Update of 13 January: Since writing this article, which was based to an extent on press information from Cursach, I have received further information from the Ibiza Rocks (Mallorca Rocks) group which seeks to clarify inaccuracies, which I am more than happy to do. The agreement between Ibiza Rocks and Palladium in respect of Mallorca Rocks expires after this year's season, so a new agreement will be in place as from 2015. This is the one which involves Cursach taking on the management of the four hotels. Mallorca Rocks, the brand, will not be a part of this new arrangement. My understanding is that options are being considered for maintaining the Mallorca Rocks brand in Magalluf at a different location to the current one. So, the implication in this article that there will be a coming-together of Mallorca Rocks and Cursach (BCM) is inaccurate, and I am pleased to set the record straight.
The hotel business is not a straightforward matter when it comes to who does what. We may see the name of a hotel chain shining into a night sky, but behind the neon, the logo and the brand there are invariably other businesses involved, while the appearance of a hotel chain's name isn't always an indication of ownership.
The move towards hotel theming and branding makes the who-does-what equation rather more complicated than it used to be. Brands, if they aren't specifically hotel ones, don't necessarily want to be involved in hotel day-to-day. Indeed, they may not want to be involved at all, other than to be informed as to how much they are getting by way of royalties and commissions. Brands can have "hotel operations", but these are not managerial operations; they are purely strategic and financial.
A brand which does have day-to-day involvement is Mallorca Rocks (or Ibiza Rocks). It has to. Its holiday offer isn't conventional, given that it is predicated on live music and all that goes with it. Be it customer service, marketing or pandering to the needs of a chart-topping pop or rock act, it is essential that the organisation has control and involvement. But Mallorca Rocks doesn't own the Mallorca Rocks hotel. Ultimately, the ownership lies, through the Palladium Hotel Group, with GEM, Grupo Empresas Matutes. Palladium was, until the end of 2012, known as the Fiesta Hotel Group. Name change notwithstanding, its principal owner is Abel Matutes, a one-time minister for foreign affairs with the Spanish Government.
Palladium, an Ibiza-based operation and not a Mallorcan one, had announced towards the end of last year that it intended to rent out Mallorca Rocks. It was said at the time that the company which would be doing the renting, the Dutch investment firm Evertaas, would take on the management. In fact, there will be another company which will be doing the managing. It is Cursach. Yes, that Cursach, which, among other things, owns the BCM club in Magalluf.
A year before Palladium made the announcement about Evertaas' involvement, Cursach had gone public about its interest in having the BCM brand name used for a theme hotel in Magalluf. It said that this wouldn't just be a branding exercise; it would want management involvement. In considering this, I suggested that the move would make a great deal of sense for BCM and for Magalluf and that it was an understandable move in light of the tourism law which permitted secondary activities, such as concerts and clubs open to the general public, in hotel grounds. It appears that I was pretty much spot-on; Cursach is citing the tourism law as a reason for it now realising its interest in hotel management.
There is an irony in all this, though. It is no secret that Cursach opposed the concerts at Mallorca Rocks. But there is a further irony in that it was the support for the concerts offered by the then Calvia mayor Carlos Delgado, something which brought forth all manner of complaints channelled via the tourist businesses association Acotur, which acted as a template for the provisions for hotel secondary activities in the tourism law that Delgado was to draw up once he became tourism minister. Mallorca Rocks, revolutionary in many ways, was, without necessarily knowing that it was, the secondary-activities pilot scheme in Mallorca, the Ibiza Rocks hotel having trialled the secondary-activities scheme some time before.
It is remarkable, given the fuss about Mallorca Rocks, that Cursach should now end up managing it. But in so doing, it will create a mega youth brand that combines Mallorca Rocks and BCM, while at the same time keeping them distinct. It sounds like very good business, and there is more to it. There won't be just one hotel. There will be four. Mallorca Rocks, Tropical, Sahara and Magamar, and they will form one complex with over 1,000 rooms, one for which an upgrade to four-star is envisaged and which will have all manner of attractions for the much-hyped "Millennials" age group.
But where, you might be wondering, does this leave Evertaas? Very much in the thick of things. It is an investment company, one that invests in real estate. It, one has to conclude, is going to be the prime mover behind the financing of the changes that Cursach plans. And it has form in this regard in Magalluf. Though it has been reported that there is a fair amount of British money sloshing around in Magalluf (rightly so, as there is), Evertaas is the front organisation for a good deal of the investment that Meliá Hotels has been pumping into Magalluf.
So, as you can see, things aren't straightforward when it comes to who does what. But then, the hotel business isn't straightforward. Not nowadays anyway. It is the melding of brands, hotel chains, investors, management companies to meet the demands of new market segments and enhancements to the overall holiday experience. And Magalluf demonstrates this as well as anywhere. The Cursach move is intriguing and potentially a very good one.
Showing posts with label Mallorca Rocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mallorca Rocks. Show all posts
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Make Some Noise!
"If you come from Manchester, make some noise! If you come from Liverpool, make some noise! If you come from London, make some noise!" Whether it was Westwood, Trevor Nelson or P-Money, it didn't make any difference. Make some noise! The rallying cry of club time. "If you love Magalluf, make some noise! If you're having a great holiday, make some noise! If you're loving the heat, make some noise!"
