A word about Pune (formerly ‘Poona’) in Maharashtra, India. Its two most famous former residents? Mahatma Gandhi and the new age spiritual ‘guru’ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, otherwise known as ‘Osho’.
I came to Pune three years ago and was struck by how affluent the city is, particularly its leafy Koregaong Park area. Designer boutiques, cafes serving up cocktails and European cuisine and numerous wellness spas and retreats line its streets; Pune has the likes of Google and Big Tech to thank for its transformation into one of India’s most-moneyed cities.
I had never heard of the late Osho or his Pune-based ashram when I visited in November 2019. However, after stumbling across the imposing entrance in Koregaong Park, I read up about his community of ‘sanyassins’, watched the Netflix documentary ‘Wild Wild Country’, and became suitably intrigued…
The entrance to Osho International, Pune (no photos are allowed after this point).
I spent three days at the Osho International ‘retreat’ whilst returning to Pune last week. Upon entry, you agree to a strict set of rules, leave your phone at reception and have to purchase maroon robes (worn during daylight hours) and white robes (worn after 6.30pm for the ‘Evening Meeting’.)
Most of each day’s programme is focused around a variety of meditation techniques, as well as talks (‘How to increase your awareness’), workshops (‘Unlocking creativity; our true calling’‘Zen archery’) and evening gatherings (‘Ecstatic dance’ and ‘Full moon celebration’). Some of the sessions were useful; the ‘nadabrahma’ meditation technique originating from Tibet, which uses humming to still the mind, particularly helped me to focus during the hour-long session. However, others bordered on pseudo-science or, just tedium.
The Osho International wardrobe… (it certainly made getting dressed in the morning easier)
Superficially, the retreat is lush, green and the vibe friendly and peaceful. The robes act as a leveller and remove any material comparison in terms of what people are wearing. The sight of the whole community ascending the steps to the giant pyramid housing the ‘Osho Auditorium’ at 6.30pm, with the sun going down, dressed in angelic white robes will live long in the memory. However, the ensuing Evening Meeting featuring explosive drums, ‘gibberish meditation’, synchronised shouts of “Osho!” and a long, meandering darshan from the man himself via a video from 1990 was not how I prefer to spend two hours of my evening. Funnily enough, some of my fellow disciples found his 40-minute monologue hilarious, howling with laughter as if they were at a Stewart Lee show. Perhaps once I am enlightened, I will understand.
It was something of a relief to leave the ashram on Wednesday night after the Evening Meeting, knowing I wouldn’t be returning the next day. Whilst, visiting Osho’s ashram was most definitely a good life experience, I like my freedom too much and don’t particularly like being told what to do, so ashram life was never going to be ideal. Meditating for an hour a day certainly has positive benefits too, but the daily programme of 6-7 hours was a push for me. Having said that, some people had been staying at the ashram for months so clearly something is working for them. Also, the longer-term residents of the community also seemed to be more involved with the running of the retreat; helping to run the musical workshops and evening events or being tasked with metal-detecting the congregation as they arrived for sessions in the Osho Auditorium.
Whilst Osho was clearly a well-read, articulate man and a charismatic figurehead, it seems that his real talent lay in monetising spirituality and packaging it up for a Western audience to consume. Osho owned 93 Rolls Royces and had a penchant for luxury watches and diamanté hats so he clearly was not averse to the material things in life (although, to give him his dues, he did talk about music and nature being the closeness thing that many of us get to the “divine”).
A typical day’s programme at the ashram and one of Osho’s Rolls Royces.
On a different note, Mahatma Gandhi; another revered Indian leader, albeit of a contrasting ilk also spent time in Pune in the 1940s. He was imprisoned for two years in the Islamic / French-style Aga Khan Palace by the British as a result of his ‘Do or Die’ and ‘Quit India’ independence campaigns. His wife Kasturba Gandhi and secretary Mahadev Desai both passed away whilst imprisoned in the palace and Gandhi also carried out his 21-day-fast here. The ashes of all three are now contained in samadhis in the palace grounds and the building itself is today a museum dedicated to the independence struggle.
“I always think that each floor is like walking into a different world” is Aldo Campanelli’s introduction as he begins his tour of Spazio13, a 1,500-square-metre community hub for creative and social organisations, located in an abandoned middle school in the Libertà district of Bari. He’s not wrong, as each level turns out to be an Aladdin’s Cave of workshops, studios and co-working spaces, filled with highly-skilled creative people from Puglia.
Aldo, is the Co-Founder of Tou.Play, an experiential play-focused cooperative who occupy a number of spaces in Spazio13. He founded Tou.Play in 2017 as a “game practice community” for children, young people and adults who want to use play and gaming as a tool for learning, boosting their wellbeing and getting to know each other, in a fun and interactive way.
It’s a pretty inspiring concept and Tou.Play has now grown into one of the most interesting young organisations in Bari. On one hand, they host afterschool clubs and workshops for children from low-income families but on the other hand, they create bespoke games, treasure hunts and ‘quests’ for private birthday parties and even, corporate teambuilding days. It’s a model that’s focused around fun, collaboration and learning through playing and exploration. Tou.Play has also teamed up with Bari’s Museo Civico for a series of events and exhibitions such as Una Notte al Museo and A Brick For Nick.
The ground floor of Spazio13 is partly occupied by Tou.Play and at the time of my visit early on a Thursday evening, it’s buzzing with kids of various ages playing games and making crafts as part of the regular afterschool club. It’s loud but the students seem well-behaved and really engaged in what they’re doing.
Photos courtesy of Tou.Play.
Tou.Play has its ‘Game Room’ on the next floor, where I’m introduced to some other members of the team, including German artist Paul and dancer Franklin who are volunteering at Spazio13 as part of a scheme run by the European Solidarity Corps and European Youth / ErasmusPlus. There’s also a playful and inquisitive two-month old Border Collie puppy who is in the process of being house-trained (she has a few ‘accidents’ whilst I’m there).
The room is very much Tou.Play’s nerve centre with a large gaming table dominating the space and an array of different board games, puzzles, toys and role-playing costumes dotted around it. Aldo shows me a board game that was recently created by the team and is keen to point out that it was purely made of wood. Even the box was wooden, rather than plastic or more disposable cardboard and one would hope that its clear craftsmanship means that it will be treasured and looked after by those who play it. Whilst there are a couple of video game consoles in the corner of the room, it’s refreshing that so many of the games are analogue and not screen-orientated.
Tou.Play’s games room.
Elsewhere in Spazio13, there are a number of classrooms and performance rooms for both adult and under-18 classes, a co-working space and bar area for start-up businesses and it’s on the upper levels where things start to get really interesting. There is an entire floor that’s occupied by artists, designers and printers, including the gifted silkscreen artist Cristina Todisco. There’s a carpentry workshop, where the blueprints of Tou.Play’s recently-created wooden board game were turned into reality. There’s also a decent-sized 3D printing laboratory FabLab, who has recently shipped its creations to as far away as Los Angeles, and finally on the top floor, there is a plush but compact recording studio and audio production facility that’s apparently favoured by Bari’s tight-knit hip-hop community.
Everyone who Aldo introduces me to on every floor is warm, welcoming and happy to chat to me about their work. Whilst each part of the building has its own specific area of expertise, everyone seems to know each other and share the common goal of nurturing and encouraging creativity in the name of social enterprise.
Elsewhere in the Spazio13 building, including its courtyard which transforms into a lively outdoor events space during the warmer months.
It’s an encouraging trait that many of Bari’s burgeoning small businesses seem to have in common. In fact, I first heard about Tou.Play through another social enterprise HaBari Hostel, a low-cost, ethical and responsible ostello also located nearby in the Libertà neighbourhood. HaBari was launched by three friends who were all raised in Bari and believe strongly in “travel as an educational tool”. As well as operating like a regular boutique hostel, HaBari has partnered with a number of likeminded organisations in the area, including non-profit sustainable tourism project In Itinere, legal graffiti collective ReTake Bari, ETNIE a cultural programme that aims to integrate Italians with foreign people living in the country, and of course, Tou.Play itself.
I had originally reached out to HaBari a few months back with the aim of doing some volunteering work there; I thought it might be a way of getting to know some of Bari’s aspiring entrepreneurs and change-makers, as well as improving my Italian. One of its co-founders Silvia very kindly agreed to meet me, gave me some background on the hostel (it’s located in her grandfather’s old apartment and has given his former home a new lease of life) and talked to me about its ethos and the importance of collaboration with its partner organisations. She explained that they wanted to offer travellers more than just the usual hostel experience and that these partners could provide them with volunteering opportunities, socially responsible excursions and the chance to discover more unusual parts of the city, if guests were keen to do so.
