Why 1980s pop and rock bands are playing more than ever | Culture

Many of the concert posters that adorn the walls of any city or town in Spain this summer can be misleading: are we in 2024… or 1989? The names of La Frontera, La Guardia, Los Rebeldes, Cómplices, Rafa Sánchez (former vocalist of La Unión), Seguridad Social, Tam Tam Go!, Tennessee and many other groups that started in the eighties or early nineties are ubiquitous. Mind you: we are not talking about Los Secretos or Hombres G, whose live appeal never waned (although David Summers’ quartet, remember, ceased its activity between 1993 and 2002). No; these are the bands that were always one step below in the popularity ladder, many of which went through an unpleasant journey through the desert and who now, for a few years now, have their concert agendas fuller than ever.

Literally: in 2022, the Granada-based La Guardia gave 150 concerts throughout the country (one every 2.4 days), thus shattering their own record of 121 gigs set in 1989. This year they hope to equal the figure reached 25 years ago, when they were at the top of their game. It has not always been like this. Like other groups of their generation, La Guardia retired; it happened in 1997. Their leader, Manuel España, formed another group, Chamaco, with which he recorded two albums. But by popular acclaim (and this is not a cliché), La Guardia returned in the middle of the following decade to offer an increasing number of concerts that has culminated in the striking record.

Manuel España, 58, admits that if they took a step back at some point it was because they felt that their music had ceased to be of interest. “People were focused on the indiethe new flamenco, tropical rhythms, the acid house…And it seemed that those of us who were veterans and played more classic rock were looked down upon. There was a bit of ageism, even though we were super young. But we felt discriminated against by the radio, the press… Even though we had sold millions of records, if the public and the media aren’t up for it, it’s best to stop.” When the audience asked him to play La Guardia classics at concerts with Chamaco, the singer and composer thought it was time to come back.

This renewed boom in older bands is surprising (or not) because it coincides with a time when Latin urban music artists and pop soloists are supposed to be taking over the top spots in the charts and attracting the attention of younger audiences, to the detriment of groups. It could be concluded from this that the time of guitar, bass and drum bands has passed; even more so for those that started four decades ago. However, the opposite is true. The half-dozen hits that each one has in their backpack — a lot of baggage, if we compare it with the fleeting impact of current stars — is enough for their presence to be insistently demanded in municipal tents, medium-capacity venues, specialized festivals and private events. The audience wants to hear When the sun shines, The limit and Mediterraneanand has a great time singing and dancing to those and other songs that were released in the eighties.

With the exception of OBK, which in its current solo format (the singer Jordi Sánchez) doesn’t have a week off, the others are timeless pop-rock groups. “In the last few decades, there have been a lot of fashions and styles,” says Manuel España, “but groups like us, who were never in fashion, are still there. La Guardia continues to play with valve amplifiers, monitors… I think people value that a lot: that we are not a product, but that we follow our path.”

Healthy camaraderie

These long-standing bands have left old rivalries behind and, by dint of sharing the bill, they now get along famously. It is common for contemporaries to appear as guests at concerts of one or the other. On November 25, 2023, La Guardia celebrated its 40 years in music with a concert at La Sala del WiZink Center in Madrid, with the presence of David Summers, Javier Andreu (La Frontera), Carlos Segarra (Los Rebeldes) and Efecto Mariposa on stage. On May 18, Javier Andreu, Carlos Goñi and Ariel Rot played at Jaime Urrutia’s concert in Madrid; a month later, on June 13, Urrutia returned the favor to Andreu by appearing, together with Coque Malla, at the La Frontera singer’s concert in the capital. This healthy camaraderie is an added incentive for the public. “We try to entertain people,” says Javier Andreu, 61. “How? By collaborating with each other. We belong to a great generation, and people are not stupid. That is why the boom has occurred.”

Perhaps the best example of this camaraderie is the Rock & Roll Star festival, which was invented in July 2013 (11 years ago) by the Granada businessman David Camacho, director of Diagonal Producciones, and which is still going strong. Over the course of an hour and a half, Manuel España, Javier Andreu and Javier Ojeda sing the most popular songs by La Guardia, La Frontera and Danza Invisible backed by a backing band (La Guardia). “The audience for these bands is similar,” says Camacho, 52 years old. “You may like one or the other more, but none of them will bother you. The big hits are always big hits. That is why we decided to focus on six or seven singles of each group, and offer it all concentrated, with the original voices and a solid band. This creates healthy competition and, at the same time, shows that unity is strength. The audience receives three for the price of one. What we do is unify truths.”

