A jolly nice week - in my opinion anyway. Met the President of the Moroccan Cricket Association - not with exactly the same status as president of the MCC but, I was impressed. The ambo invited me to a farewell dinner chez prez. Fantastic home cooked Moroccan grub impressed me too. Monday night was a reception on HMS Edinburgh in Casablanca. Drinking with sailors in Casablanca - so gay! And I use the word in its original and proper sense. And, some of the sailors were quite attractive young ladies. Our stupid driver got lost on the way there and on the way back. One navy chap questioned how one could get lost with Rabat on the coast, Casa on the coast - just keep the sea on your right!
So to this weekend and I'm invited to a night out with some Moroccans on Saturday. To set the scene, it's a big pub with several interconnected rooms and ours has about 60 people in it (nearly all men, of course) and a band. And everyone is smoking. Chain smoking. And probably more than one fag at a time. Though you do get olives and nuts with your pint. But it's smokier than a smoke filled room at a smokers convention with extra smoke being piped in through the AC. I needed several unnecessary visits to the loo and (and outside) to survive the evening. The band were cool though. Tom tom drums, very versatile keyboard and Morocco's answer to Carlos Santana. Some very exciting Santana style music (and a bit of Eric too) and the band are sporting Carlos pork pie hats. After the break, the band rips into the crowd's favourite stuff, the Rai. And of course, it's Aisha first. This is good stuff, I'm going to see if the Melody Maker would like me to write for them*. And if you've ever heard Rai music - Khaled, Cheb Mami etc - this was a different level. And so was the freakin volume! So now, my eyes and throat are being poisoned by smoke and my eardrums are about to start bleeding. But the music was fab. Rai with a Santana guitar - marvellous.
Clothes straight in the basket and a shower as soon as I get home. Somehow though, I can still smell smoke as i write this the next day. Worse than a Turkish Airlines flight 20 years ago. Merhaba arkadaslar!
* I hear the MM is now defunct.
So to this weekend and I'm invited to a night out with some Moroccans on Saturday. To set the scene, it's a big pub with several interconnected rooms and ours has about 60 people in it (nearly all men, of course) and a band. And everyone is smoking. Chain smoking. And probably more than one fag at a time. Though you do get olives and nuts with your pint. But it's smokier than a smoke filled room at a smokers convention with extra smoke being piped in through the AC. I needed several unnecessary visits to the loo and (and outside) to survive the evening. The band were cool though. Tom tom drums, very versatile keyboard and Morocco's answer to Carlos Santana. Some very exciting Santana style music (and a bit of Eric too) and the band are sporting Carlos pork pie hats. After the break, the band rips into the crowd's favourite stuff, the Rai. And of course, it's Aisha first. This is good stuff, I'm going to see if the Melody Maker would like me to write for them*. And if you've ever heard Rai music - Khaled, Cheb Mami etc - this was a different level. And so was the freakin volume! So now, my eyes and throat are being poisoned by smoke and my eardrums are about to start bleeding. But the music was fab. Rai with a Santana guitar - marvellous.
Clothes straight in the basket and a shower as soon as I get home. Somehow though, I can still smell smoke as i write this the next day. Worse than a Turkish Airlines flight 20 years ago. Merhaba arkadaslar!
* I hear the MM is now defunct.
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