I’ve been lucky in my life to meet some amazing people and do a variety of memorable things. This past week has been no exception, with Peter Crouch, Abbey Clancy and their kids visiting Pirates Adventure. Both have been before and they are always fun and friendly. Peter of course had a stellar football career playing for 14 teams over 19 years, scoring 108 goals in the Premier League which puts him in an elite bracket of strikers to have broken the 100+ mark. In 2017, he broke Alan Shearer’s record for most headed goals in Premier League history. He played 42 times for England, scoring 22 goals with his trademark ‘robot dance’ goal celebration. Since retiring from football he has built a successful media career working for BT Sport (now TNT) and his podcasts are hilarious. One of the most memorable featured William the Prince of Wales, which I urge you to listen to if you haven’t already.

Abbey Clancy is a catwalk model who came second in Britains Next Top Model in 2006 and won Strictly Come Dancing in 2013. They have four children together and they are one of most down to earth and nicest celebrity couples I have had the pleasure to meet. Lately they have been doing a podcast together called ‘The Therapy Crouch’, where they are exploring the trials and tribulations experienced by them and their listeners, as they navigate their way through complex relationships. My Wife is an avid listener. 

The first thing Abbey asked me as they arrived was ‘please tell me you’re still doing chicken & chips, I love them!’ We took them all on our backstage tour which takes in all the inner workings of how our show functions and also tells the story of how we came to be in picture form. From there, they sat and enjoyed the show and were happy to pose for photos with the audience when the show allowed. As I said above they’ve been a few times now and it’s always a pleasure to meet them. 

One of my conversations with Peter was about the coming football season and that he would be working for the new satellite TV company TNT who took over BT Sport. He said he was going to the Community Shield at Wembley that weekend and I said me too. 

It was a coincidence that the same weekend we’d planned a short trip to the UK to visit our families and celebrate our sons 14th birthday. It was lovely to see my 93 year old Mother who is affectionately known as ‘the Duchess’ and now lives in a retirement home in Letchworth in Hertfordshire. Although understandably a little forgetful theses days, she still has her wits about her and can still give me a telling off. On the Saturday we had a barbecue with my Wife’s side of the family. Now I’d heard reports of how bad the weather was in the UK, so much so that my Sister had told me to bring a jumper, in August? To be honest with the temperatures we’ve had here in Mallorca, stepping off the plane at Luton was a welcome cooling relief. Back to the barbecue which my brother in law had to do under a gazebo which sheltered him from the wind and rain. It was that cold that we could see our breath whilst talking. Always good to catch up with all of the family. 

Sunday me and the boys headed off to Wembley. With the news dominated by train strikes it was my intention to drive into London. But we checked on the train situation and there were no strikes and we could get from Bedford to St Pancras in just 40 minutes. Five stops on the tube and we were at the theatre of dreams all for just £17.00 each. The food and drink however was a little more expensive with 2 hot dogs and a burger coming to £30.00 and two pints and a water coming to the same! I was though very impressed with the stadium as the only thing I’d seen there before was Ed Sheeran. Our seats were amazing and I thought reasonably priced at £65.00 each, shout out to Jeff and Ian who helped me out getting those. The game itself is always good when you win and the new rule of adding more time on at the end meant that we equalised a fine Manchester City goal in the 101st minute. With no extra time, we won 4-1 on penalties and made our journey back one to enjoy. 

Last weekend saw the start of the football season and this weekend the Premier League and La Liga returns. I’m looking forward to watching more of Arsenal and particularly Real Mallorca during the coming season. 

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

My love of sport started as a child. I grew up playing football, rugby, cricket and basketball at school. I also played football outside of school at the weekends both Saturdays and Sundays. When I wasn’t playing sport I was watching it. Now I grew up in the pre Sky Sports era so the weekends were also taken up with watching Grandstand, Football Focus, World of Sport and The Saint & Greavsie. Remember we never had live games to watch on TV in those days, so it was the highlights on Match of the Day on Saturday night and The Big Match on Sunday afternoon. If you were lucky you could stay up late on a Wednesday evening and watch Sportsnight. I was never without my portable radio which had an ear piece and back in the day I used to listen to live football on BBC Radio 2. If I went to a live game I used to get on the train to Finsbury Park and go to Highbury to watch Arsenal. It was £5.00 to get onto the North Bank and you had to get there at 1pm to get a good place to stand for a 3pm kick-off. 

Kids don’t know they’re born today!

I’m getting to my point don’t worry. What I’m trying to say is I’m a bit of a traditionalist who can cope with change but sometimes I’ll take some convincing. 

