The 7 luckiest moments in our history in no particular order

After the 13 unluckiest moments now the 7 luckiest ones, not that we had more unlucky ones but just to keep in with the tradition of the numbers, after all we love the number 7!

1 - It has to be to start with the day Tayo came to visit us in our flat in Niteroi and the whole musical adventure started

2 - Our first Gig, seeing all the familiar and unfamiliar faces watching us, listening to our songs and applauding our work, a very unforgettable feeling

3 - When our song "Primeira Pessoa" was played for the first time in a mainstream radio from Rio without our knowledge and caught unexpected on the car radio

4 - The rehearsal when the boys had the idea of making a mixture of Brazilian and Indie, the style that still remains with us today

5 - Our Gig at "Circo Voador" in Rio opening for a signed bigger band, Picassos Falsos, which counted with 1.500 people. Our songs were very well received

6 - Our Gig at the Fulham Greyhound in London, a really cult place at the time, also a great reception

7 - Rough Trade Records, one of our favourites having an interest in us, even if their financial difficulties at the time didn't allow for us to be signed, it was the recognition that we were good (and weird) enough for them that was priceless

The 13 Most Unlucky Moments in our History in no particular order

1 – We did an awful lot of work to promote a 3 day gig for 6 new bands at the UFF Student Union in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, and the day we played it rained cats and dogs, the streets were flooded and 3 people showed up for the gig. Still it was great to share the stage with our friends from Eterno Grito.

2 – When leaving the Robin Hood Pub, in Rio de Janeiro, after a gig, under loads of rain, the road was slippery and the guys crashed their car. They had to wait for hours for help and ended up having to walk miles soaking wet but thankfully no one was seriously hurt!

3 – After three successful gigs at the Rock Garden in London Paulo decided to go see the Manager to request a weekend date. The Manager answered he was sorry but the weekend was for Indie music only. Paulo said that we were Indie to which the Manager replied: "Yeah right, you and Carmen Miranda!"

4 – We decided to have a drink after our rehearsal in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. When we came back we found someone had broken into our car. We could actually see the thieves as they run away carrying our keyboards. All the sounds I used for the songs were programmed by myself so none of the songs sounded the same again.

5 – We went on stage at a piano bar in Rio and there were 2 people for an audience, not counting the waiters of course. Tayo was drunk and insisted on playing the piano. Paulo just wanted the set to end. Incredibly enough one of the two people we had never seen before. Years later this person bumped into Brent in the street and mentioned he really enjoyed the gig!

6 – After finishing the sound check for a gig in Rio, Paulo popped out for a drink and found Herbert Viana in the queue at the venue ticket box set. He was a famous Brazilian front man to a Brazilian band called Paralamas do Sucesso who were also embarking in the same Brazilian rock style we were at the time and it would be a great promotion for us if a more famous musician enjoyed our work. Paulo spent the whole night looking for him amongst the faces in the public but he didn't think he was in.

7 – We got on stage at a funk club in the suburbs of Rio. The place was packed but the crowd was motionless as soon as we started playing, as they realised we did not play “reggaeton”. I think out of a full club there were two people clapping at the end with the rest of the crowd eyeing them in anger, I feared for my life honestly!

8 - Sergio got run over and broke his femur in 3 different places requiring several operations in 1988.

9 - Rough Trade Records got interested in our work just before it went bankrupt in 1991.

10 - We actually won a competition of best band at the Robin Hood Pub and a recording but the prize was never given out.

11 - We got a review from a demo section on NME Magazine with a really grumpy cow whose only purpose was to put down unsigned bands in the best way she could. Thankfully some links to our tracks were also published along with the review and we got some fans who decided not to trust her and listened to the tracks.

12 - While returning from a rehearsal in Rio Paulo and I got stuck in a tunnel during a shoot out between Police and robbers. The longest few minutes of my life. When they were gone we got up from the bottom of the car where we had been ducking down and checked out for any blood, thank God all still tucked in carefully into our veins!

13 - We are still unsigned, but many people say they appreciate our music, now this bit is up to you to change, forward this blog to your friends and spread our songs, our music is our life, we would love to see it grow and see it loved.

There's no luck, there's no chance everything turns out the way it was meant to be

I think the Mill fans the creator when he throws his dice every night after midnight

Picture Albums - England

If you have any pictures to add message me here please.

