Not much happening on the Spanish football front right now so I thought I’d look around for some more Spanish news.

A Spanish Cabrales blue cheese has broken the record for most expensive cheese ever, after getting auctioned off for over 30,000€ at a local cheese festival. Yes you read that right. The cheese was matured in the mountain caves of Asturias in Northern Spain by Guillermo Pendas at his family cheese factory. It’s manufactured by using raw cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk, then it’s aged for a minimum of 8 months in mountain caves in the Cabrales region in the Picos de Europa national park in a small village called “Póo de Cabrales.” An unfortunate name and I’m saying nothing! 

The storm that hit us in Mallorca last Sunday certainly made some headlines. Whilst many of us knew bad weather was coming, I don’t think the ferocity of what hit us was forecast. I was driving at the time it arrived and it was very difficult to see through the windscreen or not get hit by flying objects. Our own Captain Scarlett from Pirates was caught on an aeroplane coming back from Alicante in the storm. Her video has been shown on many media outlets and has been watched by over 68,000 people on You Tube. Thankfully although extremely scary the pilot managed to land safely back in Alicante. 

I’m a little worried for Real Mallorca. Three games into the season and just 1 point to show for it. Kang In Lee is a big miss in attack and the defence which was so solid last year looks a little creaky now. I hope I’m wrong and they can get a win against Athletic Club de Bilbao this Sunday. A couple of signings before the window shuts to improve the squad is in order and if the results don’t improve then the coach Javier Aguirre could be on his way.

How can I ignore the pantomime that is the Spanish women’s football and the President Luis Rubiales?

Believe it or not Spains women’s Football team won the World Cup two weeks ago. What should have been one of the greatest sporting achievements in Spain has been ruined by an absolute clown.

The events of the past two weeks have made headlines all around the World.

⚽️ Spain win the World Cup

⚽️ Rubiales grabs his crotch celebrating the win

⚽️ Rubiales grabs and kisses footballer Jenni Hermoso on the lips

⚽️ Hermoso reveals she did not enjoy the experience 

⚽️ Rubiales issues an apology

⚽️ FIFA opens disciplinary proceedings 

⚽️ Rubiales says he won’t resign and calls the kiss “consensual”

⚽️ The Spanish Government begins legal proceedings 

⚽️ Hermoso issues a statement saying “at no time was the kiss consensual”

⚽️ 81 Spanish players announce that they won’t play until Rubiales is removed

⚽️ The Spanish Federation says it’s taking legal action against Hermoso

⚽️ FIFA suspends Rubiales

⚽️ The coaches of the team resign in protest at Rubiales conduct 

⚽️ Rubiales Mother goes on hunger strike

⚽️ Rubiales Mother admitted to hospital 

All this over one man’s stupid actions. How is he still in the job? This is a filmmakers dream, you couldn’t actually make it up. Either he shouldn’t have done it in the first place or after he did he should have resigned. 

Finally this week my eldest son Jacob in his last year of youth football won a tournament last weekend. They beat Penya Arrabal and Platges de Calvia on the way to the final against La Salle. The final was on Sunday evening, yes when the rain was still pouring, so Dad Taxi got absolutely soaked. It was all worth it though as they ran out 1-0 winners. One more week of training and their season starts, with my youngest having two more weeks of training and his season starting. After the madness of July and August, the Summer season starts to slow down into most people’s favourite month of September. Dad Taxi starts to earn his money again. 

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 

Congratulations to La Roja who beat our Lionesses fair and square last Sunday to win the Women’s World Cup. I thought technically and tactically Spain were better and when your goalkeeper is your best player then you knew England had a problem. No shame in that though but Spanish Women’s football is more advanced than Englands. You might question that as England are European Champions but when they played each other in the quarter finals in the Euros, Spain were the better team but lost the game. I said last week that Spain are the reigning world champions at U-20 level and they are also two-time reigning U-17 world champions in 2018 and 2022. In a strange way the internal problems that the squad had with their coach and 12 senior players refusing to play probably helped them. It meant he had to blood some youngsters but their experience of already being winners without doubt helped them. 

Spain also have the best European league in my opinion with Barcelona being European Champions although they have been helped by two English girls in Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh. Barcelona also hold the European attendance record with 91,644 saw them beat Wolfsburg in a Champions League game. 

Now it’s all over you have to look at the legacy and where Women’s Football can go from here. The media in the UK always try to compare and contrast the Women’s game to the Men’s game. Why I don’t know. Last week because she had made it to a World Cup Final, Serena Wiegman was being touted as the next Englands Men’s coach. Now I’m not arguing she shouldn’t be but why the constant comparison? Let’s face it, if Gareth Southgate had made it to a World Cup Final and they were outplayed like Englands women were he would have been lambasted from pillar to post. Whereas last week Englands women were “unlucky” in most people’s eyes. Is this the woke society we now live in where people are afraid to give an opinion in case it upsets someone? Let’s call it for what it is but can we stop the comparisons? 

I thoroughly enjoyed the World Cup and I am looking forward to seeing the progress women’s football makes particularly domestically. Now I am talking more about in Spain and where I live here in Mallorca. 

Spains forward Mariana Caldentey started at Felanitx and the goalkeeper Cata Coll at Sant Marcel. My sons goalkeeping coach Pablo Roca flew all the way to Australia to watch Cata who he trained from a very young age. So we have the opportunity to develop more stars of the future.

I took the time out to sit down and chat to Leon Blakeley this week who is heavily involved in developing the women’s game at Platges de Calvia in the south of the island. There are a growing number of clubs introducing women’s teams, in the senior women’s leagues, I counted 35 clubs which is very healthy. The three biggest being Atlético Baleares, Son Sardina and Collerense. Notable absentees are Real Mallorca and I’m trying to find out why the islands biggest club isn’t pushing the development in women’s football. More to come on that. 