Noise. Where would be without it? In some sleepy little village in the island's hinterland probably, surrounded only by the rustling of the bougainvillaea. There again, there would be a damn great Canadair suddenly looming into sound, preparing to dump its watery payload on the latest work of destruction by a pyromaniac, or a group of protesters demonstrating against the Castellano imposition, taking to the nearest dusty lane and smashing the pots and pans of a cacerolada. Or, and even in the sleepiest of villages, there would be the fiesta party, enough noise to waken the dead and unleash the demons with their whirling, fire-cracking tridents.
There is noise and there is noise. The natural Mallorcan noise is that of the Mallorcans themselves. When I first trod the boards as a teenager, my drama teacher took me to a courtyard, made me stand on one side while he was on the other. Pro-ject, he demanded. There is a difference between shouting and projecting, but the Mallorcans have been schooled in what is neither. It is a natural form of communication, known simply as loud.
Noise, you fancy therefore, begets more noise. From the natural state of noise, the addition of the unnatural registers far less than when the natural state is for quiet or for less noise. This unnaturalness is crucial to a Mallorcan summer (and sometimes a Mallorcan winter as well). Fiestas, parties, the endless stream of motos, grunting along the roads, the endless stream of traffic full stop. But rarely is it the case that whole groups of people are cajoled into making some noise, lots of it, over and over again.
The ceaseless, repetitious enjoinment of the audience at the Radio 1Xtra gig at Mallorca Rocks to make some noise on Saturday evening was like the whipping-up of troops into a frenzy prior to battle. The sheer relentlessness of the command was a mesmeric imperative amidst the mesmerism of the constant thump of music.
Make some noise. Away from Magalluf and a couple of hours later, there is noise. It comes from a villa that has been rented out. It is not from the apartment opposite where the Polish workers had been making some noise, a great deal of it, until three the previous morning, culminating in the smashing of bottles as they were discarded in the bottle bank. This hadn't been a noise of which I had been aware, thankfully because it was directed towards the sea and was blocked by the building itself. The villa's noise, though, was heading south and so in the other direction.
There is some noise, some music you can put up with, but seriously, Phil Collins? At gone two in the morning? And to make matters far worse, Phil Collins singing in Spanish. This affront to any possible definition of common courtesy and consideration required action. Make some noise? I did. It wasn't projecting, it was shouting. But I couldn't be heard. Not even by shouting through the open window through which the one-time Genesis drummer was singing his Spanish lament of one more night. One more night of making noise. Una noche más. De ruido. Though why the Germans in the villa had Phil in Spanish, I've no idea.
I don't really hold with this business of resorting to calling the cops, but I was willing to make an exception, thanks to Phil Collins. Plod was on the scene swiftly, but by the time they arrived, the windows had been closed, noise was not being made. I suspected a tip-off had been given by the Poles opposite in a rare moment of fraternity across the Oder-Neisse Line of the road.
It is quite possible that on Saturday night Mallorca registered its highest ever levels of noise. If it didn't, it wasn't for lack of trying. But then noise, and a great deal of it, is inevitable. Noise is summer, summer is noise. Restrictions on building work, sound limiters, terrace curfews. They may all have been designed to cut the noise, but there are always other noises to step up to the plate and replace them.
Make some noise? Easy, no problem, and it doesn't really need a DJ to command it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Noise. Where would be without it? In some sleepy little village in the island's hinterland probably, surrounded only by the rustling of the bougainvillaea. There again, there would be a damn great Canadair suddenly looming into sound, preparing to dump its watery payload on the latest work of destruction by a pyromaniac, or a group of protesters demonstrating against the Castellano imposition, taking to the nearest dusty lane and smashing the pots and pans of a cacerolada. Or, and even in the sleepiest of villages, there would be the fiesta party, enough noise to waken the dead and unleash the demons with their whirling, fire-cracking tridents.
There is noise and there is noise. The natural Mallorcan noise is that of the Mallorcans themselves. When I first trod the boards as a teenager, my drama teacher took me to a courtyard, made me stand on one side while he was on the other. Pro-ject, he demanded. There is a difference between shouting and projecting, but the Mallorcans have been schooled in what is neither. It is a natural form of communication, known simply as loud.
Noise, you fancy therefore, begets more noise. From the natural state of noise, the addition of the unnatural registers far less than when the natural state is for quiet or for less noise. This unnaturalness is crucial to a Mallorcan summer (and sometimes a Mallorcan winter as well). Fiestas, parties, the endless stream of motos, grunting along the roads, the endless stream of traffic full stop. But rarely is it the case that whole groups of people are cajoled into making some noise, lots of it, over and over again.
The ceaseless, repetitious enjoinment of the audience at the Radio 1Xtra gig at Mallorca Rocks to make some noise on Saturday evening was like the whipping-up of troops into a frenzy prior to battle. The sheer relentlessness of the command was a mesmeric imperative amidst the mesmerism of the constant thump of music.
Make some noise. Away from Magalluf and a couple of hours later, there is noise. It comes from a villa that has been rented out. It is not from the apartment opposite where the Polish workers had been making some noise, a great deal of it, until three the previous morning, culminating in the smashing of bottles as they were discarded in the bottle bank. This hadn't been a noise of which I had been aware, thankfully because it was directed towards the sea and was blocked by the building itself. The villa's noise, though, was heading south and so in the other direction.
