With the Bullring season upon us once more, it was with much excitement we flew today from Barcelona to Murcia for the first of the outdoor Spanish concerts. A part of this beautiful country I've never been to before, the Parque Regional de Carrasco y Elle Valle seems to be a very dry region. In this region which has a hot, semi-arid climate, there are many many huge tented areas which can be seen on Google Maps where millions of tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables are grown, harvested and shipped. Huerta de Murcia is also known as Europe’s orchard due to it's long agricultural tradition.



On our final approach into Aeropuerto de Murcia San Javier, we descended at low altitude (300 feet) over a town called Los Alcazares, and it being a sunny Saturday afternoon, the beaches were heaving with holiday makers and locals basking in the sun and bathing in the warm shallow waters of the Mar Menor. The strip of land in the distance is called La Manga del Mar Menor, the sleeve of the Menor sea and incorporates a long strip of sand known as Manga Beach. Clearly a popular holiday destination as we noticed many a RyanAir jet sitting on the tarmac. Our drivers managed to secure direct access to the tarmac and were there as we 'deplaned'. (Ouch, I've used that word again)

We loaded up the three cars for the 30 minute drive to Murcia and as we drove towards the exit of this tiny airport, we passed hundreds of sun-kissed budget airline passengers heading home, queuing politely in line to board their planes. They all were asked to wait while we drove past them in convoy and I confess to feeling a little embarrassed. They must have thought we were either royalty or some other very important delegation as opposed to the truth, just a bunch of happy, sushi-stuffed musicians on their way to another gig.

Mannfred and team whizzed their way North-Westwards to Murcia and we arrived at around 7:30pm, just before doors opened. The crew had clearly had a difficult, slow day as they were all only just arriving into catering having completed the final line-check at five past eight. I understand there was a lot of rain overnight and there were issues with the rigging too. This stage and rigging is one of two stages we are using and are 'leapfrogging' (Bockspringen!) across Spain. The reason for this is that the set-up time is longer than the time we would have for setting up each show and since we have no days off here, it would be impossible to so with only one stage. Another 2 Redburn trucks are deployed for this specific purpose.





Glenn gives as good as he gets...battling with the old girl as he does EVERY day, today in a quiet alleyway inside an empty football stadium. The home of FC Murcia is sited adjacent to the bullring and today we used the dressing room facilities available beneath the main stand.





Just behind the stage I spotted the Toriles, the place where the bulls are held just before they are released into the ring. You can clearly see the gate system and walls that offer the bullfighters protection from a rampaging animal.



I wondered what these 'brands?' were on the wall...



At some point during any tour of Spain, we will come across Paella. In catering today, Angus prepared this wonderful  dish. as you can see, he was making each serving to order. "the things you can do on the road" he commented.



There is something very exciting about playing in a bullring, whether it's just the Spanish crowds or the fact that there is a long tradition of bullfighting which traces it's roots to prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice.



I wondered how this audience would be in this region of Spain since we've never been here (have we?), we thought that it might be a 'noisy one'. In the event, the crowd were astonishing, noisy, yes, but also incredibly respective of the quiet numbers in the set and at the end of course they went absolutely mental. The stage was warm but there was an occasional light breeze which was most welcome.

We then ran and drove back to Murcia airport where the cars were once more granted tarmac access and we boarded the plane for a paella that Daniella had prepared. Our old friend and Dire Straits tour manager Paul Cummins was onboard today and he brought with him some local wines which he found at the market in Barcelona this morning. Delicious.