My secret life

THE REPORTER AND ROMANI: Introduced to flamenco guitar as a six-year-old, the art was always former TV journalist Ian Sinclair’s first love — and now that he has made it his life, he is coming to Gisborne as part of his My Secret Life concert tour. Picture supplied

The art of flamenco guitar indirectly led former TV journalist Ian Sinclair into war reportage — and back again, and now the musician is on his way to Gisborne for his My Secret Life concert.

Probably best known as a roving reporter with the dream TV job - a chance to explore the world and meet everyone from the Queen to the Taliban - Sinclair is arguably first and foremost a flamenco guitar player.

He was six years old when his grandmother bought him a guitar and his brother bought him a flamenco record — Los Desperados. Sinclair still has the 1967 vinyl disc with the “full 1950s echo chamber sound” and even plays an excerpt from the album in his concerts.

As a young man Sinclair performed with Dave McCartney, Harry Lyon and Phil Ochs. He enjoyed a brush with music journalism when he was asked to interview flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata.

“The writing was dreadful,” says Sinclair.

“But the Auckland University paper Craccum asked me to be a rock reporter.”

Then 20-year-old Sinclair went on to interview the likes of Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Elton John, Joan Baez, and flamenco artists from France who later became known as the Gypsy Kings.

Sinclair’s love of flamenco outshone rock reporter glory though, and in 1975 he walked out one midsummer (possibly) morning and flew to Spain where he studied under maestros Miguel Garcia Jose Luis Postigo and Juan del Gastor.

His arrest by General Franco’s secret police prompted him to switch to hard news reporting. Sinclair eventually moved from newspapers to radio, then TV in 1986, where international assignments included Bougainville, Kosovo Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, after nearly 2000 TV stories, he made a giant leap of faith to quit and become a flamenco guitarist, he says.

“Flamenco is unbelievably complicated. You have to train yourself in the rhythm.”

Flamenco is believed to have originated in Andalusia during the eighth to 15th centuries when Spain was under Arab domination. The invaders’ music and musical instruments were adapted by Christians and Jews, and later by the Romani. The Indo-Aryan people, traditionally nomadic itinerants broadly known as gypsies, developed a hybrid music we recognise as flamenco. The first flamenco-schools began in the 18th century in Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Triana (Seville)

The rhythmical, fiery, romantic spirit of flamenco is infused with an instinctive, passionate spirit, so, while learning flamenco from the masters, Sinclair saturated himself in Spanish culture — Romanic culture in particular.

“I found being a New Zealander helped. One thing I learned from being a reporter is, as Maori were so marginalised, Romani too were cautious about Pakeha. You approach them with an open heart and they are loyal to the end.”

Ian Sinclair – My Secret Life. The former TV journalist performs flamenco guitar, Tairawhiti Museum, Saturday March 27, 7pm. Q&A after performance. Tickets $30 from www.eventfinda.co.nz Limited seats available so early bookings are recommended. Presented by AOTNZ InCahoots with Tairawhiti Museum.