There is some noise, some music you can put up with, but seriously, Phil Collins? At gone two in the morning? And to make matters far worse, Phil Collins singing in Spanish. This affront to any possible definition of common courtesy and consideration required action. Make some noise? I did. It wasn't projecting, it was shouting. But I couldn't be heard. Not even by shouting through the open window through which the one-time Genesis drummer was singing his Spanish lament of one more night. One more night of making noise. Una noche más. De ruido. Though why the Germans in the villa had Phil in Spanish, I've no idea.
I don't really hold with this business of resorting to calling the cops, but I was willing to make an exception, thanks to Phil Collins. Plod was on the scene swiftly, but by the time they arrived, the windows had been closed, noise was not being made. I suspected a tip-off had been given by the Poles opposite in a rare moment of fraternity across the Oder-Neisse Line of the road.
It is quite possible that on Saturday night Mallorca registered its highest ever levels of noise. If it didn't, it wasn't for lack of trying. But then noise, and a great deal of it, is inevitable. Noise is summer, summer is noise. Restrictions on building work, sound limiters, terrace curfews. They may all have been designed to cut the noise, but there are always other noises to step up to the plate and replace them.
Make some noise? Easy, no problem, and it doesn't really need a DJ to command it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, March 16, 2012
I Feel So Extraordinary: New Order in Mallorca
In the back half of 1980 and into 1981, I was not infrequently in Manchester. There were two distinct groups of people I knew. One was centred on the Virgin Megastore in the city. The girlfriend of a very good friend who worked there was the subject of The Freshies (aka Frank Sidebottom) single, "I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout". Her name was Valerie, if you must know. The other group was based near Moss Side and frequented cramped flats where they sat around and looked generally miserable.
These two groups represented different styles in Manchester at the time. One was decidedly upbeat, the other utterly morose. Though both were heavily influenced by the Manchester music of the time, the livelier Virgin crowd found Joy Division somewhat, well, morose. The moroseness of the Moss Side contingent, for whom Joy Division had become spiritual leaders, was confirmed and internalised even more when Ian Curtis committed suicide.
The Manchester of the time was a downtrodden place. Around somewhere like Piccadilly station were roads of almost derelict buildings, interspersed by shops that were all but boarded up but which somehow operated. Joy Division, in some ways, symbolised the depression of the city. It was claimed, and still is, that the band weren't as depressing as all that, but Curtis' suicide, though nothing to do with the state of the city, seemed sadly apt.
The point about these two groups of people is that they eventually came together. From the roots of Joy Division's morbid music came New Order. To have believed that Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris would have gone on to be at the vanguard of Manchester and British dance music would have seemed impossible. But this is exactly what happened. The morose crowd, or at least its successor, threw off its introspection and sullenness, discovered ecstasy and formed a Manchester united around New Order and then the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. This united Manchester managed to lose its depressing demeanour. From within its youth sub-culture, it was reborn - physically, psychologically and socially.
The transformation of New Order and their elevation to the status of dance champions was unlikely, as the members of the group were so very ordinary both as people and as musicians. A make-do punk mentality of never quite mastering their instruments (and voice in the case of Bernard Sumner) seemed to remain even when they were at the height of their popularity and achievement. It was this undercurrent of amateurishness that made them so endearing. They combined the simplicity and unpretentiousness of a punk background with technology and dance rhythms and made some of the best music in the history of popular British culture.
New Order's return to Ibiza and their appearance at Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks in September this year have revived the memories of the role that Ibiza and the Balearic dance sound had on the group. In truth, the dance influences were numerous and had kicked in before the release of "Blue Monday" in 1983, well before Ibiza. It is fair to say, though, that the Ibiza effect and how it affected the group helped to propel the Balearic dance sound into the mainstream of British music culture, though it is also fair to say that the process was already underway.
The band was at its peak into the first part of the 1990s. A run that started with "World In Motion" and went through "Regret", "The Price of Love" and the re-issues of "True Faith" and (for the third time) "Blue Monday" couldn't be maintained. The band, though, has never ceased to be, despite what Peter Hook claimed when he had his falling-out and quit. It's not the New Order of 1982 or 1992, but the 2012 model will still be looked forward to with enormous anticipation, Mallorca Rocks having pulled off another coup in engaging them for this season's series of concerts.
The band has never ceased to be and has never ceased to be hugely influential. It was an influence that went beyond their own music and contributed to a change in culture in a wider musical context and in their home city. An extraordinary group and extraordinary as they seemed so ordinary.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
These two groups represented different styles in Manchester at the time. One was decidedly upbeat, the other utterly morose. Though both were heavily influenced by the Manchester music of the time, the livelier Virgin crowd found Joy Division somewhat, well, morose. The moroseness of the Moss Side contingent, for whom Joy Division had become spiritual leaders, was confirmed and internalised even more when Ian Curtis committed suicide.
The Manchester of the time was a downtrodden place. Around somewhere like Piccadilly station were roads of almost derelict buildings, interspersed by shops that were all but boarded up but which somehow operated. Joy Division, in some ways, symbolised the depression of the city. It was claimed, and still is, that the band weren't as depressing as all that, but Curtis' suicide, though nothing to do with the state of the city, seemed sadly apt.
