Bradley's Spanish Bar

42-44 Hanway Street, Bloomsbury, London, W1T 1UP

Whenever you meet with some bloke from overseas here in London the selection of the pub to have some drinks almost always ends up asking you about an Spanish pub, somewhere where you may have tapas, Cruzcampo and chorizo. It is shellproof: it always works like that. And you, as the Spaniard you are, have to go again for the same argument: Spanish pubs in London are crap, tapas are pretty overrated Cruzcampo tastes like shit, and well yes, I know a very good place but is in Clapham, then miles away from here.

Thanks to Wessel, who is going out with an Spanish girl, I have overcome this problem with quite a lot of flair, indeed. What about a typical folk Spanish bar, completely stuffed with ‘Sevillanas’, bullfighting posters and any other paraphernalia – with a tiny distinction: music is English enough, beers are English enough, and the atmosphere is English enough.

Well, Bradley’s is the place.

First, its location surely fits everyone. Just beyond Tottenham Court road, five minutes away from Soho. Its location is very likely indeed the reason for its biggest flaw - it is almost always packed, and particularly on the weekends it may feel as it’s not comfy at all inside. Let’s go there in a weekly day, then.

Second, the decoration. It is so ‘cutre’, or bizarre, or however you wanna spell it, that in fact it is sort of lovely. Imagine a pub for tourists in Madrid and you clearly got it. I particularly like the tacky Spanish memorabilia behind the bar… it remembers me Benidorm or some place even worse J.

Third, the music. The jukebox in this place is very likely one of the best in London. It mainly covers British music from the 60s and 70s, and I can promise you that the collection they have is difficult to beat. Add to this an old fashioned jukebox – this is, one of those that physically pick a vinyl from a stack and gently lands it in the player-, and you have a quite hypnotizing experience.

Four, YES, they have Cruzcampo. Like if anybody from Spain northerner than Madrid gives a shit about it. We don’t like it, we don’t care about it, and we prefer Carling. Clear enough?

And finally, about the staff… well, friendly enough everybody. Everybody but the busybody glass collector/traffic nazi who herds customers from the road and tells them where they should stand or not. Arsehole…

Now seriously, the place is a dive. Really small, with two different storeys, the good one for me is the one upstairs, which by the way is the tiniest one. It is there where the jukebox is, and also where some nice sofas can be used. Downstairs there is more space, but the decoration is not that Spanish and it is more about people sit down in chairs and tables, which doesn’t make a very big difference from somewhere else.

The mighty jukebox

Drinks are overprized, as everywhere else in this area in London, and the toilets are the smelliest I have ever been in. They really stink badly, and that may be a problem if you are planning to have quite a lot and you are sort of picky about this kind of thing. As I’m not, I don’t really bother.

And finally… any Spanish around? Well, some of them, but mainly if you call on Wednesday or Thursday. If you just let it be for the weekend, the drunk British crew is more common. As a Spanish, would I recommend it? Yes, I do. It is a charming place, and that should do it.

Friends&Songs

I have always thought about that song I am listening in some bar and how it remembers me a friend, for some weird reason. Maybe because I listened it with him at an important point in my life. Maybe because I was in a gig with him at that point. Maybe for something else. Or maybe there is no actual reason - in fact, those songs have a meaning for me, related to them. Maybe even they have no meaning at all for them. And let it be clear enough, this is not a list about good or band friends. It is just a list I can relate with music - indeed, some of my best friends are not here, as I cannot think about a song I have share with them at some point of my life that was sort of special for me.

Anyway, here comes my list - high fidelity stuff:

Yo - Last nite, The Strokes
Chus&Santi - Basket Case, Green Day
Isa- La de Ramón, Platero y Tú
Ruben - Elevator, Bad Religion
Makotogim - Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Ramones
Hermano Bro - Valerie, Amy Whinehouse
Peter PwC & Claire - Hung up, Madonna
Afri - Por fin, Platero y Tu
Santi - Self Steem, Off Spring
Chunle - A;os 80, Los Piratas
Maite - Friday I'm in love, the Cure
Santi Bel - Take me out, Franz Ferdinand
Paula & Juli - Last nite, The Strokes
Ana Reading - Another Sunny Day, Belle and Sebastian
Jorge& Agueda - Mr. Birghtside, The Killers
Adri - No sleep till brooklin, Beastie Boys
Disier- Jump Around, House of Pain
Sarriu - Oh reala laralaralarala lara lara lara lara lara laraaaaaaaaaa - popular
Marta Lu - Necesito Respirar, Medina Azahara
Sebas - William it was really nothing, The Smiths
Dxx - Fear of The Dark, Iron Maiden
Ira- Pictures of you, The Cure
Cesar- Welcome to dying, Blind Guardian
Richard - Intergalactic, Beastie Boys
Andres - La mataré, Loquillo y los Trogloditas
Simon - Du Hast, Rammstein
Tommi - La Chica de Ayer, Nacha Pop
Ebri - Sin Dios ni Amo, Extremoduro
Familia Gómez - Soy Gitano, Camarón
Roq - Vespa Especial, Luna Pop
Ivan - Estrella del Pop, La Oreja de Van Gogh
Cesar London 1 - X102, Jeff Miles
Cesar London 2 -The Ace of Spaces, Motorhead
Mike Bohan - New York, Frank Sinatra
Chaparro - El Perro verde, Marea
Mary - Bring me to live, Evanescence
JuanFran - Science in Violence, the Rifles