Leon however is helping with the junior element in girls football as this is the only way this is going to grow by developing the grass roots. 

One of the things that isn’t helping the juniors in the game is that there are no competitive leagues after 14 years of age. Girls the have to join a women’s team. Compare that to the boys who can play up to 19 years before they move up to the men’s game and you can see that’s a problem. Some girls play in boys teams from 6 years old and can still play with the boys from 14-16 years but the physical difference at that age is a disadvantage. Leon tells me he’s pushing the FFIB, who are the federation of football in the Balearics for a 14-16 year old girls league, which would be a good thing. 

Platges de Calvia currently have their women’s team who play 11 a side from 14 years old and upwards. Infantil and Alevin who are 10 to 14 years old who play 7 a side and Benjamin and pre-Benjamin who are 6 to 10 years old and play 5 a side. They have over 75 girls in all of their teams and are still looking for players. In particular if you fancy yourself as the next Cata Coll or Mary Earps then  goalkeepers are needed. Please give Leon a call on 676 040 111. Leon said the work he is doing is being fully supported by the Club and in particular the Club President Armando Perez. 

As I’ve said already two of the women in Spains starting line up started their football here in Mallorca so let’s hope for many more in years to come.

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 

I’m in a little dilemma, my country of birth is going to play in the Women’s World Cup Final against the country that has been my home for the last 34 years. Where will my allegiance fall? Well more about that later. 

The Women’s World Cup had gone a little under the radar for me. Yes I was aware of it but it took me until the last 16 started that I began to take a real interest into how the England Lionesses were doing. Maybe it has been the time difference in Australia with most games being on in the morning that was the problem. We were in the car going back to Luton airport when England were playing Nigeria in the last 16. We were listening on the car radio and the game was 0-0 and was heading for penalties. England were hanging on a little as they were down to 10 players after Lauren James had got herself sent off. We arrived at the car hire drop-off point when the penalties were about to begin. The boys and my Wife said shall we stay and listen and I said no let’s get to the airport. As soon as I got out of the car though I turned on the radio on my phone and we all listened intently to the penalty shootout. We were on the bus to the airport when Chloe Kelly hit the winning penalty to send England through. Now they had my attention with a quarter final to come against Columbia. Remember this was the England team minus a few injuries and retirements that had won the European Championships just last year. Despite going a goal down to Columbia they came back to win 2-1 and book a semi-final place against the hosts Australia. Up to this point, apart from gubbing China 6-1 they hadn’t really set this World Cup alight but they’d clawed their way to the last four. Australia or the Matildas as they’re better known are of course the host nation and one of the pre-tournament favourites. You couldn’t find an Aussie anywhere who weren’t predicting them making it into the final particularly when their star player Sam Kerr who had been injured was available to play a full game. Well England played their game of the tournament and despite Kerr scoring the Matildas were waltzing (sorry) out of the competition with Englands three goals coming from Toone, Hemp and Russo. 

So what of their opponents? Well nobody gave Spain a prayer going into the tournament. This was a team only in their third ever World Cup whose coach Jorge Vilda had a very public falling out with his squad just a year ago. Fifteen of their most experienced players protested to their governing body the RFEF. 

There was a call for a change in the conditions they were operating under through Vilda’s management, who was said to have created an environment of control, anxiety and stress that had emotionally impacted the squad.

He allegedly forced players to leave the doors to their hotel rooms open at night so he could verify they were in their rooms. He was said to have also checked the contents of their bags if they left and returned.

This alleged behavior prompted the 15 players to protest to which possibly a little surprisingly the federation rebuffed their request to sack the coach and stuck with him. On the eve of the tournament, three of the 15 players, Battle, Bonmati and Caldentey, eventually relented, choosing to chase World Cup glory but sowing a rift with some of their teammates.

Not really great preparation for the biggest tournament in the World. In the group stages they beat Costa Rica 3-0 and Zambia 5-0 but were thrashed 4-0 by Japan to finish runners up in their group. In the last 16 they disposed of Switzerland 5-1 followed by a narrow 2-1 extra time victory over the Netherlands. Their semi-final with Sweden didn’t really get going until the last 10 minutes. Paralluelo scoring in the 81st minute with Sweden equalising in the 88th minute and the match looked to be heading into extra-time. However a spectacular shot from Carmona just a minute later booked their final place. Although the player revolt hasn’t helped their preparations, they have gone to the tournament with a very young squad. They’ve never previously won a knockout stage game but just look at what those young players have achieved before. They are  reigning world champions at U-20 level, courtesy of a 3-1 defeat of Japan in Costa Rica in 2022, they are also two-time reigning U-17 world champions, having beaten Colombia 1-0 in the final at India 2022 and Mexico 1-0 in the showpiece match at Uruguay 2018.

More interesting for me is that two of their players come from Mallorca. The goalkeeper Cata Coll was born in Portol. She played previously for Sant Marcel, Cide, Marratxí and Collerense here on the island and was bought by Barcelona and sent out on loan to Sevilla. She’s now back in Barcelona and after a bad injury is now Spains first choice.. Whilst here on the island she was training at the Pablo Roca goalkeeping school where my youngest son Jude goes. She also trained with Jude a few times too. 

Forward Mariona Caldenty was born in Felanitx where she began her career. That was followed by Cide, Collerense and in 2014 she joined Barcelona. 

Hopefully they inspire more girls on the island to play football in what is becoming a thriving sport here. 

So this Sunday at 12 midday is the final. It’s the Lionesses versus La Roja. 

Who am I supporting? 

England of course! 

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 

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