Lucy Rose's South American Adventure: Argentina

The weather had deteriorated and the border was closed due to snow. It wasn’t expected to reopen for another six days so we had no choice but to fly. Normally a direct flight from Santiago to Mendoza is a delightful thirty minutes but all the direct flights were sold out. Instead we flew from Santiago, across the whole of Argentina to Buenos Aires, changed terminals and flew nearly the whole way back again to Mendoza.

As always it wasn’t as bad as it sounds and we arrived just after 1pm to be greeted at the airport by Alfredo and July. The rest of this trip has been organised by fans booking shows and letting me stay in their homes but no-one contacted me from Mendoza. It was the only route I could take to reach a fan called Mary who lived in a remote town called San Luis, four hours from Mendoza. Luckily a friend of a friend gave me the email address of Alfredo, explaining that he owns a winery and may know a bar I could play in Mendoza and help me with accommodation.

Alfredo turned out to be the best person ever. Not only did he let us stay in his guest house, he organised for me to play a free entry show at his winery; hired in a sound system and all the equipment, built a stage and created the most amazing place to play a show, right in the centre of his winery.

Also when we were struggling with flights to Mendoza he helped with the cost of the flights. I still can’t understand why he did all this for us but know that he’s just an extraordinarily generous and kind person with a huge heart and passion for music. His family all welcomed us into their home, his father even lent us his car so we could get around Mendoza and all of them came to support me at my show. And the wine….oh my god the wine was so delicious! Alfredo owns a winery with his friend Matias called MAAL wines and I’ve learnt you can find them in London and other cities, so if you see a bottle, grab it, you won’t be disappointed.

After the show we stayed around and had a drink with everyone that had come and talked about music, wine and life in Mendoza which I can confirm is fantastic. I met some lovely students after the show and they told me about local food and how they discovered my music.

I slept so well that night and in the morning Will, Alfredo and I went for breakfast at Jebs, in a small square in a village called Chacras De Coria, about 20 minutes from the centre of Mendoza. Everyone knew everyone. Alfredo's uncles and friends were there and the atmosphere was so friendly and welcoming.

We spent the day with Alfredo, who spoilt us rotten. He bought a huge piece of ribeye steak (I had been vegetarian since January this year but it was too difficult to keep in up during this trip as families had made us food which I didn’t want to turn down) and other ingredients to take with us for a picnic at Lake Potrerillos. It was around an hour drive away. We drank Matta (a traditional Argentina herbal drink) and took in the amazing scenery. I did fall asleep for a bit in the back but pretended I didn’t. We found the perfect spot right next to the water and started a fire where Alfredo cooked our lunch while we drank his amazing red wine. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

That evening we went over to July’s house, who works with Alfredo at the winery. She cooked us a delicious dinner and we talked about everything that was important to us, mainly feminism, politics and music. It was great to meet such like-minded people so far from where I grew up. All in all, we had the most incredible time in Mendoza and as we left we promised Alfredo and his father that we would come back again, ‘one month minimum’ was his father’s demand, which I’m absolutely fine with.

We took a four hour bus to San Luis which was a place I had been most excited about because of the person that was waiting for me - Mary. Mary has been tweeting me for years about my music and I remember distinctly reading one in particular saying ‘I wish I could see you play live but I know it will never happen.’ And I thought to myself, I could make this happen, I could go to San Luis and play Mary’s favourite song for her, so I did it.

The whole time we were arranging the trip I’m not sure if she ever believed I was coming until I was there. Mary and her boyfriend Chris picked us up from the bus station. We had a long emotional hello and set off to Mary’s yoga teacher, Virginia’s house. Mary’s parents felt their house was slightly too small to host me and Will, but luckily for us Virginia and her 12-year old son Emilio welcomed us into their home. I was worried at first as I realised that the language barrier between all of us was quite strong but after a few hours together, things became much easier. Mary told us we were the first English-speaking people she had ever spoken to so she was nervous of her English but soon she was practically fluent. And Emilio was brilliant. He kept Will company the whole time we were there. It was a little rainy for our first day but we reminded them we were from Britain and were used to it. After a great day getting to know each other we went to bed, Will and I on the spare bed and Mary on the sofa.

The next day was show day. Like I had said in my original e-mail to Mary and every other fan that has contacted me: if you book me a gig somewhere people can come and watch, I’ll come to your town. In San Luis this was really difficult for Mary. She said most places didn’t believe that I would come and didn’t take her seriously. She was turned down from everywhere but keep persisting. Eventually she found a bar that would let me play called Ginger Cocktail Club. The morning of the show we visited the venue with Mary, Virginia, Emilio and some of Mary’s friends who had brought me a piano to play. None of them except Mary had seen the venue and were also surprised like myself when we saw it. It was a lovely bar, with a beautiful balcony looking over the city but the room they were allowing me to play in was extremely small. It was filled with around 6 tables and chairs and I had no idea where I would play or how it would sound.

My main concern was that the Facebook event had more than 100 people confirmed to come, some of whom had flown from Honduras for the show and taken buses from other cities, some as long as 21 hours. I knew that at Ginger Cocktail Club, only about 40 people would be able to come to the show and many people would be let down. I was really confused about what to do. I only had one night in San Luis, my plane was leaving the next day so I couldn’t do two shows. After talking with everyone about it, Mary and her friends thought it was best to see if there was a bigger venue we could play that day. As luck had it, Virginia knew someone who worked for the creative council for the government called Hugo and he sorted out everything. The show was to be at an old converted train station, which was being re-furbished and wasn’t complete yet. But he opened the doors of the building to us, built a stage, brought in a sound system, put out chairs and turned the space into a venue.

