|
July 17, 2009
Hello to all. We take annual holidays every May, and next year we, “Skin & Hide” have been thinking of going travelling and gigging for 3 or 4 weeks.
There have been suggestions of going to the United States to play a few festivals and a few other countries, but I decided to put it up here on my blog and see if anyone comes up with some brain waves, or have any suggestions…
Where is the best place to get Thai food?
July 6, 2009
Every night I am asked loads of questions, and a lot of the time they are the same ones, and I don’t mind them at all… sometimes people are using these questions as a way of opening a conversation, which is fine by me – “how long have you been here”, “how did you end up here”, etc. It’s like opening a conversation at home by talking about the weather, but when it comes to the weather here we don’t usually have a lot to talk about!
Then there are the other type of questions from the *other* type of people. “How much do the band get paid a night?”, “how much do the staff get as a salary?”, and the first answer I come up with will always be something smart like “you really didn’t mean to ask that, sure you didn’t”, or “relax man, you’re on holidays”, or “the band are trading in their porches for Lamborghinis”. Then some persist and say “ah but seriously, how much do they get a night?”
That’s it, time up, finish your drink and f*ck off. They look at me thinking I’m joking, and when there is no smile they realise that I’m serious, and if they are clever (which is unusual!) they will realise what a prick they have been. Some will apologise and I say “fine, enjoy your night”, and others simply leave.
I often ask myself “am I right in this approach?”, but think to myself, Jesus, suppose I was going around asking customers, or anyone for that matter, how much their salary was at home, or how much their mortgage is. First of all, I have no interest, but I would expect a smack in the gob if I was so stupid. I meet loads and loads of lovely people coming and going from Charlies all of the time, and sometimes I wonder if I am expected to have so much tolerance to put up with these a*seholes whose god is money, and can’t talk or think about anything else. If I am expected to, someone is going to have to find me tolerance tablets fast, and until that happens, please be careful and I will let you know when I have received delivery of same in due course!
This same type of people are the type to walk into the Charlie´s and announce within 30 seconds that there are 80 of them over for a wedding, looking directly into your eyes, implying that we should give them special attention. HELLO! We give *every one* of our customers as much respect and attention as possible, regardless of whether they are a wedding group or not, and we give a little extra attention to those who are very genuine and don’t expect anything. There are nice wedding groups that come and go all of the time which we are delighted to welcome, and there are some that we don’t want: the ones who kind of make a statement between the lines, saying we are 80 people and we will be here for the week and we are going to take over the bar for the week. There are bars on this island that will take any group of 80 and do what ever they have to to get them in, and then let them do what they like when they have them in, regardless of what type of people they are – and we are delighted with these bars because if we didn’t have somewhere else for these people to go to, it would be more of a problem for us! I accept that in any group of 80 there are bound to be one or two who are a sandwich short of a picnic, and usually I will find someone sound in the group and ask them to look after their acquaintance, which they usually do without any problems.
One benefit that I notice with the recession is that a lot of the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” brigade are gone, thank God – because in Charlie´s we clear out this type of human being – the genuine decent folk have a much better time with us where everyone is enjoying the atmosphere, the drink, the music and the craic, and nobody cares how much money you have or not unless you are going to leave it to all of us in your Will. Then we care and you will get very special treatment!!!! 
Cheers,
Barry Murphy
May 28, 2009
I am in Ireland for a few days and the news here is covered by the scandals of the way the Church treated kids in their care, throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s mainly. Now, you have a situation where the Bishops are telling the different congregations to provide more money to the children that were abused in so many ways. They are very wealthy organisations and they have been shifting assets from one company to another to avoid paying out.
As far as I can make out, the *total* of the Catholic Church should have *all* of their assets confiscated and the proceeds of the sale of such assets should be divided between those unfortunate people who were abused.
The Catholic Church should also be labeled an illegal organisation, and it should be an offence to be found to be a member or to support such an organisation. I accept that there are some good priests etc., but if they had any respect for themselves they would resign and create some new mechanism for moving forward, and I still don’t believe that even the *good* ones didn’t know what was going on and are guilty by not coming forward.
Can you imagine what would happen if these kinds of activities were found in some kind of cult religion (and what is or isn’t a cult religion)? As far as I’m concerned, the Catholic religion is as much a cult religion as any, and maybe more so, the way they kept denying, hiding, telling lies and playing a hand to try to hang on to what they could.
They are LIARS, RAPISTS, ABUSERS AND COVER-UP MERCHANTS of an organisation that should be banned from operating in Ireland, and at least the victims would feel that they got juctice.
