Mecano's first album turns 40: "At first, the record company rejected them because of their 'poor air'. They wanted beautiful people. 'What an asshole"

The best sets in history always had a lot of chance

, caprice, that gust of wind on any given day, a stroke of fate.

Let's put Maradona's hand of God, Christopher Columbus reaching the island of Guanahaní by a bad Atlantic current 500 years ago now, Lennon and Mcartney crossing paths in the church of St. Peter in Liverpool that silly summer Sunday.

And so,

.

The ground floor, because it was in a slum in the underground galleries of Calle Orense where Ana and José María, the Cano's older brother, met for the first time.

And the cambalache, because of all the girls in the group who entered there that night,

.

But at those times and ages, love has no laws or borders, and it was Ana who took the spoils.

, perhaps a childish smoke and beer that lasted as long as it took for winter to arrive.

A seedy bar, a 'what is a girl like you doing in a place like this', a 'I want to be a singer'... What nonsense.

.

The calendar, which never fails, sends us an event like a chill, like a puff at point-blank range, like a gold and diamond clínex;

.

Four decades - half the life of an average Spaniard according to the National Institute of Statistics - from the starting gun to the greatest musical phenomenon in the history of Spain.

.

Dead Franco, Madrid was the laboratory of the Movida, an

with no way out, a city where

from New York.

Including the Cano brothers, more would be missing.

What happened between 1979 and 1981, the date of the signing of his first record contract, was a coming and going of demos, slamming doors,

(in the building where José María and Nacho lived with their parents), from the stubbornness of his great mentor, Miguel Ángel Arenas, alias Capi.

We heard him: «I worked for the Hispavox record company as a talent scout.

I had to locate all those young people who formed emerging musical groups in places like Penta de Malasaña, photograph them with my camera and record demos for them.

And then I reported to my bosses.

Someone called me and asked me for an appointment with a singer-songwriter named José María Cano, who would come to teach me his songs on a Friday afternoon.

The singer-songwriter thing didn't sound modern at all, but I had to justify my salary so I accepted.

He arrived late, very nervous, accompanied by a shy girl with long curly hair and a very young boy, petite and beardless, with a guitar bigger than him,

who turned out to be his little brother.

I received them in the meeting room of Hispavox [Torrelaguna street, very close to Avenida de América] to impress them, which was full of gold and platinum records.

, which, however, in full swing of the Movida they did not take anything, and I proposed that his brother and the girl accompany him.

I was amazed: Nacho's arrangements, Ana's voice with that unique and special color...

.

And I don't know if that suited José María, but the following month I received a call from Nacho and he said yes to the idea of ​​forming a group, that they had some songs and wanted to record a demo with me.

».

Mecano, with the then Prince Felipe.SONY

That story, however, has many edges, back and forth versions

, memories that have taken on different tones over the years, decades, decades.

"At first, José Luis Gil, the president of Hispavox, did not like Mecano," explains Capi.

«There was Los Pegamoides, for example, who had such a revolutionary image.

.

Gil went so far as to say that Mecano were not handsome and had 'poor pores', poor looks, when Ana's grandfather was a marquis [because of his work in Civil Engineering] and the Canos had studied at Our Lady of Memory, of the Jesuits, some of the best schools in Spain.

What a bullshit». Capi goes even further:

."

To summarize: they were wrong.

With all the elements against it, Ana José María and Nacho recorded first one song, then another, and then another.

,

,

.

from him in order to send them to radio stations and give a promotion push.

And suddenly the miracle happened, if miracles exist.

.

.

Name?

, exactly the same as the name of the group.

"The name was given by Aurelio González, from CBS, and I," explains Capi.

The cover was made by designer Juan Gatti, author of much of the group's visual iconography.

For the first time,

.

Rivers and rivers of ink have been written on that cover and that hour -prophecy, mysticism, mathematics?-.

Finally we unveil the mystery: Gatti tells us: «

.

Mark ten minutes to ten because it is the time that clocks usually have in advertisements.

With that position of the needles, the marks are in the middle”.

Javier Adrados is perhaps the person who best knows the ins and outs of Mecano.

A personal friend of Nacho and Ana today, he recites like an imperturbable minstrel the important dates, the days of glory and tragedy, his very first time, like an epiphany: «I listened

.

And shortly after, curiously also in my room, in Moradillo de Roa (Burgos), I saw a photo of him in the magazine

.

And then there was Ana's voice, so feminine but singing masculine.

That won me over."

Since then he did not want to miss any of his concerts.

And it was

in Las Rozas (Madrid) when

.

Javier Adrados, 'mechano addict' and marketing expert.ÁNGEL NAVARRETE

Self-taught, Adrados has collaborated with multinationals in the sector, which has led him to work with Raphael, Ana Belén, El Canto del Loco, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Amaral and, of course, Ana Torroja herself.

He is the author, among many other books, of the incunable

, an authentic jewel already discontinued for which authentic fortunes are paid today.

But without a doubt,

, the ambitious project in which his admired and also his friend, Nacho Cano, is immersed.

The memory of Adrados is the living newspaper library of the 10 years that Mecano lasted until its separation in 1992. It travels like a time machine until

.

“Everyone was there, even Enrique Tierno Galván, the mayor of Madrid,” he says.

And that was just the beginning.

was presented at the mythical disco OH!, which no longer exists,

.

And for the coming-out of

they set up another soiree at the house of the Cano parents in Somosaguas... «If you were someone, you had to be there.

And even the Berlangas, the McNamaras ended up surrendered to their success.

-Why did Mecano never enter that circle of La Movida?

For Adrados, Ana, José and Nacho triumphed "without having to play at Rock-Ola".

.

The never seen in the standards of the 80s. And the press began to take note.

A chronicle from that time read: “Would any of you like to marry your little daughter to a member of Tequila?

No, too golfers.

With a Pegamoid?

No, by God, too rare.

With a Meccano?

Well, the way things are, surely it wouldn't be bad.

For Adrados, the posh fame that always accompanied Mecano does not hold up: «Carlos Berlanga was the son of the great film director, Nacho Canut came from a very good family...».

: «Mecano had such an early success that they led a very methodical life».

Let this anecdote serve to explain that bubble: sometimes

, and if ever, after a concert, the boys went out for a drink (60 dudes on the most massive tours) she always stayed alone at the hotel.

This warrior discipline was essential in a tour schedule from hell

.

"They had a huge team of cooks for the whole team, bunks to sleep on the bus, and even a built-in gym," Adrados recalls.

From that time, how can we forget

.

Adrados remembers the date like a psalm: "September 4, 1988."

.

«Although the most massive recital they ever gave was the following year at the Casa de Campo climbing wall.

65,000 people, since 20,000 were left out.

».

Ana, José and Nacho, with their unmistakable aesthetics.EM

With these crowds, Mecano also had to deal with the wild side of fame.

Like when

and, immediately afterwards, the TVE Newscast echoed his death.

from him.

"If she had been a lesbian, of course she would have said so," she explains.

«I am not, but I loved that they said it, because while they talked about it they did not discover my boyfriends».

In 1992, Ana, José María and Nacho decide to take a break which, however, marks the definitive dissolution of the group (except for a brief reunion in '98 in the form of a compilation and three new songs).

.

"They would have to have a song at the level of the old ones," recognizes the music journalist José Ramón Pardo.

And the style has changed.

What would they do?

Reggaeton?

What are they going to come back for?

To earn money they don't need?

Adrados goes one step further:

.

For example, in Cristóbal Bordiú, his first rehearsal corner at the house of both brothers, to fulfill that lyric from one of his songs:

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