The point about these two groups of people is that they eventually came together. From the roots of Joy Division's morbid music came New Order. To have believed that Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris would have gone on to be at the vanguard of Manchester and British dance music would have seemed impossible. But this is exactly what happened. The morose crowd, or at least its successor, threw off its introspection and sullenness, discovered ecstasy and formed a Manchester united around New Order and then the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. This united Manchester managed to lose its depressing demeanour. From within its youth sub-culture, it was reborn - physically, psychologically and socially.
The transformation of New Order and their elevation to the status of dance champions was unlikely, as the members of the group were so very ordinary both as people and as musicians. A make-do punk mentality of never quite mastering their instruments (and voice in the case of Bernard Sumner) seemed to remain even when they were at the height of their popularity and achievement. It was this undercurrent of amateurishness that made them so endearing. They combined the simplicity and unpretentiousness of a punk background with technology and dance rhythms and made some of the best music in the history of popular British culture.
New Order's return to Ibiza and their appearance at Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks in September this year have revived the memories of the role that Ibiza and the Balearic dance sound had on the group. In truth, the dance influences were numerous and had kicked in before the release of "Blue Monday" in 1983, well before Ibiza. It is fair to say, though, that the Ibiza effect and how it affected the group helped to propel the Balearic dance sound into the mainstream of British music culture, though it is also fair to say that the process was already underway.
The band was at its peak into the first part of the 1990s. A run that started with "World In Motion" and went through "Regret", "The Price of Love" and the re-issues of "True Faith" and (for the third time) "Blue Monday" couldn't be maintained. The band, though, has never ceased to be, despite what Peter Hook claimed when he had his falling-out and quit. It's not the New Order of 1982 or 1992, but the 2012 model will still be looked forward to with enormous anticipation, Mallorca Rocks having pulled off another coup in engaging them for this season's series of concerts.
The band has never ceased to be and has never ceased to be hugely influential. It was an influence that went beyond their own music and contributed to a change in culture in a wider musical context and in their home city. An extraordinary group and extraordinary as they seemed so ordinary.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, March 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - New Order head Mallorca Rocks line-up
It was Ibiza that was the making of New Order and all these years later, the band is back in Ibiza and in Mallorca this summer. They will be appearing at Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks on 11 September. The season of concerts starts with Ed Sheeran on 5 June. Other acts so far confirmed: Maverick Sabre and Labrinth (12 June); Kaiser Chiefs (26 June); Kasabian (10 July); Professor Green (17 July); Chase & Status (31 July); Tinie Tempah (14 August); Example (28 August); Bloc Party (4 September); Two Door Cinema Club (18 September).
For more information: Mallorca Rocks
For more information: Mallorca Rocks
Friday, March 02, 2012
Murder On The Dance Floor
"You better not steal the moves, DJ, gonna burn this God damn house right down." Well, let's not get carried away. There will be no murder and no burning of houses down, but stealing of moves, DJ? Sort of, yes.
Sophie Ellis Bextor would be rather passé now for the dance floors, streets or terraces of Magalluf, but Pitbull or Jessie J would not be. Indeed, they aren't. They are just two artists who could be on their way this coming summer to Magalluf, where dancing will be on terraces and streets as well as on floors.
There won't be stealing of moves so much as competitive moves, and these moves - dance and others - are going to come about largely as a result of Mallorca Rocks.
You may recall there having been a spot of bother surrounding Mallorca Rocks. The association representing tourist business, Acotur, was threatening various actions against the hotel and especially against Calvià town hall because of questions over whether the hotel was licensed to stage its music concerts. The threats went away when the regional government's tourism ministry discovered that it was able to grant the required licence when it had previously said that it was unable to.
Mallorca Rocks has been highly successful. The hotel itself has enjoyed pretty much full occupancy and the concerts have been well patronised. The success, due in no small part to a concert schedule replete with British dance acts, has not gone unnoticed. Other businesses were unhappy about this success, but they were ultimately unable to prevent it. So rather than try to beat it, they are going to join it, and then try and beat it.
Everyone knew which businesses were behind the opposition to Mallorca Rocks that was channelled through Acotur. If they didn't, they would now have a pretty good idea, as BCM plans staging up to nine concerts of its own in its "square", and Pitbull and Jessie J are a couple of the acts being talked about as possibles.
Objections to Mallorca Rocks were couched in technical terms, as with the correct licence and on health and safety grounds, but at the heart of the objections was the competition that the hotel brought. The director of Grupo Cursach, of which BCM is a part, has said that the concerts will be in response to hotels which have "changed the balance" in Magalluf.
Mallorca Rocks did change the balance, because it introduced new competition. There were certainly question marks over whether the hotel should have been staging what are "secondary activities", but these activities are going to be sanctioned once and for all in the government's new tourism law. There will be no more question marks, and their removal opens the way up to not just a more competitive market but also to the making of Magalluf as far, far more of a club and dance resort than it has been.
BCM isn't the only operation planning on or considering concerts or DJ events. Another hotel chain, Marina, has converted its Barracuda hotel into a themed party hotel, even going so far as to re-do its rooms in a "fun" style and with singles (young singles) in mind. DJ events are on the cards for this year. Meliá's rebranded Sol Wave House, which features two surf wave machines from Wave House, is also likely to stage concerts.
