There was the Movida, there was the periphery of the Movida, and there was the periphery of the periphery of the Movida. This is, approximately, the thesis defended by Fernando Fernández Rego in his new book, 80s. Movida, Atlantism, avant-garde, underground (Galaxia, 2024), a thorough tour of the various pop scenes in Galicia at the time, the peripheries of the periphery. “Actually I wanted to write almost a history of the counterculture” in the community, the author explains to elDiario.es about a volume that not only pays attention to music: video creation or the clandestine literature of fanzines also occupy its pages. “The intention is to give a global idea of that decade, with the social aspect in the background, of course,” he summarizes, “although rock is central.” The rock of industrial reconversion, after all, the rock of the post-dictatorship.
“There was a lot of politics in fanzines, it’s true, but not so much in music. The lyrics are naïve, many times they do not go beyond the topic of sex, drugs and rock & roll,” he says. With exceptions, of course: Os Resentidos and the Palestinian cause, the naval sector, “Galicia ceibe e socialista dunha hostia dunha vez.” Or the most punk punk, Desvirgheitors, also from Vigo. Or the wild sarcasm of the very first Siniestro Total, with Germán Coppini as the voice and shadow of the Dead Kennedys. Or Atlantism, a current theorized around the magazine The Naval and the band Radio Oceano: “We don’t want to be invaded by bullfighters from Madrid,” they stated. “But beyond that, this was not like in the Basque Country,” maintains Fernández Rego (Ferrol, 1979).
What did exist was a diverse landscape, more plural than what is seen in the canonical accounts, which tend to reduce everything to the Vigo Movida – as an appendix to the Madrid one -, sometimes with mention of the Atlantic derivative. “As happens at the state level with, for example, the Barcelona experimentalism that Jaime Gonzalo portrayed in his book The hidden cityor with the first Bakalao route, where you could find Sisters of Mercy playing at five in the morning in a nightclub,” he comments, “also in Galicia there were bands outside of Vigo and A Coruña. In Ferrol or Carballo. O Extreme Unción, from Santa Cruz de Ribadulla (Vedra, A Coruña), which had themes cool wave. Or Los Contentos, from Lugo, who were ascribed to the garage revival.” They almost always sang in Spanish – the exceptions in Galician, Os Resentidos and the model of Sindikato Agrario, from Lugo – and almost all of them men – the exception, Voces de ultratumba.
“It is true that the Madrid Movida was above all a repetition of Anglo-Saxon clichés, although not only. “Here those clichés were assimilated with a strong Galician component,” he says, and points out the customs of the Siniestro or the “pure retranca” that abounded in the pages of The Naval. But these proposals were just the tip of the iceberg. Because, judging by the amount of information and documents contained in 80s. Movida, Atlantism, avant-garde, undergroundthe appropriate word may be hatching. “At that moment a certain independent industry started, audiovisual production companies, the image and sound schools of A Coruña and Vigo. In the latter, Bibiano (former member of Voces Ceibes and author of three progressive folk LPs in the 70s) is a key figure,” he says. Fernández Rego’s book, which was born practically as a spin off of his previous, and thick, A history of music in Galicia (1952-2018) (Galaxia, 2019, now reprinted), reflects this.
Its author has chosen for elDiario.es ten albums that show life beyond Siniestro Total, Os Resentidos, Radio Óceano, Aerolíneas Federales or Golpes Bajos, to name some of the most well-known and recognized Galician bands of that time. The selection includes models and compilations. Almost none are available in the market for new releases and reissues, but they are in the catacombs of the Internet. “All my books are ultimately a vindication of the underground,” concludes Fernández Rego.
Voices from beyond the grave
Founded in 1984 in Vigo, the only group made up entirely of women – and also explicitly feminist – barely left a trace. It was remedied by Ferror Records, Fernández Rego’s own record label, which he co-released a couple of years ago with Uterzine and Educación Cínica a cassette that collected demos and live shows of the time. “A really interesting post-punk treatise,” Rego defines it, in which echoes of Bauhaus, The Cure or Permanent Paralysis can be perceived.
