MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine ?Beladies' ? A big hit in the Falklands.

500 people - old, not so old and young ? gathered in Port Stanley's Town Hall last night to listen and dance to the hits of the famous beat group ?The Beatles', performed by 4 young Argentinean girls who call themselves ?THE BELADIES'. They are the first Argentine music group to ever play in the Islands, and despite only arriving on a Lan Chile flight just a few hours before taking to the stage, the girls impressed their dancing audience, who had each paid £4.00 admission fee, and soon had the hall throbbing to their music. As they moved quickly from hits such as ?Please Please Me' and ?Love Me Do' to ?She Loves You' and ?I saw Her Standing There', the crowd responded by clapping their hands, dancing, and singing along with the hits.

Although the first one-hour set seemed to lack the correct ?mixing' by the sound technicians which resulted in the vocals often being difficult to hear, the second session which began at 1-00am was a much better coordinated performance musically. The voice of 19 year old Dana Nigro from Saavedra in Buenos Aires, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, could be heard to much better effect as the girls wearing red shirts and multi-coloured trousers opened up with ?Can't Buy me Love'. Dana said that she was ?very happy and surprised at how many people had attended the Town Hall, and was pleased with the response which they had received'. She admitted that all the girls ?had felt very nervous' during the first set, as they have never played outside Argentina before. Dana began playing guitar at the age of 9 ?and it was always Beatles songs which I played ? ?Let It Be' is my favourite'.

20 year old Lucrecia Lopez from Palermo, who learnt to play guitar at the age of 15, said that ?many people in Argentina are envious of our opportunity to visit the Islands. Our parents just can't believe that we are here and actually playing our music to the Islanders'. Asked if she was afraid that there may be some opposition to their presence in the Falklands, she said, ?We are musicians and not politicians so we have no fear of any form of protest. So far everyone we have met has been most pleasant and helpful'. ?All Argentineans dream of visiting the Islands one day, so we are very fortu