Now, this man is probably one of the nicest and most respected persons around town, as well as being an amazing guitar maker, which is probably why, when the news that his workshop had been ransacked and emptied of every instrument in it, the musical world of Almuñécar banded together to perform a charity performance at the Casa de la Cultura in his honour, and in order to raise funds for him.

Wow, that is a sentence and a half!

65-year-old Antonio, El Salao has his craftsman’s workshop in the Parque Majuelo, which has security arrangements that make it as impenetrable as Linda Lovelace – the several businesses that occupy the theme-cortijos in the park are often getting unwelcome visits. Antonio’s ‘visitor’ cleaned him out of eight-years’ work: 35 instruments, amongst them a guitar worth 2,000 euros. Antonio, remember, makes the guitars that are given as prizes during the Andrés Segovia Festival.

In fact, it is worth giving a full list of the stolen instruments, to give a better idea of what a loss it was for him, and thus, for Almuñécar: 21 flamenco guitars, an electric guitar, two semi-acoustic guitars, three mandolins, three lutes, three Arab lutes and two banjos. They even made off with a guitar that he had made from a pumpkin.

Anyway, on the night, many artists turned out to show their respect and solidarity for this gentle man. Antonio, as you might know, has a British wife, Patricia, who is a dedicated member of the Christian community.