Glasgow Round up 3: Midnight milonga: July

This was the second edition of the Glasgow Tango Collective's new venture that I had quit on a few weeks previously.  After my first impressions of the atmosphere, dancing, lighting and music I hadn’t planned to go back to the midnight milonga. But I was in Glasgow for other reasons and decided to make a day of it. Actually, the milonga turned out be nice for me.  

I had supper with friends and by the time we arrived around 2020 I could only stay for a couple of hours as I had to catch a train.  Though I had been driving last time this is a good example of why I said previously there is little advantage in a midnight milonga for those coming from out of town.  Given the paucity of milongas in Glasgow and the number of experienced dancers who do not come out to various events for reasons best known to themselves, the idea might be rather how to attract people in than give them reasons to stay away or quit early. 

Tables and Seating:  This time the dance floor was reduced in size and things considerably improved by the addition of tables with cloths - though still insufficient. Lighting was the same but since the seating was closer it was slightly easier to invite by look. A friend complained about the venue as a "grey box".  I knew he was out of sorts but he had a point.  Since a great floor is important to me, if the price for it was a rather soulless grey box lacking atmosphere, I thought it might be worth paying.

Attendance: It was again well attended so I was surprised host Vanessa looked glum, until the three active DJs currently - according to the ETS calendar - rotating regularly in Edinburgh's Counting House venue arrived.  The ETS DJs attending the Glasgow milonga were: Antonella Cosi, her partner Tom and the newish DJ Mike Quickfall.  The fourth occasional Edinburgh DJ, their  friend Alastair was not there. 

Music: was by DJ Iain Dickinson. He kindly shared his set (see below).  During the two hours I was there I danced a lot.  There was cracking D'Arienzo as I arrived - the kind of music you hurry to change your shoes for.

Dancing/ronda:  Though the ronda was mostly OK there were a lot of dancers I have heard described as “tombstones”.  Then a newish guy dancing in the middle was about to cut in in front of me. I have tended to put up with this but uncharacteristically found myself closing the gap fast, forcing him back to the middle. I am sure it looked aggressive and felt guilty for it but I am not even sure he realised. 

I got up to the Troilo-Marino and within seconds had regretted it. This isn't the first time this has happened with Troilo-Marino.  I like it as music and it lulls me into thinking it is good for dancing but I do not believe it is.  This is why you hear Fiorentino played by the most well known DJs far more in the traditional milongas with the older more experienced dancers in Buenos Aires.  It is though played for the younger crowd by others there.   I had invited my partner who was new, trusting and lovely and I simply could not bring myself to apologise to and ask if we could pick up a different tanda.  I hope she forgives me for the poor dancing.

I could feel the friend I was dancing the milonga tandas with was frustrated by the ronda and we never really got going. I felt rather the same about the evening in general.  I had already danced that afternoon and figured being unused these days to so much dancing I was just tired.

I found this time many more women I would have liked to dance with and a couple of guys but I had run out of time. With works on the line the last train was around half past ten and still it took two hours to get home, double the usual time.  I left at 2215 with regrets that I could not stay longer.

DJ Iain's set:

De Caro 

Copacabana 1927

Flores negras 1927

Mal de amores 1928

Recuerdo 1926

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta (edited)

Donato
La tablada 1936
El acomodo 1933
Tierrita 1934
El Chamuyo 1938

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Lomuto/Omar (vals)

Damisela Encantadora 1936
Idolatría  1937
Salud, Dinero y Amor1939

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

D'Arienzo/EchagüePensalo bien 1938
No Mientas 1938
Ansiedad 1938
Nada más 1938

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Troilo-Marino
Torrente 1944
Sin palabras 1946
Cristal 1944
Sombras nada más 1944

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Canaro/Maida (milonga)
Milonga criolla 1936
Silueta porteña 1936
Larga Las Penas 1935

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Di Sarli/Rufino

Tristeza marina 1943
Griseta 1941
Canta, pajarito 1943
Cascabelito 1941

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Caló

Inspiración 1943
La maleva 1943
Saludos 1944
Sans Souci 1944

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Laurenz (vals)

Paisaje (with Podestá) 1943
Mascarita (Juan Carlos Casas) 1940
Mendocina (Carlos Bermúdez & Jorge Linares) 1944

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

D'Arienzo

Canaro En Paris 1950
Yapeyu 1951
El Simpatico 1951
El Puntazo 1952

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Troilo

Cordón de oro 1941
C.T.V. 1942
Guapeando 1941
Milongueando en el cuarenta 1941

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

D'Agostino/Vargas (milonga)
Entre Copa Y Copa 1942
Así Me Gusta A Mí 1942
El Porteñito 1943