Felix Fritz

Dancyn Days

Zen Arcade/Secen Miles High

Loosh

Picture albums - Brazil

These are all the pictures that we could find if you have any pictures to share from the time please let me know through a comment on this blog.

From the beginning

Colonia Penal and Kafka

Kaddish

Redskins/Zen Arcade

A Very Rough Trade this Music Business

Continued from blog 9 - 1989 The year of the Cat...

...An eternal paradox in our society is how to market arts. It is implanted in our subconscious somewhere that it is important to our lives, more and more research is being done into the therapeutic qualities of art and music in particular. It is an important part in my autistic son's therapy for helping him understand basic concepts of communication and social cues that makes us humans different from all other species. Music is maths coming alive, it can rewire your brain, it can alter your biochemistry, it can lock up memories, feelings and smells in it just to be released whenever you listen to it. The question is how do you price such a product, service, commodity? How do you market it, how do you format it or how do you even identify what is being sold? How do you bottle it?

These questions are very much alive today in the time where the bottle has been broken and music is floating in the World Wide Web feeding people's lives while the farmers have gone poor of means and recognition.

Back in 1990 however, this storm was still brewing under our feet (That's right not over our heads, that's where heaven is) and the general public would never have guessed the online revolution that would hit us. It was a time when you recorded a demo tape in a studio, made cassette tape copies of it and posted them, yes, put a stamp on the envelope, went to your local post office and sent it to all record companies that you thought matched your style, since nothing around matched our style, our selection was pretty much sending to those we liked their cast or that the name perhaps sounded good. Many of these letters came back as wrongly addressed, since it wasn't as easy as searching key words on Google, you bought books, directories, that most of the time were many years old and people move. Many came back with an unopened pack saying they didn't listen to demos, some with a standard letter wishing us luck but they weren't hiring anybody at that moment, only a couple had real handwritten comments which could tell you they had really listened to the music, one of these letters really filled us with hope as it was from one of our favourite labels in the way they marketed bands and respected their artistic content: Rough Trade Records.

We sent them more songs and had an even more favourable response and Sarah came to see us at the Fulham Greyhound Gig. It was a very successful gig, it was full, people were enjoying the music, dancing to it, great applause at the end, but we heard nothing from Sarah, we pursued it and after a while we received the dreadful note that she really liked our material and really enjoyed seeing us live at the Greyhound, but unfortunately they couldn't use our material at that moment. We didn't understand it at the time because Record Companies were not known to soften anybody's blow, they either didn't listen to you or listened and didn't like it, which they made sure they explained why, feedback was always very specific of what they thought didn't work for them, in our case it was most of the lyrics being in Portuguese. We were convinced that was the case with Sarah even though she didn't state any reason for our dismissal, and we set out to change our lyrics, translate some of them or write new songs in English, we knew it would take a while but we were willing to try. What we didn't know was that Rough Trade was on the verge of going bankrupt as indeed it did in 1991.

One funny adventure came up when Tayo and Paulo went to spend the day in Manchester and visit Factory Records, another favourite. They insisted in seeing someone, in leaving a demo tape but were barred at the entrance, when walking back disillusioned they heard a deep voice calling them: "Hey were you the Brazilian Boys?" It was Donald Johnson, the drummer from A Certain Ratio who heard about them trying to get in the building and went running to get them. They wanted to include some Brazilian percussion in one of their tracks for their latest record and wondered if the boys could help them to play them so that they could sample them in an old fashioned AKAI, and so next minute Paulo and Tayo were inside Factory Records studio recording with A Certain Ratio playing Agogo and reco-reco or something of the sort. The boys were over the moon, A Certain Ratio was an old favourite as they, like us, liked to mix in different rhythms to their overall Indie style, although we have never heard again what happened to that recording.
Other disappointing ventures with other companies followed, including Virgin Records, a major company. Tayo in a crazy absurd coincidence, one of those worth of featuring in the book Celestine Prophecy, got to know well the brother from one of Virgin's A&Rs who grew to admire our work, he showed his Brother our work first hand but his Brother claimed the company was only hiring dance music acts at that time.
We grew tired of investing so much getting nothing in return, a feeling we are all accustomed to, no matter what your trade or age, but when you are miles away from home without your loved ones that pressure can be unbearable for some. We had a new set of gigs booked to try out our new mostly English repertoire when our drummer Sergio decided he needed some Holidays which would be with his Brazilian girlfriend in Greece. We insisted he shouldn't go abroad as we had gigs booked and Immigration officers didn't really like foreign residents coming in and out of the Country when their visas were about to have to be renewed, they always thought you were trying to cheat as a new entry and in a pre-computer era that meant hours of interrogation when you were bound to say something they thought was suspicious.
Sergio went to Greece anyway, his Holidays, his rest time, was the most stressful time in our lives, all our work was at stake, all that we built in London was at stake. He came back, bringing with him a letter that said he had 48 hours to gather his belongings and leave the Country. We gathered at the flat he shared with Tayo at the time, he tried to make a farewell party out of the affair but we were angry, very angry, we knew it was the end of Felix, of Fritz. We only existed as a mix of Indie and Brazilian rhythms and Sergio was the Brazilian rhythm bit, crucial. As sadness is said to inspire art we have written many songs about the feeling we had on that day, my favourite one "Premonitions". Sergio went back to Brazil and tried to come back to England twice more spending all his savings but he was denied entry 3 times. Farewell Felix...

