El Vaquilla freaked out when he met Jero.
The Chichos went to visit him in the Ocaña prison.
It was the early 80s and Jero had written the soundtrack for the film in just one week.
The letrillas, the soniquete and the color of the songs outlined the profile of the delinquent that caused the birth of a genre.
They made a hyper-realistic portrait of that gypsy pirate.
"
Alegre bandolero"
, hums Julio González Gabarre placing his hands on an imaginary guitar.
He remembers that day, when the three of them, the premium version of Los Chichos, raised the country's recording industry by hand (24 million records and cassettes sold).
José Antonio de la Loma, the director of
Yo, el vaquilla
, did not give credit either.
"'What a coconut you have, Jeros,' said El Vaquilla. 'What a coconut'"
.
The conversation is stopped in front of the viewpoint that is the memory of the myth.
The composer of the group swept away his songs in a predictable panorama.
"They asked him for two songs and he presented four. Each one better.
Free
,
no more less
. You can't leave here without signing, they were told," recalls Eduardo Guervos, the manager who has spent four decades enrolled with the Entrevías boys Let
's see what happened, Fonogram, the record company, released 30,000 records.
Sold out in a week
". At the time, at the production company's headquarters, "on Avenida de América, we were in the patio, they told us that we had sold seven million," adds Emilio González Gabarre. "Los Chichos?
they asked around there", Julio puts in his voice now. "'Yes, yes, Los Chichos have sold seven million.'
Well, we need the trophies, I said.
Then we had a gala at the Siddharta nightclub [on Calle Serrano].
There they brought us three wheelbarrows of gold and platinum records that we had accumulated in seven years."
The smoke from his cigarette, the white turtleneck sweater and the fluorescent light in his living room make Julio a neighborhood Morpheus.
He puts out the cigarette on the ground.
He steps on it with his heel.
He drinks water.
He keeps the pulse of the fast years while the others are more or less diplomatic.
Julio has the reprisal of the legend, when interviewing Los Chichos was sitting in front of the Rolling Stones cañís.
Next to them they all look like toads
.
This Saturday they begin in El Escorial the tour
So far we have arrived
, the last tour of Los Chichos, who celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2023.
"
We wanted to finish it off. The record company is going to release the entire Los Chichos discography on vinyl, for collectors
. Moncho Chavea is also going to produce an album of duets for us. We are going to change a little bit of style. We are going to sing with Moncho Chavea , Omar Montes...", offers the context to Emilio Jr., the third bicho boy to complete the group that emerged in a room in Vigo.
"We went to sing all week and on the third day the place burned. But not with us inside," adds his father.
All the torrent of current urban music has its original source on Carburo street.
"The neighborhood was destroyed. They were shacks. To get out of here as it is today, you had to put on boots."
Behind Julio hang some trophies.
"
Gold, platinum and everything records. This is neither bought nor sold: it is earned
. We made music that had never been known before. In lyrics, arrangements. We sang from the town for the town. Whoever listened to our music he was hooked. We recorded 10 songs and they were all worth it. Alejandro Sanz is Alejandro Sanz, a monster, but Alejandro Sanz did a couple of songs and the rest were filler.
We went on to the annals. The others have sucked on us
".
This generation of artists talks about galas and not bowling.
"For ten, Los Chichos made 220 galas a year," says Guervos.
"In a month 31 and a double".
At night they folded the map driving as best they could.
"We were half asleep. One day the Civil Guard stopped me, two older men, and they asked me 'do you know what you have done?
You have advanced on a ramp and with a continuous line. You have eaten all the code'
", Julio says.
"Then I appeared," jumps the manager.
"He always carried a briefcase with records and cassettes. It was our safe-conduct. We said 'we are Los Chichos' and they didn't fine us. We ended up having coffee with them, right?" Julio asks.
Although Julio has new lyrics written, Los Chichos secure their concerts.
"I don't think we'll make another record."
The last one is from 2008. "There is no time anymore. I have someone interested in those lyrics. I did an interview with him in the same studio where we recorded
Ladrón de amores
.
I also sent him a video so he could see that I have the voice of 20 years ago
Things go slowly. It's a project that's there to bring it to life.
"
It's pouring down, the TV is on mute, a girl greets the gathering, Emilio begins to summarize: "Paco de Lucía was on the guitar. Camarón, in flamenco.
And Los Chichos, the kings of rumba.
Our audience is intergenerational, It has been passed down from father to son."
Julio brings his face closer to the mobile: "A very affectionate greeting to Joaquín Sabina."
The manager claims that Sabina has only produced one album.
"A live album by Los Chichos".
And this is what there is
, recorded in the Jácara room.
Journalism is there to destroy myths, but sometimes it is also there to implant them: a quick search on Google does not clear up the doubts.
"In the scoundrel, in the urban, he identified a lot. We closed the production at five or six in the morning, very drunk, in a hotel in Tenerife."
Have you ever felt that you were treated badly for being gypsies?
"Racism? If the gypsies give joy".
-Dani Martín covered
A two friends
and destroyed it.
-The music has to be
original
.
Who can imitate, for example, Armando Manzanero?
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Alejandro Sanz
Civil Guard