Travel and Leisure News and Reviews from around the World

ALBERT FENECH

e/mail – salina46af@gmail.com

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Old heritage watchtower at Selmun and a pop concert

Right ho – so yes, there is an age gap, a great age gap

and I now stand (or sit) at the end of one extreme in the

music world.

My late father loved classical music, opera and light

classical. On Sunday mornings, aged four and my

brother aged barely two, we sat and listened to an old

gramophone (remember the one featured on past His

Master’s Voice labels?) as he cooked Sunday lunch and

put on large 78 discs and played Mozart, Verdi and

Beethoven.

Summer spectacular

When dear dad was in a “lighter” mood it was Bing

Crosby, Doris Day and Edmundo Ros and his Latin

American rumba orchestra.

All these ingrained a musical love in me that I still carry

today.

Later, as a growing teen, Bill Hayley and his Rock ‘n Roll

Many thousands swooned screamed and swayed at the annual Isle of MTV Concert

entered my world (classed by dad as “rubbish” and “the

end of decent music”) and later still Chubby Checker

with his “Twist” and undoubtedly Elvis, Cliff Richard,

Roy Orbison and a host of others.

My musical journey saw its sunset with The Beatles and

The Rolling Stones in the 60s and like dad, the rest was

a virtual disintegration of music as far as I am

concerned.

Am I therefore qualified to write this piece?

The situation is this; buoyed by wonderful summer

weather (that is if you like being roasted alive by blazing

sunshine – but apparently many people do) and starry

summer nights, Malta’s Ministry for Tourism has

embarked on a committed musical path to make Malta

one of the most attractive concert venues in the

Mediterranean – and it seems to be working a treat.

Iisle of MTV

This is what I am writing about and NOT the music.

A number of outdoor evening concerts have been drawn

to Malta and with them thousands of young tourists

from throughout Europe have flocked to Malta to enjoy a

summer break, holiday and attend various concerts.

Of these only two struck my fancy.

Not really my cup of tea

One was the first-ever performance outside Britain by

the BBC Concert Orchestra which regularly performs on

BBC Radio 2 and 3.

Their open air concert on the Floriana Granaries,

compered by the much-admired actor Charles Dance

was to say the least spectacular and attracted many

thousands.

The 70-piece orchestra was conducted by Richard

Balcombe and performed classic film scores from Out of

Africa and The Magnificent Seven as well as some of

today’s most popular film songs from films such as The

Greatest Showman. Bohemian Rhapsody, Frozen and

Mary Poppins Returns.

There was also music from films made in Malta and the

whole show was rounded off with a spectacular

fireworks finale to the main theme from Star Wars.

Guest vocalists included Louise Dearman (Wicked),

Hannah Waddingham (Game of Thrones) and Bradley

Jaden (Les Misérables).

Incidentally, the show was free of charge on a first-

come, first-served basis.

The other has to be the annual concert given by Malta’s

world-famous tenor Joseph Calleja last Saturday, this

time round accompanied by the much-loved blind Italian

singer Andrea Bocelli.

The rest of the concerts did not mean much to me but

scores of thousands of youngsters begged to differ!

Controversy did its rounds too. Surely enough, the

concerts attract publicity and they attract thousands of

visiting followers and fans to listen to rap, hip-hop and

what have you. However, among the thousands there is

always a percentage of drunks, drug traffickers and

druggees and Malta Police had a hectic time rounding

some of them up.

Lost n Found attracted youths to Malta

Residents in various localities complained bitterly of

rowdy, urinating and vomiting youths at all hours of the

days and nights. Standards of dress, or perhaps more

accurately lack of dress, particularly by young women

eager to show off their physical talents in the summer

weather and let everybody see their tattoos, also came

under heavy criticism.

The first to set the scene in early summer was the Lost

‘n Found Concert stretching over a long weekend in

various localities and estimated to have drawn 10,000

visitors just for the concerts and the music.

Naturally, cash tills jingled merrily in bars and

restaurants, hotels and apartments were packed and

taxi drivers worked 24/7 and the airlines were kept

happy too.

Getting into the swing of things

The Isle of MTV Concert has become a regular annual

fixture too, held on the Floriana Granaries and estimated

to have attracted 50,000 followers (mainly Maltese) with

much screaming, swooning and fainting. With the day-

time temperatures registering close on 40 degrees, the

stifling heat was apparently no deterrent.

Setting the scene and responsible for all the swooning

and screaming were guys like DJ Martin Garrix, Bebe

Rexha, Ava Max (who apparently is a female Yank of

Albanian descent) and Wiley.

I had never heard of them before and do not particularly

want to hear of them again but, as I said, the age gap is

a gulf!

MalDia More to my liking

Amidst all this, former Oasis star Liam Gallagher

breezed in to give his own concert on the Granaries,

once more in conjunction with the Malta Tourism

Authority and once more entry was free of charge.

Summer Daze and haze

To cap it all, around the 15th ofAugust (a PublicHoliday

and the Feast of The Assumption) there were two further

evening concerts, including Summer Daze, once more

attracting bumper attendances and once more keeping

the Police busy with drugs traffickers and druggees.

The Martinez Brothers kicked off proceedings on 11th

August with a performance in partnership with well-

known Malta clubbing brand GRINGOS.

The Joseph Calleja concert

However, the main events took place over 14th and 15th

August at the Ta Qali National Park with “underground

legends” in the form of Paul Kalkbrenner, Loco Dice,

Green Velvet, BBC Radio 1’s Monki and local favourite

Carl Bee all performing on the first evening.

On the second evening it was David Guetta, Tyga,

James Arthur, Danny Howard, Alle Farben, Tenishia and

a number of local artists.

And what exactly are “underground legends”?

Search me; not my cup of tea naturally, but it takes all

sorts.

I wonder what Mozart, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra

would have made of it all?

ALBERT FENECH

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MALTESE SAYING

“The oil will always surface in the water”

This indicates that sooner or later, finally the truth will

emerge and be known. As oil will always surface on

water, at some point or other the truth of a situation

will become known.

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