Mallorca Rocks may have upset some businesses, but by changing the balance it has created competition that is now fighting back, and in so doing the resort is going to catch a wave of a new explosion in popularity. It will be a popularity that doubtless some will scorn, as it is youthful popularity, but it is popularity nonetheless that other resorts would be only too delighted to share.
Magalluf, for all its at-times bad reputation, represents a changing face of Mallorca, one that is following more of an Ibiza line, which is ironic as Ibiza has sought to shed its party reputation. Murder on the dance floor there will not be. It's going to be altogether happier than this, but one thing is for sure, there is going to also be some intense competition. If this means more concerts and bigger names, it can only be positive. The God damn house is going to be burned down right enough.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sophie Ellis Bextor would be rather passé now for the dance floors, streets or terraces of Magalluf, but Pitbull or Jessie J would not be. Indeed, they aren't. They are just two artists who could be on their way this coming summer to Magalluf, where dancing will be on terraces and streets as well as on floors.
There won't be stealing of moves so much as competitive moves, and these moves - dance and others - are going to come about largely as a result of Mallorca Rocks.
You may recall there having been a spot of bother surrounding Mallorca Rocks. The association representing tourist business, Acotur, was threatening various actions against the hotel and especially against Calvià town hall because of questions over whether the hotel was licensed to stage its music concerts. The threats went away when the regional government's tourism ministry discovered that it was able to grant the required licence when it had previously said that it was unable to.
Mallorca Rocks has been highly successful. The hotel itself has enjoyed pretty much full occupancy and the concerts have been well patronised. The success, due in no small part to a concert schedule replete with British dance acts, has not gone unnoticed. Other businesses were unhappy about this success, but they were ultimately unable to prevent it. So rather than try to beat it, they are going to join it, and then try and beat it.
Everyone knew which businesses were behind the opposition to Mallorca Rocks that was channelled through Acotur. If they didn't, they would now have a pretty good idea, as BCM plans staging up to nine concerts of its own in its "square", and Pitbull and Jessie J are a couple of the acts being talked about as possibles.
Objections to Mallorca Rocks were couched in technical terms, as with the correct licence and on health and safety grounds, but at the heart of the objections was the competition that the hotel brought. The director of Grupo Cursach, of which BCM is a part, has said that the concerts will be in response to hotels which have "changed the balance" in Magalluf.
Mallorca Rocks did change the balance, because it introduced new competition. There were certainly question marks over whether the hotel should have been staging what are "secondary activities", but these activities are going to be sanctioned once and for all in the government's new tourism law. There will be no more question marks, and their removal opens the way up to not just a more competitive market but also to the making of Magalluf as far, far more of a club and dance resort than it has been.
BCM isn't the only operation planning on or considering concerts or DJ events. Another hotel chain, Marina, has converted its Barracuda hotel into a themed party hotel, even going so far as to re-do its rooms in a "fun" style and with singles (young singles) in mind. DJ events are on the cards for this year. Meliá's rebranded Sol Wave House, which features two surf wave machines from Wave House, is also likely to stage concerts.
Mallorca Rocks may have upset some businesses, but by changing the balance it has created competition that is now fighting back, and in so doing the resort is going to catch a wave of a new explosion in popularity. It will be a popularity that doubtless some will scorn, as it is youthful popularity, but it is popularity nonetheless that other resorts would be only too delighted to share.
Magalluf, for all its at-times bad reputation, represents a changing face of Mallorca, one that is following more of an Ibiza line, which is ironic as Ibiza has sought to shed its party reputation. Murder on the dance floor there will not be. It's going to be altogether happier than this, but one thing is for sure, there is going to also be some intense competition. If this means more concerts and bigger names, it can only be positive. The God damn house is going to be burned down right enough.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
The Return Of The Los Palmas 7: Madness in Mallorca
It's odd that a quintessentially English group like Madness should attract interest from the natives. But they do. Probably because they are a "name", a known act to the Spanish, unlike many of the British artists who have been playing Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks this summer. The Spanish will be out in force as much as the Brits.
The nutty boys are playing Mallorca Rocks on Tuesday, the penultimate gig of a season that at one point had looked as though it might have been scuppered by legal challenges to the Fiesta hotel venue. To the rescue, finally, came the tourism ministry which discovered that it could grant the necessary permissions where before it had said it couldn't. If there was something, how can one put it, convenient about the decision taken by new tourism minister Carlos Delgado who, as mayor of Calvia, had previously given the hotel the initial go-ahead, then let's be thankful for convenience.
The opposition to Mallorca Rocks was petty. Despite its having been led by the tourist businesses association Acotur, no one was in any doubt as to where the inspiration for the opposition was coming from. A bit of competition should have hurt no one. Indeed, the arrival of Mallorca Rocks should have been applauded by everyone, competitors included (even those who hadn't thought of doing something similar), in boosting Magalluf and Mallorca's reputation.
So much for the political background, and back to Madness. Their appearance, more so than Norman Cook earlier in the summer, gives the Mallorca Rocks season a seal of internationally recognised approval; hence the interest shown among the Spanish. It's good that they are playing, but I shan't be going. It's not that middle-aged men shouldn't still be performing, it's just that this is the same Madness of some thirty years ago, when they were mad.
