THE TRIP was as they say in the music biz a bit of a ‘trip’. Four planes in three days is more stressful than trying to watch Arsenal score a good goal! Having a deodorant and marker pen confiscated in London felt like a violation of my human rights. That’s the way of the world it seems right now – paranoia has us all on lockdown. Arriving in Edinburgh, I found my hotel resembled a MacDonald’s queue. I had forgotten this was festival city, a major tourist town. I was also unaware there was a football and rugby match and Robbie ‘wannabee hiphop’ Williams was doing a gig somewhere. The hotel receptionist told me I could not check in til 2, it was 10am and I had not slept all night. Reason being in London, where I had my connecting flight I met up with the very legendary Savvakis Palavakis, the Greek cabby whose status has reached underground cult proportions. Charmed by his wit, with ten hours to kill, he said ‘No problem, I know just the place’. Weaving through the midnight traffic jams – only in London and Cairo do you get this kind of anomaly – I was exposed to Savvakis’ life story while he munched an array of delicacies. Savvakis eventually took me to ‘Jimmy’s’ opposite Ronnie Scotts (RiP) in Soho. “Now Jimmy’s is very famous,” he said “The Rolling Petres [Stones] even put it in a song called ‘You can’t always get what you want’. Jimmy’s is one of the oldest live Greek venues in London. It’s been in operation for 50 years. The only way to describe the place is imagine yourself transplanted back to the 1930s, in an illegal rebetiko den. On guitar and vocals (imagine Buju Banton in Greek) Stelios ‘Dingi Dingis’ with Vasilakis on bouzouki. Amazing – truly amazing – mind blowing. We exited Jimmy’s a few hours later – ears ringing slightly and headed for a Chinese and then back to Heathrow. Savvakis gave me the lowdown on his status again but I had dozed off only to be woken by his shrill voice demanding £200 for the round trip – “with the waiting and the Chinese on me”. Shocked by this I pleaded to split the difference, which surprisingly he accepted, along with my autograph on the receipt book!
EDINBURGH: back to the cultural capital of Scotland or the ‘Athens of the North’. I had a chance to explore the town, albeit bleary eyed, and found some amazing architecture. Walking to pass the time, I got back to the hotel, checked in, showered, and got myself ready to go to the opening of the Art of Record Production Conference. Again I had to walk a long distance (my ordeal with Savvakis had put me off taxis), until I reached St Cecilia’s Hall. Keynote speaker Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Cubanismo and many others) made a passionate speech about the virtues of analog over digital. I found it convincing but somewhat idealistic to the point of being Luddite. Walking back to the hotel I wondered whether the ratio of women to men proclaimed by Savvakis the day before was true about Edinburgh. “It’s five women to one man,” he bleated. I wasn’t moved by the sexist overtones in his quirky voice. Looking around I actually felt it was 30:1 in the opposite direction. And most of the 30 were fairly drunk and hyped up for a bit of ‘bovvah’. I suddenly felt that feeling of ‘alieness’, which had dominated my time in the UK for so many decades – in certain places where if you were a slightly darker shade of pink or white you were at best doomed! Looking straight ahead, I ignored a few testosterone-fuelled comments and went back to the hotel. I hit the pillow like a tree felled to the ground. The next day my presentation on communication in the studio went well and I headed back for London. This time not bumping into Savvakis, I got on the tube, again to pass the time between flights. Witnessing music producer Tony ‘Mutley’ Matthew at Britannia Row Studios do his magic on a Neave Trident mixing desk was simply a joy to the ears and eyes. It was a short but eventful trip. By the way, Savvakis Palavakis will soon be on myspace – more details tba!
CENTENARY: this column is in its 100th edition this week. Originally I thought if I lasted beyond 10 lines it would be an achievement! I’m not sure about making an announcement about issue 1,000, but as long as the CM and you the readers can put up with my ramblings then I’ll be telling it like it is.
