Double Decca live at the Rocket festival!

Bad Manners' late start and a strict running order meant we were robbed of their encore, sure to have included 'Lip Up Fatty'. So I included it in my set the next day - my first ever festival gig!

An hour and a half of ska, reggae and old soul at Radio Disturbo's marquee went down very well.

The crowd's favourites were, if I'm any judge, The Maytals' Just Tell Me, The Harry J Allstars' Liquidator, Booker T & the MGs' Soul Limbo (yes, the BBC2 cricket music), and of course, Nothing But a Heartache by the Flirtations.

Sincere thanks to music director Lorraine, Will the techie, Rocket organiser Marcus and of course to Elaine for all her support - and photography too!

Next year, we should do a full Soul Ska Shakedown - or a Mad Mods Party? - at the Rocket. The house, hip-hop and techno sessions are excellent, but everyone likes a change of style now and then... GG

Click to see our Rocket Festival photos

"For those of you who don't know, THIS is ska!"

Wearing fancy dress so scary that small children cried and ran away (nice one, Elaine) we saw ska legends Bad Manners live at the Rocket festival here in Andalucía.

Half a lifetime ago, I alone voted for Bad Manners as 'The Best Band of the Eighties' in a Trent Polytechnic student magazine poll at the end of 1989.

Predictably enough, all the posh southern students voted for miserable, introspective poets of one kind or another and The Smiths won the vote.

Well, The Smiths were great in their way but you wouldn't want to get stuck in a pub with any of them, would you? They couldn't party like Buster Bloodvessel and his mates. And where are The Smiths now, anyway?

Bad Manners are considered very silly, but they are in fact highly accomplished reggae musicians (they've been gigging more or less continuously since 1976) and it was a joy to see them live once again. GG

Click to see our Bad Manners photos

Shake it on down!

Since February Elaine and I have been busy, with our friends Vir, Oscar and Jesús, organising the Soul Ska Shakedown nights.

Playing everything from The Flirtations to The Freestylers, these parties in a basement bar have been a real success, with 100+ people coming along to each one and the bar twice selling out of beer.

Before continuing, my THANKS in big letters to:

- Elaine and Jesús, for the publicity work and encouragement which has made the Shakedowns possible.

- Oski, for giving me a break and letting me effectively complete my DJ training alongside him. Soulboy!

- All our friends and contacts here who have come along to - as a great man once said - 'shut up, listen, and dance' - especially Carolina, Michael, Florent, Adam, Sarah, Diego, José & Marzia from Pupa Tattoo, Isaac and Marta.

The Soul Ska night has its own website with sample tracks, videos and pics. Take a look and a lsiten, tell us what you think. What other tunes should we be playing? GG

And we hope to see you at...

"That's very un-PC"

'Un-PC'. How many times have you heard this hateful pseudo-word? And yet the opposite of 'PC' (politically correct) is clearly 'PI' (politically incorrect). I just thought I'd mention that.

We were recently taught an interesting phrase, which is apparently in common use: Tengo tanto hambre que comeria un gitano por los pies. In English this would be 'I'm so hungry, I'd eat a gypsy, feet first.'

Spain is, largely, a happy and positive place, welcoming to all and very relaxed, and so it can be difficult sometimes to see why these phrases (not to mention the more or less continuous swearing about virgins, whores and shitting) are so prevalent.

All very interesting for the language learner, though. Imagine: a country more sweary than the UK...

GG

Food glorious food

Blu Bar in Almuñecar is a fusion-food restaurant we literally stumbled into during a weekend at the seaside.

Delicious fruity salads, real Italian pasta, many veggie/vegan options including a set menu and the kind of wine where you want to steal the empty bottle afterwards so that you'll be able to find the exact same label again somewhere.

No crappy striplights here, either - the decor is colourful and made up of all sorts of recycled novelties and groovy artwork.

Highly recommended! GG

Blu Bar, c/ Alta del Mar, 10, Almuñecar, 18690 Granada
Telephone 958 634 530

¡Mejor en bici! / Better by bike!

Despite a lapse in the sunshine we had a fantastic day out on 17 February, cycling with new friends from the Granada Via Verde bike group.

Although Andalucia has seen too much road construction and the destruction of natural habitats in recent decades, many old country tracks and caminos do still exist - meaning that many beautiful places are easily discovered on foot or by bike.

We had a day out without cars (always a relief!) cycling through the rural areas of La Vega, Atarfe and Albolote to the lake at Cubillas where we ate our picnic lunch and found a bar for coffee.

The day with its grey skies reminded us a little of being in Derbyshire or Scotland - but then with the huge, snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada always visible in the distance, you know you're not in the UK anymore...