The distinctive interior at HaBari Hostel. Photos courtesy of habarihostel.com
The so-called “brain-drain” remains to be a major problem for the Italian South with many educated young people leaving Southern areas like Puglia, Calabria and Campania for university and better job prospects in the more affluent North or overseas. However, many of the students I have taught in their 20s or 30s speak affectionately about Puglia and explain how, one day they plan to return to the area to settle post-university or after making their money in Milan, Rome, Turin or Bologna. In contrast to privileged middle class Britain where families tend to disperse and it’s considered a rite-of-passage to fend for yourself in a new city in your early 20s, here one gets the impression that they’d rather not leave their hometown and that it’s merely done out of necessity.
However, there are more positive signs when it comes to opportunities for young people in Puglia. The number of start-up businesses setting up home in Bari appears to be growing, particularly when it comes to socially-conscious organisations and cooperatives such as Tou.Play and HaBari. Certainly, the incubator-type environment created by Spazio13 and co-working spaces like Impact Hub can help provide a ready-made network of creatives and like-minded professionals for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital freelancers alike. Bari was also recently named one of the “most tech cities in Italy” in terms of companies recruiting there in the technology sector and the city has long been home to established firms such as Bosch and the Peroni Brewery (now owned by Asahi Breweries).
Inside Impact Hub Bari, Fiera del Levante.
A multi-billion Euro project to build a new high-speed rail link between Napoli and Bari is currently underway too. Its aim is to make the South more accessible to the rest of Italy and it will halve the travel time between the two cities, as well as reducing the journey from Bari to Milan to just six hours. This increased accessibility will undoubtedly bring more opportunities to the area and with the increase in remote working caused by the pandemic and more flexible work schedules, perhaps will help to reduce the economic and cultural schism the North and the South of Italy currently experiences.
Whilst polished concrete, artfully distressed interiors and industrial chic are all the rage in London and New York, there is only really one de rigueur fixture that I’ve noticed in many of the best eateries in Southern Italy; white plastic garden chairs and tables. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that there appears to be a direct correlation between the restaurants that have these in their dining area and the tastiness of their food.
In mid-September I was staying at the Masseria Fragnale in the hamlet of Laureto, just outside Fasano. The masseria is over 100 years old, was extensively renovated and extended in 2006, and is now run by a local family who have filled the place with tasteful antique furniture, including unusual four-poster beds, carved in India.
It was a few days of rest and relaxation ahead of the start of the school term; daily morning swims in the outdoor pool, taking my time absorbing Big Joanie frontwoman Stephanie Phillips’ book Why Solange Matters and then spending the afternoon driving through the more remote parts of the Pugliese countryside, stopping off at whichever cove happened to look particularly alluring.
After spending my first night exploring the delights of Fasano (the nearest reasonably-sized town to Masseria Fragnale), on the second evening I chose to stay local and see what Laureto had to offer. There was a rough and ready-looking braceria (barbeque joint) that I decided to swerve, before taking a punt on the unassuming Pizzeria dei Platani.
Pizzeria dei Platani’s non-nonsense dining area and a typical evening there.
You had to place your order through a service hatch leading directly into the kitchen and the menu immediately piqued my interest. Alongside the usual Margherita, Diavola, Capricciosa offerings was the ‘Leeds United’. For context; Laureto is 60 km south of Bari, 500 km from Rome and over 2,000 km from Leeds, West Yorkshire. I asked the chap serving me about the origins of this strangely-named pizza and he explained that his father spent some time living and working in Leeds (I’m guessing perhaps during Don Revie’s ‘Golden Years’) and that this pizza had been created to honour him. For some reason, I was wearing my Taranto FC 1927 / Birra Raffo shirt (a risky move in Barese / Leccese territory) and this led to us having a decent chat about football. Strangely, it turned out that FC Taranto’s current manager Davide Pedone is actually from Laureto.
I paid the princely sum of €6 for the pizza and a cold Peroni and when it arrived it did not disappoint. The pizza came topped with burrata, crushed pistachios and red onions and was incredibly moist and succulent. The guy who served me even came over to make sure it was ok; this was a place that clearly took pride in their food. Not the healthiest of dinner choices but then again, the kilometre I was swimming every morning in the masseria’s piscina probably just about worked off the calories.
Pizzeria dei Platani’s dining area was covered but with open sides and the ubiquitous TVs dotted around showing the Netherlands vs Turkey World Cup Qualifier game (even the higher end restaurants in Italy have TVs mounted on the walls). There was a large Italian family next to me with everyone from grandma right through the toddlers sat together enjoying their pizza. The seats? You’ve guessed it, white plastic chairs and tables throughout the restaurant.
The menu at Pizzeria dei Platani (clearly this photo was taken before the addition of the ‘Leeds United’ pizza).
When your pizza was ready, it was placed on a plastic tray on top of a piece of paper and then you collected it from the service hatch yourself. Disposable napkins were retrieved from a dispenser in the middle of your table. Once you were finished, you simply threw the paper into the recycling bin and placed the tray on the pile to be cleaned. A highly efficient, no-fuss system that reminded me of another legendary and wallet-friendly (£3.95 a pizza anyone?) pizzeria; Icco on Goodge Street in Fitzrovia, London. Icco was the site of many post-work pizzas back in the early 2010s.
In September 2020, I spent 10 days on an impromptu roadtrip travelling around Sicily. My final stop was Catania, Sicily’s second biggest city that sits in the ominous shadow of Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano. Most of the city’s buildings are characteristically dark as they have been built with volcanic rock. I very nearly moved to Catania instead of Bari earlier that year and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the city, finding it a little less hectic and more manageable than Palermo, its counterpart on the other side of the island.
One afternoon, I decided to get out of the city centre and find a braceria that specialised in hearty, no-frills, Sicilian street food such as grilled meat and bacon (or intestines if you prefer) wrapped around spring onions, cooked over charcoal. I was recommended a number of places on Via Plebiscito, a thoroughfare leading away from the city centre to the north-west. The street was a little rough around the edges but lined with a number of cafes, restaurants and street food stalls, all specialising in barbequed meat. Macelleria d’Antone, Dal Tenerissimo, Trattoria Achille, Trattoria Il Principe – take your pick. The locals apparently describe the area as “arrusti e mangia“ – “roast and eat”. They’re not wrong.
The various meaty delights of Via Plebiscito, Catania.
I had lunch at Dal Tenerissimo and then returned on another evening to check out what Macelleria d’Antonehad to offer in the way of street food. Via Plebiscito was pretty relaxed around lunchtime and I had a piece of breaded pork, served in a bun and curiously, a mousse of soft cheese and crushed pistachios. However, at night the street was an entirely different proposition. It was dimly-lit, heaving with local Catanians and the smoke from the various barbeques and grills placed on the street gave it an almost-medieval air. The smell of meat being cooked was pungent and the neon red sign of Trattoria Achille made it look like a place that would be at home on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. The atmosphere was ever so slightly anarchic and felt very authentically Sicilian.
At Macelleria d’Antone, the service was brusque but efficient and I sampled a paper plate of the bacon wrapped around spring onions, a coarse sausage and a cutlet of what I imagine was horse meat (it’s very popular in Sicily). It’s not something I would want to eat every day but the bacon and spring onions in particular, were great. Both restaurants had white plastic chairs and tables throughout; as we now know, a firm barometer of quality in Southern Italy…
Bacon (or intestines) wrapped around whole spring onions. An acquired taste but actually a delicious snack alongside an ice-cold beer.
There are a number of other restaurants in the region that fit into this category; several of the more casual pizzerias and rosticcerias in Bari, Ricciolandia near Torre Canne (where the late Anthony Bourdain stopped for lunch in his series Parts Unknown) and most of the eateries in the bustling La Vucciria market in Palermo. Dining in Italy can be a very regimented, formal affair if you want it to be and for many Italians eating is sacred. Don’t even attempt to suggest having lunch at midday or dinner at 7pm, and alter an ingredient in a traditional recipe at your peril. However, on other occasions, keeping it simple is king and what the plastic chairs and tables represent is that sometimes people just want to go somewhere they feel comfortable and relaxed, and to eat some honest comfort food.
Where possible, I’ve included hyperlinks to all of the eateries I’ve talked about in the article above.
Anthony Bourdain dining at Ricciolandia, Torre Cane (Parts Unknown, Season 10, Episode 9) and the lively La Vucciria night market, Palermo.
The delights of Foggia, Cervia, Lucerne, Mannheim and the overnight Hook of Holland ferry
In late-July and with daily temperatures now registering well into the mid-30s, the school year finally wound to a close after another turbulent nine months of lockdowns and curfews. Whilst some of my colleagues returned to the UK via a quick two-hour flight from Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport, I decided to instead drive the 2,445-km journey back (the main reason being that the car needed its MOT service back in Britain) and then spend three weeks in the UK catching up with family and friends – also fitting in two festivals as well.