But don't they say cats have nine lives?...
...To be continued
Pictures: 1, 2 and 3 - Murilo Teixeira

1989 - The Year of the Cat

Continued from blog 8 - An Artistic Exile... An Artistic Exile...

... So it was decided, we would continue our artistic endeavours in Britain, we didn't know how, but slowly we came up with a plan. Brent, who had a British Passport would go first, get a job and place to live and arrange for either an artist or student visa so that we could follow. Paulo and I cancelled temporarily our University degree studies, the annoying thing for me was that my intention was to graduate first, but my university immersed in the Country's debt problems had been 9 months on strike and counting and I was not going to wait for it to finish. Tayo would only go when he finished his studies, which would be not long to go and Sergio depended on a further operation on his leg before he could fly to Britain.

One deja vu dilemma came up, the band's name. Oh no, there was no other Kaddish, not that we knew of anyway, but one thought did come to mind, in England, we would face an entirely different society than in Brazil, specially in London, where there's a huge Jewish Community, which could probably create an issue of us using one of their sacred prayers as our band's name and we decided it was not worth the fight since nobody knew us there and we had to build our following from scratch anyway. It was time for a new beginning and a new name. The mourning of Kafka was over, the somber mood was also over, a new decade was upon us and our sound was Brazilian, vibrant. Again it felt a bit as when Kafka died as everything we built in Brazil was being left behind us, it was a new beginning but also the death of Kaddish, in a way. As we were sacrificing our lives with our families, our Country and being with our friends for making our music, we decided to honour the cats that in poor parts of Rio died for the music. Residents of chanty towns would infamously kill stray cats to take their skin and make percussion instruments, so in honour of the samba cats we named our new band from two famous cats, which also marked a connection with another of our passions after music, literature and football, comics - Felix and Fritz. Felix the Cat, a black cat, a symbol of bad luck in Brazil, but of good luck in England, how appropriate! Fritz the Cat, Robert Crumb's ingenious creation, sly, cool, wicked, keeping our connection with the love for the beatnik generation. And so was born Felix Fritz and the Tamborim Orchestra, later abbreviated to Felix Fritz. Note that a tamborim is not a tambourine, it's a completely different instrument as featured with Felix on the picture, it is a small drum played with a long and flexible drumstick played most notoriously at Samba Schools parades during carnival, a very recognizable beat.

Brent left Brazil almost immediately in October 1988, then Paulo and I followed arriving at Heathrow Airport in London in April 1989. I will never forget the sensation of 5 degrees Centigrade on my skin, I had never experienced anything colder than 18 degrees before that day. My first sight was a red double decker bus. Both sight and cold sensation registering in my brain like a faint memory, almost like a dream, my brain numb from 5 hours of interrogation from Immigration officers not happy with two young people coming to live in London without completing their studies and no job to take them back home. Being treated like a criminal to fulfil the dream of making music definitely brought back memories of the time of the Military dictatorship when we lived in fear, when it was a crime to be an artist. It was the first time I was abroad at the age of 22. Brazil is such a big country, Rio de Janeiro's nearest neighbour, Argentina is about as far as London is from Casablanca, in Morocco, making travelling to foreign countries a much less common affair among young people than in Europe.

We lived with Brent for a while until getting a place of our own to receive Sergio. We started looking for a studio to rehearse and for other technicalities while we waited for Tayo to finish his studies without any guarantee he was really embarking in our crazy adventure.