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Tanturi/Campos

Oigo tu voz 1943
Muchachos, comienza la ronda 1943
Recién 1944
Una Emoción 1943

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Biagi/Amor

Y dicen que no te quiero 1947
Lucienne 1946
Marol 1946
Hoy te quiero mucho mas 1945

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Rodriguez (vals)

Tengo Mil Novias (with Flores) 1939
Fru Fru ((with Flores) 1939

Isabelita (with Moreno) 1940

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Pugliese/Chanel
Silbar de boyero 1944
Fuimos  1946
Rondando tu esquina 1945
Farol 1943

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Salamanca/Guerrico

Bomboncito 1957
Adiós Corazón 1957
Yo Tengo Un Pecado Nuevo 1957
Todo Es Amor 1957

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

D'Arienzo/Echagüe (milonga)

Milonga Querida 1938
Milonga del Corazon 1938
La Cicatriz 1939

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

D'Agostino

Cafe Dominguez (recita Julián Centeya) 1955
La sonámbula  1954
El cocherito (with Rubén Cané) 1953
Carnaval de Mi Barrio (with Rubén Cané) 1954

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

Di Sarli/Florio

Derrotado 1956
Y todavía te quiero 1956
Fumando espero 1956
Destino De Flor 1957

Cortina: Kendrick Lamar King Kunta

De Angelis Mi Dolor 1957
A Media Luz 1956
La cumparsita 1961

Midnight Moses - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band 1972

Glasgow Round up 2: New Glasgow milonga

This milonga by the Glasgow Tango Collective started in June and is called the Saturday midnight milonga. Apparently the reason for moving from the Crypt was to extend the milonga hours. We used to have to be out of there by 2230 and the caretaker was very strict about it. The lights would be turned off and people could be chased out in the dark with shoes still unlaced.

Edinburgh and Glasgow dancers never used to go to each other's events. Glasgow was largely ignored by Edinburgh dancers - and still is, though less so. Glaswegians viewed the Edinburgh scene darkly with the idea that it was as unfriendly as that city’s reputation can be from a Glasgwegian point of view. Only one or two dancers went through regularly.  Although I used to dance often at Edinburgh's Counting House venue it has not always enjoyed the best reputation for being a warm and welcoming environment.  It depends what happens to you when you visit which varies of course, for many reasons. From the start I danced in both cities, living equidistant between them. Dancers in Scotland strike me as particularly insular compared to other places. They stick largely to very local scenes - which is good I suppose if there are a lot of milongas attracting people from outside - but there are not.

Edinburgh Tango Society representation was evident in the new Glasgow milonga through the DJ workshop prior to the event run by Antonella Cosi.  She was also the DJ for the night.

Part of the general patter of discouragement by ETS to more than one friend interested in running new milongas in Edinburgh was: if a milonga didn’t run until midnight it wasn’t going to work.  It had to say, start at 2000 and go on til midnight.  Odd, when ETS's own milongas are 1900-2300.  It struck me more like seeing off competition. If the idea is to make this new milonga a “Glasgow only” event, then it’s on the right track because anyone travelling in from outside is likely to prefer a milonga that ends at say 2300 not midnight and like me, seldom finds a three hour milonga from 2000-2300 worth the trip.

The venue is the Renfield centre, 260 Bath Street, very near the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts - another Glasgow milonga venue. On the night there were some helpers outside to direct people to the unfamiliar venue which was a good idea.

Inside the salon my first three impressions were: dark, good floor, rules.

Entrance:  There was a lovely welcome. It was a smart move to have Ron on the door. As when Juana was on the door in Cambridge Ron is warm, friendly and welcoming - the ideal person. Entrada was £7. I recall no concessions which reminded me that the organisers of this milonga once asked for discounted entry for a milonga including supper and cake costing £6.

 There was an odd printout on the door. It was by endretango and might have been this  or this.  I thought there some irony in using a milonga to tell people what to do with a piece about...not telling people what to do.

Refreshments were included as is usual in many UK milongas: water, popcorn, crisps, chocolate dipped fruit, brownies etc.

Seating and tables: There were chairs on three sides. The DJ occupied the fourth side in very prominent position surrounded by fairy lights demonstrating "the importance of the DJ". There were no tables except the one behind my seat.

Lighting and invitation:  Despite that the photo shows it as bright, it felt darker and was too dark to invite easily. I tried to invite a woman I know at the far end of the large room but it was too dark and she was too far away to see me.  Since there were few at that end, in those circumstances it would have been too overt and indiscreet to go and sit opposite her even if I had been up for seat-hopping.  You can see in the photo a guy at the end standing in front of the DJ table who does seem to have moved to invite. I prefer to avoid that kind of exposed position. There was much chat and invitation around the food area of type “hello - how are you - let's dance?”. It reminded me of Cambridge on another occasion where people had done something similar to get round the problematic seating/lighting conditions.

