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Ricardo Pachón . Seville, 1937. After his brief stint at the Direction of the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco, the music producer of emblematic records of Camarón, Lole and Manuel, Pata Negra and Veneno is already involved in new projects.

As a producer, he has been dealing with flamenco artists all his life, but he has only spent four months as director of the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco. Yes, he seemed more like the janitor than the director. I proposed several things, but they told me no. And I was wondering what do I have to do? Be quiet and do nothing? It was very frustrating. I had a good salary, office ... but in my hunger I command, but he is not going to stay at home to enjoy his retirement. He has a project in mind with Rosalía, yes, I wanted to see her when he was director of the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco and came to Seville for the MTV gala. I spent an hour talking to her and she seemed to me a formidable artist. I was going to give her some lyrics by Carlos Lencero for Farruquito to sing and dance. Rosalía told me that she wanted to make a video with Farruquito, but the coronavirus arrived and everything was paralyzed. Let's see if we take it up again. Another of her plans is to give out her archive: unpublished flamenco in private parties. It is a unique archive in the world: Camarón, La Paquera, Fernanda, Bambino ... Even a party in El Rocío with Lola Flores, El Potito singing on Camarón's knees ... That party lasted two days and all the artists are in their sauce and relaxed. The essential of flamenco is improvisation and that is in the archive. I offered it to the Provincial Council and the Seville City Council, the Authors Society, the Lara Foundation, the current Andalusian Minister of Culture ... but nothing. Nobody is interested in the gypsy flamenco. It's sad, but it's like that. That two-day party in El Rocío had to be ... Camarón called me to pick him up, his wife and the children in La Línea. I took them to González de Caldas' house in El Rocío. We did, first, a donkey ride that I have recorded and then the party that lasts two days because on the second day more artists came. There was Lola Flores, La Negra, La Negra's daughter, El Capullo, Habichuela, Borrico's sister ... La Chispa didn't like the beds and Camarón told me that he had to take them back to La Línea. Imagine, return trip ... Phew. So, I took Camarón to drink a brandy and at the bar, he asked the bartender to empty a bottle of mineral water in half and put the brandy in. It turned white. And Camarón didn't want to leave anymore. We went back to the party and people said, 'Look, Camarón is drinking milk.' It was the bottle of mineral water and brandy that we brought from the bar. He produced an emblematic record of Camarón, 'La leyenda del tiempo'. Tell us some anecdote. Manuel was going to write the album, but he did not do it for some sheets. Camarón and La Chispa went to Lole and Manuel's house and at night, when they went to sleep, La Chispa took off the sheets Lole had put on her bed and placed theirs. Lole caught a tremendous piss and Camarón and La Chispa left the house. Finally, Manuel did not compose the album. At that time, the albums were recorded in four days, but for 'La Leyenda' they were locked up in the studio for a month. There the Chichos visited them ... That was in Madrid. Before, in Seville, Morente was ... Word spread that Camarón was doing a very strange thing and everyone wanted to see what it was. What was it about Camarón that made it so special? The aristocracy of the gypsies were the blacksmiths and his father was a blacksmith. Camarón was illiterate because he couldn't go to school as a child, but he was very intelligent; He was great, one of the cutest people I've ever met. Note that he was a better person than a singer. He has produced a hundred records, but you were a civil servant in the Seville Provincial Council. Yes, I was head of organization and method. I locked myself in and took out 'number 1' when I came back from Barcelona ruined with the Smash. The first thing they sent me to organize was the Miraflores psychiatric hospital, where we discovered that they were stealing medicines. From there I went to the provincial nursery. In his office at the Provincial Council, Silvio sang to him at the top of his lungs. Yes, Silvio sang there and the ordinances would break when they saw La Negra, Lole, Manuel arrive ... I started asking for permits to make the records. When I retired, they showed me my history of permits, casualties .... To be sitting in an office of the Provincial Council doing nothing, it was better to make a record for Fernanda de Utrera. He gave more to Seville, he also produced records for Lole and Manuel, yes, three. The album that has sold the most in Spain of everything I've done has been 'Nuevo día', by Lole and Manuel. He has not gotten rich with music. No, music and money, never. When I was in Venezuela they said: 'paid music doesn't sound', and that really stuck with me. I have made more than 100 records and I have not touched a single peseta. I have always worked with a person who has taken care of the money and I have never had a discussion with the artists about that matter. With Silvio there were money problems in Madrid. Yes, he came to the recording studio and drank a bottle of alcohol that it was to clean the discs. His face swelled, his elbows ... we had to call an ambulance and he went straight to the hospital. We recorded the album and made the songs with a reference voice that was later erased. On the last day, Silvio came and did it. But while we were recording, Silvio was recovering at the five-star Hotel Cuzco in Madrid. There, he woke up every day, asked for breakfast and gave the waiter 2,000 pesetas as a tip. It was the daily diet that the record company gave us. It was the 80s. That money is like now you give a waiter 100 euros as a tip. Afterward, he invited all his friends to champagne, ham, caviar, and threw parties in his hotel room. When we were leaving, the hotel manager came because there was a 112,000 pesetas account for Silvio's room. In five days. I called the director of the RCA label and there with the hotel manager in the lobby, he asked Silvio, but what have you done? And he replied: 'Look, I have recorded at his house because it is Elvis' and I will forgive him for not coming to pick me up from the airport with a pink Cadillac in exchange for paying this bill.' Everyone who was there had to laugh. He also produced the only Veneno album. It did not sell much. The brand of the house is that it sold little, except for Camarón, which did sell. Drugs played an important role in the music of that stage, just like in California. But then there was no heroin or cocaine. In the 1970s, they were the herb of Morocco and the LSD that came from the Rota, Morón and San Pablo military base in Seville. We were going to buy records from people who knew soldiers, like Pink Floyd's, who discovered it in Madrid 4 years later. The same as the records were bought, they gave us LSD. It was a messianic drug, cheap and always coming in handy. Years later things started to change. Yes, the problem came later, with heroin and cocaine; lysergic acid was not. These drugs and article 68 of the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia [on the exclusive powers of the Andalusian community in flamenco] are what will end flamenco. Would a tour like the one carried out 40 years ago by several musicians (Camarón, Kiko Veneno, Tabletom, Pata Negra, Silvio) be possible today in favor of yes in the referendum of the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia in which Escuredo took the stage with The musicians? No, because there are no longer 'hipis' and because Escuredo was a 'hipilón' president. During the concert, the Andalusian anthem was sung and the president came out to say a few words. In Almería, before some 20,000 people, Silvio took Escuredo by the waist and began to dance with him while the hymn was playing. There were moments of tension, the bodyguards approached, but we told them that nothing was wrong. When the hymn ended, I took Silvio and said 'but how did you come up with it?' He told me that they studied together at the French School and that Escuredo, who was taller, hit him there. "I have said to him: 'Let's see if you have balls to hit me now'. That was Silvio. And María Jiménez was the muse, your Marilyn. Yes, Silvio fell in love with her, but at that time she got together with Pepe Sancho. a concert in front of more than 15,000 people, she took it when she was singing to ask about her boyfriend. The 'manager' intervened, but then Maria burst out laughing.

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