Wendy WilliamsEXCLUSIVE By Wendy Williams
POLICE called a halt to an expat charity bash after a resident complained he couldn’t hear his TV.
The annual fundraising drive for El Faro’s LIVE charity was cut short after police turned up acting on an anonymous complaint from the neighbour.
The fourth family fun day in aid of the orphanage Cuidad los Niños, in Malaga, was forced to end at just 4pm, eight hours before its scheduled finish.
“We were told that someone couldn’t hear their television and we couldn’t continue with our plans,” said organiser Lisa Nicoll.
Radio station Silk FM, which was sponsoring the event, had to close down the live broadcast at 4pm after local band Costa Rock had finished their set.
Lead singer Pete Carter gave a very heartfelt explanation and pleaded with visitors to stay, but the majority started to leave.
“The organisers will lose out on eight hours of fundraising,” he said. “Not giving to charity is one thing but stopping others giving is a different thing entirely.”
Apparently it is anything but the first time it has happened, the Olive Press has discovered.
A number of expat bar owners have now come forward to reveal that this type of incident is not usual.
They claim police are carrying out increasing numbers of checks for music licenses and if any bar is found without the correct paperwork – or if there is a single complaint – they are being shut down.
In fact a Facebook group has now been launched called ‘Keep Music Live’ on the Costa del Sol.
Radio DJ Paul O’Connell, explained: “It seems that the police, under town hall orders, are shutting down live music venues.
“While it is important that bars have their paperwork in order, the heavy-handed actions of the police are unacceptable and are not helping the economic and social problems on the coast.”
But as organiser Nicoll added: “At least we managed to still raise 1,200 euros and we want to send out a positive message and thank those who came.”
I just hope there is not a racist element to the actions of the police. Would they have shut down a Spanish charity bash in the same way?
Can the OP support the ‘Keep Music Live’ campaign on the coast please……..perhaps add the logo somewhere where people can click and sign up…………..would be very useful and they would be the only newspaper to do this in Andalucia……….
What price peace and bloody quiet?
Happens to Spanish bars just as much. And not just about music. You kick somebody out because they drink but have no money. They make an anonymous denuncia. Next the police come in and check ALL the paperwork. Anything they can find that is not 100% correct they give multas for. Even when in fact you disturb nobody. Police harrassment. I have no other word for it!
Other example. Friend of mine suddenly had the police in all the time. Who wrote a ticket at two oclock in the night for not having the original insunance policy paper at hand in his place…. My friends wife went to the town hall, where she found out there were over five hundred denuncias against them. They looked again and saw they came from one source only… The neighbouring restaurant that was jealous!!! Something should be done about this denuncia culture. It destroys businesses. Try to make some profit these days in a bar…
My sympathy to Anon and his friends. What I’d like to know is why the police spend so much time with this harrassment of bar owners, etc., trying to make a living, when southern Spain is the main drug route to the rest of Europe? And the drug ‘lords'(scum) get richer and richer with little trouble.
Thanks to anon and Antonio2 for something from a spanish perspective.
They should be out catching criminals instead of this sad tale…. and 4pm not 4am…. a disgrace …the policia local are ignorants… 100%
So a live music licence is not required in the UK then??
Requirements for just a music licence are very high. You need double windows, double walls, a double front door and at least 125 square meters. Then still, when somebody files a denuncia you have a problem. A licence for LIVE music is even more impossible to get. And the a licence for dancing, beyond impossible. Now if you have a nice cosy place, you have good contacts with neighbours and you just want some decent music on. No boom boom disco, just a bit. You go outside to check it is hardly audible in the street. Trying to entertain the tourists so badly needed but making sure they can sleep as well. One idiot calls. Police comes and only say the law is the law. And write another pink paper against you. In every block of houses there is always this one grumpy man. In all bars there is this one client who is disconteted and wants to tell you how to run thee place. Just one denuncia is enough. And then you get nailed for all they can find. After a year or two they even say by this time you have too many complaints against you. What does one do then? Sell and run. With a sad look on all the other empty buildings in the street and even for those without work who tried to drink for free. La ley es la ley. Eat your ley!
Many years ago in Estepona Port there was an English-owned Karaoke bar. Height of the summer and all very noisy at 2am when the Policia Local turned up. Neighbouring Spanish bars were belting out their music too. Da Feds told the owner to close the bar because of the noise. My Spanish friend who was a court officer and loved Karaoke (God help him) flashed his gold official badge at da Feds and told them to go away. They did.
Noise is becoming more and more of a problem in Spain, shutting down this fund raising event at four in the afternoon is way over the top. I think bars are going to have a real problem in the future as most of them are under small blocks of flats, never been able to understand why in such a large country everything has to be squeezed into the smallest space possible.
New culture where theres blame there is a claim.
Test case,Torre del mar a few year ago.Tenants compensation pay out over million euros awarded in the region of €156,000,00 each for excessive noise levels from establishments beneath there apartments.This I feel has paved the way for a struggling economy for an easy way to make maoney by certain individuals by just complaining and denuncias.Live music is dead there now that was once a thriving area and only a minute example of what will be of things to come.When these establishments are closed down and the shops that set beside with restraunts a like etc..what concerns will the police and town halls have with no revenue aiding there services? and increasing crime rate for lack of job opertunities?daunting thought isn’t it!
Well when all the bars and clubs are closed down, the police department can lay off and make redundant most of their officers, because they won’t be needed will they? Idiots. Does anyone in power in this country have even an iota of common sense? Still, there’ll be a lot Mercedes Benz going cheap at the car lot, because the spanish will all be going back to their donkeys and Seat Panda’s. Be too late to cry when there’s a mass exodus of tax payers to other friendlier continents.