We started booking gigs on the hope Tayo would join us and so he did at the last minute financed by Max who amazingly paid for him to fly to play our first gig in British soil then go back to Brazil finish his last assignments to graduate and fly back to England again, another priceless Max endeavour in our history.

Our first gig at Rock Garden in Convent Garden was surprisingly full, we were amazed how different the night life in London and Rio were, while in Rio we really had to painstakingly build up a following, invite our friends over and over, here we hardly had any friends and the gigs were full of young people who regularly checked out venues for new bands and regulars of the venue itself, who seemed to receive us with great enthusiasm. There was though a pay to play situation where the percentage of the door you got was so low that it all went to pay for the sound system hire, roadies, light guys, sound engineer and in the end you actually had to put money on top of what you made for the expenses.

Felix Fritz music was essentially Kaddish's music, nothing changed much, except for we decided to include more percussion instruments that we all played in turns enhancing the Brazilian effect. We coined the term Brazilian Indie band for the first time on a poster we made for a gig at the Rock Garden, although I am not sure they fully understood at the time what we were trying to do. They had an Indie night on Saturdays and when asked why we were not scheduled to play at that night, the Manager replied it was because we were not an Indie band, when we insisted we were he claimed we were as Indie as Carmen Miranda!

These are the gigs Felix Fritz played, all in London and outskirts:

Rock Garden - Convent Garden - 14/11/89

Rock Garden - Convent Garden - 13/12/89
Afrika Centre - Convent Garden - 14/12/89 - Gig cancelled due to power failure

The King's Head - Fulham - 04/01/90

The Fulham Greyhound - Fulham - 02/02/90

Rock Garden - Convent Garden - 03/02/90

Park Royal Hotel - Park Royal - 14/03/90

Park Royal Hotel - Park Royal - 13/04/90 - Filmed in VHS

The most important gig Felix Fritz played was at the Fulham Greyhound when an A&R from Rough Trade Records Sarah Bolton was watching the gig after being in correspondence with us and after having listened to our demo tape wanted to check out how we sounded live, it looked like 1990 was going to be the year of the cat even though the Chinese called it the year of the serpent, but unknown to us The Park Royal gigs marked the last time we ever stepped on stage...

To be continued...

Pictures: 1 - Simone Taylor, 2 - Luis Carlos, 3 - Paulo Nunes

Kaddish Interview on TV in 1988

Interview with Kaddish from kat stoopid on Vimeo.

This was a lengthy interview from the 26th August 1988 on TV where we introduce ourselves and mention our intention of mixing Brazilian Rhythms with Rock music as well as commenting some trivia. Note the Presenters hairstyle and clothes very 80's defining, although it would be considered bad taste then as well I suppose, and the simplicity of the set just a few stools, it makes it look like a home production, but I swear it was on TV! Here is a full translation to English, for the curious ones I was then 21, Sergio 22, Paulo 23, Tayo 22 and Brent 23. Enjoy! (My comments in navy blue)

