Every now and then I find a true classic spanking photo during my online searches. Before we get to the picture though, this post will be a combination spanking/vanilla post. If you are just here for the spanking then the image is below, enjoy it. If you also want to read about something that blew my mind this past week then carrying on reading below the photo.

Other than the fact that this spanking pic is a wonderful shot, I did look at the exterior and wondered where this spanking is taking place. It is one of the reasons that I loathe spanking photos being cropped, there can be so much information to be found in the exterior.

So I’m guessing this is from around the 1940s, but if you look closely, would I be right in assuming that this is a photographers studio? It seems to have a backdrop that would be used for taking photos, though perhaps not because the background is black. Would a photographer use a black background for pictures?

Another thing of note that I spotted are the shadows. Is the picture possibly being taken outdoors? Let me know what you think in the comments! Anyway, isn’t this a fantastic photo? Click on the image for a larger version.

Now, if you only wanted the spanking image, you have it, but if you also want to hear a fun story from me then read on.

Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, long before the days of the Internet, I was a huge fan of The Gipsy Kings. If you don’t know who they are, they are a group from France of Catalan heritage. They play a brand of music called Rumba Flamenca.

They were a big sensation 35 years ago and like I said, this was before the days of the Internet, so they became popular through word of mouth. The group consisted of two sets of brothers, the five Reyes brothers and the three Baliardo brothers. All of them were cousins of each other. Now I’m not sure how it all works but their fathers were cousins, so does that make them cousins, one time removed? There was a ninth member who was married to one the the Reyes’ sisters.

On Youtube I spotted that they played Glastonbury this year so of course I clicked on it just to see them one more time. The video was terrible, shot from the back of a room where you couldn’t even see the group. Just before I clicked off though, something on the side caught my eye.

“Jose Reyes – Father of the Gipsy Kings”

Wait, hang on a minute, their father was also a performer?

He was performing with a guy called Manitas de Plata, who was famous for his Flamenco guitar. Jose Reyes was the father of the five Reyes brothers in The Gipsy Kings. Also performing were Hyppolite Baliardo and Manero Baliardo. Surely they weren’t also related to the Baliardo brothers in the Gipsy Kings, were they?

It turns out that Manitas de Plata was born Ricardo Baliardo, and he was the father of the three Baliardo brothers in the group the Gipsy Kings. The two fathers of eight of the nine Gipsy Kings performed together for years. I was stunned, and what’s more, The Gipsy Kings became famous off of the music their fathers created. That just blew my mind.

So here is a fabulous video from 1967 of the older family members of The Gipsy Kings. The main guitarist is Manitas de Plata, the guitarist to his right is Hyppolite Baliardo and the first singer is Manero Baliardo. The second singer who is behind the left shoulder of Manitas de Plata is Jose Reyes, the father of the singing members of The Gipsy Kings.

A little disclaimer here, the members of the Baliardo family are not clear. In some places it says that Manitas de Plata is the father of the three Baliardo brothers in The Gipsy Kings, but other places it says that they are his nephews. Hyppolite and Manero I believe are his brothers, but is has also been said that they are his sons as well.

Due to the lifestyle that Manitas lived, he fathered many children from different women, so my belief is that Hyppolite and Manero are his brothers, while the three Baliardo brothers in the Gipsy Kings are his sons, though all likely with different mothers.