So I’m going to say something that if you’d had asked me a year ago I would have had a totally different opinion. I actually think the winter World Cup wasn’t such a bad thing. Now if my team Arsenal had held on to win the Premier league I would of course have said that, however they didn’t, but there are different reasons for my opinion on this. We all know that Qatar won the bidding to host the World Cup because of a complete stitch up by FIFA which has since been proved. Everybody said at the time including me, a winter World Cup? It will never work. It should always be in the summer that’s where it belongs. The World Cup itself had some great games, mainly I think because the players had only played half of their league matches and weren’t exhausted after a long season. Remember England were probably only a penalty kick away from making their first World Cup final since 1966. But the final itself was probably one of the best and to see Lionel Messi finally win the World Cup with Argentina was very special. Another plus from a working point of view we at Pirates didn’t have to rearrange our shows around when England were playing. In my 30 years as part of the show we have always had a low audience if ever we decided to perform on the same night as an England game. Which we don’t do anymore by the way.

All this though isn’t just about how good the World Cup was. By having the tournament in the winter it has given us sports lovers the chance to enjoy a summer of other sporting memories. Which to be honest normally take a back seat if the World Cup or European Championships are on. When I look back this summer I’ve been able to enjoy the Ashes, Wimbledon, the Open Golf, the F1 and now the Women’s World Cup. The highlights? The Ashes has been one of the best of all time even though England ultimately didn’t win, ‘Bazball’ has revolutionised test cricket. The young Spaniard Carlos Alvarez beating the favourite Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in one of the best Men’s finals ever seen. Whilst the F1 has come a little bit of a procession with Max Verstappen winning every race. The brilliant Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ has made F1 more fun to watch. The Lionesses look like they’re starting to play better after a slow start to the Women’s World Cup and I hope they can mirror their Euro success last year. 

Now I don’t know what I’m going to do next summer. The Premier League finishes on May 18th, the FA Cup final is on May 25th. The Champions League final is on June 1st and that’s followed by the European Championships from June 14th to July 14th. Not only that but the Olympics start in Paris on July 28th until August 11th  and we’re then back round to the start of the Premier League. The problem is those other sporting events that I have enjoyed so much this Summer will once again have to take a back seat.

I know what you’re saying, you should get out more.

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

My eligibility to vote in the UK came when I was 18 years old. I’d just left home to become a Butlins Redcoat so the opportunity passed me by. Four years later I arrived here in Mallorca and politics wasn’t really something I was interested in apart from seeing it on the news or reading about it in the papers. 

Now like most people the older I’ve got the more interested I’ve become in it both here in Spain and back in the UK.

But there is a problem because right now I am not able to vote in the UK, in Spain and even in the local elections here in Mallorca. 

The rules are as follows;

The UK government website says….

You can register as an overseas voter if you:

• are a British or eligible Irish citizen
• were registered to vote in the UK within the last 15 years (or in some cases, if you were too young to have registered when you left the UK)

So I lose out there because I wasn’t registered to vote in the last 15 years.

Here in Spain I am told that, Unfortunately, if you are a foreigner in Spain, you will not be able to vote in the general elections as only Spanish citizens are eligible to do so.

And lastly here in Mallorca. I have voted a couple of times here in the local elections so like most people I was prepared to rock up and register my vote on May 28th. But new rules had been put in place because of Brexit, which meant that I along with all the other ex-pats had to re-register my right to vote. However nobody really told you this particularly the government who were in power. All the other parties were out canvassing people saying that you only had from December 1st until January 15th to do so. 

The rules were…

• Be in possession of a residence permit in Spain.
• Have resided in Spain, legally and uninterruptedly, for at least five years prior to their application for registration on the electoral roll.
• Be registered on the electoral roll in the municipality of their habitual residence, which is where you may exercise your right to vote.

I believe that the PP who won the election where I live in Calvia did so because of the foreign vote. I’m sure it would have been by more if people were made aware and given more time to register. Why was the registration time just six weeks and why did it have to be four and a half months before the elections took place? 

I think that as a resident who has lived here for 33 years and pays taxes here in Spain but does not want to give up my British citizenship I should be able to vote. 

With voting finishing in Spain last Sunday, neither of the main parties got enough votes to govern. Meaning they would need to go into a coalition with other parties but that may prove very difficult as neither party it seems will get enough to pass the threshold of 176 seats. I would imagine another election maybe called in December like in 2019 when the same thing happened. In the meantime the country will limp along with the current coalition regime not able to do too much. When you look at the political map of Spain and the islands you have to seriously doubt how the Socialists can claim a victory. 

