Manolito Simonet y Su Trabuco played live at The Coronet Theatre, Elephant and Castle, London on Sunday 29th July 2007.
This event was organised by Mambo City and was to mark their 8th Anniversary.
Ticket prices varied from £16-20 depending on how early you booked your ticket, but even at full price it would have been well worth the money. The Coronet is an old theatre building that is much nicer inside than it looks from the outside and much larger too than it appears from the outside.Once inside the building there is a large lobby area where you either handed in your ticket or paid at the desk.Up some stairs was the cloakroom, and also what was on that night, the reggaeton room.
The main theatre room was huge, with very high ceilings so there was no problem with over-heating at this venue.The room was split-level with large dancefloor spaces on each level, and a large, well-staffed bar which stretched the length of one end of the room, so even with the massive turn-out there wasn’t a problem getting served.Drinks were quite pricey though.
The event was from 7pm – 2am, with the band scheduled to be on at 10pm with dancing until 2am afterwards.We didn’t arrive until around 9pm though, at which point there were already a lot of people there, and dancing was already in full swing.
We got ourselves some drinks, milled around chatting for a while, and then decided to go and have a dance before the band came on.Initially the main dancefloor seemed fine, but it was a concrete floor which soon became unpleasant to dance on.Although it was smooth in most places, some areas were a little grainy, which made it difficult to dance on, but the biggest drawback was that it was extremely hard on the feet, and also created friction which made the soles of your feet burn.This was a real shame as the dancefloor was huge, the music was great and there were plenty of people there to dance with.
Shortly after 10pm there appeared to be something happening on the stage, so many people, including myself, started to gather at the front to get the best view of the band.But they kept us waiting for what seemed like an age – why do they do that?If the band are advertised as being on at 10pm, and the band are in the house, then they should be coming on as close to that time as possible.The dancing carried on, and at this point I have to say I was getting a tad bored and frustrated, but as I’d managed to bagsy a spot right at the front of the stage (as you can see from my photos) I was loathed to move.So I waited and waited, and waited some more.
Eventually Rohan who was MC for the night appeared on the stage and announced that we now had to turn our attention in the opposite direction so see the dance shows that were about to happen on the main dancefloor.
The first show was the couple from Swing Latino that I had seen the previous night in High Wycombe, so still refusing to move from my prime spot, I decided to take the chance that the show would be the same as the night before.I got lucky………. it was the same show, so I didn’t miss anything.The crowd were whooping and cheering though, so they obviously enjoyed it as much as I had the previous night.The second show was rumba, which I also decided to miss.
Just over an hour late, the band eventually came on – yay :o)Luckily I had chosen a spot right in front of the main man himself!The band was well worth the wait and they belted out one fab track after another.Their energy on stage was amazing and they really got involved with the crowd.There were three front men on vocals who were constantly bouncing off one another, and of course Manolito on keyboards who was either playing his keyboard to within an inch of its life or wondering around the other musicians on stage to encourage them.It was a joy to see and they all worked together as a tight team.This is Cuban music at its very best!
I was so engrossed in the show that I didn’t notice how long they were on stage for, but it was at least an hour and probably more.They played one encore, and then disappeared for good, much to the crowd’s disappointment.
The DJing then re-commenced and the dancing continued until 2am.There were still plenty of people left right up until the end, and everyone had had a fantastic night.It was well worth the long trip down to London for this, and was one of the best ways I can think of for making the most of a Sunday night.
Whenever Manolito y Su Trabuco come back to the UK, I shall be doing my best to be there!I just hope they don’t make me wait another 8 years, which is how long it had been since they were last here.
