Oldest Rockers in Torremolinos

Weekend 10^th/11^th February

We continued scraping and rubbing down the metal front doors by hand for 3 hours in the morning before heading off to Torremolinos, booking into El Loro Rojo (The Red Parrot Hostal). The room was huge with ensuite bathroom and a balcony overlooking the bustling street…..good value for € 35.

We then went for a walkabout exploring Torremolinos, a major tourist centre, mostly English and German tourists and residents enjoying the hot February sunshine. Some people think of Torremolinos as vulgar, with lager louts, fish and chip shops, English pubs and souvenir shops etc, as it was one of the first places to cater for the explosion of cheap package holidays in the ‘60s. However, although souvenir shops and eateries catering for tourists abound, the town has a nice feel to it, and the long walk down the winding steps from the town centre to the sea front is delightful.

We decided to be tourists for the day, and I had an all day English breakfast with a glass of red wine, and J had a half chicken and chips in a German bar. ,There was a purpose in having a large meal and wine at lunchtime ( 3pm), as we planned to have a siesta when we got back to El Loro Rojo, as we had a long evening and night ahead.

After our siesta, we sat out on the balcony with a glass of wine catching the last rays of the setting sun, and made our way up to the Palicio Congresso about 10 pm, where the last evening of the 2 day 13^th Rockin’ Race Jamboree was in full swing. This had been billed as” the biggest rockabilly project in Andalucian history , with 16 live bands, record hops with international DJs, stands selling 60’s rock records and tee shirts, vintage cars, parties, burlesque shows etc”. We had just come to see Mike Sanchez and the Portions, who were on at 12.30 am !

The huge convention hall was crowded with mostly Spanish young people all dressed in 60’s clothes, with brightly coloured suits and dresses, drainpipes, brothel creepers and the haircuts. We saw Mike Sanchez in the hall incognito….no one seemed to recognise him…..J asked for a photo-opportunity, and …..see pic.

Walked the stands and listened to the bands , awaiting expectantly until 12.30 am for Mike Sanchez…………but “Lee Rocker“ the top billed American Group came on….for some reason, they had swapped……Mike wasn’t on until 2 am !! Had a few more beers, something to eat and listened to Band, who wer’nt all that great, but popular with the crowd.

Finally, Mike Sanchez came on at about 2.15 am…a lot of people left after Lee Rocker, not realising they were about to miss a great Act. The crowd were slow to realise how good he is, but after about 30 minutes, he had them rocking, and at the end , they were demanding encores. Click on Sapphire to watch my video of my favourite numbers. He finished about 3.30 am and we got a taxi back to El Loro Roja to bed.

Despite a late night, we got up at 10 am and had a nice English breakfast at El Loro Rojo before heading off to Fuengirola to post the blog. I had a lot of technical problems with Firefox, and only managed to post the basic blog rather than link to the video I took of Mike Sanchez, which I hope to do next week. J went for a walk along the front and saw several speed boats and took pics, as She thought it might be Ricardo.

Back home to do a few more hours scraping the front door, as it goes to Antonio, the Metalica man tomorrow for its new frame.