Aggrolites was truly an excellent night out - we danced our asses off for 5 hours solid. The four bands played fast, energetic versions of famous ska numbers like The Wailers' Shame & Scandal and Symarip's Skinhead Moonstomp as well as all their own new songs.

And what a friendly, well-dressed crowd! Lots of rudeboy / rudegirl style and black-and-white gear, lots of mods and punkis. Sala El Tren (The Train club) is an excellent venue, too: no problems there with the sound system (guys at Afrodisia please take note and get some decent speaker cable...)

The Aggrolites have toured with Madness, and seeing them here was (so I imagine) like being in Camden's Hope and Anchor to see Madness in 1979: "Even the walls were sweating", etc.

Outside in the street there was a street party before and after the gig: kids in camper vans with the original 1979/1980 albums by Madness and The Specials playing loudly into the night. Nice.

PS: On our way home, our taxi driver explained that "reggae is for young people" and told us that he preferred Bruce Springsteen and Dire Straits. Here the conversation faltered, though I did find out that our driver was just two years older than I am. Luckily for everyone, he didn't put on a tape of El Boss for us to make a comparison. None is possible. These days I have a much more eclectic taste in music, but I still reckon that ska rules and Dire Straits really sucks. GG

Censorship returns to Spain

As a young boy I was an huge fan of Krazy Comic and Monster Fun (and no, NOT the Beano or the Dandy: why do people always say that? Do they even remember the 1970s?).

But these titles and many more were sadly merged into oblivion, and ever since the mid-1980s there's been a hole in my life.

That hole has now been filled by El Jueves, the Spanish satirical magazine which for 30 years has poked fun at the establishment. Somewhere between both Viz and Private Eye, but in fact much better than either, El Jueves has a genuinely political outlook: 'the news you never see on TV' is one feature.

It's great for language learning and extremely funny, and I now look forward to El Jueves with the same anticipation that, back in the day, I used to reserve for the 32-page comic high that was Whizzer and Chips.

In June 2007 a front cover of El Jueves showed another hole being filled: a cartoon of Spain's crown prince Felipe having sex with his wife, Letizia, and commenting on the long-awaited socialist law which gives new parents one-off grants ('baby cheques') to help them provide for their new babies.

“Do you realise that if you end up pregnant,” Felipe says to Letizia, who is kneeling on the bed in front of him, “this will be the nearest thing to work I've ever done in my life.”

This was all too much for Spain's ruling class. A judge ordered the police to confiscate all copies of the popular revista (it was reissued with a different cover) and the two cartoonists were charged with 'insulting the honour of the royal family'. In November 2007, they were fined 6000 euros for this 'crime'.

In few other places in earth is a royal afforded such protection, and this is the first time in 20 years that the law has been used to censor a magazine. Even the traditionally conservative Spanish press came out in favour of the cartoonists and their right to free speech.

So here's the offending front cover for all to see, and I would remind the reader that the only person who ever voted for the royal family here in Spain was Franco.

As elsewhere in Europe, the royals here exist on borrowed time, and don't they know it. Many a true word is spoken in jest, and to its cost El Jueves has hit the nail right on the head.

PS: Check your attic: I will pay real money for a copy of the Whizzer and Chips comic from Spring 1979 that has my joke printed on the letters page... GG

Does the DJ matter?

I met British DJ Hugo Mendez recently. He was here in Granada for a night, playing his mix of funky latino, samba and old reggae tunes in the Afrodisia bar: not so much a nightclub, more a room to jump around in with a bar along one side. A nice place, with a friendly local crowd. Hugo’s tunes went down well.

The only problem was the sound system. It was rubbish.

While chatting at the bar, I noticed that whenever there was any hint of bass in the music, the sound ‘dropped out’. So one minute you’re expecting a beat to start up, and the next, you’re listening to a flat, tinny sound at about half volume - like listening through a wall to a transistor radio playing in your neighbour’s bathroom. (If you’ve ever had a rubbish ‘midi’ stereo or a broken speaker, you’ll know all about this).

I found it weird that no one else seemed concerned. Indeed, everyone else was dancing. Was I going deaf?

Well, no. I went over to the DJ cabin to say hello. Hugo was having a hard time. ‘There’s no bass,’ he explained. ‘If turn up the EQ, the sound drops right out.’ I reassured him that he was picking good tunes (he was) and that nobody else was aware of a problem. But how could this be? How could a whole room full of people (except Hugo and I) not notice that the music was missing half its content? Was everyone really that drunk?

And the real question is: does this bode well for me? On the one hand, I’m no sound engineer but I correctly identified the problem straight away. On the other hand, I’m hoping to hone my skills here, playing choice old soul and ska to discerning groovers. I’ve got the Mac and the Ableton Live and a host of add-ons and, more importantly, my own ideas. But if the crowd will go mad for anything, surely all I have to do is put on an old tape of the Skatalties and everyone will love it anyway. How will I know if I’m any good?

And this reminds me that when I lived in Barcelona I witnessed folk dancing to all kinds of unlikely things: two overlapping radio stations played loudly through a car stereo, a man banging a beer bottle off a wooden stage during a power cut, people clapping their hands…

And so, here in Granada, does the DJ matter? GG