Terminal Norte (1988)
Álvaro Lamas, later in Los Limones, learned to play the steel guitar with the ferry orchestras that linked Norway with Finland where he himself worked. The particular sound of the instrument fills the only album by Terminal Norte, a band based in Ferrol that in 1987 won the then prestigious demo contest of Rockdelux. That recording, Americanized pop rock with echoes of Crosby, Stills & Nash but also of Dave Edmunds or the new wavebecame their only album a year later, pressed on vinyl.
Widow Gómez and Children – Completely (1987)
“A group totally worth claiming,” says Fernández Rego. From A Coruña, their only mini LP, Completelyincludes what he describes as “two huge songs”: Too trampled and the hidden classic of peninsular after punk, suicide solution. The guitars screech and at times invoke the Cramps sound. The shadow of Johnny Thunders, confessed idol of the singer and guitarist Jorge Fernández, is long.
Los Cafres – SF 13 Tractor Cerebral (1988)
Their mini LP was produced by Alberto Torrado, bassist of Siniestro Total. Los Cafres were from Vigo and in 1988 they published an energetic and unleashed “dirty and brutal” garage punk album in which they even borrowed a melody from the Standells, a punk classic. sixties. The band was short-lived. He could not announce his concerts because the guitarist, Pablo Ramallo, was wanted by the Civil Guard for being unruly, says Fernández Rego. One of his songs, I am a verminyears later covered by Siniestro themselves, still circulates as an underground hit.
Extreme Unction (1992)
Beyond the cities there was also pop life, maintains Fernández Rego. Extreme Unción were from a village in Vedra, Santa Cruz de Ribadulla, in the final stretch of the Ulla River. They recorded several demos, they performed a couple of times on Galician Television, some of their songs ended up on compilations and Rego defines them as “brutal postpunk”. Point out Krakowa theme cool wave “in the vein of bands like Agrimensor K.” His only record on cassette was published by the newspaper The Galician Post in a collection called Fonoteca Galega.
Agrarian Union (1986)
They defined themselves as agropunk, but in reality they played on the limits of postpunk with drum machines, bizarre melodies and a strange echo of The Residents. They were from Lugo, They only recorded a demo with four songs and, beyond the experimental and leafy work of Os Resentidos, it was the only monolingual band in Galician. Piti Sanz, who would later be the founder of the legendary Contentos, played guitar there.
Bar (1982)
“Pop effervescence with rock rage,” Fernández Rego describes them, “they were led by a riot girl like Feijoo Gels.” Their guitarist was Silvino Díaz, who would later be part of one of the most influential bands of the Vigo Movida, Aerolíneas Federales. But Bar, who released a single LP in 1982, were pure New Wave, pop of today for people of today, escapist melody and energy in a working-class and maritime city, Vigo, which had forcefully opposed the dictatorship and was looking out for the convulsive naval reconversion.
Metro (1982)
Metro won the first group competition in A Coruña against Siniestro Total – in reality, they disqualified those from Vigo. “They were the group that could reign,” says Fernández Rego. He didn’t get it. Their vocalist and guitarist José Manuel Tasende was called upon by military service and the band ended. But he had time to publish a single full-length album full of eighties, new-olero pop, at times with an air of The Cars. Rego highlights his song He wants to be your zombie.
Moncho and mailos Sapoconchos (1988)
Popular culturethe song that opened their only album, is a self-ironic treatise on pop music and mass culture. “Popular culture and the mass media / elevate the mediocre to the top of the altar / popular culture and the mass media / turn Beethoven / into something easy to whistle,” his lyrics said. Pop, soul, funk or rhythm & blues, mentions Rego. And a nervous singer and guitarist, Uxío Noceda, whose presence and sound evokes the unstoppable Dr. Feelgood.
The Happy (1988)
They only recorded two albums, they lived and rehearsed in Lugo and were outside of the Movida: Los Contentos became, despite the circumstances, a myth. Covers by the Kinks and MC5 supported his vision of garage and less derivative psychedelia. “They were pioneers, together with the Sex Museum, of revival garage throughout the State,” says Fernández Rego. And those who saw them on stage in their day still remember it: a fierce live show in which, along with their own songs like when you laugh o The empty house -both from this, their first album-, they enjoyed The Stooges or Creedence.
Source: www.eldiario.es
