Article published in a supplement to El Mundo de Andalucía dedicated to Torremolinos. At this stage nostalgic, I get it back, which took several months to attack Torremolinos saudade, a term that seems inappropriate, but they will not be exclusively those that come shady sites.
The first time I realized that people came from a village that was not normal was at 13 years. That summer my parents had sent to Oxford with my (still) friend the soul, Juan Pablo Rodriguez, to see the world and do as he learned English. We were in the square of Carfax, making bricks tetra bottle with cranberry juice and chatted in English with a group of English children who had gone to spend a month in the British city where we do not speak a word of English. Suddenly there was silence in the square. Oscar de Juan, a guy from Madrid, a couple of years older than us put a face of terror that I turned the head with a chill in the back. I looked and there it was: a punk with green crest, tartan pants, his jersey torn and his boots Dr. Martens. I kept watching to see what happened and I realized that all the punk looked as if they had seen the devil himself.
At that moment I realized. Oscar de Juan, the spunky, the smartass, Madrid (which for us as a people, was like being an upper caste) was afraid of a punk. Moreover, he had never seen a punk. But Julia and I were tired of seeing them. For San Miguel Street, by the passage Pizarro, in Hardy's door ... Torremolinos, from 78, had become a place where punks not that they were as normal in the world, but we were familiar. By the reaction of the rest of the guys I realized that this was something exceptional and then, over the years, I discovered actually, in Torremolinos had the privilege to learn of the art, the latest trends before anyone else the rest of Spain.
Two years after that, at 82, the teenagers of Torremolinos we went to the afternoon session of Piper's normal and there was also music pachanguera usual, there was an hour devoted to something like music subcultures. I do not think in any mainstream club the rest of Spain could be heard a song by The Jam, one Yahoo, one of Depeche Mode or the Who. But Piper's, for one hour itself, and there we jumped on the track that we had way to being the rare class, dance music that made us feel different. At that time, reached us magazines such as Melody Maker or the New Musical Express. In Night and Day and kiosks to the Plaza de Andalucía, was easier to find these publications that the Rock de Luxe or years before the vibration. It was no accident that most Málaga groups clearly had an impact as Anglo-Saxon, from Roxy Music for Mishima Generation Yazoo in the Requiem, to Bowie at Conde or Simple Minds in the Invisible Dance . We had more influence of groups that appeared in London of which arose in Madrid, including the Movida. But also our friends in the summer, these British, Canadians or Americans who came to "Torroles" a holiday albums that brought us here was impossible to find. The new Durruti Column, Siouxie's latest single, double LP of This Mortal Coil ...
But this had already happened before, it was not new. A late 50's the same Timothy Leary (guru of the psychedelic movement) and bars like The Carihuela fat pussy cat, Pedro's, in the center or the famous Tiffany's nightclub were places where the hippies were moving freely. That was something that had not happened anywhere else in Spain, Ibiza and Formentera except as José Luis Cabrera explained beautifully and Lutz Petry torremolinoschic.es on its website, which the council must dedicate a street or, at least one statue (total, one more, what will it cost?) in San Miguel street.
In the 80, two of the nerve centers showing that Torremolinos was Different, and "cutting edge" (a word that is used a lot then), it was Disney and the moon. Recalábamos there more or less the same people. These two premises and Bier Keller (closer to rock and roll hippie faithful to the spirit of its beginnings) formed the underground youth center, almost adolescent (some more than others), we met to see who knew more about this group or this writer to complain about how boring it was Torremolinos and how great it would be to live in London ... as if one, in London, is crossed every day with Vivien Westwood and beyond to tea every afternoon to the house of Hanif Kureishi.
When, at 85, I came to Madrid, which we felt as close to London at the time, and visited the facilities of La Movida, as the Milky Way or the Pentagram, I realized that was not bad. That Disney or The Moon music sounded much more interesting and avant-garde that people were much more dull than any of my friends Torroles.
In that time we did not realize, but the truth is that Torremolinos gave us access to such training in underground subculture that has served us for many to move through life. Group of Disney, we did fanzines as Altered Images and Boulevard, for which we fought the first to hear the new album by Siouxsie and the Banshees, musicians have come out with unquestionable talent, graphic designers, illustrators, writers, music critics, designers, disc jockeys, essayists, journalists or media celebrities. Well, can not be said to be professions "for profit", but that was it.