I had previously driven to Bari from my parents’ home in Highclere (now famous for being the filming location for Downton Abbey) late last August. After a hardcore punk festival I wanted to go to at Bari’s Ex Caserma Liberata venue was cancelled, I decided to take my time, travelling through Laon and Oyannax in France, as well as various towns in Emilia Romagna, and after San Marino, Vasto and the Gargano National Park. However, this time, things were more urgent and with an overnight ferry from The Hook of Holland (France was a no-go due to the strict Covid restrictions still in place there) booked for Sunday evening, I had just four days to complete the journey.
My final evening in Bari for a while.
On average, I spent 5-6 hours each day driving fast on the motorway. The Italian leg of the journey was fairly hassle-free (apart from a near-miss with a driver didn’t indicate when changing lane near Milan) but as anyone who has spent any reasonable amount of time in Italy will tell you, their drivers are very aggressive. Most of their motorways (“autostrade”) are only two lanes so invariably, you spend much of your energy checking blind spots and constantly switching between the two. The Slow Lane is populated mainly by lorries, ageing Fiat Unos and the occasional farm vehicle, whereas The Fast Lane is the reserve of a steady stream of hot-headed 4×4 drivers who will appear out of nowhere, drive within touching-distance of your rear bumper and flash their lights until you obviously do the right thing and move over to let them zoom past.
The Swiss motorways were a breath of fresh air initially; super clean, well-maintained and not particularly busy but then everything changed when I started to go through their tunnels. One hour-long queue was shortly followed by another one, and the continual heavy traffic meant that the Swiss part of the trip soon became quite a stressful episode, eventually leading to me having to bed down for the night, unplanned in pricey Lucerne. As well as producing tasty beer, excellent penalty-takers and mid-level luxury cars; it turned out the next day that Germany also does motorways very well. Not only was the autobahn free but fast-moving and I was able make up for lost time after the debacle in Switzerland.
It’s safe to say that my stop-offs of choice were a little unconventional but each place still had a certain charm. See below for quick city guides to Foggia, Cervia, Lucerne and Mannheim.
Night one: Foggia
Poor old Foggia gets a bad press. Officially “Italy’s hottest city”, it’s located in the middle of the arid and flat ‘Tavoliere’ plain in Puglia – known as “the granary” of the country.
It suffered large-scale bomb damage during WWII and as a result its “centro storico” is a lot smaller than other similar cities. Foggia also has something of a reputation as a m****a haven and several Pugliese, including a teacher I know, urged me to give it a miss. Indeed; it has been described by some newspapers as an “underworld battleground”.
Foggia actually seemed fine to me. The city’s old town was a lot smaller than Bari’s but still had some impressive architecture and its imposing cathedral “duomo”. The lively Via Arpi (the city’s oldest street) was darkly-lit and a little run-down but had a lot of interesting restaurants, bars and even the odd tattoo parlour. I was also privileged enough to witness not one, but two trademark Foggia blackouts. Luckily power was restored quickly.
All in all, not a city you would necessarily want to go to on your honeymoon (or even stag do), but I found it interesting enough to at least whet my appetite for a long weekend (perhaps when Calcio Foggia 1920 next play SSC Bari at Stadio Pino Zaccheria). Osteria La Giara was a very good family-run restaurant serving traditional Pugliese dishes and Quarto Novo was an immaculately clean B&B in the city centre with helpful staff.
A snapshot of Foggia including the ancient Via Arpi, the city’s cathedral, Fontana del Sele and Teatro Giordano.
Night two: Cervia
This was my third visit to Cervia on the coast of Emilia-Romagna (I spent some time there last summer, as well as nearby Ravenna, Rimini, Cesenatico and Forlì). It’s one of my favourite small towns in Italy and was an ideal stop-off for my second night on the road.
Cervia’s fortunes historically revolved around its nearby salt pans (known locally as “sweet salt”) and Leonardo da Vinci is said to have designed the network of canals at neighbouring Cesenatico. Cervia hosts an annual Salt Festival early every September and I took a couple of bags back home with me last year.
Cervia has two main parts to it. There is the picturesque canal-side area flanked by bars and restaurants, where the colourful gold and maroon sails of the barges moored there have become a symbol of the town. Then there is the area near the beach which resembles more of a typical Italian seaside town a la Rimini. It isn’t quite as refined here as the area surrounding the canal but the beach is great for swimming (I took a dip here at 8pm after a long day of driving) and accommodation is a little cheaper (expect mid-century concrete tower blocks though).
On the night I stayed in Cervia, I was very lucky to see the city’s orchestra performing for free in Piazza Garibaldi, accompanied by some local opera singers. The red mullet and tomato strozzapreti at I Vinai was damn good too.
The main canal in Cervia, its vast, sandy beach and the open-air concert by its city band at Piazza Garibaldi, 29.07.21.
Night three: Lucerne
Even though it’s only a few hours from Como and the Northernmost part of Italy, the culture in Switzerland couldn’t be more different. Everything is pristine, the people went out of their way to be polite and friendly and efficiency is the name of the game. The downsides; Lucerne is not a wallet-friendly city (a Covid test cost me €110) and for all its beautiful lakes and mountains, things can feel a little clinical here. A lesser-known fact about Lucerne is that as well as its medieval architecture and famous 14th century Chapel Bridge, Lucerne is also known for producing high-quality violins.
I stopped in Lucerne after a frustrating day; 11 hours in the car, thunderstorms, heavy holiday traffic, numerous tailbacks and a hotel that had overbooked itself. On my 8.30pm arrival at the city centre branch of a well-known international budget hotel I was told by its manager that unfortunately there had been an error with my booking but they had found another room for me in Kriens, essentially an industrial estate on the edge of the city. Not ideal to say the least but I checked in and after a quick train ride, I was back into the city centre.
Lucerne is generally a genteel city but on Friday night the locals were boisterous and seemed to know how to enjoy themselves (the drinks were flowing). In particular, the area just south of the main train station was full of hip bars and restaurants and Das Schwarze Schaf was a lively spot with DJs and live music.
18 hours in Lucerne…
Night four: Mannheim
Mannheim is a city with a population of around 300,000 in the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany. Most of the city was razed to the ground during WWII, leaving only a small number of older buildings. However, unusually for Germany, the new city was then rebuilt in a grid layout with each street being given a letter and a number, rather than a name (for example, M1, N2, Q3), giving it a somewhat dystopian feel.
Initially Mannheim seemed like a slick, modern city dominated by the lush park and rose garden surrounding its 19th century water tower in the city centre and its university which is situated in the old Mannheim Palace. However, as night fell and I made my way towards the docks and the hip Jungbusch district; Turkish restaurants and hookah bars stood side-by-side with shebeen-style drinking dens and arty cafes and bars that wouldn’t be out of place in East Berlin.
At midnight, it felt like things were just warming up for the night ahead (given the long drive ahead of me the next day, I decided to avoid temptation). Special mentions to Kurfürst am Markt for some hearty traditional German food (the staff spoke no English so I had to wrack my brains to remember my GCSE in German – the schnitzel was immense) and Café Vienna; a laidback, lo-fi literature bar that was full of arts students gearing up for a night out. You could do a lot worse than spending a long weekend in Mannheim.
Mannheim’s famous water tower and surrounding garden, the baroque palace and some of the sights of its Jungbusch area.
Night five: The Hook of Holland
After powering my way through Germany; the final Dutch leg of the trip was pretty straightforward (apart from not being able to navigate the high-tech bathroom at a service station near Eindhoven) and I arrived at The Hook of Holland ferry port around 8.30pm for a 10pm boat to Harwich, Essex. It’s a tiny port compared to Dover so we able to board the Stena Britannica straight after checking in. The boat was an hour and a half delayed setting sail worryingly, due to “technical issues in the engine room” but after we eventually left Holland around 11pm things went smoothly for the remaining seven hours. The passengers on the boat were a curious mix of truckers enjoying a post-drive beer and families making their way to the UK; the word on the street was that the exclusive ‘Truckers-only Bar’ was the place to be on the ship.
I’ll be embarking on a reverse journey at the end of the month, perhaps spending more time in Germany and Lichtenstein so let’s see where I end up then…
The sun setting at The Hook of Holland and our early morning arrival at Harwich.
Seven days ago, I was back home in Bari feeling a little gutted that I had to teach a two-hour class at the same time as the England v Germany Euro 2020 match. 11 years earlier at Glastonbury 2010, I had even made the difficult decision to miss legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies’ set on the Pyramid Stage in favour of watching the match on the big screens near the Dance Village instead. England got thumped 4-1, so in hindsight it was perhaps, the wrong call.