April 3, 2009
A true leader cools things when they start getting too hot, and warms things when they are too cool. You are on your own, going against the grain all the time.
While Bertie Ahern was fantastic on the international stage and worked so hard to bring peace to Northern Ireland, domestically, he was a complete f*cking disaster. A terribly nice, well meaning man, who f*cked up the Irish economy by not controlling the boom. He never controlled the spending during the Celtic pussy, and now we have Brian Cowan cutting the sh*t out of everything, when a leader should be positive and moving forward.
Just think what it would be like if Bertie had kept things cool during the boom, and Brian was pushing things forward and giving hope to people in the difficult times. That’s why they are politicians and not leaders. Unfortunately, true leaders would never go into politics.
Very sad, but very true, and f*ck them all… we will drive on at Charlie´s Bar because we know nothing else!!
March 11, 2009
A real good friend of mine passed away last Saturday week, and I will sorely miss him.
His story is a very hot and cold one, very happy and very sad. He was born in 1945 and his dad passed away when Johny was young. He used to work in his early married years in the Sunbeam factory in Cork, and I have met people who knew him then and they all say he was full of devilment. He started playing music and could play 6 instruments, but more imporant than his music was the atmosphere he created any time he was on or off stage. He played with Finnigan’s Wake for about 12 years or so, and any of the lads could spend a week telling stories of the fantastic crazy things that he pulled off.
I didn’t get to know Johny until about 8 or 9 years ago and nobody ever made me laugh like he did, and I don’t expect anyone will again either. Whether it was walking around Shanghai asking the Chinese where China Town was, or pretending to be a doctor while talking to 5 or 6 other doctors for an hour, and knowing more about medicine than pigs do about holidays. I could go on forever. He was a seriously intelligent man, and we used to have long conversations when we were together which were always very interesting. He was a very original character who never missed an opportunity to have a laugh, and never at others´ expense – unless they deserved it!
His life was centered around music, and up to a few years ago there were very few nights that he wasn’t either playing a session or a gig somewhere. Unfortunately, he became very depressed and paranoid about 3 years ago, and despite all the help he got from his friends and family he made an attempt at suicide 20 months ago, and was pulled out of the river Lee, barely alive. He spent the last 20 months of his life in a coma in hospital in Cork, and sadly passed away last Saturday week. Again unfortunately, it wasn’t my first experience of suicide, having lost my great friend Kevin, who also happened to be my brother, and a musician as well, to the same fate 12 years ago.
In Johny’s case, there were a few things which contributed to his depression, but I am only going to talk about one of them here. There is a man in Cork who contributed greatly to Johny’s demise, and I’m sure many others´ as well. We had a great culture of music, craic and socialising in Ireland, and we used to draw tourists by the thousands to Ireland because of the fantastic atmosphere we used to create in our pubs. Then this Cork gentleman came along and destroyed the whole lot in a matter of days, single-handedly. His name is Micheál Martin. This poor ejet got carried away with the EU and the Celtic Tiger and forgot that all we have in Ireland is agricultural land and tourism. He killed the pub culture with the stroke of a pen and contributed to the deaths of many others like Johny, and people who were used to mixing in pubs and found there was no one to mix with anymore, closing off their social outlet. I smoke, and I wouldn’t want non-smokers to have to inhale my smoke, but with proper extraction systems and smoking areas *in* bars, there would have been no problem.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bold Micheál also oversaw the Health Board that discharged Johny from the psychiatric hospital he was admitted to without even informing his family. Johny was standing outside the hospital on the street with his bag telephoning his wife Margret to come and get him, and a very unwell man. It was only a matter of weeks before he was pulled out of the river.
People like Johny, who made more of a difference to Irish tourism than any Bord Failte spending millions, should have been treated far better than he was by our state. These a*sholes were messing with something that brought millions to Ireland, and at the same time they lost the big picture as you all can see now, with billions lent to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, etc etc.
Since Johny became unwell I seldom go out in Cork now. I have missed his company big time over the past 2 years and the long conversations and the craic we used to have. I am convinced that Micheál Martin has killed more with his stupid laws by closing off the social outlet of people living on their own in Ireland, and those who made their living from music, which in turn is a contributing factor to the rise in suicides all across our country. Maybe these a*sholes could be tried for murder!
Anyway, I just want to offer my condolences to Johny’s wife Margret, and two daughters Shirley and Siobhan, who were with him every day practically for the past 20 months, and to thank the fantastic nurses who kept him as comfortable as possible during this time. May you rest in peace, me old buddy, and the next pint is on you, when I catch up with you again!
February 13, 2009
1. How many hectares of agricultural land is there left in the World today? And how many tonnes of food can they produce?