Presenter: Rio Hit Parade launching a new band to you: Kaddish
And then, I’ll start presenting from my right, Sergio
Sergio: Hi
Presenter: Paulo
Paulo: Hello
Presenter: Tayo
Tayo: Me
Presenter: Simone
Simone: Hi
Presenter: And Brent
Brent: Good Evening (so English!)
Presenter: So, How are you? First interview on TV, isn’t it?
Tayo and Brent: Yeah
Brent: Yeah a bit nervous and so on but that is normal
Paulo: We just gone back to playing live now as the venues had been a bit scarce, we are playing a sequence of gigs now and we are taking the chance to promote them here on your space (he didn’t waste time as he was the one responsible for promotion at the time!)
Presenter: Sure, now tell me something; you’ve changed the band's name isn’t it? It was Ex-Kafka and now...
Tayo: No it was Kafka
Presenter: It was Kafka, and then you changed to…
Presenter and Tayo: Kaddish
Presenter: And why this change?
Tayo: There was a band in São Paulo with the same name and they had been using the name longer than us (That is actually not true because I followed up the case we had it for longer and we had it registered but they were signed and we were not), so we had to change it.
Paulo: They were going to record an album too
Tayo: They were actually already recording it
Presenter: Yeah I think I have already interviewed them here in the Program then when they said something about you I said Huh is it the Kafka from São Paulo but no then they were talking about this story.
Tayo: Yeah it’s another band
Presenter: But this name was a coincidence to be the same name?
Tayo: It was, we didn’t even know the people and we had to get in touch with them when we found out, actually there was another one in Brasilia too, I think everybody likes Kafka
Presenter: Laughs. It’s nice that Kaddish is different
Brent: And there is a relation because Kaddish is the name of a mourning prayer, so we
Tayo: (interrupting)There’s a whole story behind it
Brent: Yeah
Tayo: …because we used to love the name Kafka, there was a lot to do with us, with the band and everything, and Kaddish is a prayer in Hebrew, a prayer of passage, when someone dies, so Kafka had died to us, you see,
Brent: So then Kaddish
Tayo: so we put Kaddish, which is also a very beautiful poem from Ginsberg, an American Beatnik poet
Presenter: Cool, Cool this!
Sergio: Also the sound of it was not very different and we didn’t want to loose totally…
Presenter: The way the word sounded
Sergio: Exactly, that’s why Kaddish
Presenter: And how long have you been together for?
Tayo: eh
Sergio: 2 years
Brent: The complete band 2 years but it started before
Paulo: I started it with Tayo, it was more ideas an so on, acoustic guitar, that kind of thing but the full band with drums, rehearsing it has been 2 years
Presenter: What do you play Paulo?
Paulo: I play bass guitar
Presenter: Bass
Paulo: Yeah
Presenter: What about you Sergio?
Sergio: Drums
Presenter: And you Tayo?
Tayo: I play the guitar
Presenter: Simone?
Simone: Keyboards
Brent: Vocals
Presenter: And Simone, what is it like to be a musician among 4 lads?
Simone: Yeah this question always comes about, it’s funny, like, nowadays it happens a lot women playing instruments, even drums, those things, but there is always a, I wouldn’t say prejudice as such, but people think for example that I am going to sing, I arrive at a venue and they prepare the microphone for me so I say no I am not going to sing
Tayo: Lower, they put it (the mic) lower and all (He couldn't miss the opportunity to remark about my height)
Simone: So it’s funny if there’s a girl in the band it’s because she will sing or you know, to play then it’s already…
Tayo: Or that she will shake her hips and play the tambourine
Tayo and Simone: (Laugh)
Presenter: (To Brent) And it’s you, who sing, isn’t it?
Brent: Yeah I sing
Presenter: And are you the ones who write the songs?
Tayo: Yeah the songs are all ours
Brent: All
Presenter: And are you playing gigs now in Rio, how is the agenda for Kaddish?
Paulo: Our Agenda is as follows: Friday, Saturday and Sunday we prepared with some friends a Festival, not a Festival as such, in Niteroi, there at the DCE (Student Union) venue, near Plaza Shopping Mall
Tayo: It’s not a competition or anything
Paulo: Yeah, Friday we play, Saturday Eterno Grito plays, and Sunday Kongo.
Presenter: Right
Brent: At what time the gig?
Paulo and Simone: Nine p.m.
Paulo: Next week…
Presenter: And the venue, what’s the address?
Paulo: Next to Plaza Shopping, by the Ferry
Tayo:At the UFF DCE
Simone: Visconde de Rio Branco Street 625 next to the Ferry
Paulo: And next week we are Wednesday and Thursday at Piteu, Barra, and on the following week we are at the Teatro de Bolso Aurimar Rocha in Leblon
Brent: Aurimar Rocha, opposite Rio Design Centre
Presenter: Right so you are gigging, shaking up the scene
Tayo: Yeah we have to happen
Presenter: Have you got any intention of making a record?
Brent: Yeah we are full of intention to make records, there is enough intention what we don’t have is a contract or anything, we would like a contract with a record company if anybody knows of something can contact us
Presenter: Is it the first band you are all part of?
Sergio: Not mine,
Brent:Yeah he has a history
Sergio:I played at another one but it was more for fun
Tayo (interrupting Sergio): Yeah me too but only for fun never went far
Presenter: And now I want to know Kaddish’s Hit story (They had asked us to think of a funny story that happened to us)
Tayo: That’s a funny one
Sergio: This story is very funny, it happened when we went to play in Cabo Frio (Beach resort in Rio), we played this gig and in the local paper, was published that we had played, well, we had played at a venue called Barão com a Joana (Barão with Joana because it lies on the corner of two streets Barão da Torre and Joana Angelica)
Tayo: Which is a venue in Ipanema
Sergio: So they published that we had played at the Barão Club with the singer Joana (Tacky Brazilian Romantic singer)
Tayo: It was a great success
Brent: A gig with spectacular repercussion
Tayo: In the Barão with the singer Joana
Presenter: O my God these papers Ah?
Tayo: We played at Barão com a Joana they read at Barão with the singer Joana they already imagined, they put down that … they invented a lot of different styles for us like, they imagined in their heads…
Sergio: And this, when we got there, was being shouted by a loudspeaker on those vans that have a loudspeaker on, we arrived in the town and found out we had played with Joana
Tayo: But we didn’t know it
Presenter: You didn’t know it! The news! And now tell me something else, which type of music has most influenced, influences you
Tayo: Can I?
Presenter: Your music?
Tayo: We all listen to different things right? But we have a basic approach which is to make Brazil Rock, we hear a lot Brazil Rock, Brazilian Rock but there is really Rock sang in Portuguese, which is different. What we want to do is Brazilian Rock so we have influences of, we get the rhythm of for example Forro, Samba, Baião, these things and each of us add their own, for example I like King Crimson, something like this, a more schizophrenic guitar
So I put this information on top of it
Presenter: I see
Tayo: Then Brent has his style, Simone hers, so we, the information, goes on for us to make something basic which is Brazilian Rock
Paulo: We start from Brazilian rhythms like Forro, Baião, Carnival music, and write a pop song on top of it.
Presenter: Cool!
Tayo: And with Rock instruments, right, conventional, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, it’s not that thing, maybe we will throw a percussion in and everything but it’s not that thing, let’s make Brazilian Rock and we play a cavaquinho (Brazilian ukulele), 7-string guitar, no, it’s done with Rock instruments
Brent: The important thing is the fusion between the two
Presenter: There you go, Very Good, for the first interview you’ve done pretty well
Brent: Thank you
Presenter: And good luck in your career and that you come back here to show me the Platinum record, platinum is enough isn’t it?, and now we are going to watch Railway Children with the song Brighter (I loved this song it was actually our choice from a list they gave us what video to play next) and…

