Portugal’s beacon of swing

Portugal’s beacon of swing

The Guardian
Monday October 2 1995
European news

by: Richard Wilde

I have touched real stardom this week. Not for me, the aging, has-beens, the wannabes, the famous for 15 minutes or the never-weres.

Bobby 'n Roger belie the Warhol aphorism - for Bobby 'n Roger are timeless. Talent of this magnitude is not sonic by-gone memory nor a fleeting, illicit moment but an enduring. and immortal life experience.

Amidst the gold-laden, silver-locked Essex set they are demi-gods; the finest of their - and any other - generation. As they strut their stuff - and what heady stuff it is - no-one in their presence can fail to recognise the exquisiteness of their genre.

"Bliss was it in that dawn" (3.30 am to be precise) "to be alive and to be young (again) was heaven". Visionary echoes of sixties California, seventies Woodstock, eighties Glastonbury - and now, nineties Carvoeiro, bring joy to the heart, tears to the eye and rot to the gut. It is a potent brew - and the brandy's cheap, too.

To hear Bobby blast a hole in "Blue Suede Shoes" is to experience the boundary at which he ceases to be a mere musician. Roger rambles reassuringly up to the "Stairway to Heaven" reassuringly with hardly a stumble on the way.

To watch Dino reduce "American Pie" to apple crumble is to know the difference magic and mediocrity, Martini and Madrona. Wild Things are mere Troglodytes by comparison.

The false prophets who predicted the demise of rock failed to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of Don McLean’s precipitously poignant rock requiem. The music never died.

It rocks on forever at the Jailhouse, its soul uplifted for those who seek to satisfy their spiritual salvation free from the glitzy glamour of faded alumni.

History would have us believe that the Cavern and Brixton Academy are the only true sources of great inspiration. But the unquenchable endeavour to excel never dies in the human spirit and out of this voyage of the soul a new Mecca is born.

So goodbye, Carvoeiro. As the silver bird wings its way through the "Tequila Sunrise", "Most of Us are Sad". Life can never be the same again. "Take it easy".

To the Sues add Stus of this world, the message is simple. Fame is transient for mere mortals but not for those touched by the Gods. So free your mind and get down at the Jailhouse. Admission is free - escape at your peril.

Richard Wilde
The Guardian
Monday October 2 1995
European news
 Jailhouse home page: http://jailhouse.vpweb.co.uk/

 Jailhouse advert: www.carvoeiro.com/jailhouse