This fall 2007 was a lot of fun for our band. From August to the end of September, we were at Creme Café & Lounge in DC every weekend. Although our shows started late, almost 11pm, we had fun and played for a late crowd ready to dance and let go after a good dinner. The best thing about this place was our freedom to play any music we wanted, as long as it was good, interesting and upbeat. The owners were an American Ethiopian couple and loved music from around the world. So we did what we do best, which is mixing our repertoire with original songs, some Manu Chao, a lot of Gipsy Kings, Idir, Khaled, Rachid Taha, Djamel Alem, Gitano Family,...and in five different languages. We no longer play there because we were too busy performing at private events and Creme wanted consistency. Private gigs are different than regular/every weekend gigs. They are a one time event; we play for a different crowd each time and they are always well payed. Well, regular gigs are fun and keep us playing every weekend.

While our bass player, Abdel, was busy taking these pictures at Creme Café, Mario, our guest percussionist from Peru was happy to pose for the camera...andalé Mario :)

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September 16, in Cambridge, Maryland:
Among these private gigs we did in September was the Cambridge, MD event at a classy Hyatt Regency hotel on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It was about two hours away from DC. We traveled in one car and had a lot of fun along the way with Kamel cracking jokes from the back seat all the time. Sometimes Abdel and I laughed at him, not with him :). We arrived at the venue and they showed us to the dressing room. We shared the dressing room with a Mariachi band and together we jammed and sang a Mariachi song and ate before our performances started.
This was an international event and Gibraltar represented North Africa at the Morocco Spot. The Mariachi band represented, well, Mexico; Indonesia was also represented by a dance troop, and other countries were there too. One of the VIP guests at the event was Colin Powell. It was kept a secret by the management, so when he passed by our spot and all three of us looked at each other to confirm that it was him, at this moment we were coming to the end of the song we were playing and the song ends with one final note as opposed to a fade away, and that's when Kamel decided to end it with a completely different chord than the rest of us. It was so obvious and loud, we called it The Chord of Mass Destruction :) we had a great laugh about it; thanks Colin Powell for disturbing our focus.

Watch video

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September 29, in Middlburg Virginia:
The other important Private event we did in September was a wedding in Middleburg, VA, which was a real treat because it was held at a serene farm on a splendid sunny fall day. Our dressing room was in a barn re-arranged as a guest apartment. The walls of the barn were covered with pictures and artifacts from a Spanish corrida. Outside was the beautiful Virginia horse country and inside the barn felt like a dressing room at a bull fighting arena in Spain or Latin America. Very original and interesting. The performance went well and the wedding couldn't happen on a better day. All the best to the newly weds.

View photos and video.

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December 2007

Saturday December 1, at the Spy Museum:
We started the month of December with a unique performance at the Spy Museum in downtown Washington DC. The event was a christmas party for SES New Skies, a satellite communications company with offices in the Netherlands, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Washington, D.C.

In addition to Gibraltar's performance, the event included a DJ, a sketch artist, a James Bond impersonator, and a tour to exhibition rooms, which looked like a set from a James Bond movie.

The open bar helped the band start on the right note and the abundant food and deserts sobered us by the end of the event. The crowd danced to our music and we danced with them to the music of the DJ Carlos and his wife during our breaks.

We also had a chance to catch up with our friends who worked for this company, Jocelyn accompanied by her husband Michel for whom we played in the past at different occasions, such as their Bastille Day party 2007 (Michel is originally from France) and also their daughter's wedding in New York a few years back.

We'd like to thank Marilyn from SES HR who organized the event as well as her co-worker and our compadre from Morocco, Rachid.

As usual, we had a lot of fun performing and enjoyed talking to guests and the catering staff who enjoyed our music and supported us by buying some of our CDs.

View pictures | Watch video

Friday and Saturday, December 6 & 7:
This weekend, we were at Las Tapas, a Spanish restaurand and bar where we started playing since October.
Friday was a quite night in Old Town, Alexandria, VA. We started off slow but the bar area filled up during our last set and most of them danced. We finished the night with a cover of Rachid Taha's rocking song Medina and it was a blast. The crowd there loves the Gipsy Kings, so we played a bunch of rumba songs. The manger of the bar lets us play North African music sometimes but we don't want to abuse it and stick to Spanish rumba for most of the time :(

Saturday was more lively and we had a good crowd from the start. Some regulars were there already, and our friends, Karim and his girlfriend showed up with their German friends.

Gibraltar will be playing again at Las Tapas this coming Saturday December 15.
Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of Gibraltar at Las Tapas taken by our friends at DCflameco.com on November 24, 2007. (scroll down when you get to the link).

