BOOKS BY LARRY YASKIEL

BOOKS BY LARRY YASKIEL

recommended by Norman Warwick

Our friend Larry Yaskiel, and his wife Liz, are cultured conversationalists. Liz can time his solliloqueys to precisely cover, from beginning to end, one of our coffee and carrot cake conversations. Our everyday readers will have noticed that we have scored a hat-trick of features on Larry this week. On Wednesday we brought you news of the praise that has been heaped on Larry from the educational services, then we created a playlist of our most recent dangling conversation with Larry and Liz and we drew up twenty five tracks that were all spoken of over lunch and now today we just drop you a gentle reminder that if you can build yourself a bigger bookshelf, Larry has written two books deserving of that extra space.

´My life has always been the same. It has been a life of putting out records, literally, of course, in my time in the music industry. I always say I was dancing by night to the music I was selling by day. It wasn´t just product for me, it was all about the artists. I liked them and got close to them in an artistic sense.´

´I always made sure I was with artists when they were in the studio on the first day of making a record and was always trying to be with them on the first day of a tour, too, to make sure they had all they needed. I never learned anything about their kind of creativity and I never really learned anything about that kind of studio technology, but that was maybe a blessing in disguise. You must always remember that, in the music industry, the higher up you go the farther away you are from the man on the street. I wanted to remain as much as possible with the man on the street.´

I think those words Larry spoke in my first ever interview with him are a perfect description of the man I have come to know and admire: self-deprecatory but wise.

La Rocola Del Bar Rumba was Larry´s first book detailing his life from doorman at a German night club to an executive at one of the world´s leading record labels.

He tells precious and insightful comments on the musicians he worked so closely with, from Herb Alpert, the Mr A of A & M Records, to Hendrix but I won´t spoil your reading by revealing who were the artists whose sounds he most loved. His stories always show the musicians and their music in a positive light.

Larry´s second books is called The British Connection To Lanzarote And The Canaries

What do Winston Churchill, Francis Drake, Horatio Nelson, William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie and The Beatles have in common? The life or works of all these outstanding British figures crossed paths at some point in the Canaries, although they are only a small example of the intense economic and cultural relations that both groups of islands of the Atlantic have maintained. After 30 years residing in Lanzarote, author Larry Yaskiel explores six centuries of Canary-British history, from the Anglo Normans to Brexit, exploring the fruit trade, tourism or connections with the former British colonies in America.

We have also referred to Larry as being the Honorary Editor of one of the island´s most prestigious life style magazines, although that soubriquet doesn´t do full justice to Lancelot.

It is, in fact an encyclopaedic publication, of the history, geology and geography of the island. The magazine captures the religions and ethics of the island and her people and such is his love and rerspect for Lanzarote that he has become almost amabassadorial in his representations. He has been rewarded, for the more than forty years of building the Lancelot magazine into such a major force, with an MBE.

Having these books and publications on your shelves will reward you with a lifetime of reading and listening pleasure.