Attending a Madness gig back in the day was not something you did without some thought and trepidation if you happened not to be a skinhead. The group's appearance and their embracing of ska and bluebeat made them the darlings of the boys with no hair and Dr. Martens. There was also a concern that the group themselves were politically far from correct, a reputation at the time that they initially did little to deflect and which also brought them into conflict with The Specials.
Though there was a commonality with the music, Madness's short involvement with The Specials' 2 Tone label seemed incongruous. The Specials, as with others on the label, The Selecter and The Beat, were fiercely anti-racist. With Madness, you weren't quite sure, and the National Front association they acquired, almost totally because of skins who were part of the NF and who turned up at their gigs, made you distinctly wary. It was only when they disassociated themselves from the skinhead movement and also moved away from the ska roots that they shook off the reputation.
The other incongruity between Madness and 2 Tone was that Madness, despite their tribute to Prince Buster which launched them on 2 Tone, were very "London". Their music, or rather their style, came to reflect this and it was, to some extent, a continuation of the London pub scene of the seventies, of Eddie And The Hot Rods, Dr. Feelgood and more obviously Kilburn And The High Roads (and later Ian Dury And The Blockheads).
The mainstays of 2 Tone were all Midlands-based, and even one group that wasn't part of 2 Tone but which formed at the same time and had its own reggae and multi-ethnic mix, UB40, was from Birmingham. And Madness weren't multi-ethnic. They were uniformly white, and their musical direction steered them towards a very white, very English sound and towards very English lyrics, when lyrics were actually used. One of their best "songs" was not a song at all, but the instrumental "Return Of The Los Palmas 7", a weirdly infectious ballroom-lounge tune that could just as easily have been put out some years before by The Bonzo Dog Band in one of their saner moments.
Madness were always a cracking band and a cracking live act. They churned out hit after hit and were permanently in the charts. They seemed as though they would go on and on, having found a commercial formula, as did UB40, that suggested a longevity that had eluded The Specials. It didn't happen, though, and by the mid-1980s they had split.
But they're back and they're playing Mallorca Rocks. Madness? It probably won't be. Not as it was. But if you're going, enjoy it. Waiter!
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The nutty boys are playing Mallorca Rocks on Tuesday, the penultimate gig of a season that at one point had looked as though it might have been scuppered by legal challenges to the Fiesta hotel venue. To the rescue, finally, came the tourism ministry which discovered that it could grant the necessary permissions where before it had said it couldn't. If there was something, how can one put it, convenient about the decision taken by new tourism minister Carlos Delgado who, as mayor of Calvia, had previously given the hotel the initial go-ahead, then let's be thankful for convenience.
The opposition to Mallorca Rocks was petty. Despite its having been led by the tourist businesses association Acotur, no one was in any doubt as to where the inspiration for the opposition was coming from. A bit of competition should have hurt no one. Indeed, the arrival of Mallorca Rocks should have been applauded by everyone, competitors included (even those who hadn't thought of doing something similar), in boosting Magalluf and Mallorca's reputation.
So much for the political background, and back to Madness. Their appearance, more so than Norman Cook earlier in the summer, gives the Mallorca Rocks season a seal of internationally recognised approval; hence the interest shown among the Spanish. It's good that they are playing, but I shan't be going. It's not that middle-aged men shouldn't still be performing, it's just that this is the same Madness of some thirty years ago, when they were mad.
Attending a Madness gig back in the day was not something you did without some thought and trepidation if you happened not to be a skinhead. The group's appearance and their embracing of ska and bluebeat made them the darlings of the boys with no hair and Dr. Martens. There was also a concern that the group themselves were politically far from correct, a reputation at the time that they initially did little to deflect and which also brought them into conflict with The Specials.
Though there was a commonality with the music, Madness's short involvement with The Specials' 2 Tone label seemed incongruous. The Specials, as with others on the label, The Selecter and The Beat, were fiercely anti-racist. With Madness, you weren't quite sure, and the National Front association they acquired, almost totally because of skins who were part of the NF and who turned up at their gigs, made you distinctly wary. It was only when they disassociated themselves from the skinhead movement and also moved away from the ska roots that they shook off the reputation.
The other incongruity between Madness and 2 Tone was that Madness, despite their tribute to Prince Buster which launched them on 2 Tone, were very "London". Their music, or rather their style, came to reflect this and it was, to some extent, a continuation of the London pub scene of the seventies, of Eddie And The Hot Rods, Dr. Feelgood and more obviously Kilburn And The High Roads (and later Ian Dury And The Blockheads).
The mainstays of 2 Tone were all Midlands-based, and even one group that wasn't part of 2 Tone but which formed at the same time and had its own reggae and multi-ethnic mix, UB40, was from Birmingham. And Madness weren't multi-ethnic. They were uniformly white, and their musical direction steered them towards a very white, very English sound and towards very English lyrics, when lyrics were actually used. One of their best "songs" was not a song at all, but the instrumental "Return Of The Los Palmas 7", a weirdly infectious ballroom-lounge tune that could just as easily have been put out some years before by The Bonzo Dog Band in one of their saner moments.