England v Germany is always a big deal. The match last Tuesday at Wembley was made even more significant by the fact it was a repeat of the semi-final at Euro ’96, where England were knocked out of the tournament with our then-central defender and now-manager Gareth Southgate having his decisive kick saved by Andreas Köpke in the penalty shoot-out.
Highlights of the famous England v Germany Euro 96 clash at Wembley. 26th June 1996.
The ’96 match was on the same day as my elder sister’s graduation from Durham University so she and my parents watched it there, whilst my half-Khasi grandmother travelled from Eastbourne to look after me in Market Bosworth, where we were living at the time. I actually missed the first half because I had to go to Scouts (there is a pattern emerging here), but was then glued to the TV for the second half, extra time (including the agonising near misses by Gazza and Darren Anderton) and then the ensuing dramatic penalty shootout. Despite being only nine years old, the game finishing at nearly 11pm and having school the next day, I vividly remember my grandma (a former nurse) encouraging me to “listen to some music” to calm me down so I would be able to go to sleep. I think I finally drifted off to sleep sometime after midnight.
Back to the 2021 rematch. I managed to watch the pre-match build-up on the BBC but then had to make the 15-minute journey into school, just as the game was kicking off. I switched my phone to airplane mode and didn’t look at any texts from friends and family for a few hours. On my walk home I actively avoided going past certain bars or pizzerias that might be showing the game and wore headphones to drown out any noise. At 9pm I was finally able to re-watch the match on my laptop but unfortunately, despite trying to avert my eyes, the 2-0 scoreline was revealed to me as the on-demand footage was buffering. It did perhaps make for a slightly less stressful England-watching experience though…
Never did I think for a moment that I’d be at the quarter final against Ukraine at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome a few days later as part of the travelling ‘Expat Army’. As soon as England had beaten Germany last Tuesday, I started getting WhatsApp messages from people asking if I was considering getting tickets for the game. With Covid restrictions still requiring Brits to quarantine for five days upon entry to Italy; the only people who could go were England fans living in mainland Europe (or even further afield than that).
A near-empty Stadio Olimpico upon our designated arrival time of 6.30pm. 3rd July 2021.
British media began (incorrectly) reporting on Tuesday night that the British Embassy in Rome would be issuing tickets to expats. However, after making a number of calls on Wednesday morning to the UK Consulate in Rome, it became clear that this was false and that UEFA would be selling the tickets after all – but only to people who could prove they were permanently living outside of Regno Unito. A British lady of Italian descent was selling a ticket through social media for €150 on behalf of her cousin who could no longer go; she seemed legitimate enough but was making a sizeable mark-up on the ticket and I took the risk and decided to wait until some became available on the official channels.
Finally, on Wednesday evening, UEFA made tickets available through its online portal. They weren’t cheap and initially my instinct was that I couldn’t afford it (in Puglia I earn significantly less than I did in London), however several friends in the UK urged me to reconsider. To quote my good mate from school Matt Turner; “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!”. I snapped up the tickets, hastily began making travel plans to get to Rome the next morning and soon the Expats in Italy community was buzzing with people who would be making the very same pilgrimage.
I’d originally planned to take my time with Rome. I wanted to spend a full week (or even longer) in the city when the weather got a bit cooler in September or October. The idea was to get the tourist sights out of the way nice and early and then live like a local and really get to know some of the less obvious parts of the city. Instead; the weekend just gone has been a fun-yet-hectic, whistle-stop visit, dominated by the football on both Friday and Saturday nights. I arrived on Thursday evening and didn’t really stop until the high-speed train back to Bari Centrale left Roma Termini station early on Sunday evening.
The fact that the Pantheon – a Roman temple built by Hadrian circa AD 113 – has been in continual use ever since then particularly blew my mind. Let’s be honest though, even with the Covid restrictions in place, much of Rome’s Centro Storico is a honeypot for tourists. Food and drink there costs three times what it does in Bari and the crowded area around the Trevi Fountain, whilst beautiful, reminded me of a Baroque Leicester Square. I sought out some respite in the nearby Galleria d’Arte Moderna – a tranquil gallery that was hosting the ‘Ciao Maschio!’exhibition about toxic masculinity and political tyrants, as well as permanent works by Willem de Kooning (the Manics wrote the Everything Must Go track ‘Interiors’ about him), Carlo Levi and even London’s Gilbert & George. Entry was just €7 – highly recommended if you want a break from the crowds.
Some of the delights of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma.
It was the Italy v Belgium quarter final on Friday night and a small group of us watched it on a screen outside a restaurant just off Campo de’ Fiori, chowing down on cacio e pepe, cold cuts and burrata and knocking back a few Birra Messina. The final few minutes were tense but as the game finished 2-1 to Italy, the streets around the Centro Storico erupted and very soon they were teeming with local revellers celebrating the fact Italy had made it through to the semi-final. We stationed ourselves outside a small bar just off the Piazza Navona and there was a carnival-like atmosphere around the packed small lanes with plenty of chanting and the odd flare being let off. It was a lot of fun and the crowd continued to grow as the night went on. We called it a night around 3.30am and it was probably the right decision with the England game the next day – the locals continued festivities long after that though.
The scenes around Piazza Navona after Italy’s win against Belgium on Friday night.
Saturday was a slightly more chilled affair and after the typical Italian sweet breakfast of a pastry and coffee, I explored the Trastevere neighbourhood a little down the River Tiber. It’s an area famous for its rustic and bohemian vibe, although there are now a lot of upmarket boutiques and eateries. After an extremely rich polpettina di cicoriacon pecorino and carbonara lunch, I climbed Il Gianicolo – the second tallest of Rome’s seven hills, with a small terrace area at the top offering fine views of the city. I then made my way downhill to the Orto di Botanico di Roma – Rome’s botanical garden, opened in 1883 and operated by the Sapienza University of Rome. It featured over 3,000 different species of plants and a Japanese, Mediterranean and medicinal garden – not to mention two greenhouses full of giant cacti. It was a peaceful, almost otherworldly place to relax ahead of the excitement that was awaiting us at Stadio Olimpico just a few hours later.
Heading downstream to Trastevere and the Orto di Botanico.
Due to Covid-restrictions, everyone attending the England v Ukraine match was given a designated entry time with their ticket and mine happened to be 6.30pm – very early considering the kick-off wasn’t until 9pm. We were treated to an awkward set by the tournament DJ (Euro-trance was his speciality) and some football jugglers but at least they showed the highlights of the Czech Republic v Denmark game on the big screens. I’m not sure the stadium was quite prepared for how thirsty the England fans would be and very soon the bars had huge queues by them and the poor guys whose job it is to wander around the stadium selling drinks and snacks would be accosted as soon as they came back to the stand and would sell out again and have to refill pretty much instantly. Soon the choruses of ‘Three Lions’ began to ring out across the England section of the stadium, whilst the opposite end gradually filled up with the yellow shirts of the Ukrainian fans.
There was a great atmosphere in the stadium as it got busier and we met people who had travelled to Rome from across mainland Europe, and even one lad originally from near Middlesbrough who’d made it over from Dubai in time. There was a group of Anglo-German healthcare workers who had decided to fly over from Frankfurt that day and were returning the same night and my English mate Jamie was also flying back to Vienna at 4am, straight after the match. Whilst the newspapers made much of the “ragtag band of teachers, lawyers and waiters” (to quote a headline in The Sunday Times) who would be cheering England on in Rome, the mood became increasingly raucous and noisy, particularly after the three goals in the second half went in.
Inside Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Saturday night, including shots of the players celebrating Harry Maguire’s headed goal and Harry Kane leading the applause to the England fans.
Enough has already been written about the finer details of the England v Ukraine game itself, the team’s slow-build performance in the tournament so far and the possibility of the team reaching their first major final in 55 years. However, in summary, the first half performance was efficient but not thrilling – Harry Kane’s early goal after four minutes settling some initial nerves. Ukraine had a few half-chances towards the end of the half but we were never really in danger of conceding.
The team turned up the heat in the second half though and Harry Maguire’s header was a real thunderbolt; we had a great view of it as we were sat right above where Luke Shaw’s assisting free-kick was taken from. It was great to see Jadon Sancho getting his first start of the Euros on the right and Jordan Henderson’s first-ever England goal for number four too. Kane led the players on a lap of honour at the end of the game and even the unused substitutes like the plucky Phil Foden and Jack Grealish joined him in their tracksuits too. Foden’s newly-bleached peroxide barnet making him unmistakeable – even from the stadium’s furthest seats. Ukraine didn’t provide the most challenging of opposition so perhaps it makes sense to keep the flair players in peak condition for the next match against Denmark.
Another rendition of ‘Three Lions’ at Stadio Olimpico on Saturday night.
