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.