We had convened in the wonderful artsy gallery and\nbuzzing pub and restaurant that is Cic El Almacen, in Arrecife, on Lanzarote.\nThis was to officially announce the publication of Larry Yaskiel\u00b4s second book\nin less than eighteen months: (following a factual and historical book about\nsix hundred years of connections between the UK and The Canary Islands,\npublished with English and Spanish versions between the same cover.) This one however,\ndeals with his previous life in the music business. That Larry has become a\nfavourite son of the island, with his wife Liz held in equal affection, is\nevidenced by the fact that The Cabildo has stepped in to publish and promote a\nbook that celebrates the life Larry led before he even arrived here to live on\nLanzarote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aata.dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Larry-and-Liz-Yaskiel-at-London-book-launch-1030x773.jpg\")
It made perfect sense that they should assist in\nthe publication of his previous work about the connections between The British\nIsles And The Canary Islands, but the text of La Rocola de Bar Rumba covers the\nperiod from 1958 to 1979. Nevertheless, it carries a prologue by Miguel Rios\nand gives us a fascinating notion of the sidetracks and detours that brought to\nthe island a man who would then launch a quarterly, glossy magazine. Lancelot\nhas surely contributed massively to not only boosting the number of British\ntourists who have come here over the years, but has also lent massive guidance\nand support to those who do come here to Lanzarote from the UK on holiday or\neven here to finally settle down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cover of the book shows two dapper looking rock\nguys, Larry and Miguel Rios, and the title refers to a German bar in Hamburg\nthat, for much of the period covered by the book, was renowned for its eclectic\njuke box in the corner and where Larry first began work as a doorman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tonight he sat in the centrally positioned chair of\nthree laid out at the front of the downstairs gallery room in Almacen,\nadmittedly looking slightly changed from the hirsute man who smiles from the\ncover of his book. He was formally introduced to his audience, although no such\nintroduction had actually been needed, but instead had been an act of courtesy.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aata.dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PORTADA_LA-ROCOLA-DEL-BAR-RUMBA_LARRY-YASKIEL.jpg\")
on the cover of his second book<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
After that we had a short recorded burst of Song Of\nJoy by Miguel Rios and then, and once Larry\u00b4s interviewer, on his left, had\ngiven a short introductory speech and then thrown his first question it was\nimmediately apparent that Larry has changed not one jot from that narrator in\nhis book, who shows such a love of life and its people, and who achieved so\nmuch for so many artists simply through his own contagious enthusiasm for their\nwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This being a book written in Spanish, it had\nattracted an audience primarily of Spanish speaking islanders, and therefore\nthe question and answer session was conducted in the native tongue. Larry\u00b4s\nspeaking of Spanish as a second language was still way too good for me, so I\npicked up only a few words I recognised; the spoken name of Cat Stevens\nfollowed by Larry\u00b4s sung opening lines of Wild World; names that fell out in\nhis conversation like Elvis Presley, Duane Eddy, Klauss Voorman, Manfred Mann,\nHendrix, The Beatles and Stuart Sutcliffe; references to radio like the BBC\nLight Service; Radio Luxembourg; Pirate radio ships; a Tenerife holiday in 1963\nshared by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Larry drew to a close his interviewer invited\nquestions from the floor. Oscar Perez, a former Cabildo officer in the Department\nOf Culture, who has worked closely with Larry in the past, asked a question\nabout Pink Floyd, and Larry\u00b4s answer made reference to their infamous slogan of\nthe floating-pig air balloon and to their album, The Wall, with its lines about\nhow \u00b4we don\u00b4t need no education\u00b4 and its warning to \u00b4hey, teacher, leave those\nkids alone.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, a life as full as that lived by Larry\nsurely has lessons for following generations and I feel the Cabildo are wise to\nsupport this book, as it is sensible and informative, rather than salacious and\nincriminating, and could prove not only useful to young people but also\nentertaining to their parents (and grandparents.) Incidentally, not only was\nOscar in the audience tonight, but so too was former president Pedro San Gines,\nanother indication of the esteem in which Larry is held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another young man in the audience then asked about\na song and musicians Larry refers to in the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The questioner said he had first come across the\nsong when it was featured in the film Reservoir Dogs. That would have been made\na couple of decades after the song was recorded and released by Stealers\u00b4\nWheel, so this provides a great example of how wise is Hugh Moffatt to advise\ntoday\u00b4s songwriters \u00a8to prepare what they write for light years of travel.\u00b4\nIndeed, Larry himself said later, off stage and in English, how important it is\nthat music continually evolves, to reach new audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aata.dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Larry-Yaskiel-with-his-two-latest-publications-516x1030.jpg\")
with his two publications<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
During the informal photo and chat sessions\nafterwards Larry spoke briefly to me about his own memories of The Flying\nBurrito Brothers, (this in response to my own reference to The Byrds) and Gram\nParsons, and he emphasised again that \u00b4Music Is Important.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I fully recommend that you seek out copies of\nLarry\u00b4s book. You will surely find La\nRocola del Bar Rumba on your search engines, and I know the book will reward\nyour reading of it, and that you, too, will then reaffirm that music is\nimportant !<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because Christmas and New Year celebrations lean\nheavily on the arts to recreate nativity scenes, tell Christian stories and\nsing carols we only recently managed to conduct the interview intended to form part of this\nreview. However, we will print our eventual extensive and exclusive interview\nwith Larry Yaskiel in another of our Words From The Writer series in our next\npost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So watch this space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LA ROCOLA del BAR RUMBA Book launch by Larry Yaskiel \u2013 Cic El Almacen We had convened in the wonderful artsy gallery and buzzing pub and restaurant that is Cic El Almacen, in Arrecife, on Lanzarote. This was to officially announce the publication of Larry Yaskiel\u00b4s second book in less than eighteen months: (following a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}