So, if at some point in my life I do a massive party and I get all these people in, I know what music I should play. Not because of them, but because of me.

Rat Pack

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. I mean it, because when you wake up in the morning, that is as good as you're gotta feel in the whole day...

Dean Martin, min. 6:47

Mojinos Escozios in The Jamm, London

261 Brixton Road London, SW9 6LH

Well, this should be clear enough for everybody: I do not particularly like or appreciate the music Mojinos Escozios do. Even when they moved through covers to their actual songs, I cannot say they are good musicians, or that their songs are really appealing. But mate, if it is for party for what you are up to, they are the band. And they proved it, oh, how they proved it.

The party was organized by rocksinsubtitulos, which I ever had about before - they will perform the same party in the end of April with Def Con Dos, but I'll be unfortunately in a wedding in Spain that weekend. They promised a Londoner ‘Feria de Abril’, with folk music before and after the party. That is pretty scary if you think seriously about it – it easily may have been a ‘Sevillanas’ party, with everybody in stupid southern Spanish fancy dresses, sweet wine and all those other things that – sorry all the Andaluces over there – I really despise. Add to that £18 for the gig, which I thought it was quite expensive, and you really think if this is the way you actually want to spend a Friday night. Indeed it is.

The party was in the Jamm, in Brixton. Brixton is one of those former dodgy areas that used to be completely stuffed with all sort of townies, chavs and crackheads but that, for some unexplainable reason, has become a bit trendy on the last years. Just a bit, take me well: you shouldn’t get lost over there, specially on the Stockwell side of the area. But it is not as bad as it used to be, and plenty of venues are blossoming around lastly, some of them quite good. The Jamm is one of them – I had been there before a couple of times as Ana recommended me the ‘How does it feel (To Be Loved)’ parties they do on a monthly basis. The gigs were always quite good, while to be honest never too impressive.

The club itself is quite good. It has a couple of rooms, with space for about 600 people. The main one, where the big bar is, and the venue itself, where gigs take place. The bar has several sofas and coaches really comfy for doing the first beevies of the night, and after that you can always stand up and enjoy the 80s atmosphere – classic mirror lamp included. Beer is not pricey for a club – about 3,20 the pint. And it usually closes at 4 am, which is good for those tired of early closing clubs.

In fact, they closed at 6 am in Mojinos party, but let’s go through that later on. I arrived there about 8 pm with my brother, and we met quite a lot of good friends and new ones – Alberto, Reiko, Belendi, Rima and Nico, Isaac, Cesar ‘jevi’ and his friend – hell, I always forget his name… Javi?, and some other Alberto’s friends from Guildford. On the top of that, we met Neus, a crazy girl from Barcelona – all the videos in the post to her credit – , Montse, Inma and I suppose more… sorry to be that bad with names. Nevertheless, we were a lot of people there, something as 90% of us Spanish. And as soon as I arrived and I got my first Guinness I knew the nite was going to be one of those: Extremoduro, Marea, Platero y Tu and this kind of music started to sing in the pre-concert party, everybody became crazy singing, everything was all good.

Alberto 'The Clown', with Inma, before the gig

And after that, the gig. Well, the comedy show, I may say. Not because they didn’t play good music – they somehow achieved to perform – but because the intervals between songs were even better than the songs themselves. El Sevilla presenting a ‘El Puto’ – the drummer, on the pic on the right – and his son, ‘El Hijo del Puto’ – guitarist. El Sevilla stealing the wig of the other guitarist. El Sevilla drinking shots of Anis del Mono, and the crawd shouting BEBE BEBE BEBE. The classic ‘Alcohol Alcohol Alcohol, hemos venido a emborracharnos, el resultado nos da igual’ . Hell, they even played a song in English… well, sort of. And everybody, absolutely everybody there, had a great laugh, forgot for a moment they were leaving in the perfidious Albion – not that I have anything to complain about, to be honest – and felt instead like if they have a couple of Mahou beers and an Spanish omelette in the table.

