Kaddish - The Metamorphosis

Continued from blog 4 - From Kafka to Kaddish...

...Although we were not called Kafka anymore the real Metamorphosis happened when we changed name to Kaddish. We gradually shifted from a dark, somber, teenage angst mid-80's crisis into a colourful rhythmic drum samba festival without loosing the beautiful melancholic guitars and powerful lyrics. We carefully joined our British Indie influences with our Brazilian heritage bringing a fresh face to the Brazilian 80's Rock scene and creating perhaps what was to be the first Brazilian Indie band, style only followed later by several bands in the mid to late 90's. The inspiration came from watching a Gig from Sombras que Surgem a Band from the Rio Suburbs that used funk and soul mixed with the rock approach from the time, Tayo and Brent went to watch their gig and were inspired by the idea, which was already coming through our music anyway, through songs like Botswana but flourished in a more evident way in songs like Umbaneme or Sarabande. For a short period of time we included a sixth member in the Group, Julio, who played percussion, but he only attended rehearsals and didn't make it to any gigs.

In our Gigs we opted for dropping the songs that represented this darker side such as Nada de Novo no Front and Procissão, although the latter was always included in an encore by Max's request, and kept songs like Botswana, Tres Mulheres and Cleopatra Morreu added to the new songs: Rio Sightseeing, second lyrics in English by Brent, Sarabande, Magda K, Umbaneme, Forro da Pafunça, Narjimara's Dance, Lady McBeth, Joly Rodger, Mosaicos e Laminas and a cover version of Eleanor Rigby from The Beatles.

Most of these titles will be recognizable as Loosh songs as they have been recycled into new versions, although some of them sound completely different perhaps for having female vocals to start with. For some of them we took the songs and added English lyrics to or joined two songs together. We even took songs from Kafka times like Procissão and made it into a completely different rhythm and style altogether.

Kaddish shared the stage with many bands of the time, we all became friends and gladly shared our sound equipment with artists who were gifted and produced excellent original music, a very powerful scene. Had we perhaps the technology available nowadays to produce good quality home recordings many of these gems wouldn't have been lost. Most of these artists we still keep contact with, some of them are still making music like us, some others have followed other paths. Saara Saara, Sombras que Surgem, Eterno Grito, Big Trep, Kazbah, Kongo, Black Future and Picassos Falsos. We also loved many other bands of the time such as Felini, Hojerizah, Violeta de Outono and Finis Africa.

As Kaddish we diversified venues to include beach resorts, suburbs, theatres and even opened to a signed band with the help of Adriana Ramos who worked in the music business at the time. We had also great help from Journalists and friends Pedro So and Claudio Menezes, the eternal help from Soter França for our visual work, our roadies Johnny Carlos and Tom Hieatt and apart from the growing following, friends who always followed one and every gig of ours Zaba, Jan, Guru, Pedro, Fred, Gledson, Mura, Cristina and Soter.

In the midst of all the fun and music three accidents tinged our history, a car crash returning from one of our gigs at the Robin Hood Pub, when luckily no one was hurt, one of our best fans damaged her finger in a broken window staying at a Beach resort in-between gigs and our drummer Sergio was run over in the summer of 1988 breaking his femur in several places requiring months and several operations until his full recovery. It was a big shock, Sergio was in a lot of pain and we had no idea if he would be able to recover fully at all. I moved in to his place to help out and our friend Claudio Menezes stepped in during his lunch time too but the accident meant we could not rehearse or gig for months.

We were in a roll of gigs and happenings that such a forceful break allied to a terrible political and economical crisis in the Country, not to mention ongoing strikes, not only in public services but also in our Universities prompted us to an even greater metamorphosis indeed...

...to be continued

The gigs played by Kaddish were:

Maison Disco (Cabo Frio) - 11/07/87 (Gig Cancelled as the other band playing refused to lend us their drum kit)
25's Disco (Duque de Caxias) - 12/07/87

Sociedade Musical Santa Helena (Cabo Frio) - I Vila Fest Music as guest band for a beach

Summer Festival 26/07/87

Robin Hood Pub (Tijuca) - with the bands Kazbah and Saara Saara 30/08/87

Teatro MPB4 DCE da UFF (Niteroi) - De volta ao Presente Project with the band Eterno Grito

19/09/87

Double Dose (Ipanema) - with the band Kazbah 24/09/87

Botanic (Jardim Botanico) - Prisioneiros do Kazbah with the band Kazbah 27/09/87

Mariuzinn (Copacabana) 23/10/87

Mistura Fina (Barra da Tijuca) - 14/11/87 - Gig cancelled due to electrical fault

Embaixada de Venus (Niteroi) - 21/11/87

Embaixada de Venus (Niteroi) - with the band Big Trep 05/12/87

Mariuzinn (Copacabana) - with the band Big Trep 11/12/87

Mariuzinn (Copacabana) - with the band Sombras que Surgem 12/12/87

Circo Voador (Lapa) - with the band Nero, opening for the band Picassos Falsos

19/12/87

Crepusculo de Cubatão (Copacabana) - Xmas Party with the band Big Trep 24/12/87
IBEU Theatre (Tijuca) - 25/03/88

Funk Club (Duque de Caxias) - 30/03/88

Funk Club (Xerem) - 01/04/88
Suburban Dreams (Tijuca) - 26/05/88 - Gig cancelled due to venue closing for security reasons

Robin Hood Pub (Tijuca) - 27/05/88

Crepusculo de Cubatão (Copacabana) - Festa da Infidelidade with the band Kongo 12/06/88

DCE da UFF (Niteroi) - 26/08/88

Piteu Bar (Barra da Tijuca) - 02/09/88

Piteu Bar (Barra da Tijuca) - 03/09/88

Teatro de Bolso Aurimar Rocha (Leblon) - 09/09/88

Teatro de Bolso Aurimar Rocha (Leblon) - 10/09/88

Pictures - 1 and 5 - (In Newspaper cut) Adriana Ramos, 2, 3, 4 and 7 - Murilo Teixeira