Madness were always a cracking band and a cracking live act. They churned out hit after hit and were permanently in the charts. They seemed as though they would go on and on, having found a commercial formula, as did UB40, that suggested a longevity that had eluded The Specials. It didn't happen, though, and by the mid-1980s they had split.
But they're back and they're playing Mallorca Rocks. Madness? It probably won't be. Not as it was. But if you're going, enjoy it. Waiter!
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, July 25, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Tourism ministry decides hotel concerts are ok
A couple of months after having said that it did not have the competency to permit concerts open to the general public in hotels, such as those at Mallorca Rocks in Magalluf, the ministry now says that such concerts do indeed conform with tourism law, thus appearing to take away the lingering threat to these concerts taking place.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca Rocks; now it gets legal
Following the first of the season of concerts at Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks hotel last Tuesday, Acotur, the tourist business association, along with others, is to lodge a legal complaint on Monday directed at Calvia town hall for granting extraordinary licences to allow the concerts to go ahead. Acotur is now adding issues to do with noise and safety to its previous objections to the concerts at the hotel owned by the Fiesta group.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca Rocks - not rocking?
The 17 concerts planned for the Mallorca Rocks hotel in Magalluf this summer appear to be in serious question now that the regional government's tourism ministry has stated that it is not legally competent to authorise the concerts. A report from the ministry appears to turn down the possibility of staging concerts open to the public in hotels. An application for a secondary licence for staging concerts seems to run counter to laws and regulations regarding what a hotel can or cannot do. These regulations permit entertainment of the type commonly staged in hotels, but not that envisaged by Mallorca Rocks.
The tourist business association Acotur, together with two other organisations, one being the association for discos, had challenged the staging of the concerts and the position of Calvia town hall which, so Acotur claims, had granted a new licence to the hotel with "scandalous speed".
The first of the concerts at Mallorca Rocks is meant to take place on 31 May.
The tourist business association Acotur, together with two other organisations, one being the association for discos, had challenged the staging of the concerts and the position of Calvia town hall which, so Acotur claims, had granted a new licence to the hotel with "scandalous speed".
The first of the concerts at Mallorca Rocks is meant to take place on 31 May.
Saturday, April 02, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca Rocks' concerts threatened
A report from the Council of Mallorca's land department suggests that, of the 17 concerts planned at the Mallorca Rocks hotel in Magalluf this summer, only one can go ahead. The council says that special authorisation will be needed to proceed with the concert schedule. Acotur, the tourist business association, has once again denounced Mallorca Rocks and questioned its legality and its impact competitively. A solution for the hotel would appear to be the obtaining of a secondary licence, but the hotel's owners, the Fiesta Group, maintain that necessary permissions are in place.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Legal threat to Mallorca Rocks
The tourist business association, Acotur, has issued a further "denuncia" with Calvia town hall against the Mallorca Rocks concerts at the hotel with the same name, operated by the Fiesta group. The hotel asscoiation in Magalluf agrees with Mallorca Rocks and the town hall that all legal permissions are in place, but it is these that Acotur is challenging and is also threatening legal action against the town hall as a consequence.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Happy Hour Again: Mallorca Rocks
Mr. Zoë Ball, aka Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim will be one of the star attractions during this summer's season of concerts at Magalluf's Mallorca Rocks. A midsummer night's dream on 21 June. But not a dream for everyone.
In its second year of operation, the Mallorca Rocks' diverse programme will range from the old school of the Madness nutty boys through the rap of Dizzee Rascal, Plan B and Tinie Tempah, to the rock of Biffy Clyro and the dance-punk of Friendly Fires. It is an ambitious schedule of some of the leading names in British music and some very much at the cutting-edge from what has arguably been the most ambitious development in Mallorca for years. Its very ambitiousness and innovativeness are what has caused not everyone to be happy.
The unhappy ones have been the association of tourist businesses, Acotur. Last December, it sought a meeting with the hotel association in Palmanova and Magalluf. It was questioning the legality of Mallorca Rocks, while it considered its very presence to be unfair competition for bars and other entertainment establishments. The hotel association disagreed, describing Mallorca Rocks as innovative and as adding value. Acotur had previously denounced the concerts at the hotel.
The hotel association was absolutely right. While Acotur may or may not have had legitimate grounds for complaining, one had the strong sense that behind the objections was more than just a feeling that it had been caught on the hop, and not just the hip-hop, by a development that was bold and new.
Mallorca doesn't generally do bold and new. It likes to hold onto the status quo, so much so that Status Quo might be considered to be innovative. The geriatric rockers have of course played in Palma, if playing is the right word. They were symbolic of the has-been nature of Mallorca; tired, formulaic, worn-out and not very good. Mallorca Rocks has come along and smashed that image, like punk tearing down the dinosaurs of prog and replacing them with the remarkably named Orlando Higginbottom, aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, who will be supporting Fatboy Slim.