I tried to explain my decision to Ginger Cocktail Club and apologised profusely but it seems they struggled to understand and were very upset by my decision. I can completely understand where they were coming from - they were excited to be hosting my show that evening, they had prepared for it, made a Facebook event and suddenly it wasn’t happening. All I can do is apologise here once more and reiterate that the only reason I made this decision was to try and prevent more people being upset when they couldn’t get into the show. I had come such a long way to play free music to anyone who wanted to come. I’m finding it difficult when people who are excited are being turned away from shows.

In any other situation I would be thrilled that my shows were full and selling out but this trip is about reaching as many people as possible and I’ve really been shocked at the number of people who know my music in these places. No-one has expected that, not the fans that booked the show, me or the venues. However, the show at the train station was wonderful, completely packed and again I was so lucky to have an amazingly respectful and attentive audience. It was a privilege to be able to play music to them.

As always I stuck around until the very last person left, saying hello and meeting everyone who had travelled from so far away and people who had only discovered my music that night. Afterwards I was asked to do an interview for the Argentinean government explaining the purpose of my trip and why I came to San Luis. They also interviewed Mary asking how all of this came about. It made me emotional seeing Mary talk so enthusiastically about this crazy adventure we were both on. The photo below is of Mary and I after the show, the importance of this is for you to know she made the Lucy Rose lights herself, another thing she did to make this trip as special as possible.

She again was a stranger to me but somehow cared so much. I want to give you some background about Mary. She’s 24 years old, been with her boyfriend Chris for six years, lives with her parents and now works at her university. She has never left the country or been on a plane before but has always dreamed about visiting London. In her room I saw CDs of the British bands she loves, British books and a London penny tin in which she is saving for a first flight ever - to London. She had bought a brand new dress online for the gig which she had never done before and gone to enormous levels to make my stay in San Luis as great as possible. She like myself has suffered from anxiety in the past and this whole experience was a lot to take in. All the preparation for my arrival, then spending time together and worst of all having to say goodbye. It was not easy, saying goodbye to someone who has done so much for me, who is making me believe in myself as a musician and giving me courage to continue writing music. But we made a promise to each other, that we would see each other again.

Two days after we left Mary told me she was booking a flight to come see us in London in a year’s time and was starting to pay it off in monthly instalments. It will be her first time abroad and I can’t wait to be able to repay the favour and have her stay with us and show her to all my favourite places and of course go to as many gigs as possible together. The main thing that holds us together is our love for music and the same goes for ever person I’ve met on this trip.

Our morning flight to Buenos Aires was cancelled which unfortunately meant I had to cancel one of my four shows in Buenos Aires but I knew that everyone could go to the show the day after, which made me feel better. After another amazing day hanging out with Mary, Virginia and her wonderful son Emilio we boarded the night flight to Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires we were staying with a lovely couple: Lydia and Matt. Lydia works at the British Embassy and somehow managed to organise for me to play a free entry show in the British Embassy bar, something my parents were extremely excited about. But first I had the show at La Sala. When I was initially booking this tour I really had no idea if anyone knew my music in all these different places, so I just booked the one gig at the British Embassy. When we put up the link for the free tickets, it sold out in under ten minutes so I knew I had to do another gig and in a bigger venue. I tweeted asking if someone could help me and a seventeen-year-old girl called Agustina got in contact with me, telling me about a venue called La Sala that would let me play a free entry show. The night of the show, she came to pick us up with her boyfriend and we all headed to the venue together. When we arrived for soundcheck there was already a queue outside and both of us were pretty shocked. Agustina is also pursuing music, she’s only seventeen years old but so talented, playing guitar and writing her own songs and it was an honour to have her play before me and with me for one of my songs and getting to know her.

I asked her to also support me the next night at the Embassy show, which she did and we talked about music and songwriting. I think there isn’t anything that means more than hearing that the reason someone picked up the guitar and started writing music was because of your music. The people I met after both shows were amazing. I was given wonderful letters and gifts and got to know quite a few people, some of whom came to both shows so we could talk more. I’m really embarrassed about what happened at the show at La Sala but on stage I found myself getting really emotional. Just after playing "Shiver", where the whole crowd was singing along with me I found myself thinking, “This is crazy, I have no idea how I’m playing music right now on stage, in Buenos Aires and I have a huge crowd in front of me singing all the words back to me”. Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this was possible for me.

It makes me look back at the 5 years of playing open mics, writing songs in my bedroom and suddenly I was here. Life has been really crazy recently and to top it all off on my last night in Buenos Aires I had the honour of supporting one my favourite bands and friends - City And Colour. We told them what we were doing in South America. We’ve been here exactly one month and have another month to go and tomorrow morning we get on a ferry to Uruguay to meet another stranger that has booked me a show in his town and is letting us stay with him. All we want to do is talk about the amazing people we have met on this trip, every single person has been so kind and caring, they are all really good people.

Argentina has been beautiful and we will be back. Thank you Celeste for showing us around, Agustina for booking the La Sala show, Lydia for booking the British Embassy show and having us to stay and thank you to all the people that came to the gigs and have been supporting me all these years without me knowing. You are all wonderful.