Other Interviews:

Radio Sucesso (Cabo Frio) - 11/07/87
Jornal O Globo (National) - 19/09/87
Radio JB AM (Rio de Janeiro) - 24/09/87
Radio Fluminense FM (Niteroi) - 24/12/87
Radio Fluminense FM (Niteroi) - 30/03/88
Radio Liberdade (Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais) - 27/05/88

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

Kafka - First Time We Went on Stage

Continued from blog 2 - From Colonia Penal to Kafka...

...After rehearsing for over a year in a studio owned by Emir and his Brother (where are they now?) called 202 Studio in the Rio neighbourhood of Rio Comprido, Kafka decided on a set for the first gig, which was the songs Terrorista, co-written by Bariviera, Procissão, Botswana, co-written with the journalist and friend Pedro So, Rosas no Fogo, Nada de Novo no Front, our first song from Colonia Penal times, Primeira Pessoa, that later on became our first song to play on the radio, Efeitos Colaterais, also co-written with Pedro So and Incompetencia. Other Gigs later on also included the songs Guerra, Tres Mulheres, Earth Bugs our first song in English co-written by Brent, Cleopatra Morreu, Parsifal and Ceticismo.

A friend of Tayo and Sergio, Fred Mourão volunteered to be our manager and book gigs. He managed to create a set of Gigs in popular venues that put our name on the map of bands in Rio de Janeiro at the time.

Our Complete set of gigs as Kafka was:

Metropolis Club (Sao Conrado) - 26/10/86

Metropolis Club (Sao Conrado) - 14/11/86
Metropolis Club (Sao Conrado) - 03/12/86

Robin Hood Pub (Tijuca) - 29/01/87
Robin Hood Pub (Tijuca) - 27/03/87 -Filmed in VHS

Barao com a Joana (Ipanema) - Performance Canibal 30/04/87
Barao com a Joana (Ipanema) - Performance Canibal 01/05/87

Barao com a Joana (Ipanema) - Performance Canibal 02/05/87

Madame Sata (Sao Paulo) - Cancelled

Paradiso (Sao Paulo) - Cancelled

Our first gig was at the Metropolis Club in Sao Conrado, in Rio de Janeiro. We have kept the entrance ticket, the price in some obscure currency at a time the Brazilian currency changed almost every year to keep up with an escalating inflation. Sadly the only recordings of the time are in cassette tapes which were quite damaged over time by the Brazilian seaside climate. We are trying to rescue them, if we have any success the audio will be included here although please don't expect a digital quality to it, not to mention the live originals wouldn't have been much clearer either.