Stadio Olimpico is a quite long way from the centre of Rome and post-match the 2,500 travelling England fans dispersed in several different directions very quickly. However, we still had a few beers after the game but it was nothing compared to the celebrations after the Italy win the night before and the scenes in the alleys around Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori.
Sunday was spent exploring the Villa Borghese park just above the Piazza del Popolo, a quick walk around the Pantheon area again and then lunch at a great restaurant I had found on Thursday evening in the Prati district called 3 Quarti. Reasonably-priced, off the tourist trail and busy with mainly locals, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting Rome (they also have another restaurant in Roma Nord). Thursday’s dish of choice was the classic Roman dish Maccheronici alla gricia and spicy sautéed cicoriaas a side and lunch on Sunday was courgette flower stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies and cacio e tre pepe (three peppers – black, white and pink).
The boating lake at Villa Borghese and the delicious fare at 3 Quarti on Via Attilio Regolo in the Prati district of Rome.
So, my first trip to Rome didn’t turn out exactly how I imagined it would be. I walked on average 11 miles per day, drank quite a lot of beer and tried to cram as much into a three-night stay as physically possible – and that’s without starting on the football. It was great fun though, a real adrenaline rush getting the tickets so close to the match and good to also catch-up with some familiar faces.
I’ll be back in Rome before not too long but next time, will look forward to spending some time in the more under-the-radar neighbourhoods of Ostiense (a formerly industrial district now full of bars, galleries, museums and street art), Parioli (a leafy, well-heeled suburb of Northern Rome) and San Lorenzo (the buzzy student area where bottles of Peroni apparently still cost €1). Another image of Rome that is embedded in my mind as much as the ancient architecture and numerous Baroque church spires is that of the distinctive stone pines (also, known as the Parasol or Umbrella pine). They are everywhere – even in the city centre and are very much an iconic emblem of the city. Until next time. A dopo Roma.
Rome’s distinctive stone pines.
The sunset over the River Tiber near Prati on Thursday evening.
In my last post, I waxed lyrical about Jamboree; a unique venue that started life in the Cable Street Studios complex in Limehouse and has recently announced its return to the Kings Cross area of London.
“Every now and then, you find a music venue that has a certain special aura and is simply unlike any other you’ve been to before. Sometimes it’s unique in its interior or location, sometimes it’s the warmth and generosity of the people running the place and other times it’s the programming of the events and the venue’s cultural or historical significance.Jamboree in Limehouse was one of those.”
‘The return of Jamboree’ (Set Your Own Scene, 22nd February 2021)
I want to now shine a spotlight on some of the other special venues that have particularly stood out to me over the years, either from playing gigs at them myself or watching as a punter. Here is a snapshot of ten that immediately spring to mind from Bari to Bedford, via LA and Pune, Maharashtra.
I’ve included links wherever possible to the venues in question – please do take a look and find out more about them! They need all the support they can get after this pandemic year.
On stage at Clwb Ifor Bach with The Screenbeats. May 2007 (photo: Ed Salter).
I had been reading about Cardiff’s legendary ‘Clwb’ (also affectionately known locally as ‘The Welsh Club’) for years prior to going to university in the city and it lived up to expectations as the beating heart of the city’s alternative music scene. For at least the first year of university, the highlight of my week was going to The Dudes Abide night on Fridays where the DJ was usually Gary Anderson who also ran the hallowed Cardiff indie-pop night Twisted by Design at the nearby Dempsey’s (now bizarrely Gareth Bale’s sports bar Elevens) on Saturdays and Cardiff’s famous rugby pub the City Armson Thursdays. Through regularly going to these nights as an 18-year-old I discovered Belle & Sebastian’s back catalogue, became obsessed with The Supremes and tracks like ‘The Rat’ by The Walkmen, ‘Happy Together’ by The Turtles and ‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth’ by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah became as ubiquitous to my ears as commercial radio’s airplay of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’ around that same time.
The Welsh Club spanned three floors catering to pretty much every genre possible on various nights of the week. I spent on average six hours a week here between 2005 and 2008 and even met Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr there in 2008 after one of his first gigs as a new member of The Cribs at the nearby Student’s Union. I was a little tongue-tied to really say much to him other than ask for a photo but I had a better chat with Ryan Jarman from The Cribs a year earlier when we were both watching Everett True (the journalist who introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love) and Manics biographer Simon Price DJ in the downstairs room. Ryan remembered an early regional newspaper interview I did with them at the Reading Fez Club back in 2004 and the main topic of conversation was how passé and justplainwrong the current Sex Pistols reunion was (The Cribs had recently supported them at Brixton Academy).
Now Clwb is the subject of some exciting new expansion plans involving the venue taking over the derelict building next door. Hopefully these plans will cement Womanby Street’s position as Cardiff’s cultural quarter (as well as the longstanding hub of the annual Sŵn Festival) for many decades to come.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street, Cardiff. 2) The downstairs floor during Swn Festival 2012. 3.) Telegram getting ready to play a Jack Rocks show at Clwb for Swn Festival 2015.
I stumbled upon the Shisha Jazz Café whilst staying in Pune, Maharashtra for a few days in November 2019. Part of the ABC Farms complex in the hip Koregaon Park district of the city that actually contains a couple of live music venues, the café was one of my favourite hangouts from my trip to India and provided some much-needed calm after a week of rushing around hectic Mumbai. Part-jazz café, part-jungle treehouse; there were several huge trees growing through its floor, rustic tapestries and kitsch lanterns hanging from the rafters and its wooden walls were adorned with pictures of the likes of Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans and Sun Ra. It is also home to the Pune International Jazz Festival. It’ll be one of the first places I head to when I visit Pune again.
A national institution as far as independent music venues go, Band On The Wall on Swan Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter has been hosting live music since at least the 1930s. The venue got its name from the fact that the musicians originally played on a raised stage halfway up the pub’s wall! The venue has had a long association with jazz, blues, folk and punk and today prides itself on hosting an eclectic array of artists from a wide range of genres. I saw tabla player Saleel Tembe perform there in 2018 and before the concert he hosted an interactive workshop with the audience – that’s just the kind of place Band On The Wall is. Now a registered charity, the venue was awarded £3.2 million in 2007 by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform into a music venue for the 21st century.
Saleel Tembe at Band on The Wall, August 2018 and a band quite literally playing on the wall at the venue circa 1946 (photo: The Band On The Wall archive).
Forever immortalised on screen as the location for the filming of Super Hans’ notorious “juice cleanse stag do” scene in the cult British comedy series Peep Show,Passing Clouds was a community-run arts venue off the Kingsland Road in Dalston, East London.
Opened in 2006; the venue hosted musical nights, as well as community-led initiatives including the ‘Permaculture Picturehouse’, healing and self-development workshops and swing dancing and instrument lessons. Housed in the former printworks of the Hackney Gazette, two notable gigs at Passing Clouds for me were Sun Ra’s Arkestra led by the then 91-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen and the Brixton-based Effra Hall Jazz Band. There was a blizzard during the latter gig and a subsequent snow fight ensued afterwards, culminating with my friends and I being branded “bumbaclarts” by an angry Rastafarian gentleman who was accidentally hit by a stray snowball whilst enjoying a smoke outside.
Passing Clouds was sadly closed down and boarded up in 2016 and is now The Jago.
In a way, Bari’s equivalent of London’s former Passing Clouds venue, Ex Caserma Liberata is a squatted space located in the city’s former Rossani Barracks. Whatever your political persuasion is regarding people squatting in derelict buildings, it’s difficult to argue that Ex Caserma Liberata isn’t a hive of creativity and home to a friendly and welcoming community. In non-Covid times; the space consists of a music venue that hosts both bands and DJs, a permaculture garden, impressive sculptures and street art, workshop spaces and even an indoor skate ramp. It hosts everything from punk festivals to dub nights to poetry readings and political meetings. The site is set to be transformed by the authorities into an urban park and public library in the not-too-distant future at a reputed cost of €450 million so the Barese need to make the most of this unique space whilst they still can.
Ex Caserma Liberata and one of Bari’s most interesting emerging bands Strebla performing there in 2019.
In 2007, a huge Victorian pub on the corner of Effra Road and Brixton Water Lane which had previously been known as The George Canning and then The Hobgoblin became Hootananny. Now run by a Scottish family, ‘Hoots’ dedicated itself to live music, particularly (but definitely not limited to) the world music side of things. You never know quite what you’ll see when you go to Hootannany but on a Friday or Saturday night it’s guaranteed to be lively. Boasting a large hostel on the upper floors (what a great idea if you were a music-loving traveller) and a huge garden out the front, you can choose between whether you soak up the music indoors or sit and enjoy a cold beer and some excellent Caribbean food on the benches outside. I’ve had some of my best nights out in London here and it was also a packed place to watch the England football team’s unexpected run to the semi-finals World Cup 2018.
