Llapaku in Bath at the End of November 2002.
The past couple of weekends I have been meeting up with Ann on Saturdays, a fellow Andean music fan, for a bit of shopping and then lunch at my favourite restaurant, Las Iguanas, which serves excellent Latino food and has nice music in the background.
The weekend just gone proved a much more exciting one than previously envisaged. I had an optician’s appointment for an eye test at 9 in the morning and as I was staying on for lunch with Ann as well, I decided to leave my car at the Park and Ride and take a bus into town. This meant leaving early as it is hard to judge how long it will take when using public transport. I left home at five to eight and there was no traffic so I reached the park and ride in no time where I managed to get on a bus just leaving, and was in town at 8.15 with time to kill and no shops due to open until 9 o-clock!
I decided first to visit the weekly farmers market in the old Green Park station but that did not take long because I was amazed that the sellers were only just setting up their wares so there was not yet much to see. Then I remembered that Bath’s annual Christmas market had just started so decided to investigate that one. I was even more amazed on arrival there to see that the 80 or so stalls were all closed up and when I enquired of one early trader it was to find that the market would not start until 10 o clock, by order of the council. This is incredible when you compare it with Paris where markets are lively and buzzing from very early in the morning.
I still had 15 minutes to wait until my appointment so looked in the shop windows around the opticians - first falling in love with a beautiful coat in Next shop window which I knew would look absolutely perfect on baby Jasmine and I also fell in love with a lovely pink beaded scarf with matching bag in Tie Rack which I hope to buy sometime between now and Christmas for myself. The last few minutes I was looking in the optician’s window at the glasses and saw a beautiful pair in a display case. I knew they would be expensive but decided to ask the price whilst in there anyway. They nearly had to scrape me off the carpet where I nearly keeled over with shock when I learned they cost £600! I ended up choosing some frames at £100 which by the time the lenses are added totals over £200 which was plenty expensive enough.
Ann arrived while I was still at the opticians and afterwards she told me that when she arrived in Bath the previous afternoon she came across the group Llapaku who said they would be playing in Bath both Saturday and Sunday. I was so excited when she told me this so the first thing we did was check out all the places where Andean groups normally choose to play but there was no sign of them at any of them! So the next couple of hours were spent shopping and it was almost noon by the time we decided to make our way to Las Iguanas for lunch. And on the way BINGO! We came across one member of Llapaku - Gustavo Cordereo - between two arches of the Abbey churchyard and stopped to chat. This proved an excellent opportunity to practise my Spanish as his English was limited, and I was delighted to learn he was Ruben’s brother (Ruben lives in Bath and I know him well) and he and his fellow Llapaku musician friend were staying with Ruben for the weekend. Even without hearing them play I bought the two cds that they had for sale as amazingly even with my collection of 1400+ cds I did not have either of the two they were selling. We stayed chatting to him for 20 minutes and then decided to go and have lunch and come back to listen to them afterwards. On the way to Las Iguanas we saw the other guy - German Tintaya - who recognised Ann from the day before - and we said we would be back in about an hour to listen to them play.
At the restaurant every table was occupied but luckily the man who greeted us on the door recognised me as being a regular visitor and said that if we liked to pop downstairs for a drink at the bar, he would call us as soon as a table was ready, which could be about 15 minutes. As it happened we had just bought our drinks when he sent a waitress down to fetch us and we were pleased to be allocated a table in the window which is always my preference. Instead of the normal lunch menu there was a special Christmas one on offer at twice the price but with a lot more choice so we decided to go for that. We regretted it afterwards though because being so busy everything took a long time and I was fretting, really fretting, to get back and listen to that Bolivian band! In the end when our first course took so long, I spoke to the guy who greeted us on the door and he promised to speed our order through the kitchen and he kept his word, even going into the kitchen and dishing up our desserts himself in order to save us time. I was really impressed at his helpfulness because I think he is the Manager of the restaurant. Before leaving we booked a table for noon next Saturday, when hopefully we can enjoy our lunch there at more leisure!
We arrived back whilst the band were playing and there we were for the duration of the afternoon until they packed up their instruments to go back to Ruben’s. It was so fantastic and so unexpected to be listening to live Bolivian music in Bath (the first time as far as I know) that I was practically floating on air and really buzzing with the sheer joy of it. Especially when I kept asking if they knew this song or that and they played them for me! They did a brilliant rendition of Pobre Corazon which is one of my favourites. In addition to the music they were so nice as well, really friendly and chatting to us when they took breaks, and when they finally packed up to leave, we asked what time they would play next day and they said from about 10 am to noon as after that they had to get back to Portsmouth for their ferry crossing back to Brittany in France, so we said we would be back next day to listen to them as well. By this time we had already exchanged email and website addresses and agreed to keep in touch after their return to France.
I decided to pop in to Colin’s on the way home, as I wanted to send an email to Joel in California to thank him for the CDs he had sent me which arrived on Friday and ended up spending an hour on the internet, reading my messages, writing to Joel and also sent a short note to German to establish email contact even though I knew he probably would not see it until his return home to France. By the time I left Colin’s house I had to dash home and just about had enough time to get ready before he came over to collect me at 8 pm for our evening out at the Turkish restaurant.