Just a thought, give the ex-pat population the chance to vote next time. You may actually then get a result. 

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

Last week I wrote about it being too hot to sleep in Mallorca. Last Tuesday the temperature in Campanet, towards the North of the island reached 42.2C. The highest ever recorded temperature on the island was last August in Montuiri, in the centre of the island where it reached 44.5C. The highest ever temperature recorded on earth was in 1913 in Death Valley in the United States where it reached 56.7C. Interesting though with all the talk of global warming that you have to go back to 1913 to find the highest temperature recorded. It is reported though that it could be beaten there this week. 

With all this in mind, do you have sympathy with the Just Stop Oil protesters?Just Stop Oil according to their website ‘is a nonviolent civil resistance group demanding the UK Government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects.’

So should we Just Stop Oil? Well being realistic it’s just not possible right now. If we did the world would lose over 80% of its energy supply. Fossil fuels are responsible for many of the products we use each day, from toothpaste to mobiles, to credit cards. As of now, there are few viable alternatives for these products. We absolutely should be investing in clean, alternative energy, but we’re simply not at a place to just stop using fossil fuels at this moment in time. 

Electric cars are becoming more common place and I imagine their popularity will increase when prices start to come down further. But you could ask are electric cars saving the planet? Most manufacturers like Tesla for instance will tell you yes and they say ‘None of our scrapped lithium-ion batteries go to landfilling, and 100% are recycled.’ That may well be true but you know that somewhere, somehow this won’t be true. Lithium-ion batteries contain metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, which are toxic and can contaminate water supplies and ecosystems if they leak out of landfills.

The problem for Just Stop Oil is how to protest and not turn public opinion against them. They would see it that the more disruption they cause the more people are talking about it. Like I am right now. But whilst these protests are deemed peaceful, I am starting to see the public turning against them. The slow road marches in particular aren’t very popular stopping people getting to work, school or even medical emergencies. Also the sporting events protests are becoming tiring. 

What I want to know is where they get their tickets from? The Ashes, Wimbledon, The Derby and even the World Snooker Championships aren’t easy tickets to get hold of. I am currently trying to get 3 tickets for the Community Shield if they could send me their source, I would be grateful. By getting those tickets they have also denied a genuine customer or supporter from buying them.

Any DIY store that has someone coming in and asking for orange powdered paint should immediately alert the authorities. No one in their right mind is going to be painting anything orange. Except of course if you’re in charge of paintwork at Easyjet, Tango, Orange the phone network or you’re the man from Del Monte. 

The one I thought was particularly bad was the lady who threw orange confetti at George Osborne and his bride Thea Rogers. Why try to ruin somebody’s wedding day? Imagine if that was your son or daughters wedding, i for one would be furious. The lady in question was called Shirley Crabtree apparently. Now the more mature ones amongst us remember Shirley Crabtree was also known as Big Daddy who used to wrestle people such as Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki. That used to be a staple watch on Saturday afternoons on World of Sport. She is no relation I’m told.

One of the first acts of the new Government here in Mallorca is to get rid of the 80kmh speed limit on the Via de Cintura. The previous incumbents said it was brought in to reduce noise and pollution. Which was utter rubbish on both fronts as the amount of time spent stuck in traffic and not moving created more pollution. And anyone who rents or buys a property near a motorway will surely realise they’ll be noise? 

Now let’s face it most of us are all hypocrites in this. We drive petrol or diesel cars and fly off around the World on aeroplanes. I have to be honest and say I am more aware of pollution now than I was previously and I will try and do my bit. If ever you want to find out more about saving our island in particular then I recommend you talk to Brad Robertson from Save the Med Foundation here in Mallorca. You’ll not find a man more passionate about marine conservation and plastic pollution than him. 

There are of course some more high profile hypocrites. 

A leading member of the Just Stop Oil eco-protest group is sitting on an estimated £1 million pension pot from Shell.

Yes you couldn’t make it up, retired Dr Grahame Buss, 68, worked as a Principal Scientist for the gas and energy giant for 33 years but now appears as a spokesman for the climate campaign. I’ve tried but failed to find any record of him saying he’d be willing to give up his pension for the cause. 

Someone who is no stranger to hypocrisy is Prince Harry who flew via private jet from London to Palmero and was then taken in a helicopter to Verdura for a Google climate change conference, where he gave a speech on environmentalism.

The record temperatures around the world are a stark reminder of what we face. I’ll leave you with a quote from Lee Evans the comedian who said. ‘The Chinese are bellowing out crap from coal fired power stations, the Americans are all driving around in 4×4’s and Las Vegas is lit up like a Christmas tree every night but the authorities are asking me to turn off the stand by button on my TV! 

