Sumo (band)
Sumo was an Argentine Argentine Rock band formed in 1981 by Luca Prodan (vocals), Germán Daffunchio (guitar), Ricardo Mollo (guitar), Diego Arnedo (bass), Alberto Troglio (drums) and Roberto Pettinato (saxophone).
Originally from the town of Nono, in the mountains of Córdoba, the musical group would have several changes in its formation during its initial years, and then it would be transferred to Hurlingham, where they would publish their first studio album, Divided by happiness (1985), considered the fifth best album in the history of Argentine national rock by Rolling Stone magazine. It would be followed by the equally successful albums Llegando los monos (1986) and After Chabón (1987), turning Sumo into one of the most important groups in culture underground from Argentina during the 80's. After Prodan's death in 1987, the musical group would end up separating in 1988, and two groups would be formed by ex-members of Sumo: Divididos and Las Pelotas.
Sumo, despite remaining in the underground in its short period of activity, would become one of the most influential groups in shaping contemporary Argentine rock. He is credited for introducing British post-punk to the Latin American scene, mostly through his songs with English lyrics, and for providing a visceral counterpoint to the progressive and nueva canción influences then dominant in rock in spanish
History
Background
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In the mid-1970s, a Scottish-Italian named Luca George Prodan lived in London. In parallel, he had already played in various pubs with his band The New Clear Heads. He had also attended concerts of all kinds, being dazzled mainly by progressive rock, reggae and punk. He had learned various trades and even came to work at the Virgin company, selling records in its store in Marble Arch. After the suicide of his sister Claudia -who was addicted, like him, to heroin- Luca had hit rock bottom in 1979 and was in a coma from a heroin overdose.
Looking for a way out of his heroin addiction, which had already killed his sister and almost killed him, Luca Prodan ended up settling in Argentina in August 1980. He traveled knowing practically nothing about the country, dreaming of a bucolic photo that He had sent, included in a letter, his Argentine friend of Scottish origin, Timmy McKern, with whom he had shared school years in Scotland and later lived in London. In the image, McKern's family was seen in the mountains of Córdoba. It looked like a paradise, and his friend Timmy added a key piece of information: in Argentina at that time, there was no heroin, it was not known.
"It all began with a photo that crossed the ocean from these lands to Rome. Luca Prodan walked on the verge of death and the family postcard he received showed the Cordoba shelter of his friend Timmy McKern where everything was life and nature. A dog, two girls, a couple smiling with the saws of Nono as the frame of an idyllic life. With Timmy they had shared the school in northern Scotland which was also attended by Prince Charles of Wales. His invitation was the last card Luca had to play and win a few more years of life. He didn't even imagine that, years later, with his music he would mark a break in the history of our rock." — Pedro Irigoyen, Memories of the Happy Valley Rock. Article in newspaper La Nación, December 24, 2017
The same day Luca arrived in Argentina, Timmy MacKern met him at the airport and took him to his home in Hurlingham, Buenos Aires Province. He introduced her to his family, including his brother-in-law Germán Daffunchio, who was 20 years old at the time and worked as a sailor. At the end of dinner, Daffunchio began to play a Creole guitar and Luca sang. The idea of forming a band was born between them. They immediately moved to Timmy MacKern's field in Traslasierras. They were accompanied by Germán Daffunchio and his friend Alejandro Sokol. The kicks began. that gave birth to Sumo, with Daffunchio as guitarist and Sokol as bassist.
Beginnings of the band
First formation
After observing the promising evolution of those jams, Timmy McKern, his friend and future manager of the band, would introduce Luca to a young guitarist friend of his, to whom he would propose the idea of forming a band. It was Ricardo Curtet, that at that time he lived in Mina Clavero and that he was convinced by his friend McKern to join the group. Once presented, Luca returns to London to start buying the instruments and tries to (successfully) convince his friend Stephanie Nuttal to be the drummer for his new band. The latter had been part of the Mancunian group Manicured Noise. Months later, Nuttal would arrive in Argentina and join the team that she was practicing in Córdoba. In this way, the band would be made up of Luca on lead vocals, Daffunchio on lead guitar, Curtet on rhythm guitar, Sokol on bass and Stephanie Nuttal on drums. Of the latter, his presence in the lineup would be quite an event, since most of the rock bands of that time were made up exclusively of men. Once the team was formed, in 1981, what would later be part of a posthumous album by Luca, Time, Fate, Love, was recorded in Nono's studio.
