by Markus Langemann - CdkW - Jazz
I was a young man sitting in the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid that day in the late Spanish summer evening temperatures. I had traveled there alone. Probably a flight from Munich to Madrid. The memory of the means of travel has faded, the memory of the hours in the stadium is clear and brilliant - for decades.
I still get goosebumps today when the man I traveled here for, the man I wanted to see live for the first time, appeared on a gigantic screen.
A black limousine pulls up behind the stadium, backstage. In the stadium, the voluminous sound of the London Philharmonic Orchestra begins. The Chairman of the Board gets out of the car. Casually. The camera in front of him, the images live and oversized on the screen in the Spanish stadium.
People jump to their feet, the applause erupts.
His long walk through the catacombs is transmitted into the stadium. The orchestra swings intensely. He prances up the stage stairs from backstage and now I can see him emerge from the dark back of the stage with my own eyes. Incomparably buoyant and light, he walks purposefully towards the edge of the stage, into the radiant stage light. He reaches for the microphone on the stand and takes it out. Of course it still has a cable.
The music intensifies, no break. He just starts singing. On point. "Fly me to the Moon" - Frank Sinatra. WoW!
"Ol' Blue Eyes" received a personal record fee of one million dollars for this performance. "It's a record". He couldn't say no.
On December 17, 2019, Arsenio Marcos Rodríguez died at the age of 76 in the Spanish city of Bilbao. Most people still don't know his name, but I have him to thank for this memory. I only found out about this man and his story a few weeks ago.
Manuel Muñoz, Spanish Sinatra aficionado, writes to you here about the genesis of this concert, which Arsenio Marcos Rodríguez made possible. Rodríguez fulfilled a lifelong dream - and also gave me a lifelong memory, including this moment:
The last song of the concert - of course "My Way. He clamps the microphone back onto the stand. The orchestra plays. He leaves the stage. Fireworks start over the stadium, the camera follows him backstage into the limousine. The orchestra is still playing. The car rolls off. The last thing I see on the screen - the rear lights. The fireworks over the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu continue.
When Sinatra came to Madrid after all - and everything went wrong
by Mahnuel Muñoz //
Arsenio Marcos Rodríguez was born in Sabero (León) and herded cows in his youth. One day, with more dreams than certainties, he took the train to Bilbao in search of a better future. He worked for a few years as a transport entrepreneur with a modest motorcycle and managed to secure a prominent place in Bilbao's business scene, while Frank Sinatra's music sounded like the soundtrack to his rise. He managed some of the most prestigious nightclubs of his time and made headlines in the Spanish press in 1986 when he fulfilled a dream: Frank Sinatra was to perform in Spain. The date chosen, September 25, 1986, and the venue, the legendary Santiago Bernabéu stadium, Real Madrid's temple of success.
The concert goes down as one of the biggest commercial failures in Frank Sinatra's history. It is said that only around 11,000 of the 65,000 tickets that the organization expected were sold and that between 16,000 and 18,000 were given away to avoid the sad picture of a practically empty stadium. Frank Sinatra hung up the "No Seating" sign at practically all his concerts around the world. What happened in Madrid?
The authorities and the angry press put all kinds of obstacles in the way of organizing the event. The limited publicity was negative, and the headstrong and enterprising Arsenio, disparagingly known as "The Shepherd", was disqualified as an interloper and inexperienced. Xavier Cugat, the legendary Catalan conductor who recorded with Sinatra in the 1940s, was particularly caustic: "They only know how to sell panties and nightgowns," he snarled, referring to Arsenio and his team. Apparently Cugat's annoyance was due to the fact that he had previously tried unsuccessfully to hire the voice; this story deserves to be told separately, which I will do in the next few days.
Ticket prices were very high and the main distribution channel, the department store El Corte Inglés, terminated the contract with the organization the day before the concert, officially due to Arsenio's proposal to lower prices in order to mitigate the economic debacle.At this time, Spain was also experiencing the last gasps of the Movida Madrileña (for the international members of the group: this was a counter-cultural and artistic movement that emerged in Madrid in the second half of the 1970s after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco. It was characterized by an innovative form of verbal and aesthetic expression developed in music, film, literature and photography) and Sinatra was perceived as a relic of the past, a representative of American imperialism, a vulgar and rude mafioso. It never occurred to anyone to carry out a study of the singer's acceptance and to adapt the venue, the location and the price of the seats to reality.
The concert, on the other hand, presents a communicative and brilliant Frank Sinatra, who sings his bouquet of great hits with the support of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and makes a delicious concession to national folklore with the magnificent "Granada". Some audio and video recordings that are privately circulating prove this. The radio station Cadena SER covered the concert and tried to give it proper coverage, with some enthusiastic commentators who did not hide their admiration for the singer, and to top it off, there were fireworks that lit up the capital's sky. Arsenio knew that his big dream on the stadium pitch would lead to his financial ruin, but no one could erase the smile from his face and his satisfaction at having managed to break Sinatra's vow never to return to our "damn country".
Frank Sinatra 1986 at the Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid
Set list
Fly Me To The Moon
Without A Song
What Now My Love
I've Got You Under My Skin
Bewitched
Where Or When
witchcraft
My Heart Stood Still
New York New York
Grenade
Summer Wind
night and day
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Come Rain Or Come Shine
L.A.Is My Lady
The Girl From Ipanema
April In Paris
The Lady Is A Tramp
For Once In My Life
Mack The Knife
All The Way
Strangers In The Night
My Way
Editor's note: On January 26, 1980, Frank Sinatra gave a memorable concert at the Maracanã Stadium, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It was a historic event as 175,000 spectators filled the stadium, setting a record for the largest paying audience for a solo artist.
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