...Towards the end of the winter of 1988 (don't forget our seasons in Brazil are the opposite from the North Hemisphere) after having played a number of gigs, given interviews, appeared in the media and worked hard on establishing ourselves as a real Brazilian Rock band, instead of merely a band who sang Rock in Portuguese, our drummer Sergio was hospitalized with a broken leg after being run over.
The social-economic situation in Brazil at the time was of a similar stagnation. Brazil had had an economic boom from 1968 to 1973 with an artificial growth injected by foreign capital and now was suffering with the huge amount of debt accumulated. This huge debt was imposed back on society in the form of taxes and the escalating cost of living. The 60's and 70's were also marked by lack of freedom of speech for artists, musicians and all sectors, in 1984, as I started University at the tenure age of 16 I went on the streets of Rio asking for "Diretas Ja" or to vote directly for a President instead of having a President automatically elected by a military right wing electoral College. Perhaps our desire to be a truly Brazilian Rock band came from the growing Nationalist feeling of wanting to have our own Country back from years of extreme right wing governments, oppression, torture and terror.In 1985, even if not directly elected by the public, Brazil had a Non-Military President for the first time in 20 years, who, unfortunately, or as many argue, "on purpose", died only a few months after being elected. His vice-president and successor had our Constitution re-written and in 1988 it erased the atrocities and terror of the Military Dictatorship, if such a thing can be erased from people's memories. A new era of uncensored material invaded the market and Rock bands in particular, saw a boom in the early to mid 80's. Bands like Legião Urbana, Paralamas do Sucesso or RPM sold millions of records and record companies accustomed to such fashion expected no less from the next generation of bands which we were a part of. With the growing recession however, people were buying not only less records but everything else less and less meaning the next generation of signed bands like Hojerizah or Picassos Falsos did not reach the millions mark like its predecessors.
More and more new bands were being signed and dropped like flies by record companies just so that they received fiscal benefits. Their work soon after recording could be seen being given away in charity shops, records without any promotion or marketing, most of them represented the work of amazing artists lost in a sea of economic debt and neglect.
We did not want to see our hard work feature in a bargain bin of a second hand shop. There were less and less venues offering their space for gigs as people were not able to afford going out anymore, more and more young people were resorting to just meeting up at private parties at each other houses on the weekend or going to the beach, free entertainment, instead of paying to see bands, ballets, musical concerts or watching plays. It seemed we had pretty much exhausted our options without ever being able to really enjoy them, born at the wrong place at the wrong time?
I am not sure if it was the wrong place, or we wouldn't be what we are as artists, but I feel very tempted to say the wrong time. In such times when your trees have no fruits you turn to your neighbour's garden whose grass is supposedly greener so we naturally turned our eyes to where we always had had our eyes on: Britain.
Our singer Brent was born in Brazil from British Parents, we had all studied English at English schools, as opposed to American schools, which were more popular among Brazilians, and we mostly enjoyed the work of bands coming from Britain, as at the time we were regulars at clubs and bars owned and frequented by the British community in Brazil, one of them, Crepusculo de Cubatão, allegedly co-owed by Ronald Biggs, where all English bands who played in Brazil wanted to get their after-gig refreshments from, in the hope of meeting up with the legendary figure. Jumping in this wagon I had the chance of having late evening talks with my idols from Echo and the Bunnymen, Simply Red and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
What was at first considered to be a crazy idea started taking shape and as Summer came upon us we had decided that we were to follow the footsteps of Brazilian artists in the 70's, we would also leave the Country although this time not forced but by our own accord, we were not trying to save our lives but our work from oblivion...
To be continued...
Pictures - 1 Murilo Teixeira, 2 - Unknown
No comments:
Post a Comment