- Teaming up with Camino
It was a lucky day when we were sitting in the lounge area of our hotel in Alhama de Granada, and bumped into Richard Bigg. He was obviously as in love with Spain as we were, and told us about his Spanish bar Camino, which he had tried to make as authentic as you can when in the heart of King's Cross.
A few weeks later when we went to check it out we thought it was fabulous and have been regular visitors ever since. I thought it would be perfect for an end of guitar course performance and sent a mail to Richard suggesting this. Richard is very keen to promote Spanish culture, and soon I was drinking freshly squeezed orange juice in the bar while we discussed the details.
Our end of course party in September went brilliantly - all the students played what we had learnt on the course, and a brave few also played a short solo - me included!
In November we ran our first afternoon's course in the lounge. This was a baptism of fire - having been quiet and serene on every other Sunday afternoon visit, it seemed most of London had decided to pop in for a drink and tapas that day. By the end of the sessions, Tony (teacher Francisco Antonio) had a husky voice! But it had the atmosphere that I had been looking for. Here's what some of the students said:
"I think Camino is a wonderful venue with a chilled laid back atmosphere"
"........really nice to be able to chill out afterwards and watch the second class with a beer."
"I think that's what it's all about, and it's a classic venue. Flamenco guitar is about people; it's about making people happy, so the more people the better as one needs to learn to play expressively. If you're hot people will listen - that's how it works. Flamenco is in bars anyway - we are in the right place."
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