Probably the best beer of the World?

They played for a long time, they recorded it for a Canal Sur program – skip it until the end, where the gig is… the rest is quite lame – and they had everybody drunk, happy and relaxed at the same time.

Here go some videos courtesy of Neus…

Mojinos in English

Shakira Shakira!!

And the remarkable Alcoooooooohoooooooooooooool!!!

And the gig finished. And it was still about 12 o’clock at night, and almost everybody stayed for the after party. Which, I have to say, was the most Spanish party I have ever been in London. No Sevillanas, thanks to God, but plenty of Rodriguez, Loquillo, pop rock, and even a bit of Reggeton. Yes, it is a shame, but in London sounds better… homesickness, I reckon. And loads and loads of pretty Erasmus girls, and Erasmus guys, and Spanish Londoners, and everything and more, and more. Almost everybody flirting – not me, I HAD a girlfriend at that point-, and some of them even being successful –that was obviously the less Spanish thing of the night. And absolutely everybody completely drunk at the end of the night, namely at 6 am in the morning. A couple of fags in the door, another ‘Alcohol Alcohol’, and everybody to the tube to sleep and tomorrow will be another day.

Really a remarkable night.

English for Spanish: lecture 1. Chorreo.

Chorreo is when those guys:

Score you team 4-0, and after that, they prove why football (sorry miss) is the most beautiful thing in the world. In Liverpool, obviously.

Liverpool, you will never walk alone. Football is great, and you are the best mirror any other team should look at.

And nothing else Matters

Peninsula Square, London, Greenwich, SE10

I already wrote a post about Fabric, which is very likely my favourite club in London at the moment, at least for late crazy nights. Last year, as plenty of classic clubs as the Cross were closing all around the city – and they are still closing down some others, I’m afraid – the owners of this club decided to open a new venue in the Dome, the big mall in front of Canary Wharf where the O2 Arena is.

Did they improve the original? Well, I don’t think so. Let’s go point by poing.

Let's go in...

1. The music. We went to a Bugged Out! Nite – a classic party that previously used to take place in The End - , hosting Tiga, Josh Wink, Satoshi Tomiie and Matt Walsh. I didn’t know any of them, to be honest, but in the pre-party at Cara’s place Cesar performed sort of a demo of the stuff the may play afterwards, so I didn’t go blind. Satoshi Tomiie is the coolest by a mile, but we forgot a slightly little think: don’t drink too much if you go to a gig. Even if it is a techno gig. The real thing is that between Jagermeister, Vodka, Martini and Scotch, all of them watered the night down a bit. So I cannot really say I enjoy the music a lot, even if it wasn’t the venue’s fault.

2. The sound. Well, this is just the only fact anybody can deny this is the best place in town about. Pretty aloud sound, maybe, but that is what this sort of thing is about, I guess. The Fabric’s ‘bodysonic’ dancefloor –designed to vibrate to the frequencies of the bass speakers built in directly below it – is even stronger here, as there are as many as 10 times more of those specific speakers. Indeed, if you go into the middle of the dancing area the club dances for you, which is quite cool for the shy guys in the tribe ;)

3. Visuals. Quite cool, ci-fi at some point, but I do really love the green laser of Room 2 in Fabric. So close, but not enough.

4. Venue. Really big, about 2,500 people fit on the main room – compared with 1,500 in Fabric. The problem here is the ceiling is too high, so the somehow claustrophobic clubbing feeling you get in Fabric is not replicated again here. On the top of that, the old electric plant look of Fabric cannot easily be replied, no matter how many new materials and flashing lights you use.


5. Transport. Going to a club at 1.00 am by boat as we did is a real Mastercard. The River Thames Boat services works till late, so I strongly recommend to do it this way. You feel like fucking Rockefeller.

6. The atmosphere. Here is where Matter really loses the battle. Fabric is a place to dance, and that’s it. Some call it a meat market, but what I really appreciate whenever I go there is that absolutely everybody is up for dancing and, maybe some of them, taking drugs. At some point, Matter seems more about chatting up – even a the incredible volume the music is in –flirting and, finally, fishing. There are plenty of places for that in town, and I reckon it was something different what was really needed.

Flirting or clubbing? That is the question

And all does not mean the place is not very good. I reckon it is. But I just don’t think it is better than Fabric, which is how they advertise it almost everywhere. A second try with less booze on my veins, though, might be a pretty good idea…