Our main groupies were my Parents. Any teenager nowadays would be embarrassed to see their Parents in the front row of their gigs singing all their songs, but not us. Not just us but everyone loved my Parents. Every time there was a gig they gathered all the band, fans, other bands we played with and took home for an elaborate meal or snack, which sometimes included cooking personal requests at let's say 2 o'clock in the morning? My Mom was every one's confident. I would have friends knocking on my door coming in and saying they came to see my Mom, not me. My Dad was the band's main sponsor and believer. He cried every time we played Procissão, his favourite song. While watching our first gig he thought it was an insult that Tayo's guitar was broken and mended with Epoxy glue so for our second gig he made sure he bought him a new one, which turned out to be a gold Gibson Les Paul 1968 also seen played by the likes of Jimmy Page. He also bought our drum kit and relieved me from my Casiotone with a DX7 and a DX100, so cute with its tiny keys. He was not rich, his love for us was rich, still is. I wish we had made it big in the music business so now we could give him back a bit of all he has done for us, not just financially but the belief, which in Master Card fashion, was priceless!

We also invested in our graphic image enlisting the help of our eternal designer Soter França, amazing artist from Niteroi who still helps us with logos, flyers etc not to mention that at the time it was all handmade, no home computers or Photoshop but self adhesive letters and collages. We used these 4 drawings, which were atributed to Kafka, creating quite a strong visual identity and Soter did a magnificent job in Drawing Kafka's face on our massive entrance ticket for the series of gigs at Barão com a Joana.

We went on to play twice more at the Metropolis Club, the third time at a private graduation party with the bands Ultimo Refugio and Inverno Nuclear, where are they now?

After that we joined a Festival at a Club made to look like an English Pub with an imported red telephone booth and other gimmicks called The Robin Hood Pub, although thinking about it now, it looked like anything but an English Pub. For the first time our name appeared at a newspaper when the organizer of the Festival was interviewed and claimed our band was welcomed with expectation. It was a competition and the first prize was the recording of a 7" single (Yes vinyl no Cd's at the time) and a video(VHS), we graduated to a second phase and apparently won the Festival but nobody ever contacted us to do the promised recording or video, nobody knows what happened until today and we vowed never to enter a competition again.


We then went on to launch our own 3 night tour in a very posh, celebrity studded joint called Barão com a Joana (Barão with Joana) as it stood on the corner of the streets Barão da Torre and Joana Angelica at the heart of the famous Ipanema, immortalized by that song and that girl. On the press a massive report which claimed we were playing at the Barão Club with the singer Joana (A famous Brazilian singer at the time), clearly an easy mistake to make!

For 3 days we brushed shoulders with TV Soap Opera Stars, famous musicians and squeezed in a miniature stage to play our set. On the last day we threw in a surprise, a guest appearance from the Canadian Rapper Cruel-T rapping with Brent at a time when such style was in its infancy and a reflex of the eclecticism of the times as our music was from a completely different scene. It was also the first time we made any profit after paying for the P.A. hire and gig expenses which was quickly turned into alcohol at the end of the night.

Apart from the first Rap in Brazilian solo other firsts for us included our first full page article in a music magazine, Roll Magazine, written by Niel Martins, another where is he now? Also the first time our songs were played at a radio station, Primeira Pessoa was played at Transamerica FM, which was a mainstream station, we had no idea they were going to play our demo when Tayo, Sergio, Pedro So and Fred were travelling together listening to the radio on the car and our song started playing out of the blue. Fred claims they had to stop the car or they would crash with the shock. I wonder what passers by would have thought at the time when seeing four lads dancing and jumping inside a car parked on the side road. Primeira Pessoa also played on Fluminense FM from our hometown Niteroi, a station pioneer in unsigned and underground music. We also later on did a live interview for this same station.

With such a successful beginning in our Rio de Janeiro we decided to expand our horizons and play at the neighbour City of São Paulo, well neighbour 6 hours away, Brazil is a big Country. I travelled and stayed with family and successfully booked two gigs until they realized we were from Rio de Janeiro, as unknown to us there was another Kafka in São Paulo, which was already signed to an independent label called Baratos Afins.

To be continued...

Pictures: 1 and 2 - Soter França, 3 - Simone Taylor from video, 4 - Fred Mourão