Lovers of live music have sadly and helplessly experienced the closure of one of its most emblematic temples in Madrid, the Caracol room, evicted by court order last Thursday after a conflict with the ship’s owners. And it is not just any room, but a place where history has been made countless times. In its beginnings it hosted performances by Paco de Lucía, José Mercé and even the historic return of Chavela Vargas, and later, with its current owners, it lived nights of glory with Pablo Milanés, Santiago Auserón, Antonio Vega, Aute, Raimunedo Amador, Andrés Calamaro. or Radiohead themselves.
It has played an essential role in the evolution of great national pop stars.
Pereza, C. Tangana, Amaral, Ella Baila Sola, Najwa Nimri, Andy and Lucas or Estopa took some of their first steps there. With their first sellout at the Caracol, Vetusta Morla raised enough money to finance the recording of her first album, which would open the doors of success for them. Manolo García, Fito Cabrales or Christina Rosenvinge celebrated the debut of their solo career there; El Canto del Loco recorded its first live album on its boards and Dover shot one of its most famous video clips within its four walls, where the most anticipated meeting of recent decades in Madrid also took place, that of Leño.
So until over five thousand concerts, some more legendary and others less, but all fundamental in the history of live music in the capital. The future of this mythical room, baptized by the great Lola Flores in homage to her beloved Manolo Caracol, is now highly uncertain, but its managers are not going to give up and have already announced that they will continue battling in court and that in worst case scenario, your cultural project will not die here.
This is stated in a statement issued this Tuesday, in which they explain in detail what happened. «The Sala Caracol has 30 years of history but it began as a warehouse, a film set, a very basic flamenco tablao with many deficiencies in acoustics and soundproofing and without an operating license. It was in 1994 when the owners (including politicians) had no choice but to sell it due to its infeasibility before a notary, with all the rights without exception. Since that time, the new partners and now tenants are the ones who have completely transformed the building, even raising it from 5 to 10 meters high until it became the auditorium it is today. During these decades it has suffered 12 precincts but has always obtained the different required licenses, until the last one in force since 2014. This recreational license was granted in the name of a single initial partner who, from 1995 to the present, has signed the consecutive contracts of rent, always in the name of the Alonso family, including the last one in 2015».
The pandemic, like the rest of the rooms in the world, dealt a tremendous blow to the Caracol, which tried to get a gesture from the owners of the ship that would allow its survival. But then everything went wrong. «As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic that imposed a stoppage in the cultural industry, we have tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the heirs of the property so that they would consider that, at least during the months closed by government order, reduce the rent by 50%. We have always received negatives to the different proposals presented in the negotiation and the owners did not offer any alternative, only and insistently requested the immediate payment of the entire monthly payment, even including an eviction complaint. Faced with what we understood as an incomprehensible injustice and in order to curb their threats, we accepted a claim for amparo on the rebus sic stantibus clause for a fair rent, which is processed before the Court of First Instance No. 20 of Madrid, but they are the owners who once again automatically file a lawsuit for a verbal trial for eviction in the Court of First Instance No. 40 of Madrid. It was last December 2021 when the hearing was scheduled to resolve on said clause, but after the presentation of several briefs to be resolved by the other party and witnesses without citing, the suspension was proceeded on several more occasions until finally setting the hearing for next September 13, 2022 ».
Meanwhile, the complaint for eviction was ongoing and when the time came for his appeal, there was a small mistake by the prosecutor and a failure of the court’s computer system (Lexnet) that condemned the Caracol. “Despite the inconvenience, totally rectifiable, we managed to present the opposition to the eviction documentation on time at 12:44 p.m. on the last day, having a deadline until 3 p.m.,” say the managers of the room. Said mistake would be the presentation without transfer of copies of the documents opposing the eviction, a small mistake for some, fateful for others. It was the judicial lawyer, who realizing the failure and with sufficient time, notifies us to rectify the error. But the judge categorically refuses to allow said correction despite being within the time stipulated by law, and even qualifies it as a procedural defect with sufficient importance to continue with the process and not stop the eviction. Arriving at this situation, we continue to formulate different opposition appeals, but none are accepted by the judge and there is even an attempt to sanction the lawyer who defends us for exercising his right of appeal. Already in March 2022 we appealed to the Provincial Court, which accepted it for processing, but after 60 days without mediating annulment and by a simple diligence, it resolved that nothing should be processed because we have not consigned an income that nobody claims in said procedure. And immediately €241,000 is deposited in the Court, a figure much higher than half of the claimed income. We want to go ahead with the negotiation and not show a feeling of evading our payment responsibility. But again the Court rejects appeal again. We file a complaint appeal so that they process our appeal and the Provincial Court informs us of its decision: as a matter of urgency, it will be studied on June 9, 2022. But the eviction continues its course and is carried out that same day, June 9, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. The judge did not even have the consideration to wait for the Provincial Court to rule, the eviction could not even be postponed. It is by way of protest, rejection and total disagreement with this process, unfair, unequal and disproportionate, that we decided not to go to said eviction.
The Caracol statement ends by assuring that its managers never wanted to evade the payment of monthly rent, and showing that this process can end one of the most important venues on the Madrid and national circuit. “We made a deposit to guarantee the payment to the landlords of the property, just as they have been receiving such payment without delay for the last 30 years. We fought for what we considered to be fair taking into account the global circumstances that occurred and we never expected to receive the passivity and inactivity of the judicial system. The Alonso family has managed the Sala Caracol auditorium since 1995 and unfortunately we have lost this headquarters, a national and international benchmark in the cultural industry, but the Caracol project will not die here, it is part of Madrid society, our family and national culture ».
