Band concert

We tried to get tickets for the Sunday performance by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force who were due to play at Torrevieja’s Fifth Annual Festival of Bands. By the time we went down to get the tickets they were sold out so we made a note to buy tickets earlier next year.

As it happens we wouldn't have seen them anyway. Months prior to the band's arrival, the necessary paperwork was sent from the Ministry of Defence in England to Spain’s Military Attaché to the Court of St James. The paperwork was to obtain permission for serving members of a military organisation to visit Spanish soil and was deemed complete. It had taken the Flight Sergeant five hours to wade through the forms and all was set for the Central Band of the Royal Air Force to come to Spain and play in two concerts; one in Torrevieja and a second in Benalmadena.

On Friday afternoon, as the 37 members of the Central Band were already on a British Airways flight to Gibraltar, the Spanish Foreign Ministry informed the British authorities that they would not be allowed to enter Spanish territory. Under no circumstances would a military unit be allowed to enter Spain from Gibraltar and the lorry carrying their musical instruments and uniforms would also be stopped at the Spanish/French border at Perpignan.

On Sunday night, every ticket having been sold for the performance, the town hall were saved by the Sociedad Musical Ciudad de Torrevieja ‘Los Salerosos’. Los Salerosos got a resounding round of applause and saved the day with a blinding performance particularly with some of the material they were unfamiliar with.

Apparently the Royal Marine Association Band, who had played earlier in the week, had no problems entering Spain direct from the UK. The row is over access from Gibraltar and the Spanish authorities are exercising their right to deny access onto the mainland to make a political point regardless of who suffers.