2. What are the World population trends over the last few hundred years?
3. Ireland´s boom was on the back of a high tech industry, which we are no longer competitive in, and therefore there will be no building or advancement in any way until we are competitive again.
As an example, the boss of a high tech company that employs 2,000 people has the following options:
Ireland 2,000 people x Average 40K p.a. = €80,000,000
Abroad 2,000 people x Average 10K p.a. = €20,000,000
Annual saving on labour alone = €60,000,000
There was a time when the Polish, Indians etc. weren´t educated well enough in English and modern tech systems, but that day is over, and I know of two girls working here in Lanzarote as doctor´s receptionists & secretaries for some doctors in the United States. When you go to the surgery in the States you are greeted by these Secretaries *on a screen* – from Lanzarote!
And now to the *Options* I suggest we have:
1. We control imports, and therefore stop these cheaper manufacturing companies exporting their produce.
2. We become as competitive as them, and work for the same salaries, which will in turn drop the price of everything we buy, be it food, houses, holidays, cars, etc.
3. We try to come up with new manufacturing ideas and produce products nobody else is manufacturing.
The young people today will have to pull off a massive stroke of genius if they want to hold on to the living standards they have had until recently, or else simply settle for an awful lot less than they were used to.
My own two sons and all their friends finishing college this year are going out into a very different world to the one they grew up in. It´s been changing so fast in the last couple of years, I don´t think any of them fully understand it.
It´s one thing to start out your career when everything is still going down and will continue to do so for a good few years yet. Then you are in a situation where your expectations are constantly changing downwards, and that is very demoralising. There is nothing wrong with starting at the bottom, and even better when everything is climbing, but there is also nothing worse than watching everything going down around you.
The positive side to all of this is that any of these young fellows starting off in life will either accept a much lower standard of income, which will mean cycling to work instead of driving, not going out socialising, not going on foreign holidays etc., etc., or those who will find a way to get ahead but using a different way of thinking completely, will be fine.
My fear is for those who cannot accept the world as it is changing and will not or cannot do anything about it, but I also know that those that do survive by either accepting the change or doing something about it will be far stronger people than those of us who survived the 80s recession, and will live much better lives after we get to the bottom of this cycle.
Just as sure as the highs of the late 90s and early years of this decade were never higher, its my opinion the lows over hte next few years will be worse than anything seen in the 80s.
There are always fantastic opportunities in recession times, but it´s a hell of a lot more difficult to find them. Most of the serious wealth was created in recessions, but you have to think in a completely different way during a recession.
I have loads and loads of grat ideas which would work during recessions, but I am too busy and happy making sure that Charlie´s Bar is, and stays, the best bar in Lanzarote, and keeping the hide & skin business in Ireland competitive, to have time to do much else. And funny as it may seem, for a “clown” who left school at 14 years of age, most of my ideas are based around technology, simplicity and hard work. I would love to see somebody else making some of these ideas work. Sometimes all you have to do is look at the exact opposite of what others are doing!
As regards Charlie´s Bar and its competitiveness in recession times, I have seen people in Ireland paying €30 per head to watch a lot worse acts than us at Charlies. I feel we would be offering really good value by charging €10 entry on the door and then we could sell drink cheaper – but that simply wouldn´t work. We are all very conscious at Charlies of making sure we offer people value for money. We work extremely hard to make sure we are the best, and we all live fantastic, but simple lives. We are very lucky that we love what we do, because you simply couldn´t do it if you didn´t…
So far in 2009 and looking forwards into the year, Skin & Hide spent 3 days a week in January learning & rehearsing Damien Dempsey´s songs, and it was well worth it! Now they are straight into the same for Sharon Shannon in two weeks´ time. This is, of course, as well as playing 6 nights a week. Then we will have one or two meetings after Sharon´s gigs and we will thrash around ideas between us all for making & arranging approx. 10 new songs. We will rehearse them once a week through March and April. We are lucky to have Jon Kenny over for the last week of April. Then we close for the middle two weeks in May for annual holidays. From 1st June through to the third week of September, we will have no rehearsals and will play 7 nights a week at Charlies, and one early wedding gig as well. Also in September, a great band from Cork “Bog the Donkey” will give Skin & Hide a week off, and then Skin & Hide will play again 6 nights a week through October and November, and we will put another couple of new songs together during those months.
2010 will be much the same, except I am working on one or two extra interesting projects, which we might just pull off with a bit of luck.
Hard work, competitiveness, a belief in what you are doing and a lack of greed will pull any business through any recession. I HOPE!!!
Cheers.