Mallorca Rocks has been a case of catch-up, most obviously with its progenitor, Ibiza Rocks. Following in the foot and dance steps of Ibiza, Mallorca stumbles towards more of a club scene that, despite BCM and its own Pachas, has long been the domain of the island to the south. Mallorca has never had the chic cachet associated with the likes of the Café del Mar or Ibizan clubs that helped to create the British dance scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The boldness of both Rocks has been to make live music a facet of the summer season; live music which is genuine, star quality, international and new, as opposed to bands doing covers, trib acts and the embarrassment of playback. The other boldness has been to re-invent the hotel with a theme. In the case of the Fiesta Trópico, it has become the Mallorca Rocks hotel. Just one reason why Acotur in Magalluf and Palmanova has been getting agitated is because other hotels have been eyeing up the success of the theme and contemplating their own.
Impact on bars and clubs from Mallorca Rocks there may well be. It could be both positive and negative, but most importantly, the arrival of Mallorca Rocks has represented wholly new directions in terms both of entertainment and hotel style. But the island's tourism industry is suspicious of new directions. It finds it hard to adapt or to change, so when something comes along that creates an upheaval, it holds up its hands and cries foul.
And the specifically youthful direction that Mallorca Rocks has taken is one that many within the industry fail to acknowledge or to want. Yet, youthful or more mature, live music accords with what surveys have been telling us - that tourists, of different ages, like having nights out. It's a message that gets lost because the industry prefers that it is lost, amidst the inane clamour for alternative tourism, one that suggests a holidaymaker should suffer for his holidaying art, rather than actually enjoy it.
The midsummer night's dream of Norman Cook in Magalluf should be an occasion for everyone to celebrate and on which they should be happy. Happy that here is the future, and not the past. They should revel in a night and not just a happy hour of the Housemartins' one-time bassist, but they won't, because they'd rather it wasn't happening.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In its second year of operation, the Mallorca Rocks' diverse programme will range from the old school of the Madness nutty boys through the rap of Dizzee Rascal, Plan B and Tinie Tempah, to the rock of Biffy Clyro and the dance-punk of Friendly Fires. It is an ambitious schedule of some of the leading names in British music and some very much at the cutting-edge from what has arguably been the most ambitious development in Mallorca for years. Its very ambitiousness and innovativeness are what has caused not everyone to be happy.
The unhappy ones have been the association of tourist businesses, Acotur. Last December, it sought a meeting with the hotel association in Palmanova and Magalluf. It was questioning the legality of Mallorca Rocks, while it considered its very presence to be unfair competition for bars and other entertainment establishments. The hotel association disagreed, describing Mallorca Rocks as innovative and as adding value. Acotur had previously denounced the concerts at the hotel.
The hotel association was absolutely right. While Acotur may or may not have had legitimate grounds for complaining, one had the strong sense that behind the objections was more than just a feeling that it had been caught on the hop, and not just the hip-hop, by a development that was bold and new.
Mallorca doesn't generally do bold and new. It likes to hold onto the status quo, so much so that Status Quo might be considered to be innovative. The geriatric rockers have of course played in Palma, if playing is the right word. They were symbolic of the has-been nature of Mallorca; tired, formulaic, worn-out and not very good. Mallorca Rocks has come along and smashed that image, like punk tearing down the dinosaurs of prog and replacing them with the remarkably named Orlando Higginbottom, aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, who will be supporting Fatboy Slim.
Mallorca Rocks has been a case of catch-up, most obviously with its progenitor, Ibiza Rocks. Following in the foot and dance steps of Ibiza, Mallorca stumbles towards more of a club scene that, despite BCM and its own Pachas, has long been the domain of the island to the south. Mallorca has never had the chic cachet associated with the likes of the Café del Mar or Ibizan clubs that helped to create the British dance scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The boldness of both Rocks has been to make live music a facet of the summer season; live music which is genuine, star quality, international and new, as opposed to bands doing covers, trib acts and the embarrassment of playback. The other boldness has been to re-invent the hotel with a theme. In the case of the Fiesta Trópico, it has become the Mallorca Rocks hotel. Just one reason why Acotur in Magalluf and Palmanova has been getting agitated is because other hotels have been eyeing up the success of the theme and contemplating their own.
Impact on bars and clubs from Mallorca Rocks there may well be. It could be both positive and negative, but most importantly, the arrival of Mallorca Rocks has represented wholly new directions in terms both of entertainment and hotel style. But the island's tourism industry is suspicious of new directions. It finds it hard to adapt or to change, so when something comes along that creates an upheaval, it holds up its hands and cries foul.
And the specifically youthful direction that Mallorca Rocks has taken is one that many within the industry fail to acknowledge or to want. Yet, youthful or more mature, live music accords with what surveys have been telling us - that tourists, of different ages, like having nights out. It's a message that gets lost because the industry prefers that it is lost, amidst the inane clamour for alternative tourism, one that suggests a holidaymaker should suffer for his holidaying art, rather than actually enjoy it.
The midsummer night's dream of Norman Cook in Magalluf should be an occasion for everyone to celebrate and on which they should be happy. Happy that here is the future, and not the past. They should revel in a night and not just a happy hour of the Housemartins' one-time bassist, but they won't, because they'd rather it wasn't happening.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Fatboy Slim heads Mallorca Rocks 2011 programme
The Mallorca Rocks hotel in Magalluf, which opened last year, has announced its programme of concerts for the coming summer. The headlining names include Fatboy Slim, together with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, on 21 June, Madness on 13 September and, kicking off the season on 31 May, Plan B.
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