After this recording, the idea of moving the entire team to the city of Hurlingham, where most of the members came from, began to flourish. However, the team suffered its first loss when Ricardo Curtet, who after being a father during that time he finally decided to return to Mina Clavero to take care of his new family.
Second stage
The band's first concert was at a nightclub in El Palomar called Caroline's Pub.
The gang established their base in the house of Timmy's mother in Hurlingham, Buenos Aires Province. They offered shows with themes sung in English. They had serious problems during the Falklands war, when everything related to the United Kingdom — including language — was banned. This caused Nuttal to return to his native country at the request of his parents. As a result of this departure, Sokol became the drummer and the position of bassist was taken over by Diego Arnedo, who played in a hard rock band from Hurlingham called MAM, together with the brothers Omar and Ricardo Mollo.
The formation of Sumo would reach its maturity with the entry as saxophonist of Roberto Pettinato, in mid-1983. Pettinato was a journalist, he had directed the rock magazine El Expreso Imaginario in its last stage, until which ceased to be published in January 1983. Since then he had hosted a segment called "La Zona Fantasma" on Radio Del Plata. Impressed after seeing a live Sumo performance, he invited Luca Prodan to his radio show. There he did a historic interview and, at the end of it, they became friends and decided to incorporate Pettinato into the band.
In 1984, Sokol left the band and was replaced by Alberto "Superman" Troglio on the drums. Shortly after, and invited by Diego Arnedo, Ricardo Mollo joined on guitar. He was also a former member of MAM and his playing style, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, was more hard rock (in fact, a few days after joining Sumo he received an invitation from Ricardo Iorio to join V8, the pioneering band of Sumo). heavy metal in Argentina, an invitation he rejected due to his commitment to Sumo). The formation with Prodan, Daffunchio, Arnedo, Mollo, Troglio and Pettinato was maintained until the dissolution of the group.
In these years, Sumo used to split into two bands in order to raise more money, giving gigs as the Hurlingham Reggae Band and sometimes as Sumito. Both groups played several gigs every weekend at venues like Café Einstein, Temple underground from the 1980s, or in the Parakultural.
"In the beginning, they were almost all my songs, when I played the guitar. Then the thing was changing, a much more reggae wave came in, we unfolded in the Hurlingham Reggae Band (which was only reggae) and Sumo, on his part, became heavier. And Fargo, who today is the guitarist of the Redonditos of Ricota, was the violet of the Hurlingham. Then the two groups joined again, Fargo went with Patricio Rey, I went to Europe, and when I came back with Sumo we started to do Hurlingham issues... Now Sumo is half reggae and half heavy. Anyway, half weird. »Luca Prodan, by Gloria Guerrero for Humor Magazine.
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With this formation they would release the independent album Corpiños en la madrugada and which would contain several of the hits that the band would later record again along with pearls that shone in the band's recitals despite not having never integrated official albums: "Night & Day" (the first song they wrote together as a band), "Fuck You" (their first punk anthem, with which they used to close their recitals) and the forceful "Telephones / White Trash", with Luca's dull and dejected voice that later jumps to a devastating ska sound. Luca explained that the "Telephones" part is based on a bad LSD trip, a quite terrifying experience not knowing where his girlfriend was, he had flashes that she was being murdered, because she did not answer his phone call and he imagined from his house walls bathed in blood. "White Trash", the second part had been composed solo by Luca long before when he was in London, although at the time of recording it, it was the saxophone phrasing added by Pettinato that ended up giving it the distinctive physiognomy to the song
Divided by Happiness: Recording Debut (1985)
The official recording debut came in 1985, after being seen live by a CBS producer. The album was called Divided by Happiness, in reference to one of Luca's favorite bands, Joy Division. This work saw the light of day in disc format, after a legendary independent edition on cassette. The presentation of the album took place at the Astros theater on May 11 and 12, 1985, gathering 1,300 people per show. This first work sold 15,000 copies and included the hit "La rubia tarada" (originally titled A Night in New York City. Not in reference to the city but to a well-known nightclub in Buenos Aires from that time that bore that name.The lyrics are based on the rivalry between Luca Prodan and Pedro Braun a.k.a. Hari B, guitarist for Los Violadores -whom he caricatures as a "pseudopunkito with the finite accent& #34;- for the love of a girl named Monica Stromp).
