JAILHOUSE ROCKER

AScottish musician is searching for the band he created when he was imprisoned in Murcia’s Sangonera Penitentiary, over three decades ago.

Allan McCarthy, the former frontman of rock group ‘Berlin 90’, arrived in Spain in the mid 1980’s. He is the first to admit that, still in his early twenties, he became entangled with a ‘bad bunch,’ the end result of which was a drugs related offence, resulting in a six-and-a-half year sentence in the Murcia prison.

Within the prison the authorities were keen to keep the inmates occupied and one of the things they provided to budding musicians was a practise room, a teacher and musical equipment, so in no time Allan had established a relationship with a number of likeminded individuals and ‘Berlin 90’ was formed.

The band was unsurprisingly labelled "the bad boys of rock", and after a music teacher at the prison submitted a demo ‘Berlin 90’ tape to a ‘battle of the bands’ contest, organised by Angel Sopena at the local radio station, Onda Regional, the band quickly made National headlines; Berlin 90 had been born.

Realising the PRbenefits, the prison authorities got behind the project and supported the band with a rehearsal space and instruments; while the other inmates became their audience, and their critics.

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Such was their success that the band were given day release by prison chiefs to record a few tracks in a local studio, with one track, Stormy Waters, then chosen to appear on a double compilation cassette, entitled ‘A Year of Rock in Murcia 1991’, edited by the radio station. On the tape they played alongside popular local bands, Ferroblues, Joaquín Talismán, Fenomenos Extraños and Doble Cero.

Speaking to The Leader from his home on Mr Menor Golf, McCarthy said: “When our song got entered for the radio competition it ended up on a double cassette compilation.

“Since we were ‘track one, side one’ on the tape if anyone played anything of it, it was us.

“We were featuring in the newspapers everyday and on the radio, not just in Murcia but in Madrid and across the whole of Spain.

“Of course it was a novelty, we were singing in English, plus the band was lead by a Scotsman singing from a Spanish jail.

“We were under no illusions about it, and it was a good story at the time: ‘Bad boys go out and make a record’. The track, Stormy Waters, surprised quite a few people.”

Prison chiefs also granted Allan