I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(The Road Less Travelled – Robert Frost)

‘Don’t line up, this isn’t Switzerland’

When I was in Year 6 for ‘Show and Tell’ most kids would just bring in a piece of crap they found under their house, say a bullet or an old Victa mower blade. There was a boy in my class named Kenny Kennricks. The boys admired him because he was the first boy in our year to have pubic hair, the girls admired him because he had an electric guitar. One day for his turn at ‘Show and Tell’ he bought both to school and during class he played his unplugged guitar and sang an Elvis number (Wooden Heart perhaps?). It was the most hysterically funny thing our class had ever experienced. Even Mr Wilkie got the giggles.  His voice was breaking and he was terrible at guitar, and in just ninety seconds Kenny Kennricks completely destroyed half of the respect the class had for him. Last night, however, Linda and I were fortunate enough to hear a magnificent guitarist, part of a trio of Romanian Gypsy musicians who were recording a concert in a theatre that had once been the church of a convent.

The Teatro del Sale is near the markets where we shop each morning. Linda found it in one of her wanders and made the enquiries. If you join their club for 7 euros, which we did, you are entitled to sit down to a meal before each concert. The concert and meal cost an extra 20 euros each – the meal alone made the night worthwhile. It was a buffet and the audience obviously included foreigners like us.  We were told ‘Don’t line up this isn’t Switzerland! – Just take whatever you want.’ So we didn’t and we did.

The food highlights? Many. The first course was all vegetable dishes – baked gnocchi with goats’ cheese was special.  The pasta was with a bolognaise sauce, the soup was a beautiful clam broth, the meat was a mixed grill from a huge wood-fired oven and the desserts were an Italian version of petit fours with coffee. There were mountains of breads baked in another wood-fired oven and the house wine was included in the price.  What was also special for us was seeing Michael, a young man with Down’s Syndrome hard at work with the chef.  The owner has another restaurant and employs 5 staff with disabilities.  Michael has worked there for 10 years – so the owner has an obvious long-term commitment to his staff, to good food and to great music.

The theatre had been trying to contact this trio for some time.  They are from Romania, but had been touring Spain.  By coincidence the group had contacted the owner because they wanted to do a recording in his theatre as the acoustics in the church were so good.  We were the beneficiaries.  The only downside of being at a live recording is that no drinks were allowed during the performance (in order to reduce background noise), and the audience was asked not to clap or stamp in time.  The last request was fine for Swiss-like guests such as the Evans’ in the audience, but totally wasted on Italians.

Apart from their musical abilities the amazing thing about the band was that they were all perfect dopelgangers.  The double bass player looked EXACTLY like Michaelangelo’s David. Even though fully clothed I thought he played the huge double bass as some sort of Freudeun compensatory mechanism, Linda thought it was because he played the double bass.  The violinist was Adair Donaldon and the guitarist, without doubt, was Johnny Depp.  It was Johnny Depp who was totally mesmerising.  I have seen George Golla play live, I have seen plenty of rock guitarists and the occasional classical guitarist, but this guy was the best I have ever seen in person.  The whole night was one of those unexpected joys that never make it into guide books for tourists.

I doubt that Kenny Kennricks still plays the guitar.  Considering his development in Year Six I would say that he is probably now completely covered in hair, but his electric guitar has been put away forever. If somehow he has been able to overcome the embarrassment and keep practicing, and if he has become even half as good as the artist we listened to last night, Kenny could still regain the respect of the girls in Rosewood’s Year Six class of 1967 – respect lost on the day of his public debut.  I think Mr Wilkie would even risk an encore.  I for one would be there.