Farewell to the generation that solidified Spanish rock from Valencia

breeding ground

Blesa joined Baldoví and Castelló in the late 50s in Valencia, a city with ideal conditions for performing popular music. As Fabuel recalls, Valencia had fallas commissions that fed dozens of live bands all year. There was the July Fair where some of the best European artists of the moment passed. It also had a harbor where ships like the USS Forrestal and its 5,000 sailors docked with American records and played them in the city’s casinos. And he had joints like Bataclan, Venice, Ideal Room, Olimpia, Ohasis, Tabú, Saratoga, Negresco or Mogambo.

With versions like Gene Vincent’s ‘Be bop a lula’ or Adriano Celentano’s ‘Teddy Girl’—primitive Valencian rock has its roots in both the US and Italy—Los Milos’ debut album, released in 1960, ushers in surprised at the quality and self-confidence these three adolescents had on the train of modernity.

His image was also groundbreaking, with Emilio wearing horn-rimmed glasses at the meeting. dude holly (although he could see perfectly) and was dressed entirely in Vince Taylor-style leather on stage. Along with “Spanish rock and roll” (an epigraph they already boasted on their debut album), Los Milos also pioneered the fan phenomenon thanks to the “milongas”, a group of unconditional followers competing with the “milongas”. Pantalongueras with the “dynamics” of Dynamic Duo, by Los Pantalones Azules, also from Valencia.

In January 1961, Los Milos released their second EP with covers by Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Celentano. And in August, they released their third album, which accompanied the group on a tour of the Italian Riviera, after which Blesa decided to quit music, focus on her engineering university career and get married.

“Besides Vicente Castelló and a titan named Emilio Baldoví who have already disappeared, Blesa solidified the roots of rock’n’roll in this country with Los Milos – Vicente Fabuel underlined this Monday – A little joke. His appealing proposal: as tough and wild as he is. he was playing but he was unique, wrapped in sound arrangements between comrade and comrade. In terms of class, personality, and local taste (what we call the root), Milos pointed to a path that was as firm as it was delicate, and which others would then gloriously follow. Ball-son, Rockers or Whirlwinds…”.

first power of rock

Indeed, Los Milos led a generation of rockers who, according to musician and producer Lluís Miquel Campos – the leader of Els Quatre Z in the 60s – made Valencia “the first rock power in Spain, above Barcelona or Madrid”. “It was an amazing moment with high quality and very innovative bands” Lluís Miquel emphasized yesterday, remembering Blesa as “a very good musician and above all a very good person”.

“Bruno HillsVicente Castelló, Salvador Blesa, Pascual Olivas, Miguel Ángel Herranz, Julio Andreu, Tito Peman (died last December), Suco, José Casquel, José Llusar, Pep Laguarda…». Writer Alfons Cervera recalled yesterday some of the pioneers of Valencian rock, who are long dead and have followed his “fan career” since his youth.

«Anglo-Saxon music was difficult to access—remembers Cervera. First of all came the French and Italians. The other was more reserved for college students and people traveling to England or the USA… The first for me was Valencian pop and rock bands. They were the closest and had a large following by most of the youth of the time. If you had to put a name to this long list of artists, I would undoubtedly prefer Bruno Lomas ».

Cervera recalls the author’s conversations with Blesa at the ’60s Valencia Pop and Rock Conference held at the University of Valencia: “He seemed to me a discreet, caring person. A good man like Machado de la good. people …”. “Yes, he was an impressive person above all else,” he said of Blesa this Monday. Vicente Buj, ‘Sento’, bassist of Los Rockeros, The band that accompanied Emilio Baldoví when he went to France without friends and changed their name to Bruno Lomas to succeed.

“I was still wearing shorts when I first saw Los Milos play,” Sento said. Affects the high level demonstrated by the rock pioneers in Valencia thanks to its entrepreneurial character. He gives the example of Los Rockeros and the degree of “professionalization” they achieved after the French period. “We returned to Spain with an experience no one else had.”