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

One thing as a nation we seem to constantly talk about is the weather. For me it’s the number one subject on social media and will never cease in its popularity. If you’re looking for a picture to get you ‘likes’ on social media then a sunrise, sunset, sunny beach or pool, or even rain will see people liking and commenting. As a Butlins Redcoat and a Holiday Rep the most asked question was ‘what have you done to the weather?’ As if we were to blame for it being rubbish. It seems like yesterday that we were all moaning about how crap the weather was here in Mallorca in June.

Now all of a sudden we’re moaning because it’s too hot! Last year was one of the hottest on record and seemed to last the whole summer. This year it’s definitely arrived later but now with a vengeance. We’ve always resisted the temptation of air conditioning in our house. Which for those that know me will be surprising as I’ll have the air con on in the car in December. I think this comes from a childhood growing up in a house that didn’t have central heating. My Mother and Father were old school, so it was a coal fire that heated our home. Now to choose not to have air conditioning wasn’t an attempt for us to save money but for a guy that has worked in an industry where your voice is one of the main tools, air con wasn’t the best thing. In our Pirates office, we have the battle of the air temperature. Some like it hot and some like it cold and it’s a constant fight to keep everyone happy. I saw once on Dragons Den a guy who’d invented the personally heated or cooled desk. I thought it was a great idea but the Dragons whilst recognising it was a problem refused to invest in it. 

This current heatwave reminds me of the time we hired an all singing all dancing camper van last year to visit some friends in Porto Cristo. We did it because a weekend on the road was cheaper than a hotel room for one night and it would be a change from the norm for us. I should have taken more notice of the guy when I picked it up. He said, ‘you do know you’ve picked the hottest weekend of the year?’ I laughed and off I drove. Porto Cristo is a beautiful town in Mallorca, it’s the home of Rafa Nadal who is often seen out and about and his yacht stands out a mile in the port.

We had a lovely afternoon with our friends on the beach and in the bars, which culminated in an early evening meal. At which point we headed back to our van which I’d parked in a shaded area under some trees. Now this was an air conditioned van but that only worked when you were driving. If you were parked up you were exposed to the heat and inside a camper van this felt ten times worse. Now I don’t mind a sauna but this was ridiculous. I waited as long as I thought necessary as I’d had a few drinks but as soon as I said to everyone ‘who wants to go home?’ I was greeted by a resounding cheer. I dropped the van back the next day to a slightly bemused owner and said maybe another time when it’s cooler. I’ve always wanted to go to America and do a drive in a camper van, judging by the look on my wife’s face when I mention it that’s not happening!

So we’ve decided to go to the dark side and get air conditioning in the house. Not all over but in the bedrooms so we can sleep. 

If you’re not in that lucky position, here are a few tips to keep yourself or your bedroom cool.

1. Choose mattress cover, sheets, and pillowcases made of cotton, even better white cotton.
2. Use a simple T-shirt made of cotton as pyjamas, without prints that can prevent the breathability of the fabric.
3. The old trick of putting the pillowcase a few minutes in the fridge always works. Use a bag though to avoid wetting them.
4. If keeping the windows open is not enough, help yourself with one or more fans. Do not turn them directly on yourself but use them to circulate the air in the bedroom as much as possible.
5. If you wake up flushed during the night, wet your wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles. This will give you relief and will help you to fall asleep again.
6. Stay apart from your partner, ok so it’s not romantic, but an essential remedy against the summer sweats.
7. Eat a light meal that is easy to digest.
8. Drink water before you go to bed. But not too much or you’ll be up all night peeing.
9. A shower before bed is always a good idea, but not too cold or you will have the opposite reaction. Warm water is perfect for lowering your body temperature.
10. As you know, warm air goes up, so if you can, sleep in the lower floors of your home, where the temperature is definitely lower than that of the upper floors.

If all else fails, get air conditioning fitted!

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

For most of my life I have been involved in entertainment in some way or another. My Father was an opera singer, my Mother directed shows and my Sister was an actress. Growing up all I wanted to be was a footballer but around the age of 18 it became obvious to me that whilst I was a pretty good semi-pro footballer, I wasn’t good enough to become a full time professional.

So I upped sticks and joined the entertainment game. I was a Butlins Redcoat, a holiday Rep and I joined Pirates here in Mallorca in 1994.

During those years we helped promote some concerts and this is when I first came across the term ‘rider.’

In theatre, dance and live musical performances a rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer sets as criteria for performance, which are typically fulfilled by the promoter or hosting venue. Typical riders include hospitality and technical equipment that the artist needs in order to perform.

