Mexican Mash Ups

Last night I had the great pleasure of participating in "Mexrrissey" at the Barbican. A specially selected group of Mexican musicians - many of whom are apparently big names back home (shamefully I had heard of none of them) - paid tribute to Morrissey.

In advance I had this down as one of those events that would be either be totally fantastic or utterly dreadful - Morrissey songs translated into Spanish and "Mexicanised" could go either way. Fortunately it definitely erred on the side of fantastic.

While there were mariachi elements, courtesy of Alex Escobar on trumpet, it never became cheesy, and when needed they really rocked out - on "Panic" they kicked off like they were the Ramones, and the Bo Diddley beat on "How Soon Is Now?" was something else. They are playing a few more shows this week in Bristol, Manchester and elsewhere. If you get the chance, go.

Unfortunately the gang haven't made any recordings of the songs they perform on this tour, and I don't have any of their own work (though I'll be putting that right). So instead here is another Mexican who specialised in adapting the works of musical icons.

"En El Barrio" - El Vez

"Rock 'n Roll Suicide/ If I Can Dream" - El Vez

We were at the gig as a birthday treat for the girl of my dreams, who has just had a big one. If I remember correctly, this is her favourite Smiths song. Happy birthday. LYM.