Murphy
February 8, 2009
The truth about why we are so deep in recession is simply because we haven’t had a leader since Haughey. Like or dislike him, and I would have serious issues with him, but he understood one thing – and that was that when things are bad, a leader must be positive and drive and push forwards, and when things are good a leader must try to slow the ship down, especially when the good is based on false foundations and expectations.
Since he has gone, Bertie fuelled the hype, or at least did nothing to slow it, and now that the bubble has burst Cowen is slowing things, just as he should be driving forward. To be fair to Bertie, he brought peace to the North and was very popular on the World stage, which helped us a lot, but he was too nice to some of the wrong people – which is costing us now.
The letter that Ben Dunne wrote in the Independent is fantastic, simply because it’s so real, and it’s he should be Taoiseach. One of the things that he wrote was that we should ask ourselves: “What’s the worst that can happen here? How do we deal with that eventuality, and how do move forward knowing the answers to the first two questions?” I have always made my business decisions based on those very same questions. What he is saying is that instead of dribbling bad news everyday as it comes out, we should throw it out hard and fast so that everyone knows where we stand. And believe me, regardless of how bad that is, people respect and feel much more comfortable when they know the truth. Now everyone is wondering how bad it is instead of how we fix it. Give people the bottom line and get on with whatever we have to deal with – with a smile…
February 7, 2009
Just added!
A great rendition of Damo doing “The Irish Rover” together with Barry Murphy and Skin & Hide, plus “Bad Time Garda” and “Seize the Day”, all here:
www.youtube.com/charlieslanzarote
Enjoy!
February 6, 2009
Here is a serious question that I want to answer for myself, and I simply don’t know the answer to:
Why do I read newspapers????? HELP!
I remember some years ago that somewhere, somebody started a “good news channel” and it went bust very fast. Why do we wallow in negativity? Is it that when we read that there has been a disaster, a murder or an economic credit crunch, it makes us feel better because we have escaped, or because we are part of it, and we feel better to know that there are others in the same boat? Probably so, because if we hear good news that others are doing well, it makes us feel bad as we ask ourselves “why are we not doing well, and what’s wrong with us?”
What a f*cked up way of thinking. Any time I saw someone else doing well I always thought “how are they doing that, and what can I learn from them?”, but it seems that a lot of people feel better bringing others down to their own level instead of bringing themselves up to others.
A slight example that happened to me today was when I parked a minibus outside a certain bar (which has mainly a daytime trade) with Damien Dempsey posters on the window, and the owner told me to move it as I was taking custom from his bar. I moved it when he threatened me with the police, even though I had every right to put it there, but I’m too smart to waste time arguing with certain types of people – in case I would become one. I did point out to him that I had brought about 500 people over the week to Lanzarote by bringing Damien here to play, and that his bar was benefiting from those same 500 people. His reply was that I didn’t bring Damo here but Magners did, and he knew it for a fact. While I appreciate Magners´ help and support with the *Magners Irish Sessions*, this gentleman was very wrong with his facts and assumptions. When I heard him speaking like this I decided that there was no point whatsoever talking any further to someone who knew everthing, and I simply drove away. A typical example of trying to bring someone else down instead of trying to bring yourself up. I was even thinking to take a picture of his bar and put it up in Charlies as a place to visit, just to prove the point, but decided that he wouldn’t understand, and while I accept that things are difficult here in Lanzarote at the moment, I can’t understand how trying to shoot each other in the foot is going to help anyone, or all of us.
Anyway, back to my newspaper problem – here are the headlines of The Examiner today. And you tell me why I bother reading them, because I’m f*cked if I know why!
1. There has been a sixfold increase in the number of murders involving knives in the last 5 years in Ireland???
2. Brian Cowen is telling the Irish people that they will have to accept a 10% reduction in living standards because of the global economic crisis??? I presume he means a 10% drop in financial living standards – which is only financial. I would question that there will be a drop in living standards outside of financial, and would hope that people think the same as I do and that, believe it or not, there is more to life than simply money. Also, I notice for the last few months that every article that they write about Brian Cowen has the same miserable face picture of him with his head down in despair.
3. The next article is about who owns the rights to the photo used in the election campaign of Barack Obama. So now all we have to talk about or discuss about the most powerful man on this planet is who owns these rights, and he has only been in office a few weeks! This leads me to think either he is simply a boring leader or The Examiner editor is a p*sshead who doesn’t have a f*cking clue and couldn’t be bothered to find something intelligent to print. I hope the latter is the case.
Either way, my question is simple: “Why do I bother to read the newspapers?” HELP!
|
« Older Posts — Newer Posts »
Powered by WordPress
|