Saturday, December 15:
It was a slow night in Old Town, VA on Saturday night. We played like usual at Las Tapas and the few customers at the bar enjoyed our performance.

During the day on the same Saturday, Gibraltar (without Hacene) played in Downtown DC for the DC Holiday Market on F street. Jose, a friend of ours joined Kamel and Abdel for an hour and a half performance. It was an outdoor gig and it was so cold that Abdel and Jose felt they needed to numb their fingers with...Bangay!?! :)

The entire F street between 7th & 8th was very festive with vendors and artisans on both sidewalks. The stage was small but very well organised with a full sound system managed by a sound technician. Despite the cold, people were very warm, cheerful and supportive; they bought some CDs and gave tips for musicians.

View pictures | Watch video

Gibraltar will be at the closing day of the DC Holiday Market on F street again next Sunday December 23 from 12 to 2:30pm rain or shine. Abdel will be on his road trip to California but Jose will be with Kamel and Hacene to play bass. Look for the stage with bundled up musicians in hats, scarves, and gloves...no Bangay :)

Gibraltar will also be at Las Tapas Restaurant this Friday and Saturday nights (Dec. 21 & 22). It is the weekend before Christmas, hopefully we'll have a good turn out.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday December 21, 22, 23:

Gibraltar had a very busy weekend starting with Friday night at Las Tapas. With Abdel, our bass player in California, this is the first time the trio Kamel, Hacene, and José play together. José already played with Kamel and Abdel before, so he was very familiar with our repertoire. It was an OK night but not very crowded.

On Saturday, it was back to Las Tapas again for the second night with José playing bass. We started the second set with José lending his bass to a Turkish musician guy who was at the bar with his friend and who wanted to play a couple of Gipsy Kings songs with us. He played 2 or 3 songs before José, who meanwhile was playing the cajon, came back to play bass. it was fun having more musicians on stage, the sound was full. It was the weekend before Christmas, so it wasn't very busy but we had a good crowd at the bar. We had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer, an American artist with a background from Guatemala who spoke fluent Spanish, French and English. She was with her two girlfriends having fun and dancing. Thanks for dancing chiccas...

The next day, after a late Saturday night, we were again on the road to Downtown DC for the DC Holiday Market. It was overcast and it was still morning (11 am), very different than what we are used to, which is mostly night gigs, and did not know what to expect. We set up on the small stage with our friend José still replacing Abdel, and we started on time at around noon. We played a good first set with a mix of songs from our original songs in Berber, some rumba songs and some popular North African songs among others...we even played a random song for a special guest David from Boston, and Doreen from Vancouver, and the song was "Ruby Tuesday" of the Rolling Stones, one of David's favourite songs... Merry Christmas David :). We also had the pleasure of meeting a Berber brother, Amar from Paris, who was visiting DC for a couple of days and on his way to Motreal. He is also a musician in Paris and promised to send us some of his compositions. He took a lot of pictures and videos of us while we were playing. some of them will end up on this page as soon as we get them. we also took pictures and a video with our camera and those will be posted very soon.

After a twenty minute break and a hot chocolate later, we came back for a second and last set and it was the highlight of the day and a great one. We had a good international crowd gathered around the stage, a few even danced, we sold out on CDs, and the tips bucket was filling up :)...We gave out our cards for people who didn't get a CD so that we can mail them a copy. It was a great gig after all even with a sleep deficit from Friday and Saturday late night gigs.

View pictures | Watch video (from Downtown DC Holiday Market week 2)

Gibraltar will have another busy weekend again with three performances at Las Tapas this Friday, Saturday and another on Monday night for the NEW YEAR's EVE PARTY... It will be a lot of fun...come join us if you can...and welcome back Abdel...

Friday and Saturday, December 28 & 29
So far so good, it's Monday morning with two performances at Las Tapas done over the weekend and one to go tonight, new year's eve. Friday and Saturday were a lot of fun. We played many dance rumba songs but also a lot of North African, French and Italian songs as well. We introduced some new songs from Manu Chao's last album, such as La vida Tombola, Tristeza Maleza, and Soñe Otro Mundo; from his older albums we played Mi gusta, Rumba de Barcelona...

The audience at Las Tapas likes the rumba songs and wants to dance, so we played many of the Gipsy Kings songs including "A ti a ti", "A tu vera", "Café", "Baila me", "Bomboleo", "Volare",...

Some friends of ours showed up on Saturday, Shlomo and his wife Nancy, and their friends Moris and Linnet. They brought with them their enthusiasm and made the night a lot more fun. Click on the link below to see pictures Moris took with his camera.

View pictures

Gibraltar will be at Las Tapas Tonight, Monday December 31st for the Big Fiesta!!!

Happy New Year everybody, Meilleurs voeux from the Gibraltar boys :)