Spain - Costa Blanca Discussion Forum

Discussions regarding holidays in the Costa Blanca.
Random thoughts
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Hi Colin, Thankyou, I enjoyed your report. Please could you tell me more about the twisted melons as I've not heard of them before.. What kind of music do they play and what is the band made up of.. Male or female? How old are they and where do they play?

Thanks

Sue :)
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Hi Sue. They describe themselves as Indie/Rock on the poster but I'd say more just rock, stuff people know and can sing along to. Three piece, guitar, drum and bass. I recognised the drummer straight away as a Beni regular but it took me ages to place him without the Ray Bans and daft hat, it's the guy who does Jake Elwood in the Blues Brothers act. I seem to remember seeing him play with the big Scottish singer whose name escapes me a few years ago. The guitar and bass players are younger (20's) and both very good. I don't remember seeing those two before. They were at the Western Saloon.
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Ok, thanks Colin... I'm going to Beni next week so I might check them out :)
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I'm glad it's not just me who thinks that about the cabaret. When you end up with a tribute act to a tribute act (the little kid who does Michael Jackson as a tribute to the kid who did Michael Jackson on Britain's Got Talent a couple of years ago) then you know the barrel is being scraped.

When I first went in 2001, you still got decent 'name' acts: Johnny Hackett, Eric Delaney (both sadly now deceased), Wayne 'Check' Allen. Acts that had been big names over here. Also, people would be brought out for limited period engagements: The Grumbleweeds, Frank Carson etc. The decline has probably been brought about by the decline over here of Labour Clubs, Working Mens Clubs etc as people's tastes have changed. Now people just watch the 'talent' on X Factor etc instead of going out and watching live acts.

Several large cabaret bars have closed in the last ten years for various reasons. How many comedians are actually doing the circuit there now? Tony Scott, Woody Brown, Mike Curtis, Albi Senior and that's about it? What happened to Danny Dean, Danny Downing, Johnny Kalendar and Jason Kane?

What happened to the hypnotists that used to be on?

I've nothing against people singing other people's songs, but why bill yourself as a tribute act? Do the Take That tribute (for an example) look like Take That? Erm....not to me they don't and neither do the others. Put the effort in and at least have the guts to go out under your own name giving an indication of what stuff you sing.
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We first started going in the eighties, with the family in August.
Then there used to be 35 of us men only go for the fiesta in
November.
Had some good times in Benidorm, where we have stopped in a lot
of hotels several times.
We have used the Riudor, Regente,Pelicanos,Ocas,Calypso,Rio park,
Castilla,Oylimpus,Flamingo Oasis, & apartments.
Going back in November for 5 days in the Pelicanos, then again in
May 2012 for a weeks break, booked flight for May, deciding where
to stop.
I loved this place, when you go twice a year & still get a kick out
of it, its worth it.
I hope it does not let me down in November & May. :que
Ps Jimmy Carrol was in Benidorm last I heard, with him being from
Sheffield, I can normally see him around us during the year.
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To be fair as far as the entertainments concerned not everyone likes the same thing for instance to be honest the names from the past would not appeal to me at all.

I don't like Take that/Boyzone type of stuff either but the other tribute bands I did see were brilliant. I holiday in Benidorm with a young family like many others do and am pleased to say that most of the entertainment is for a completely varied audience.

Times are changing and I think that because of the tough times venues must be trying to tick all the boxes with regards to the entertainment they provide and no-where will you find any better than what Benidorm has to offer.
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got to echo the comments about the 'acts' on offer,we saw various last week and most were rubbish,just glorified karaoke,like a rep's caberet in an all inclusive hotel. we saw 'westlife', that was shocking,we also looked in on 'deb n her' at morgan's as we'd read they were one of the better acts,however we then left when they murdered some really good songs with their cruise ship style warbling. we did however like the neil diamond tribute in sandra's(we're not really old enough but it was on so we stayed),but the follow up drag comedian was awful and not even funny! one place i will recommend though was the rock n roll house,what a fantastic place,the shakin stevens bloke was really good,an entertainer rather than just a tribute singer,and the elvis bloke that followed and then dueted with him was also good entertainment,neither were trying too hard to be anything other than really good at getting people up to dance and sing etc.
i must say of the caberet bars we visited,the most hyped and supposedly 'better' ones were by far the opposite of their reputation,with some of them having such rough and chavvy props it actually put you off the place,i mean what sort of couple or family are going to go into a bar where the props are swearing,wearing tracksuits and smoking skunk while they try to get people in(i won name the bars but we were shocked to see it).

as for the outbreak of graffiti,it was like being in south london in that respect,it's everywhere,on signs,walls,roundabouts,people's gates,you name it,it's proper graffiti too,tagging etc by the sort of sub-culture we see in our cities,it's not really unpleasent in the most part but we were really surprised at the amount of it and how no attempt seems to have been made to remove it,even when on the walls of functioning businesses.

none of this takes away the fact we loved benidorm as much if not more than in the past and would definitely return time and time again.
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