The floor was truly excellent - a great pleasure.

Numbers, dancing, atmosphere:

The ronda looked haphazard but was OK when I was in it. There was nothing extravagant in the dancing. It was mostly the standard class-derived dancing of most local milongas with a few good dancers. The women were better than men by the usual 80-20 rule. I danced with a woman friend and a woman I didn't know who was lovely. But on that night I didn’t feel comfortable in that crowd which was centered around the Kinning Park  group plus local dancers and a few from Aberdeen who had also done the milonga in Stirling the night before. There were about sixty dancers by the time I left after ninety minutes having told myself for at least thirty of those that it was past time to go.   It was the atmosphere, the darkness and the music that did for me in the end.

Music:  My notes tell me there was rhythmic Canaro when I arrived and Yo Nací Para Querer.

There was Soy muchacho de la Guardia which in memory was the Demare/Arrieta version, not the Troilo. I am more flexible than some in my tolerance of music further from mainstream in this orchestra. If I find some of it too soft for dancing I often enjoy it for listening even in the milonga, whereas with Francini-Pontier and Maderna I generally can’t help but feel: Fine but can we just get to the music for dancing? Demare has to be pretty terrible for me not to enjoy it in some way.  My next note for this tanda says there was another problematica tango which I could’ve sworn has the lyrics “un tango más” on repeat. The tango is dully soporific but jerks me awake with that irritating refrain. Perhaps that’s why I seem to have misremembered the lyrics because I cannot after much research and listening find it. Though it still seems so real I suspect it was Un tango guapo which feels and sounds familiar.  It is similarly weak, also with singer Arrieta. I don’t think I’ve come across any Demare that is worse. Poor Arrieta’s voice sounds nothing like as fashionable to us as the incomparable Berón.  Arrieta features in the kind of track publicised by DJ Xenia again, a clue in itself.

There was good D'Arienzo, but I think only three.

There was good milonga.

There was D'Agostino - the wonderful well known tracks Tres Esquinas,  Adiós, arrabal  and something less well known.

There was terrible Canaro but I’ve mentioned this before here, also here and more generally  in the Counting House in Edinburgh

There were good Biagi vals.

There was Caló/Berón, somewhat mismatched I thought: There was Tarareando which I find stodgy and contrived with its tinkles and staccato and not the best for dancing but fine for listening.  Placed first in a tanda it’s skippable. Then there was the lovely yearning track Trasnochando  and the more upbeat, forthright Cuatro compases  (but played twice) whereupon I decided to leave.

As I was changing my shoes I heard from outsde the salon famously good Troilo: En esta tarde gris, but did not waver in my decision to go.

Glasgow Round up: 1: The Last Crypt milonga

To its great detriment I feel Edinburgh doesn’t have a weekly Friday or Saturday night milonga.   It means  it cannot attract weekend visitors for dancing. Powers in the Edinburgh Tango Society have to my knowledge discouraged  such events outside their auspices worried presumably it would detract from its own Sunday night event or last year's new non-ETS monthly Saturday night milonga - but owned by current ETS headmen.

So one Saturday in May I planned to check out swing dancing in the city. I've been to a (very) few of the socials in the last couple of years and done a (very) few classes in swing and balboa but the problems with that are much the same as with tango dance class.  I doubt I'd do a group class in swing again for similar reasons that I tend to avoid those in tango.  I much prefer the socials.  I like the music and the light hearted atmosphere and go just to watch. Still, I have danced nearly every time I've been though, as in the milonga, the best, experienced dancers tend to like to dance with other good, experienced dancers.  The novice listens, watches and looks for an invitation from someone halfway decent. As in the milonga people watch to see if you can dance and invite often by look.  But the music and culture is different, the dance less intimate and people are correspondingly perhaps more upbeat and less wary than in the milonga where the tone of the music is famously about loss, tragedy and regret.  I was all set to go to the swing dance when a Scottish friend who lives in Paris got in touch the day before to ask if I was going to The Crypt milonga in Glasgow. 

John had taken over this milonga from Bryan but I hadn't been going because I remember much alternative music from a milonga he used to run at the lovely but very large venue at Maryhill, in Glasgow.  I learned recently that Maryill Burgh Halls was in fact renovated by Hunter, an architect and local dancer who has interesting stories about the housing in which people used to live in Glasgow in decades past.

My friend from Paris is a lovely dancer in both roles. I decided to change my plans and we agreed to meet at the Crypt.

