Murphy´s Blog is up! Let the ramblings begin….

Hi there,

This is Barry Murphy, the proprietor of the great Charlie´s Bar in Lanzarote. Just to let you know a little about myself and our future plans.

I am over and back to Ireland every few weeks and it’s amazing the changes that I see between life in Lanzarote and Ireland. I intend to write articles about many different subjects for whoever is interested in them.

It’s funny when you look at life the way I have the oppertunity to and see the crazy cultues and customs of so many countries, having travelled around for so long. What is crazy in one country is absurd in another, and when you read between the lines of them all there is usually a good balance somewhere. We put up with so much crap that has been handed down to us without questioning things properly.

For example, look how long it took us to see through the Catholic Church and the fear of God it put into us all. Of course, there were many well-meaning people in the church, but it was and is a crazy organisation, in my humble opinion. On the other hand, the one thing that it did do was create a sense of community with at least some good morals like love, not to hurt others, to be charitable etc etc, but then it went to far and made sex a dirty thing, made kids afraid of their lives of the priest (not just the ones that were abused!).

I remember the teachers panicking like hell and passing it on to us because the priest was going to pay us a visit. Thank God, we have lost so much of the negativity surrounding the church, even if it is by not practising, but we have also lost the community spirit and the parts that were good morally. Maybe somebody needs to create a much more relaxed and open way of lecturing on Sundays. I use the word lecturing, or teaching, or telling right from wrong and encouraging people to be straight, generous and loving in their dealings with their fellow human beings, because I don’t want to use the word “Religion”. I don’t believe in Religion. That is not to say that I don’t believe in God, but whatever God there is, he would be rightly p***ed off to find different types of Christians killing each other in His name, different types of Muslims killing each other in His name, and both Christians and Muslims killing each other also in His name.

I have views on communisn, capitalism, free movement of human beings on this planet, the West, the East and the Middle East, rearing kids, standards of living etc etc, which I have decided to write about over the next few months on this new blog page, and anyone is free to reply or reprint whatever they like from it.

Not so sure how all this will work out, but I’m going to give it a bash anyway!

Now a little about my own back round. Much to the detriment of society, I was born in 1965, raised in Bishopstown, Cork, with two brothers (one since deceased by suicide unfortunately, which is another topic I have a lot to say about at a later stage) and one sister. I left school at 15 years old – a rebel – which I still am, and don’t intend changing, and served my time as a mechanic. I was a crap mechanic and still know as much about cars as pigs do about holidays. I love operating and testing any mechanical instrument to the last but hate fixing them.

I got married when I was 21 and my eldest son was 1 year old, and then I had two more sons within a few years. All doing well, thank God! I also have a beautifull 18 month old son now.

Over the years I have been involved in several businesses, and still am. I was a workaholic. Then three very strange incidents happened in my life within a few years that changed the way I looked at things for evermore.

1. My beautiful brother Kevin passed away at 27 years old, which made me think fast about what I was doing with my own possibly short life.
2. I went on a fantastic ski holiday with my kids (Barry, Shane and Ross). I had never gone or been able to afford to go on a decent holiday. I remember sitting on top of a mountain in Austria, thinking “I have to start enjoying this life more and doing the things now that I won’t be able to do in another twenty years or so”.
3. I met this wonderful girl in my life (even though we are no longer together, but I know we will remain friends for life) who played music all her life and I couldn’t believe that she was having so much fun without working 16 hours a day, or even 6, and she was getting along in this life as good as me, or maybe even better, and there was me killing myself! Something wrong here, Murphy! Time to have a quiet chat with yourself!!

So then I set about learning and playing music intensely until I could play a gig. I learned the chords and words to 30 songs in as many days 24/7….

I got rid of one business which was a very good business, but was taking up way to much of my time for the way I wanted to live, bought a camper van and a moterbike and set off touring Europe, playing music wherever I could find deaf enough people to listen to me, together with another great female friend of mine for over a year. We were then asked to cover a gig in Lanzarote for a week and off we flew from Gran Canaria. That was in Febuary 2004. We ended up coming and going, sometimes living here in Lanzarote since.

Then an other problem arose, or had been arising, and I couldn’t see it at the time. I had gone from one extreme to another, and was getting bored with my new life. It was time to get involved again with something. This time I was going to get involved with a business that I *wanted* to be in and I got the opportunity to buy the famous Charlie´s Live Music Venue in Lanzarote, which is much more work then I bargained for but I still love it to bits…

Since I took over Charlie´s Bar in December 2007, or at least re-opened it then, after a lot of re-wiring etc. I have slowly but surely put together a fantastic bunch of musicians, that are now called “Skin & Hide“. They have just finished playing with Sharon Shannon for a week here at Charlies, and what a craic we all had!!! They play Irish Rock with Trad Tunes put in the middle, country, rock classics and nearly everything you can throw at them. A sounder bunch of lunatics you couldn’t meet.

I am now looking forward to welcoming Aslan to Charlies for the first week of March (playing 2, 4 and 6 March).

I am very disillusioned with the way our own Irish culture has gone over the past 10 years, with nobody in the pubs, no gigs and everyone rotting at home, working flat out, not able to afford to go out and socalise – all to pay mortgages that they should never have been given by greedy banks, and driving property prices through the roof. That’s a topic for another day though, but it’s so serious to see the pressure that people are under back at home, and so sad, while their lives pass them by…

We will be organising fun holidays for singles, with loads of activities, fun competitions and great nightly entertainment with our live bands nightly. These will be organised weekly, and off-peak from May when it’s not expensive to get to Lanzarote. Keep an eye on our websites www.charlieslanzarote.com and www.charliesholidays.com

Cheers
Barry Murphy
Drink Sex Feck