Another high point of the album is «Better not to talk (of certain things)» with lyrics by Indio Solari, singer of the Redonditos de Ricota. The history of this song dates back to September 21, 1983, when the Redonditos de Ricota invited Luca Prodan and Roberto Pettinato to play as guests at a festival at the stadium of the Gimnasia y Esgrima club in Buenos Aires. As had happened on other occasions, Indio Solari refused to perform at a daytime festival and share the stage with other bands. For this reason, and given the decision of the rest of the band to play at that festival, Solari saw the performance from the audience and Prodan sang the entire recital in his place. At the time of sound testing, this song, very slow, that the band played almost improvised, caught his attention. It was simply the band jamming and Solari reciting the curious lyrics in a style very similar to the "monologues with musical background" which Enrique Symns used to do at the Redonditos de Ricota recitals at that time. Luca commented on his interest to Poly, the producer of the Redondos, who told him that "they gave him gifts"; the topic. In fact, the Redondos never interpreted it again. Returning to his rehearsal room, Prodan hums it to Arnedo and asks him to speed up the bass rhythm to bring it closer to the characteristic sound of Sumo. The song was already contained in Corpiños en la Madrugada and it is on this album that it takes its final form.
They also repeat, from Corpiños en la Madrugada, “Divididos por la felicidad” and “Debede”, along with songs with a precious reggae sound never heard before in national rock, such as &# 34;Don't finish”, “Regtest”, “The reggae of peace and love”, “Don't sleep” and “Kaya”
On Sunday, October 13, 1985, they performed at the Rock & Pop that took place at the Vélez Sarsfield stadium. Along with them were Nina Hagen, John Mayall, INXS, Los Abuelos de la Nada, La Torre, Fito Páez and Miguel Mateos/ZAS.
Consecration
In 1986, they participated in the second edition of the Chateau Rock Festival, which was held in the province of Córdoba. That same night Metropoli, La Sobrecarga, GIT and Virus performed. Between March and April of the same year they recorded their second album, Llegando los monos, also for the CBS label, which has as its "single hit" and "by the way" as Luca Prodan declared "The Old Vinegars". From this album, the punk-rock of "El Ojo Blindado" and the new wave melodies of "Exploding from the Ocean", the epic "Heroine", "TV Caliente" (dedicated to the Italian actress Virna Lisi), powerful songs like “Nextweek”, experimental like “Cinco Magníficos”, reggae in “No Good” and “Rollando”, ska like “Que Me Pisen”. The plaque was presented live at the Obras Sanitarias stadium on August 9, 1986. A few days later, they offered a show in Uruguay, during a festival in the city of Montevideo, in front of some 25,000 people and sharing the stage with several of the bands. flagships of post punk in different South American countries, such as the Uruguayans Los Estómagos and Los Tontos and the Brazilians Legiao Urbana.
In October, the video «Sumo en Obras (8/9/1986)» was presented, which had a duration of 50 minutes and documented the presentation show of «Llegando los monos». They returned to the Av. del Libertador stadium on November 15, 1986, only this time they shared the stage with the Brazilian rock group Os Paralamas Do Sucesso, who was making their second visit to Argentina. The times of the underground had given way to those of massiveness.