I’ve written about seeing Berlin’s Ellen Allien at the Sound Department Club just outside Taranto before, but this is a truly unique place. Located about five miles outside of the city near to the Italian naval docks and hidden out-of-sight amongst olive groves and Mediterranean scrubland, the venue appears to be entirely made from shipping containers. There were two separate live rooms; one that was low-lit and a distinctly industrial affair and the other which was brighter and more house-flavoured. At about 3am, the club’s security staff winched up the metal sides of the venue to transform it into an open-air space and an hour later, the roof slid back to let in the early morning Pugliese sunlight.
Tbilisi DJ Newa’s Boiler Room set live from Sound Department, Taranto. December 2019.
Located in LA’s at-times, self-consciously hip Silver Lake neighbourhood, The Satellite made its name in the 1990s as the famed Spaceland venue. Its first ever gig in 1995 featured The Foo Fighters and Beck, it hosted early shows by The White Stripes and The Silversun Pickups and it was the venue choice for Arthur Lee & Love’s comeback show after Lee’s release from prison in 2001. It also starred in the Jim Carey film ‘Yes Man’ as the venue where Zooey Deschanel’s character’s band played their live shows. We saw The Bulls there who played a bemusing shoegaze cover of ‘Alright’ by Supergrass – I think we were in the minority in the audience by actually being familiar with the original version.
The Satellite was quite similar to many British venues of a similar size but everything was just nicer, albeit in a slightly sanitised, yet typically Los Angelan way. The toilets were clean and didn’t smell, the floor wasn’t sticky and awash with stale beer and there was even a pool table at the back of the room for in-between bands. Instead of a greasy burger van being stationed outside, there was of course, a converted silver Airstream caravan serving up delicious tacos. Once the epicentre of Silver Lake’s alternative music scene, there are now plans afoot to transform The Satellite into a restaurant.
From sunny LA to Bedford. My old band The Shake was offered a show at The Angel back in summer 2006. The venue on Bedford Broadway had hosted Oasis back in 1994 (it was still extremely proud of this) and was enjoying a new lease of life after a refurbishment and recently hosting Razorlight whilst they were still on their ascendency (and still credible). We had been due to support The Heights, a former Guardian New Band of the Week and Best Before Records signing. However, they had pulled out a couple of weeks before and we were moved up the bill to become the impromptu headliner.
Despite most of the audience originally buying their tickets to see The Heights, it was one of the best shows we ever did and we played to a packed and receptive room. Despite Bedford not exactly being a hotbed for rock and roll, the venue was clearly a labour of love and had a great soundsystem. We got paid, given free beer and even got a cheery hug from the promoter after the show! Sadly, The Angel shut down a few years later (it had stiff competition from the long-established Esquires venue around the corner in the town) and is now Doorstep Dolci, a café specialising in “American-Belgian Waffles, oven-baked cookie dough, artisan gelato and milkshakes.”
The former location of The Angel music venue, Bedford.
The Troubadour on Old Brompton Road, West London is best-known in music circles as being the venue for Bob Dylan’s first ever UK gig in 1962. Opened in 1954 as a coffee house, it was one of the city’s prominent folk venues of the time hosting performances from Joni Mitchell, Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Sandy Denny, as well as the more raucous Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Watts, Sammy Davis Jr (slightly more raucous) and Led Zeppelin – the latter would jam at the club after shows at the nearby Earls Court Arena. Today, it retains many of its original features and décor but has been expanded to include a restaurant / café, outdoor dining space, small art gallery as well as the 135-capacity downstairs venue. I played here in 2010 and contemporary artists to come through its doors in recent years include Florence Welch, Ellie Goulding, Adele, Jamie T and Ed Sheeran, with its small size making it ideal for showcases. The Troubadour was also the inspiration for the Los Angeles venue of the same name, with it even copying the distinctive typeface above the door. Time to put its London counterpart on the musical map again.
The Trobadour’s interior, virtually untouched since 1954 and Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor playing the club in 2013.
Every now and then, you find a music venue that has a certain special aura and is simply unlike any other you’ve been to before. Sometimes it’s unique in its interior or location, sometimes it’s the warmth and generosity of the people running the place and other times it’s the programming of the events and the venue’s cultural or historical significance.
Jamboree in Limehouse was one of those. It was the live music venue for the Cable Street Studios complex; an 88,000-square foot former sweet factory that was built by Batgers Confectionery in the 1860s. Despite the site being worth a small fortune to potential developers, its owner was a keen believer in the power of the arts and culture and by 2011 it had become a thriving artistic community consisting of over 200 individual artists’ studios, a mosque and a transgender nightclub, happily co-existing side-by-side and the Jamboree venue.
The old Jamboree venue, Limehouse, London.
Many of the artist studios also doubled up as residential dwellings; the workspace and the kitchenette area on the ground level and then a wooden mezzanine above housing the sleeping quarters. My old school friend Charlie spent a couple of years there and it was always fascinating to go and see him and meet the various characters who also called the studios home.
On one occasion Charlie organised for the Imam of Cable Street’s mosque to give a talk to the other residents about the customs of Islam and there would also be frequent ‘Open Studio’ days where the complex would open its doors to the public. The artists would welcome you into their studios to view their latest work and there were also many performance art spectacles. One performance that stands out in my mind was an artist dropping pieces of broken glass down a stone staircase on piece at a time. Remarkably, he had worked out that each piece had a different pitch and the result was surprisingly musical.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) Cable Street Studios, Limehouse (photo: Ewan Munro). 2.) The old entrance to Jamboree (photo: Ewan Munro). 3.) My friends Roger and Hanna outside Jamboree, December 2013. 4.) Another view of the live room at Jamboree.
Charlie and I had become good mates around the age of 14 when we formed a four-piece guitar band called Felix Mandelson. We covered The Vines and Red Hot Chili Peppers and our own songs were a perfect blend of naivety and well-meaning pretention. “New Era” (written by moi and our rhythm guitarist Mike) paid homage to Che Guevara and contained the chorus line; “It’s the beginning of a new era for us // We’ve got to stop the pigs from exploiting what we’ve got”. On the other hand, one of Charlie’s songs “Enemies to the Peace” quoted verse from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Charlie has since gone on to be a successful actor on both stage and screen and the last time I caught up with him, he had been touring Europe in Dracula playing Jonathan Harker.
Anyway, the evening I discovered Jamboree, I had taken the DLR over to Limehouse after work (I was living and working in Islington at the time) to catch up with Charlie over a couple of beers and we had decided to check out what was going on across the courtyard. We lucked out that night as it turned out that Simo Lagnawi was performing – one of the main proponents of traditional Gnawa music in London. Simo, originally of Amazigh (Berber) origin had spent several years travelling around Morocco studying Gnawa music, as well as Ahwash chanting before relocating to London. He has since set up the London School of Gnawa in the city’s East End.
Simo Lagnawi performing at Jamboree.
It was a captivating concert with Lagnawi being joined onstage by two other Moroccan musicians whilst accompanying himself on the guimbri, a three-stringed instrument made from stretched camel skin and goat gut. The music was strangely hypnotic with complex polyrhythms and syncopated, repeating riffs and chants. Everything was kept in time by one of the musicians frantically playing the qraqeb – iron castanet-like finger cymbals. There were only around 50 people present in Jamboree that evening but everyone was silent whilst the band was playing; fully absorbed in their music.
Simo Lagnawi performing at the V&A Museum, London in 2013 – around the time we also saw him play at Jamboree.
Jamboree was a unique venue too; a cross between a bohemian café and Tony Hornecker’s pop-up restaurant-cum-art installation The Pale Blue Door. The stage and the venue’s windows were surrounded by velvet drapes, comfortable sofas and arm chairs were dotted around the room and there was art from some of Cable Street’s artists adorning every wall. The venue took a chance on booking artists not usually looked at by more mainstream music venues too – Eastern European folk, calypso and zouk performances, Celtic roots music and gypsy jazz. Charlie mentioned that Jonathan Richman of The Modern Lovers fame had even performed a secret acoustic gig there too.
Unfortunately, in 2018 just shy of its tenth anniversary Jamboree was forced to close its doors after being served notice by Cable Street Studios’ new landlord Sudbury Properties. After a temporary stay on Three Colt Street, also in Limehouse, it shut its doors at the beginning of 2020, potentially for good.
I was overjoyed, however, to receive an email last week announcing that Jamboree would be returning in 2021 with a new home in Kings Cross, North London. Kings Cross – as recently as a decade ago, one of the last undeveloped parts of Central London and a quasi-red light district – is fast becoming the destination of choice for the creative industries. As well as behemoth companies such as Google, Facebook, communications group Havas, PRS for Music and Universal Music now calling the area home, there are some much more interesting developments happening just beneath the surface.
