Show notes for the 216th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers in or from Malta:
Airport Impressions – Walk With Me
Errol Sammut and the rest of his band have slowly but surely established themselves as one of the foremost alternative rock acts in Malta over the past couple of years. Their new single showcases them in full force and as you would imagine it’s also managed to acquire a fair amount of radio airplay in the Maltese islands. The band is now planning to release their debut album later this year.
Tea – Surfer
When Marc Storace left the Malta in search of a rock career some 40 years ago, the main band he worked with before making it big with Krokus was Tea. They performed a memorable concert at the Plaza Cinema in Sliema sometime before they broke up in the late 1970s. Last year they started planning a reunion and produced a compilation CD with some of the best tracks from the albums they originally released over 30 years ago. And now Marc and his old Swiss pals return to Malta for a gig at Sky in Paceville on Friday 25 June. Marc is also appearing at a couple of other gigs in Malta before and after this date, but the show with Tea will undoubtedly be a highlight for both old and new fans.
Various Artists – Festa ta’ Kuluri
Music and sport and strange bedfellows but from time to time they combine to produce a memorable moment of popular entertainment. Such is the case with the official 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, which is making the rounds in a large number of languages right now. The Maltese version is produced by the Xarabank team under the direction of Joe Brown. The singers include Freddie Portelli, Thea Garrett, Mary Rose Mallia, Wayne Micallef, Glen Vella, Claudia Faniello, Tiziana, Ludwig Galea and Mike Spiteri. The video is very colourful and has a subtle message pro-diversity. However, the whole thing masks the distressing reality that Malta will most probably never play in the FIFA World Cup, so Maltese football fans can only really support a foreign team, perpetuating the cultural subservience that plagues post-colonial nations unable to embrace their own unique national identity. Then again, it seems that hybridity has been an element of Maltese culture since pre-historic times.
Mike Spiteri – 20,000 Leagues
It would be a shame if subsequent generations of Maltese music fans only remembered Mike Spiteri for singing Malta’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995. Along with Marc Storace, he was one of the first heavy rock singers the country produced and sang with some of the best underground bands in the 70s and early 80s. He has always dared to be different and, to my mind, has probably never really been appreciated for his true worth. The song I’ve picked as the final track for this week’s podcast was written for him by Ray Agius and Alfred C. Sant for the 2010 Malta EuroSong festival but it didn’t make it to the final 20. Although it’s not an outstanding song, it certainly deserved to be heard from the stage in Ta’ Qali much more than at least half a dozen songs that actually made it to the EuroSong final.
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