Now I’ve contacted some of my friends in the entertainment world who are promoters, venue owners or musicians themselves to ask for the funny and outrageous riders they’ve heard of. Some have named the artist or artists in question and others didn’t but regardless of who it is the things that people ask for you wouldn’t believe.

I contacted drummer Steve White who I’ve been lucky enough to interview on quite a few occasions. Steve has played for the Style Council, The Who and Oasis amongst others. He replied, ‘Hi mate, mine relate mostly to alcohol… a few i dont think i could tell you!’

One promoter said ‘I was asked to provide 2 x PS5’s in their original boxes and a variety of latest games for the guy to take home .

He added, ‘I had to provide 3 different sports cars to pick up an artist at the airport so that he could choose which one to go in when he arrived.’

In 2003 Van Morrison performed at the Puente Romano Tennis Club in Marbella. The rider stated he had to be picked up in black Mercedes with darkened windows. The driver could not open door for him as he liked to open it himself and there must be a box of Kleenex (no other brand) tissues on the back seat. The driver had to be English speaking but he was not allowed to speak to him. 

Michael Bolton had to have a particular make of steamer, it wasn’t mentioned if it was for his hair or his clothes.

Rod Stewart wanted an exercise bike.

Elton John wanted the whole dressing room area white….so we had to go to huge expense on white drapes.

We were told that we were not allowed to look Mick Hucknall in the eye.

Kasabian, a huge mad rock band from Leicester had 7 different types of tea, they tour a lot and looked after themselves. 

In stark contrast to that, the Happy Mondays was 2 bottles of vodka, 2 whiskey, 2 rum, 6 red wine, 6 white wine, crate of bottled beer and assorted chocolates

Iggy Pop and The Stooges, requested 7 dwarves, along with a brand of cigarettes he doesn’t like so he can through them in the bin and 12 bottles of red wine.

Status Quo wanted oxygen bottles and masks on the side of the stage.

One of my favourites is from American band Van Halen. Buried amongst dozens of points in their rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single sweet, a promoter could lose millions.

For decades this stood as a humiliating act of self-indulgence, a rock band forcing someone to search through these sweets removing every last brown one, for no apparent reason. Yet when lead singer David Lee Roth finally divulged the real reason for the bizarre clause, an entirely different picture was painted, one that serves as a valuable lesson for business.

To ensure the promoter had read every single word in the contract, the band created the “no brown M&M’s” clause. It was a way to indicate that the promoter may have not paid attention to other more important parts of the rider, and that there could be other bigger problems at hand. 

In essence they created a seemingly silly clause to make sure that every little detail was taken care of. It was important, both for the experience of the fans and the safety of the band, to make sure that no little problems created bigger issues.

Take care everybody and enjoy your week!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

Elton John‘s headline set at Glastonbury 2023 broke viewing figures on the BBC, with millions watching across the UK.

The legendary singer-songwriter played w89hat seems to be his last ever UK show on Worthy Farm, bringing a hit-packed set to one of the biggest crowds the Pyramid Stage has ever seen.

Now, according to overnights.tv the set was watched by 7.3million viewers across the BBC, three times that which saw Paul McCartney headline last year and the most-viewed set on television in the festival’s history.

According to a new Spotify round-up of this year’s Glastonbury tracks and artists streams of John’s songs increased 294 per cent in the UK in the hour after his career- spanning headline set on the Pyramid Stage.

If I was to be critical and that will sound harsh against a 76 year old, but I found the lyrics hard to understand at times, he can’t hit the high notes anymore, he was definitely reading the words at some points and unfortunately his knees have gone making him incapable of moving around. 

And before you say it, yes I wish I had at least 1% of his talent. On a positive note he is an amazing piano player, he was ably backed by a fabulous band and he did his full repertoire starting with Pinball Wizard and 20 songs later he finished on Rocketman. Every song was loudly sung by the enormous crowd which goes to show how those songs have stood the tests of time. 

I thought it was a shame that Dua Lipa couldn’t turn up for their smash hit ‘Cold Heart’ what else more important could she have been doing? It left Elton singing to a backing track and the crowd filling in the Dua bits. 

I fell asleep watching Sundays performance and so watched again on catch up on Monday and dually fell asleep again! Nothing to do with the concert, it’s just my age telling me to watch it in the day time. 

Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947 he certainly has packed a lot into his career. Funnily enough this week in 1977 he became Chairman of Watford Football Club. The highlight I imagine would have been making the 1984 FA Cup Final which they unfortunately lost 2-0 to Everton. In the summer of that year Watford played in the Palma Cup against Real Mallorca at the old Luis Sitjar stadium. Interestingly the previous season Real Mallorca had paid Watford £250,000 to sign Northern Ireland International Gerry Armstrong. In the 1982 World Cup Finals Gerry had scored probably one of Northern Irelands most famous goals against Spain to knock them out of their home tournament. When I interviewed Gerry a few years ago he said apart from the Mallorca fans he used to get pelters everywhere he went for scoring that goal.

Now Elton himself played on the new Real Mallorca pitch in 2010. Not kicking a ball but playing a concert to a packed audience. It was a joint concert with the legendary Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli. It was amazing to see two such diverse legends of the music world on the same stage.

His life story was made into biopic film in 2019 with Taron Egerton playing Elton. I’d heard that it wasn’t as good as the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody but after seeing it I had to disagree. In fact I actually thought it was better. 

Also performing at Glastonbury and hopefully following in Elton’s footsteps was my Nephew Ollie Richardson. Ollie is a drummer in a band called The Velvet Fuzz and they’ve been gigging around London. One of the organisers of the smaller stages saw the boys and invited them down to play. They spent the whole week down there and he said, ‘it was mental, the whole experience was a mad one. We played really well and learned a lot.’

I’ll keep an eye on the boys progress.

Finally a shoutout for my youngest Sons football team CD San Francisco Infantil. They played in the Mallorca International Cup organised by Vincente del Bosque over last weekend. After finishing top of their group they won their Semi final 4-0 and in a tense final they ran out 1-0 winners against La Salle. A team that they hadn’t beaten in the regular season. His first trophy and I hope not his last.

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

Newspapers and writers have what is known as slow news days. Basically you’re scraping around for something to write about but if you add a dramatic headline to this non story you’ve found or thought about people will read it. Some might say I do this every week! The UK is hotter than Ibiza’ is always a popular one and will create talk-ability. Last Saturday The Express ran a headline ‘British tourists vow never to visit Magaluf again as booze crackdown has made it boring’

Now Magaluf and boring are two words you don’t see together that often, so there’s the intrigue. You would be forgiven for thinking that this was a survey carried out by someone in the travel industry on thousands of holiday makers who’d visited our well known resort. Well actually no, step forward holidaymaker Sarah Stewart, 45, from Holywood in Northern Ireland, who has been holidaying in Magaluf for 22 years with a group of travellers now aged between 40 and 70.

Ms Stewart said: ‘I’m not sure we’ll return. To be frank, there is zero attraction. The beaches, bars and restaurants are empty. There’s no music, no atmosphere and the regulations are ridiculous.’

So they’ve picked one group of travellers who obviously didn’t enjoy their holiday and tried to turn it into a full news story. I tweeted the girl who wrote it, her name was Hanisha Sethi. Her bio says she’s a freelance digital reporter. She’d asked for peoples opinions on whether Magaluf had become boring. I’m still waiting for a reply. Now my bet is these people came out of season and Hanisha has never actually been to Magaluf. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Magaluf has one of the best beaches on the island. All the beach clubs, restaurants, cafes, bars and hotels have invested huge amounts of money to upgrade their premises and turn the resort around. Having lived here for over 30 years I don’t think I’ve seen it looking so vibrant. The one thing I would change and once again I’ve said this before is the ‘zona de excessivos’. Whilst I agree with what it’s trying to do, how can you have one half of the resort able to do things that the other half can’t? There’s a great saying in Spanish which says ‘todos Moros o todos Cristianos’ which basically means everyone should receive the same or be held by the same. I hope the new Mayor of Calvia, Juan Antonio Amengual, who was sworn in this week looks at this and either makes it a law for all or remove it all together.

I read that in Playa de Palma things hadn’t improved and the Germans were still doing what they were doing before the zone was put in place.

I asked my good friend Martin Makepeace who lives in Ibiza whether the ‘zona de excessivos’ had changed San Antonio. Martin like me here in Mallorca has lived in Ibiza for over 30 years and there’s not much he doesn’t know about the White Isle. He said ‘The West End is a lot quieter these days. Also the youngsters seem more discerning, wanting beach clubs and boats. He thinks the new Government led by the PP will look to change how the ‘Zone’ works but not straight away. 

Now the newspapers love to bash Magaluf but I have a story that whilst it started off bad, had a good ending. 

