'Guitar Man'

........“Who draws the crowd and plays so loud?  Baby it’s the guitar man”

Last week we went out and about knocking on doors for gigs, as is our custom every season.  Although we arrive hoping that all the places that booked Keith last year will be doing the same again this year, the reality is that nothing is certain. Sometimes the owners have changed, bars have closed down or it’s too early in the season etc. With all of this in mind, we drove over to visit a couple of last year’s venues in Acharavi and Kassiopi and finished up in Kalami on the North East coast.

We had stayed overnight here last year with Paddy & Lorraine and Woodie & Dee and had been recommended to try one of Woodie’s favourite watering holes “Cocktails & Dreams” as a venue and unknown to us they had been recommended Keith as an act for their bar!

Keith and Sue had joined us on our gig hunting trip out, so we also had a wander round Kalami, and a spot of lunch and a beer. Kalami is a beautiful, peaceful, getaway which maintains its Greek character.  A former fishing village nestling between the sea and a mountain backdrop of olive and pine trees which has 3 tavernas, 3 cocktail bars, 3 minimarkets and 2 gift shops.  The sheltered beach is covered in white shiny pebbles and is a perfect spot for a swim in the stunningly clear water.

Here a white two-storied house on a rocky promontory was for several years the home of Lawrence Durrell and his Wife Nancy. Lawrence, (brother of Gerald – ‘My family and other animals) poet and novelist, is the well-known author of Prospero's Cell and several other books which have Corfu settings as their background. In this same house Henry Miller, perpetrator of Tropic of Cancer, was Durrell's guest during the summer of 1939.

Kalami has also been used as a James Bond location, in ‘For your eyes only’

We called into the hotel bar, Cocktails and Dreams, to negotiate the gig for the following Tuesday.  Then we had a delicious, leisurely lunch at the Thomas Taverna on the beach.

Tuesday soon came around and it turned out to be Keith’s first gig of the season. Which, as a new venue, in a new location, plus a new song sheet, it could have been tricky.  But as usual, Keith set up, plugged in and played for 2 ½ hours, with loads of requests and CDs sold at the end of the gig!  Despite a thunderstorm at the start of the gig, a good proportion of the audience were outside dancing on the terracing in front of the bar, a cracking 1^st night!

On Sunday nights Keith has negotiated another lovely new venue, “Nino’s on the Beach” which is a hotel in Roda.  It’s a small family run hotel with a large bar and dining area. Run by Nino and his son Danny.  It has the benefit of being independent, so unlike a Thomson hotel, they don’t have mass changeover days and they also have regular guests who return year upon year. As the name suggests it is on the sea front which will provide superb sunsets whilst Keith plays a chill out set for the guests during their evening meal!

We have always liked Roda, it was the first place we stayed on our very first visit to Corfu in 1998, at the Coral Hotel.  It’s an old fishing village on the North West coast and a small, friendly, family beach resort; which is mostly used by British tourists. There is a pretty sandy beach and you can walk all along the sea front to Acharavi which is close by.  The original town has developed, but you still see locals continuing their traditional everyday life.

Keith’s first gig there went really well, more Cd’s were sold and they have asked him to do 2 gigs a week all season, Sundays and Wednesdays.

Now, a week later, The Athens Bar gigs have started every Saturday night, unless there is a football match on the TV or a wedding (which there will be next week) This is Keith’s 8^th season playing in this bar and it’s our favourite and our local gig, so Keith has been flexible.  So far it’s been 1x Saturday, 1x Friday, and 2 x Mondays in this month’s schedule! Keith has also secured a bar in Acharavi and a hotel in Sidari every week, so it’s keeping him out of mischief!  But I’m still not convinced he’s not on holiday.

 ........“Something keeps him going miles and miles a day to find another place to play”