After Chabón and death of Luca Prodan
In the summer of 1987, they took part in the Rock in Balí Festival in Mar del Plata, where great bands performed, such as Soda Stereo, Virus, Los Violadores and soloists such as Pedro Aznar and Andrés Calamaro, etc.), which was held on January 24, 1987. The specific place of the festival was the beaches of Santa Clara del Mar, (Beach Balí), near Mar del Plata, where some 4000 people attended. The new plate was published during that year, but Luca Prodan's health was already in very poor condition. This made him give up the artistic leadership that he had on previous albums and he only participated in the essential parts, improvising in the lyrics and in the interpretation as is clear in one of the best songs on the album "Hello Frank".
This album also includes songs such as the essential "Mañana en el Abasto", "No Tan Distintos", "El Cieguito Volador", "Crua Chan" and "Lo quiero ya", among others. The band does not contain any "premeditated hit", as the same musicians called "La Rubia Tarada" and "The Old Vinegars". However, Pettinato once stated that the punk version of "Silent Night" it was a "vain attempt at a Christmas hit" (...) "we wanted to see if we could have a little Christmas hit that would fill our table with almonds. Luca later clarified: “We did it because we were crazy. We made it punk and I sang it in three languages. We were playing that Christmas night and that's how it came out, at Zero Bar".
They presented After Chabón at the Obras Sanitarias stadium on October 10 in front of more than 4,000 people. Tito Fargo, Semilla Bucciarelli, Andrés Calamaro and Geniol Con Coca appeared on stage as guests.
The group's last performance, led by Luca, was held on December 20, 1987 at the Los Andes stadium, with a very small audience, barely 500 people. It was a date shared with Los Violadores, who opened the show because that same night they had another presentation at a disco in Berazategui. Pil Trafa, the singer of this band, recalled that «I saw him very thin, very emaciated. He was yellow." His ex-colleagues later recalled that that night Prodan arrived drunk and with a bottle of gin in his hand, for which reason the security personnel did not recognize him and tried to prevent him from entering, leading to a brief fight. After the intercession of his bandmates, he entered the stadium, but made a scene in the dressing room, breaking bottles and shouting a lot. He finally gave the show and, moments before performing a powerful version of "Fuck you", Luca said: "There goes the last one". Obviously he meant that it was the last song of the show, but subsequent events gave this phrase a prophetic character.
Two days later, on Tuesday, December 22, 1987, he was found dead in the room he was renting in the pension located at 451 Alsina Street, in the San Telmo neighborhood (the property was managed by the pianist and tuner Marcelo Arbiser, a friend of Luca Prodan, and each room was rented separately). Over the years, different versions of the cause of death emerged.
The press reported that he had suffered a cardiac arrest attributed to severe internal bleeding caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Many years later, the writer Enrique Symns spread an alternative version in an interview, saying that he died of an overdose of heroin. According to Symns, Luca had gone years without using heroin simply because it was impossible to obtain in Argentina at the time. In 1987, the first doses of heroin would have reached the streets of Buenos Aires and at that time he tried to inject himself again with a dose similar to the ones he consumed in London, but his body no longer had the same tolerance, which made him caused death. "Luca wanted to go to hell. He took heroin precisely when he was about to collect the first 80,000 mangoes that they were going to give him for copyright, he was going to buy a house in Córdoba, his girlfriend was going to receive a psychologist... I think he didn't want to know&# 34;. The film director and personal friend of Luca, Julián Espina, came to declare: "I myself threw away what was left of the heroin that he injected. I was one of the first to fall into the house. I grabbed the heroin, threw it into a vacant lot, ate some big whores from someone... That's how it was. I don't know who gave it to him, there is a half black story with a third person who is under secrecy”. He also said that the only one who knows the identity of the supplier would be Silvia Ceriani, who in recent months had become Luca's lover, but that he is sure that she will never say anything. Silvia Ceriani rented another room in the same pension, but she left it immediately after her death. In the interviews that she gave, he affirms that Luca died in his arms and that it was not from an overdose.