Thirteen lads, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, believed they had paid £12,500 to a third party travel representative who made a booking through Blue Sea Holidays for their flights and 10 nights all inclusive at a hotel here in Mallorca. But Blue Sea Holidays were forced to cancel the accommodation on the day they were due to travel after only receiving a deposit for the holiday, with £9,000 outstanding. With their flights paid, the group flew to the Spain but faced a scramble to find and pay for new accommodation. They were supposed to be in Magaluf but ended up in Santa Ponsa. Andy from Blue Seas Holidays who is a friend of mine contacted me and asked is there anything we could do. 

We decided to invite them to a VIP night at Gringos. I met them at Pirates and they were a lovely bunch of young guys who were really grateful. So much so that one of them sent me an Instagram message after the night out which read ‘Thank you for what you have done for us all we appreciate it massively.’ A few days later I got this message on my messenger account. ‘Hi, I am one of the parents of the young lads that were scammed. I just wanted to thank you personally for such a kind gesture. Your kindness and that of others has given me hope that there is still goodness in the World. Thanks very much again.’

Now those messages alone made it all worthwhile and I hope those boys remember Magaluf in a more positive way now. I should also add that Andy and Blue Sea Holidays were totally blameless in all of this. Andy even organised a free transfer back to the airport for the boys. 

I mentioned earlier that lots is being done in Magaluf to upgrade the resort. As you know I’m the Managing Director of Pirates and along with Catherine the owner we are constantly looking at ways of bettering and improving our three shows of Pirates Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. 

Our new terrace bar ‘Jacques’ named after our founder and Catherine’s father Jacques Sasson has more than enhanced our pre-show offering. New to Reloaded this year are our celebrity DJs who are playing before the show. Woody Cook, Charlie Sloth and Billy Clements have played so far. The Irish DJ Marty Guilfoyle is playing this Sunday June 25th, followed by Ben Rainey next Friday June 30th. Not forgetting the legend Judge Jules who is playing on Sunday the 9th of July. There are more DJs coming through the months of July and August It has added a totally new dimension to our Reloaded offering meaning you get to see a DJ and a truly amazing show. Book your tickets early at Reloaded.com 

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.00-10am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

There’s a four letter word doing the rounds here in Mallorca. It’s a word that’s known the World over but here on the island it’s never actually surfaced. Until now that is. I know what you’re thinking but it isn’t that! I’m talking about UBER.

Now for the uninitiated, like me for instance who has never actually used the service. Here’s how it works. 

It is an independent taxicab company that hires drivers who use their personal vehicles while logged into the Uber app on a mobile device. Passengers request rides using the app, inputting pick-up and drop-off locations, and all payment is done through a pre-authorised credit card right through the app. 

You basically choose which car and driver you want and order the service. 

As of early 2023, Uber’s monthly users had grown to 130 million. It operates in 72 countries, in over 10,000 cities with over 7.6 billion trips carried out. But guess what? In Spain it hasn’t really taken off. The City in Spain with the biggest number of Uber drivers is Madrid, whereas Barcelona only has a few. Although unpopular amongst many normal taxi drivers I’m told that on the mainland quite a few of them will download the Uber app and work extra hours as an Uber driver. Here in the Balearics Uber has been a dirty word up until now mainly because of the Spanish regulations around taxi drivers. 

In Spain, to gain a normal taxi license, you have to:

• Submit a medical certificate proving that you do not suffer from an infectious or contagious disease or any physical disability that would prevent you from operating a taxi.
• Pass a theoretical and practical exam.
• In certain areas, prove that you can speak Catalan.
• Continue to pay for mandatory licensing and maintenance fees.

The cost of a licence in Palma is 120,000€! Yes you read that right. That’s just the licence it doesn’t include a car, that’s an extra expense. Quite a lot of the licences are bought by big companies who employ drivers to drive for them. Or some drivers share a car and then the costs and profits between themselves to gain the maximum from a 24 hour working day. 

So 40 Uber cars have started working here in Mallorca much to the angst of the normal taxi drivers. Now on the one hand I understand their arguement because of the expense they’ve laid out. But let’s look at this logically and I probably don’t know anyone who hasn’t had a problem trying to get a cab in the summer. They’re just aren’t enough to go around and if we want to keep tourism as our biggest industry and people to keep returning, then we need to move with the times. We need to think of the consumer and there are more than enough tourists as well as residents to go around to accommodate both the taxi drivers and the Uber drivers. I understand that in the winter that is not always the case but that’s the problem with the Balearics as a whole, it’s either feast or famine. And that’s an argument for another day. Competition never hurt anyone and in reality it should drive(no pun intended)to better customer service. 