Our thanks to everyone in the group for inviting us along, putting up with our faltering Spanish and showing us some of the local countryside. (David tells us there are many, many more routes to explore this spring and summer!)

Our thanks also to Pilar for very welcome hot chocolate and pancakes at the end of the day. See the Granada Via Verde website for route details and photos.

Welcome visitors!

By good fortune we met Milan and his canine friend Mano (pronounced Mono) in the Albaicin quarter a couple of weeks ago. They're new arrivals in Granada and we were more than happy to have them over for a few days.

What kind of dog is Mano? It's anyone's guess! Mono in Spanish means 'monkey' and also 'cute'. ¡Que mono eres, Mano!

Amongst other things, Milan - originally from Hungary - is an accomplished photographer. That's his portrait of Mano, above. Here's more of his work. GG

When Techno DJ Jeff Mills came to town...

...We were there! Jeff is just such a good DJ. Techno at its very best... GG

Loose Change - the film that everyone is talking about

...and you can watch it right here.

Of course I'll do it - but who gets to play 'The Snake'?

Wow! A flyer accepted and a gig offered, both at once! On the strength of a 30-minute sample CD (track listing below) and some e-flyer ideas (final versions will be here soon) my alias Double Decca has been invited to play some tracks alongside Granada's DJ Oscar later this month, and to help publicise the gig.

I'm hoping that Jesús will play records, too - he was great last time - though we really need an all-nighter to do it justice. The bar usually closes at 4 am...

So, if you're here in Granada, please be there on 29th from midnight for the Soul Ska Shakedown Party - and bring your mates...

Friday, 29 February, Bar Aterriza Como Puedas, c/ Lavadero de las Tablas, 15 (off c/ Tablas). GG

That sample CD track listing:

Intro: The Double Deckers TV theme
The Specials: Do the Dog (Double Decca extended mix feat. Brian Dog)
The Ballistic Brothers: Peckings
The Jamaicans: Ba-Ba-Boom Time
Mr Bloe: Groovin' with Mr Bloe (Greg Wilson remix)
Madness: Sorry (Diesel Tribe house remix)
Diana Ross: Love Hangover
Melba Moore: Magic Touch
The Soul Leaders: Mother's Advice/Shoparound
Musical Youth: Rockers
Tony Clarke: Landslide
Outro: Madness: The Prince (instrumental)/The Double Deckers TV theme

We're not blocking the traffic - we ARE traffic

Fancy dress at last! Elaine was an angel and having already been a sailor (July 2007) I was a pirate for our first ever fancy-dress Critical Mass bike ride in Granada on 1 February.

Unlike Barcelona, Granada is poorly-equipped for bikes - and this is a shame, because in this small, compact, and mostly flat city, bikes should be the first choice for everyone. They used to be: we've seen the photos of the streets in the 1920s.

But, like almost everywhere else in Europe (the UK included), the car remains king. To make things worse, here in Andalucia motorists can do whatever they want with total impunity. The police do nothing to stop them speeding along narrow streets, driving while using mobile phones, parking in bus bays, on pavements, on zebra crossings...

The Masa Critica is a monthly mobile party, to demonstrate the efficiency and usefulness of the true vehicle of the future: the bike. The city's pedestrians were very supportive (especially kids, who love bikes, and older people, who remember a time when cars were rarer and streets were safer).

Even many of the drivers, sitting in their plastic seats, going nowhere at all in the nightly traffic jam, showed their support as we zipped past them: one wonders how much longer they can tolerate the boring, dangerous nightmare they have helped to create.

Here in Granada there really are no excuses: one can easily cycle from one end of the city to the other in 30 minutes, and there are frequent urban and inter-urban buses to everywhere else.

And in fact in Granada - as in the UK - there are already more bikes than cars. It's time to bring them out of the garages and off the balconies and onto the streets!

More video (spot Elaine's angel wings!), pics and information (in Spanish) at Granada Via Verde. GG

"I just want to hear something I haven't heard before"

And so John Peel wins our first blog poll, with 35 per cent of the votes. We agree: he must have been an excellent dinner guest.

We're sure you'll agree that the world would be a better place if there were more men in it like John and the others in our poll.

If you don't know who John was and is, the BBC can help you.

Our new poll (see right) gives you a chance to vote for the worst song of all time.

Poll 1 results
Which of these true leaders of men would you choose to invite to dinner at your house?

1. John Peel (35%)
2. David Atenborough (30%)
3. Michael Palin (15%)
=4. Rolf Harris (10%)
=4. Spike Milligan (10%)

GG