That afternoon then I went to the Glasgow afternoon practica.  I go for the chat there and in Smile Cafe that some of us often go to afterwards and to dance mostly with Bryan and sometimes some of the women or new dancers.  But I haven't been going much this year.  There are no cortinas for one thing and I often struggle with the music.  Then I wanted some time by myself and went here for dinner:

It is nearby the practica and the Crypt, affordable, quiet, the food is nice and their waiting staff have always been pleasant. It is bring your own bottle but in the past I’ve had nice wine at Stravaigin across the road.

The milonga is on the ground floor of Wellington Church designed by Thomas Lennox Watson not Alexander “Greek” Thomson as most of us supposed.

It is a beautiful if austere building - but it was spring.

It overlooks the Hunterian museum and the variously striking buildings of the University of Glasgow:

One of the difficulties of the Crypt had been that visitors were never going to hear the music and wander in. You always had to ring for entry which made things tricky for the host/DJ, especially if they were dancing  and did not have someone to manage the door.

The floor was like this. Quite hard but OK:

There was an honesty box. Entry was £5/£3. There were tables and chairs. The tables are large and if alone you share them with others. I was just about able to keep my seat. There were simple refreshments as usual, chocolatey snacks, popcorn, crisps, biscuits, cheese and grapes, juice and water.

During the Fresedo, pre-video. You can see the speaker above the floor.

Lighting and invitation

The main problem for me was that the Crypt was dark, darker than usual especially as the evening closed in - you can see the progressive darkness in the photos below. It was certainly darker than when Bryan was doing it, as he had brought extra lights and even then it was still far from bright. The other issue was that there was a large projection of show dancer video on one wall. I could ignore it except for when it made me giddy (in the other role). I can understand this more in an alternative or nueveo milonga but the music and dancing was traditional.

I had walk-up invitations from two guys. This has become much rarer in the Crypt, rarer for me at any rate, but I think in Glasgow generally since I started dancing here three or four years ago. The guys had to invite from close by because of the darkness and I guess they wanted to make sure I had seen them. I felt them closing in but was in the middle of invitation /acceptance by look with others and apologised as I moved past them to dance with my intended partners.

During the D’Arienzo

Music

The music felt a bit unbalanced. There were three? Rodriguez tandas - but I like Rodriguez and have danced to at least as much Rodriguez at La Catedral one night in Buenos Aires. There were some misses, especially the D'Arienzo (how possible?!) and late Fresedo but overall the set was better than I'd expected with much of the kind of music I like for dancing and nothing alternative or non-tango. Some of the music as I recall was:
- Canaro
- big Fresedo miss with Héctor Pacheco E.g. Solo de bandoneó and Fugitiva
- Di Sarli hit
- Milonga
-  D’Arienzo/Bustos e.g. Papá which I don't mind - until Bustos arrives and then I lose interest for dancing. Then there was Mandría with Bustos and I feel the same. Besides, though the instrumental section is good, the '39 version with Echagüe I think incomparably better for dancing. 

- Rodriguez hit
- Pugliese Puente Alsina which I think was with Vidal, 1949. Like the Bustos I don't think is good dance music. There was the instrumental La Yumba 1952, Fuimos with Chanel, 1946; Pasional with Morán 1951
- Di Sarli again
- Rodriguez
- Milonga tanda
- Tanda of Caló hits. 

I know there was vals but I have not noted it.  I have a note that there was no Troilo, Tanturi, Donato, De Angelis or D’Agostino.

This makes the music sounds worse than it was but I danced a lot and to good music so I may not have noted it all nor necessarily in order. 

During the Pugliese

Dancing

Besides the usual Glasgow contingent there were several there from Edinburgh and it was busy. There was a very small group of nuevo style dancers from elsewhere in Scotland - I'd better not say where as I've been clearly warned off.  They seemed to stick together. Of these, one young couple dominated the floor at the start with big moves but at least the floor was mostly clear then. Everyone else danced small with the traditional embraces and movements of social dancing. It was nice.

I danced in both roles in heels and flats with my friend who is taller than me and glorious to dance with.  He said he knows lots of guys who dance well in both roles.  This surprised me.  Were I to dance with most guys in the UK I would struggle to find them not a torment in just one role. Happily there are notable exceptions. But my friend dances a lot in the queer tango community.  I have long thought that guys who can or who have danced both roles are in general much better dancers than guys who don't - particularly in the (traditional) men's part so in search of these I am now curious about the queer tango community abroad.

That was the last Crypt milonga. The Glasgow Tango Collective has set up a new milonga in a different venue: 

The group’s Facebook description (August 2016)