Congratulations to Manchester City on their treble win last weekend. As an Arsenal fan it pains me to say it. But I’m pleased for one of the coaching staff who is from the island. Carlos Vicens who was born in Colonia de San Jordi and started his career as the academy director and assistant manager at CD Llosetense. He joined City’s academy in 2017 and after a successful season in 20-21 as a Head Coach of the U18s, winning the FA Youth Cup and being crowned U18 Premier League National Champions, he was promoted to the first team as Assistant Coach under Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2021.

I hope they take a back seat next year and give the rest of us a chance. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.00-10am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

I thought long and hard about writing this particular column but there’s certain things that you just can’t ignore. 

I’m talking about racism in football and in particular the case of Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior. Firstly let me say I find any type of racism abhorrent and I firmly believe that if caught the perpetrators should suffer the consequences. 

But let us not be fooled that this is just a football problem as it most certainly isn’t. It’s a society problem and something that unfortunately happens in most countries around the World in some form or another. 

The UK has a problem, the ‘Kick It Out’ campaign has a high profile within sport in the UK. It’s mantra is, it is against all discrimination, in all its forms. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia and Transphobia. Sport is used as a tool to promote this as it has such a high number of people interested in it. 

But are the UK dealing with it well? For me a perfect example is the current case of Ivan Toney. Hear me out, I know his case was a betting scandal. He was banned from football for eight months with immediate effect last week after admitting 232 breaches of the FA’s betting rules. He will be banned until January 16, 2024 and has been fined £50,000. 

Remember Luis Suarez? A Liverpool player at the time who was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United. His punishment? He was banned for just eight games and fined £40,000 by the FA. That tells you all you need to know. Footballs governing bodies from FIFA to UEFA to the FA and La Liga to name a few, need to seriously stamp this out in football. It’s been going on for years and nothing seems to get done. The biggest problem you’ve got is nearly all of them who couldn’t find their backsides with two hands and a funnel!

So how are Spain combatting this problem? 

I don’t think you should mix sport and politics but it is no secret that the far right political party Vox are making gains into Spanish politics. Just a point but let’s stick with the football. 

Since I started writing this Valencia have been fined £39,000 and one of their stands where the racist chants started has been closed for five matches. 

I remember going to an England football match on the Spanish Mainland and our black players were subjected to racist abuse. A few weeks ago I saw Real Mallorca play Real Madrid and a Mallorca fan was fined 4,000€ and banned from attending any sporting venues for 12 months. For shouting racist abuse against Vinicius Jr. I personally didn’t hear any racist chanting at that game. 

What didn’t look or sound good was the President of La Liga after the Valencia game saying to Vinicius Jr, “Before criticising and insulting La Liga, it is necessary that you inform yourself properly. Do not let yourself be manipulated and make sure you fully understand each other’s competencies and the work we have been doing together.”

How do you think that went down? So badly he had to apologise. Señor Tebas is always banging on about how much better La Liga is than the Premier League. But he needs to understand that players, broadcasters, sponsors and indeed fans will not agree unless they can see a definite plan to eradicate racism. 

Carlos Ancelotti the Real Madrid manager gave Vinicius the opportunity to come off of the pitch but he quite rightly didn’t. Don’t let them win would be my mantra. Some people are saying that with his actions he brings it onto himself. I couldn’t disagree more, that’s just an excuse for the abuse. He’s 22 years old and should not be subjected to this in any way shape or form. What I also can’t get my head around is Valencia and other teams where this has occurred have black players in their team, what must they be thinking?

The referee on the pitch has three options;

1st instance – referee asks a message to announced that if racial abuse persists, the game will be stopped.

2nd instance – referee stops game and takes players off the pitch.

3rd instance – match is abandoned.

I think this needs looking into as you are more or less condoning it until the referee decides to take the players off. 

A far more powerful statement would be for the players themselves to walk off. This however has consequences as the team that decides to do this forfeits the match 3-0. That too needs looking at in my opinion. 

If I was Javier Tebas, I would take this by the scruff of the neck and use Vinicius in a campaign to stamp out racism. If you want to build La Liga into the biggest and best league in the World that will attract players of all colours and creed then this is your perfect opportunity. But I seriously wonder if there’s a will to stop this. 

I’ll finish on a lighter note. The World Watercress Eating Championships took place last Sunday in Alresford, Hampshire. Entrants from all over the county including Portsmouth, Brockenhurst, Andover, Alton, Winchester and even Birmingham lined up to eat 80g of watercress in the quickest time. Although it was a tight contest between local man Glenn Walsh and former champion, fellow local Sam Batho, Glenn pipped Sam at the post with his time of 31.29 seconds, taking the title for a 15th consecutive year.

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.00-10am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com