For example, the music start-up incubator community Tileyard is home to several emerging challengers in the music and tech space and the likes of Mark Ronson and Sir Antony Gormley even have studios there. The Spiritland audiophile bar opened a few years ago on Stable Street and boasts that its huge, bespoke soundsystem is “the best in London” (I’ve been there a few times and it is pretty special – as are the huge speakers inside each individual bathroom cubicle). The team behind Omeara in Flat Iron Square (led by Mumford & Sons musician Ben Lovett) opened the 600-capacity Lafayette venue in February 2020 and although its launch has been disrupted by the pandemic, it’s set to reopen later this year. Although one night there will set you back around £200, the newly-opened Standard Hotel just off Euston Road and owned by the same group behind LA’s notorious den of iniquity the Chateau Marmont, contains its very own venue and has promised regular music events and “cultural happenings”.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) Tileyard, Kings Cross. 2.) Inside the newly-opened Lafayette. 3.) Inside The Standard hotel. 4.) The prized sound system at Spiritland, Stable Street.
These new venues join the already well-established bastions of live music in Kings Cross such as The Scala (where the iconic cover to Iggy & The Stooges’ Raw Power album was shot), the famous grassroots venue Water Rats, arts café Drink Shop Do and electronic music club The Egg. The Guardian and The Observer newspapers have, of course also been based on York Way, Kings Cross since 2008 too.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) The Egg, York Way. 2.) The Water Rats, Grays Inn Road (photo: Adam Bruderer). 3.) The iconic sign outside The Scala (photo: Ian Muttoo). 4.) The front cover of Iggy & The Stooges’ ‘Raw Power’ (taken at The Scala) 5.) Drink Shop Do, Caledonian Road.
Whilst there’s no denying that 2020 has been the toughest year on record for the performing arts, there are also some encouraging signs outside of the Kings Cross bubble. The Music Venue Trust confirmed at the beginning of February that 13 venues on its ‘danger list’ had already been saved from imminent closure. Only last week, the creation of the first-ever trade body for the live music industry LIVEwas announced to widespread support. Many venues such as Band on The Wall in Manchester and The Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth have used this time to carry out essential repairs to their venues with The Wedge relaying the wooden floor in its main room.
Repairs taking place at The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth. October 2020.
Even closer to (my adopted) home in Bari in Puglia, there are some green shoots of recovery appearing too. The 1920s Art Deco venue Kursaal Santa Lucia on the city’s Lungomare (‘seafront’ to you and I) is set to reopen in spring this year after a lengthy refurbishment and shows are already starting to be tentatively booked again in venues such as Teatro Petruzzelli and Teatro Kismet.
The soon-to-be-reopened Kursaal Santa Lucia, Bari.
Hopefully the post-Covid age will see a Belle Époque-style resurgence for the live music sector and a surge in creative pursuits in general. Watch this space.
The story of The Middle Earth; London’s radical first underground club
Pre-Covid (will we refer to this time as ‘P.C.’ in years to come?), I lived for going to gigs and I’ve always found live music venues and their history fascinating. My sister Rachel helped kick-start this obsession as a teenager when she bought me the book ‘Rock and Roll London’ by Max Wooldridge – containing a foreword by the provocative Sex Pistols and New York Dolls impresario Malcolm McLaren.
I spent two weeks staying with her in Bermondsey, South London in 2002 and again in 2004 whilst doing work experience at NME magazine, then based in King’s Reach Tower, Waterloo. At NME, the workies would be allowed to leave the office at 4.30pm but my sister wouldn’t finish work in Covent Garden until nearer 6pm so I’d use this hour and a half to wander around Central London with the ‘Rock and Roll London’ book in hand tracking down the city’s various musical landmarks.
‘Rock and Roll London’ by Max Wooldridge
King’s Reach Tower, the former home of NME. Now refurbished and known as ‘South Bank Tower’
From the Sex Pistols’ notorious squat at 6 Denmark Street to Syd Barrett’s former pad on Earlham Street to the site of Trident Studios (where Bowie recorded ‘Ziggy Stardust’, amongst countless others) on St Anne’s Court in Soho, making a pilgrimage to these hallowed haunts was a fun way to pass the time and it helped me to become familiar with the more obscure streets of Soho, Fitzrovia, Mayfair and Covent Garden. Ironically, these areas would be where I would spend much of my PR career ten years later.
I secretly hoped that some of the musical magic of the city would rub off on me and I began spending increasing amounts of time on Denmark Street (London’s Tin Pan Alley) after finishing work at NME, trying out various guitars that I had no intention (or financial means, being only 15 at the time) of buying. The assistants in shops like Andy’s Guitars, Macari’s and Wunjo, many of them aspiring musicians themselves, didn’t seem to mind though and were very accommodating; courteously getting down the vintage Fender Jaguar or rare Gibson Melody Maker that I’d asked to test out from the display wall. One evening after work, I spotted Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland out shopping for guitars on Denmark Street. Although personally not a huge fan, in 2002 they had just released their 10 x platinum album ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ and were fast on their way to becoming the stadium band we all know today so I figured out that I was in the right place.
Denmark Street today looking towards St Giles High Street and the Google offices.
One of the many guitar emporiums on the street.
I was also fascinated by former punk clubs The Roxy on Neal Street, The Vortex on Wardour Street and Louise’s on Poland Street, as well as the early folk and skiffle venues Les Cousins on Greek Street and the 2i’s Coffee Bar on Old Compton Street. On Wardour Street, I tracked down both the influential jazz, R&B and calypso club The Flamingo and the radical, unofficial HQ of the New Romantic movement The WAG Club, as well as the three incarnations of the world-famous Marquee Club on Oxford Street, Wardour Street and finally Charing Cross Road.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) Dave Vanian of The Damned onstage at The Roxy (photo: Derek Ridgers). 2.) The queue outside The Roxy on Neal Street. 3.) Siouxsie & The Banshees at The Vortex (photo: Ray Stevenson) 4.) The Sex Pistols outside their Denmark Street squat5.) A flyer for The Vortex featuring The Buzzcocks, The Fall and John Cooper Clarke 6.) Malcom McLaren, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Marco Pirroni and pals get the drinks in at Louise’s, Poland Street.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) Kids in mod attire outside The Flamingo on Wardour Street 2.) The entrance to The WAG Club 3.) Bill Kent at the 2i’s Coffee Bar, Old Compton Street 4.) The Marquee on Wardour Street, Soho in 1975 5.) and 6.) Donovan and a young Paul Simon perform at Les Cousins on Greek Street (photo: Ian Anderson).
Then there was The Middle Earth at 43 King Street in Covent Garden – London’s first ‘underground’ venue and prior to that, England’s first-ever boxing club, before closing its doors in 1936. Housed in the large basement of the palatial 18th century Baroque mansion Russell House, the oldest remaining building in Covent Garden Piazza (built in 1717 for Admiral Russell, the First Earl of Orford), The Middle Earth for a short period in the mid-late 1960s was the most exciting hippie club in London. The direct successor to the UFO Club(“U-Fo”, to those in the know) on Tottenham Court Road, the club’s Saturday night house DJ was future Radio 1 broadcaster John Peel and it hosted shows by illuminati such as Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Electric Prunes, Ike & Tina Turner, Marc Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex, Soft Machine, Tim Buckley, The Who, The Byrds (featuring Gram Parsons), Jefferson Airplane, Fairport Convention, Zoot Money and Captain Beefheart.
A selection of line-up posters for The Middle Earth including The Doors at its later home of The Roundhouse in Camden Town.
During the day, the cellar that played host to The Middle Earth doubled up as a storage space used by the nearby fruit and vegetable market. By evening, the stench of rotting fruit and veg, combined with the fumes from the club’s numerous incense burners was said to be somewhat intoxicating. Bizarrely, the venue’s ‘bar’ sold mainly apples, rather than alcoholic drinks. The club was famous for its floor-to-ceiling film projections, liquid slides and light shows, and hosted poetry and plays, as well as live music. One notable production was by The Tribe of the Psychedelic Mushroom who performed a play based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Far out, man.
John Peel introducing Marc Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex (a nascent version of T. Rex) onstage at The Middle Earth. ‘Sarah Crazy Child’. November 1967.
As with the UFO, The Middle Earth’s lifespan was a brief one. Its doors usually opened at around 10pm with revellers finally emerging into the Covent Garden daylight around 8am and the police were highly suspicious of these bleary-eyed hippies who had been spending all night down in Russell House’s basement. The psychedelic club was finally closed down in 1968 after a police drugs raid, during which a curious device known as ‘The Trip Machine’ was dismantled and then confiscated. The team behind The Middle Earth went on to host events in a former Victorian railway turning shed, The Roundhouse in Camden Town. Acts to perform at these events would include The Doors, playing their only non-festival UK shows and the first gig by Led Zeppelin in 1968.
