Gabriel Moreno will soon be Cracking the System with Love

A new album from the London-based local poet and troubadour, Gabriel Moreno, will be released in the new year. He was here recently for a one-night appearance at the Kasbar, where he introduced some of the songs which will be featured which is now in post-production at the mastering stage. 

The album’s catchy title track was the first song he referred to, as he welcomed fans, friends and family to an intimate solo performance in his spiritual home at ‘Calle Comedia.’ There were some new faces in the audience, not many, as die-hard fans pre-book his gigs well in advance and people had to be turned away, rather than be left standing in the limited corners of the quaint vaulted vegan restaurant in Castle Street. 

He opened his set with a new song called Layers, which refers to the masks which we wear to hide our true selves. It’s a finely crafted song that starts with “Mornings in London I need your love, when you are sober, you’re so hard to find ‘cause you hide - you hide in your mind.” 

It’s a gentle ballad and the welcome home applause was more than polite. It was warm and happy, setting the tone for the rest of his set. 

Carousel of Love followed and it too is new, although the theme is set in a Gibraltar of old when sexuality was first explored here and more clearly defined later, in the first year of university life in UK.  

He soon had the audience humming along to the romantic chorus. A snippet of a verse observed, “Tonight your silhouette is quite alright, and if you stay here, I might just levitate.”  Lines like these, woven into melodic folk guitar accompaniment, is what makes Gabriel’s poetry/music fascinating and rewarding to contemplate live. 

The third song was the premiere of the album title track Cracking the System with Love, and the poet announced that for this one, he had roped in his ten-year-old son Angelo to sing a verse on the album.  

Angelo was present, but shyness dictated he stayed in his seat, so his dad had to sing the part in hushed tones. It made the danceable song even more appealing to us. After the applause subsided, Gabriel told us that the new album will be released in January. 

The set continued with established favourites from previous albums like Year of the Rat which was on display with his latest book, the bilingual poemario called Gibraltar which was translated by Rafael Penas Cruz. He then dedicated a song to Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, On the Edge of a Dream.  

I Feel like Dancing was dedicated to his son Angelo and his mum Bex. 

We can Write England All Over Again was dedicated to the Brexit fiasco and now has a new outro different from the album. Gabriel’s mother, Margaret, had just celebrated a landmark birthday, so he dedicated his poem, My Mother’s Hands, especially to her, and she couldn’t hide. 

Next up, invited poet Jonathan Teuma recited a poem by Gabriel about the Winston boys, Marlboro Man, dedicated to local writer MG Sanchez.  

This was followed by a couple of Jonathan’s own poems, the highlight being To be a Tree, a Yanito poem full of our coded language, sharp observations and the inimitable delivery of a consummate poet who champions bilingual Slam poetry as an English literature university professor in the Spanish capital. 

Very soon, Teuma will be introducing that genre to our students.  

And I welcome that initiative and look forward to him inspiring future local poets to duel in Slam poetry against three-minute clocks. If you have not yet been exposed to the great Jonathan Teuma in action, he will be performing at the Poetry Cabaret night in the Rock Hotel on Nov 12. 

Gabriel continued his set with another half dozen songs which included some from other albums, notably Castles, Lena Kalinka, Silly old Dreams, and We are what We Are (which makes no apologies for our being Yanitos).  

A Leonard Cohen classic, Everybody knows, followed on and the eighty-minute set was brought to a climax with Nosediving into the Night.  Great poetry and song night!   

This cultural goodness is to be repeated next spring, when Gabriel Moreno will be here again for the launching of his new album.  

For that visit in April, he will bring his band, the Quivering Poets.  

You read this first in this column.