Catalunya's 'Elvis' comes to London!

Many of you may know that I am an avid fan of Catalan Rumba (to be distinguished from Rumba found in say, Cuba or the Congo). A derivation (some purists would argue, bastardization of) Flamenco, it is the dance music of the Catalan gypsies.

You will know The Gypsy Kings - they are Catalan Gypsies but are also French, and the music is very different in many ways but still it has the essential element of the 'ventilador'...the rhythm, melody and percussion provided by the guitar.

Peret is the most popular Rumba singer for Catalans and his career goes back to the 60's; actually he is credited with inventing Catalan Rumba. Many of the musicians who make up Patriarcas de La Rumba were in Peret's 'band'.

I am very excited that Peret is coming to London (with La Troba Kung Fu - another Barcelona based Catalan Rumba act - I will be interviewing him so stay tuned for a link to the feature article.

Long time no blog

Oh Dear. It seems my intentions of having a nice up to date blog here, bringing you the best news and views of worldy music just hasn't happened. This is in the main due to personal committments and various heartbreaks.

I promise to get on it soon.

Interviews pending include Koby Israelite, Tim Smolens (Estradasphere), Little Sparta, Devotchka, and Rupa and the April Fishes. And I may even get to a festival or two this year. We will see...stay tuned.

Entering the world of blogs

I have been resisting this, what with having to manage all my social network accounts and podcast, but here I am trying to tie in at least my podcast with some more news and views on the music I play.

Today I am still recovering from the Romanian homebrew that I naively ingested at the Fanfare Ciocarlia gig in London on the 29 Jan. Great gig in a very small venue - a wonderful treat. You can read my article about them here.

And still on the Balkan subject (as usual) Shantel is coming to London on 20 February which should be interesting. I am not 100% convinced musically speaking...there are a couple of potential Eurovision contenders on Disko Partizani, and if you read my interview with the man, how he describes his music may not be what he is producing...that's my opinion the more I think about it. But it should be a fun gig anyway.

I suppose I should do some more self-promotion as say BalkanBeats London starts up again on Saturday 16 February, and every 3rd Sat thereafter at the Buffalo Bar at Highbury&Islington. Look for us on Facebook as well!

Ok. Enough of that. Next time I'll bring you a bit of Gerry Mitchell and Little Sparta...