Next morning I was awake early and managed to park in the city centre - which is most unusual - and with a 3 minute walk to the same spot as yesterday I arrived bang on 10 am where Ann was already waiting. But no sign of the band! I realised then that I should have asked if they meant English time or South American time which is always notoriously much later! We were happy enough waiting and I looked after her things while she did a quick foray to make sure they hadn't set up at a different pitch and she came back to say that Oswaldo was setting up to play at the bottom end of town and so we would get some Andean music even if Llapaku did not materialise - which was a distinct possibility because South Americans when they get together stay up drinking half the night and the possibility that they could still be sleeping was very real. I popped up to Next and bought the little coat for Jasmine’s Christmas present and when I got back both Ann and I were thoroughly dismayed to see the Salvation Army begin playing nearby and we realised that if they appeared there was no way they could play there. We both had our personal stereos with us so decided to listen to our own music to drown out the sound and had to put it on full blast for it not to intrude on our own music! Finally at 11.25 when we were just about to give up and go down to listen to Oswaldo instead, they suddenly materialised. Whilst they got their instruments ready (guitar, panpipes and bongo drum) I showed them a few photos taken in La Paz last year and they were really interested because they know the friends who looked after me over there - Adrian and Jorge of Kallawaya and Rumillajta. German and his brother Nestor used to play with Rumillajta as well but both now play with Llapaku. I think he said they were 3 brothers in the group with two of them living in La Paz and himself and 2 others living in France. He said the band could well all be there in La Paz in February - that many Andean bands living in Europe would be there in February visiting their families with live concerts everywhere, which made me decide that my visit to La Paz must be in February too to take advantage of this. He also said he is organising a 5-month tour of Llapaku over the whole of France from May to September 2003, which includes concerts in Paris, so hopefully I will be able to visit Leo and go to one of the Paris concerts and see the whole band in concert. That would be really fantastic because by this time I had listened to the two CDs I had bought on Saturday at least a couple of times each and really loved their music - beautiful Bolivian music at its very best using all my favourite instruments. I made several requests of my favourite tunes on them that morning and they played all of them for me with the exception of Aymarita which they said need all five musicians to do it justice.
Ann and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their music for about 40 minutes before I had to dash off to meet Colin for lunch. I had brought my camera this time and took a few photos as well. Had it not been for the fact that they would not be playing much beyond noon anyway I would have foregone lunch with Colin and stayed - but their ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo was leaving at 3.45 pm. I said my goodbyes at 12.15 and German promised he would keep in touch by email. By the time I got to Colin’s and told him all about it I was buzzing with delight at having met these new friends and heard their beautiful music and felt as though I was walking on air the rest of the day!
Whilst with them on Saturday an obviously South American gentleman had greeted them and they exchanged hugs so they obviously knew each other and amazingly I saw him again on Sunday afternoon. After lunch out with Colin and his sister at our favourite pub in Chew Magna, I had to fetch my car left on Colin’s drive and decided to visit Ceri to show her the coat I had bought for Jasmine and I was just rounding the corner to her flat when this gentleman was crossing the road and recognised me and stopped to speak. It materialised that he was Bolivian and had lived in Bath since 1961 and he knew Ruben as well. I asked him if he knew about the Spanish Circle meetings in Bath and he didn't so I promised to get telephone numbers of the organisers for him and let him know so that he could join. The Spanish circle is crying out for new members and there are many South Americans in the group, so it would be nice for him to meet fellow South Americans. He said his opportunities for speaking in Spanish were pretty limited, which gave me the idea of telling him about this group. He showed me his door and I said I would pop some information through his letterbox sometime during the coming week.
After visiting Ceri I decided to call at Colin’s again as I was eager to look at Llapaku’s website and was delighted on looking to find that they have 6 cds to their credit and I shall definitely be acquiring the other four when I get back from Peru at the end of February. The site is really interesting too and will involve several visits to see everything, so I immediately put it into my list of email favourites to visit whenever I get the chance.
It really was a great weekend, especially as meeting them and hearing live Bolivian music was such an unexpected surprise. This is a band who never normally play in the streets and are heavily involved in continual concerts back in France. We really were very lucky indeed. The next excitement to look forward to is Quimantu’s concert in London on 14th December. One of Dante’s friends - Antonio - has agreed to accompany me to that concert and escort me back to Paddington afterwards. The concert is on the South Bank so I would have been a little nervous crossing the river on my own at night and am therefore very glad to have someone to accompany me. My friends Rosita and Carlos will also more than likely be there so it will be all of us together at the concert. I have already booked and received my train tickets. It will be a very long day as I am leaving Bath on the 7.53 train, arriving London at 9.20 and my first stop will be the market at Portabello to see if any Andean bands are playing but even if not I always enjoy a visit to that market. I will also visit Covent Garden, another favourite place where I might hear an Andean band playing. I always stay on and speak to Quimantu after their shows so with this in mind I have booked my return ticket for the latest possible train back which leaves Paddington at 23.35, but because of work going on on the line near Swindon, I have to get off there and get a bus for the last part of the journey to Bath, where I will arrive home at 2 in the morning - a very long day indeed. I’m really looking forward to it though.