When I first visited 43 King Street in 2002, the building was still empty and in a semi-derelict state, but it has now been restored to its former glory and the upper ground floor has been taken over by the flagship store of high-end Brazilian shoe brand Melissa. Its four-bedroom penthouse flat occupying the top two floors was recently listed for £7.75 million.
Russell House, 43 King Street, Covent Garden. Home to ‘The Middle Earth until 1968.
The former entrance to The Middle Earth.
The Roxy on Neal Street, once the stamping ground of The Clash, Siouxsie & The Banshees and renegade film-makers Don Letts and Julien Temple is now the flagship London branch of Speedo swimwear. The Vortex at 203 Wardour Street is part of the Simmons Bar chain. Louise’s is the site of bougie private members club and cocktail bar Milk & Honey. The location of The Flamingo and in later years, The WAG Club is now home to Irish pub chain O’Neill’s (although its upstairs function room is called ‘The Flamingo Room’ in a nod to the building’s history). Only the 2i’s Coffee Bar has stayed vaguely connected to its musical roots. In 2021, it is the retro-themed Poppie’s Fish & Chips restaurant (I spent some time freelancing in an office opposite) but as you head down to its basement-level dining room, a bright neon sign declares; ‘The 2i’s Coffee Bar; Home to the Stars’.
Poppies’ Fish & Chip Shop on the site of the former 2i’s Coffee Bar on Old Compton Street.
90 Wardour Street, the location of the Marquee Club’s soho incarnation (now a high-end restaurant and luxury loft apartments).
However, cities are constantly changing and evolving and different areas and movements will pick up the mantle when it comes to clubs, the arts and creative industries. As Kierkegaard once noted;
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Soren Kierkegaard
We can take great inspiration from places like The Middle Earth and The WAG Club and the counterculture scenes they spawned but can only learn and build from them as we look towards future generations.
In my next post, I’ll be looking at why despite the huge economic hardship caused by the pandemic, it’s not all doom and gloom for London’s live music circuit.
The WAG Club on Wardour Street became one of London’s coolest nightspots in the 1980s and was a fixture of the city’s alternative nightlife until finally closing its doors in 2001. The club was the brainchild of Chris Sullivan, a dandily-dressed Welshman and soul music obsessive and a genuine community formed around the club. In 2008 and 2009 my old band The Screenbeats played a couple of shows at Chris’ stylish new Cardiff venue Tabu. The most memorable gig was a Primal Scream aftershow party; we didn’t go onstage until 1am and playing to an audience including Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Barrie Cadogan and bizarrely Kermit from Black Grape was surreal to say the least.
Clockwise (from top left); 1.) The WAG Club community celebrating its 10th anniversary 2.) The WAG’s patrons included David Bowie, Naomi Campbell, Boy George, KRS-One and Neneh Cherry (pictured) 3.) and 4.) Photos of some of The WAG’s regulars 5.) – 7.) The club’s distinctive interior .
It was the day of my 32nd birthday and a warm Saturday in June. However, rather than celebrating with friends in a Brixton beer garden, I was in the press room at Wembley Stadium, North London. I had spent the day in my then-role as PR Director, looking after music and entertainment journalists at a huge pop concert hosted by one of the UK’s biggest commercial radio station groups. We were now having to contend with members of a well-known MOR American pop-rock group throwing a tantrum because, a) they had decided they didn’t want to speak to the assembled throng of media who had been waiting patiently for them after all, and b) the elevator that had been called to take them back down to their dressing room on the ground floor wasn’t arriving “fast enough” for their liking. I decided it was time for a change in scenery.
Behind-the-scenes at Wembley that day
In January, after living and working in London for 11 years, I moved to Bari and began a new life as an English Teacher at the second largest language school in Italy. The school in question has 2,000 students and 50 teachers. To say it’s been a step out of my comfort zone would be an understatement but so far, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have found the work very rewarding.
Prior to applying for the role, my main previous knowledge of Bari was through the legendary 1990s Channel 4 show Gazzetta Football Italia. Also, the fact that the city’s football team was famous for being the first club that English midfielder David Platt signed for during his spell in Italy – indeed the £5.5 million fee S.S.C. Bari paid for him was a British transfer record at the time. Platt would leave Bari one season later to join Juventus and later Sampdoria in Genoa.
Bari has lived up to its reputation as the “Paris of the Mediterranean” though and is a very liveable city and a great place to immerse yourself in Southern Italian culture. Before the COVID-19 lockdown and in the brief return to normality during the summer, I have been able to do a fair amount of exploring. Whilst Bari Vecchia (Bari’s old town) is very quaint and a great place to lose yourself, it is also somewhat now oriented at tourists with its many restaurants, bars and novelty shops. Below are some of my favourite, more off-the-beaten track places in the city. Let’s hope they are all able to resume normal service in the not-too-distant future.
Situated 5 km from the centre of Bari, Stadio San Nicola is the home of S.S.C. Bari. Built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup and designed by the esteemed architect Renzo Piano, whose other creations include The Centre Pompidou in Paris and London’s The Shard, the stadium is a stunning feat of engineering. Designed to resemble a flower, its 58,270 seats are arranged into 26 concrete ‘petals’ which gives the illusion that the stands are floating. The changing rooms are under the pitch and accessed via a door hidden in the turf and the stadium is known locally as ‘The Spaceship’. It’s quite the sight from the ring road around Bari – particularly in the ‘golden’ hour just before sunset.
The ultras in Curva Nord during S.S.C. Bari vs F.C. Rieti. January 2020.
With S.S.C. Bari now playing in Serie C, the third tier of Italian football, Stadio San Nicola is sadly rarely full these days. However, watching a game here is still an experience, particularly in the lively Curva Nord where the club’s passionate ‘ultras’ stand, thump drums and sing throughout the match. Bari’s veteran star striker Mirco Antenucci also spent two years played for Leeds United in the UK, as well as for various Serie A teams. Antonio Conte also cut his management teeth here in 2007-2009. Tickets cost as little as €10 and buses go direct from outside Bari Centrale station.
Located in the former Rossani Barracks on Via Giulio Petroni, Ex Caserma Liberata is one of a kind. Home since 2014 to a community of artists, environmentalists and free thinkers, this sprawling space has been lovingly decorated with some fantastic street art and boasts an urban garden, a music and theatre venue and even an indoor skateboard ramp. Check the Facebook page for the latest live events that range from poetry readings, punk festivals and dub and reggae parties.
Part-arts centre, part-café, part-workshop, part-studio, Officina degli Esordi is situated between the Murat and Libertà neighbourhoods and is one of Bari’s creative hubs. An impressive futuristic-looking space with lots of glass, steel and floor-to-ceiling windows, the venue hosts music, theatre, cinema and visual art events, as well as workshops during the day. There’s also a sizeable, green roof terrace and bar. I checked out the Italian musician Edda here in February – formerly the frontman of cult Milan group Ritmo Tribale.
Prinz Zaum is one of my favourite finds in the Madonnella neighbourhood. It is a café, bookstore and performance space – often hosting acoustic musical performance and book readings. They also have a photo wall dedicated to David Bowie (it feels very familiar as Brixton, my home in London is famous for being his birthplace and has a large mural of him on the high street), board games and funnily enough, some English ales, such as the Wytchwood Brewery’s Hobgoblin on draught. A great place to hang out with like-minded souls or to get your head down and do some work during the day.
“Kursaal” is a word deriving from German meaning “a public building in which entertainment is provided”. Kursaal Santa Lucia was built in Bari in 1925 overlooking Largo Adua and the Adriatic Sea. It served for many decades as a much-loved theatre and cinema before becoming derelict. For a period in the last century, Bari was known as “the city with too many theatres” with Teatro Petruzzelli, Teatro Piccinni, Teatro Margherita and Kursaal Santa Lucia all competing for business.
A fine example of late-Liberty style architecture, the building is currently being faithfully restored with the help of Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI – the Italian equivalent of English Heritage) and both its main theatre and upstairs function room are set to reopen to the public in 2021. It’ll be exciting to see Bari re-gaining a 1,000-capacity arts venue in the new year!
My go-to pizzeria in Bari, Il Desiderio is a traditional neighbourhood restaurant on Via Dalmazia in the heart of Madonnella. The menu has over 50 different kinds of pizzas to choose from, all made with fresh ingredients. Many of them will set you back just €4 or €5. The owners are very friendly and bruschetta will often be served ‘on the house’ as a starter. There’s a takeaway option too (doing a roaring trade during the current situation) and many customers choose to enjoy a €1 ice cold Peroni whilst they wait for their pizza to be cooked to order.
Pizzeria Il Desiderio.
Inside Pizzeria Il Desiderio.
Let’s hope that Bari and its independent businesses are able to get back on their feet soon!