A similar repertoire is offered by tribute bands that have recently been making money by exploiting a delicious menu of greatest hits from the eighties and nineties, alternating in the same concert songs by Hombres G, Los Secretos or Revólver. Contrary to what might be expected, the proliferation of these groups has not only not harmed those being honoured, but the proven interest in songs from yesteryear leaves room for both. “We find it shocking that there are tribute bands to active groups” says España, “because people want to see the original.”

More pyrotechnic are festivals such as the one held on April 26 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid (Locos por la Música) and which brought together Seguridad Social, Modestia Aparte, OBK, Rafa Sánchez, Cómplices, Amistades Peligrosas, Los Rebeldes, La Guardia and Javier Andreu, among others (it was not full, but around 25,000 tickets were sold.) Or the nautical Locos por el Mediterráneo, which in its 2024 edition (from October 6 to 13) announces performances, aboard the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, by Rafa Sánchez, Jaime Urrutia, Amistades Peligrosas, Tennessee, La Trampa, Javier Ojeda, Javier Andreu and several more.

From the parties remember of the dance to the revival of pop

This nostalgic trend had a notable precedent in the electronic music scene. Back in 2002, DJ Nano created the show Old gold, of marked air remember: To this day, he continues to rescue dance songs from previous decades under this heading. Precisely from the music dance The Love the 90s festival, organised by the promoter Sharemusic!, was launched in Madrid on 22 June 2024. It hosted the ever-present Cómplices, Carlos Segarra, OBK, Amistades Peligrosas, Rafa Sánchez, Modestia Aparte, as well as Nacha Pop, Alejo Stivel and others in a space dedicated to pop and rock. “In the eighties,” explains its CEO, Felipe Menéndez, “people were very niche: either you liked pop, or rock, punk or dance music. With the arrival of social media, that changes. That’s why we decided to add a pop stage to the electronic music stage.”

In his concerts, both solo and with La Frontera, Javier Andreu gets straight to the point. He admits that in the past, when his group released a new album, the audience was initially cold-hearted about songs they didn’t yet know. “What I do now is play the most well-known ones,” he says. Even so, Andreu has not stopped composing, and in 2023 he released a solo album entitled The man who went out too much. Almost simultaneously, a documentary film about his life was released, entitled The worst hero of the Wild West, Directed by Juan Moya and featuring performances by Javier Ojeda, Coque Malla, Carlos Segarra and Jorge Martínez (Ilegales), among others.

Andreu believes that what wiped them off the map was that first batch of music indie of the mid-nineties, made up of groups that sang in English. And he relates the debatable decline of that movement with the resurgence of traditional pop-rock. “There came a point where people got tired of listening to songs in English, which makes no sense in this country. The groups indies They don’t know how to make songs in Spanish. It’s just that it’s very difficult. But to listen to a band indie“I listen to the Sex Pistols or The Who. We and other groups write really good lyrics in Spanish, and we beat them a thousand times,” he says.

However, in his opinion, this is not the only reason: “The industry does not allow new bands to emerge, since records are not sold, so multinationals dedicate themselves to recruiting solo artists to live off them by taking a part of the fee from each gig. Rock has completely disappeared: nobody helps emerging bands, neither pop, nor rock, nor heavy. Since there is no replacement, people remember us and our songs and want to go see us live.”

It is inevitable to appeal to a generational reason. The public that grew up with these bands, and who are therefore now around 60, in a period of job stability, with the house paid for and their twenty-something children out of the nest, have recovered the habit of going out, and they do so by attending concerts as in their youth. “There was a time when indie music displaced everything that was there,” explains David Camacho. “And although it is good that the music is refreshing, over time the public has returned to the groups that were the soundtrack of their life. For almost everyone, the period from 15 to 25 years old is the golden age. People tell us that these songs even bring them aromas, sensations. With many of them there have been marriage proposals, news that they were going to be parents for the first time… They take them to places where they have been happy.”

The argument alone would be enough to understand this phenomenon, if it weren’t for the fact that young people also attend their concerts. Some of them show up in the dressing rooms with vinyl records bought in collector’s shops. “There are interesting new bands,” says España, “although there aren’t many young people doing what we do. And the public really appreciates the fact that what happens on stage is real: that there are guys playing, that there is no pre-recorded music, that we can make mistakes at any moment or start improvising… It’s a plus that they don’t see in other types of shows.” As Javier Andreu points out: “There are eight or nine-year-old children sitting on the floor; behind them, the parents, the grandparents… We already have three generations at the concerts. It’s wonderful. We’re in one of our best moments.”