Another member of Sumo, Roberto Pettinato reaffirmed the version of the overdose, only saying that it was not heroin but methadone, a drug that is used as a substitute for the former. The truth is that no autopsy was performed. Other of his closest associates, Timmy MacKern and drummer Alberto Troglio, later admitted that Prodan's colleagues and friends were afraid that an investigation into the causes of death would begin and left everything in the hands of the lawyer Albino "Joe" Stefanolo, who was in charge of handling the situation with the authorities and leaving it recorded as a "natural death".
Tribute and separation (1988)
Pettinato, Arnedo, Daffunchio and Mollo, appeared in a new edition of the Chateau Rock Festival, during the summer of 1988. This performance by the group was titled «Homage to Luca Prodan» and they performed songs such as: "Crua Chan", "Nextweek", "Los Viejos vinagres", "Better not to talk (of certain things)" and "Fuck You", among others. To sing this last song, Monica Stromp, Luca Prodan's ex-girlfriend who had given rise to the fight at the "New York City" which she talks about in the song & # 34; La Rubia Tarada & # 34;. This was the first performance without Luca and the last of Sumo. Finally, in 1989 through the CBS label a plate entitled "Fever" was released that included unpublished songs, some of which were to integrate a new production by the band.
The death of Luca Prodan was followed by those of two important post-Malvinas Argentine rock luminaries of the 1980s, Miguel Abuelo (March 26, 1988) and Federico Moura (December 21, 1988), marking a before and after in the history of national rock. His influence can be seen on the walls of Buenos Aires, where you can still find graffiti chanting “LUCA NOT DEAD”.
After the separation
The different remains of the band gave rise to two groups: Divididos (Mollo and Arnedo) and Las Pelotas (Daffunchio, Sokol and Troglio), while Pettinato lived for a few years in Spain, where he formed Pachuco Cadáver. Upon his return to the country, he returned to the field of journalism and conducting television programs. There is a theory, which is apparently another urban legend, which says that the name of these bands arose from a report to Luca. The journalist asked him if he saw the members of Sumo divided in the future, to which the singer would have replied: «Sumo divided? The balls!"
The paths of both bands crossed for the first time in May 1997 at the Teatro de Verano in Montevideo, when they performed the first joint recital of Divididos and Las Pelotas. The show, which had been announced as the return of Sumo, ended with a behind-the-scenes controversy with Arnedo's refusal to play and an apology from Mollo and Daffunchio that did not convince anyone. Chance wanted this show, which compromised everyone who ever made up Sumo, to take place on the day that Prodan would have turned forty-four years old. Perhaps for this reason, when the lights went out for good and the first measured whistles subsided, if compared to what could have happened in Buenos Aires, his brother Andrea, who was invited by the production as well as the saxophonist Roberto Pettinato and the drummer Alberto "Superman" Troglio, they took responsibility for filling the void. They joined Las Pelotas to play three Sumo classics: Heroína, El Ojo Blindado and White trash. The youngest of the Prodan family broke a microphone stand, emptied a liter and a half of mineral water over his head and crawled across the long stage, generating the moment closest to chaos that Sumo knew how to be, although his heartfelt interpretation traveled the cornice of the paper. At that point in the events, almost escaping, Mollo and Arnedo rushed back by taxi to the hotel in the center of the city where the Divididos troop stayed.
Brief subsequent reunions
In May 2006, at the Andes Vivo festival in Mendoza, the first real meeting took place where, after playing Las Pelotas and Divididos, all the musicians went up on stage to do “El Ojo Blindado”, “Debede”, “Fuck You" and "Better not talk about certain things." On that occasion, Pettinato and Superman Troglio were not there.
On April 12, 2007, 20 years after the separation of the mythical band, all the surviving members of the last formation got together to play during the Quilmes Rock Festival at the River Stadium Plate. They sang Crua chan, Divided by happiness and Debedé. With Marcelo Rodríguez "Gillespi" on trumpet, who also participated as a guest at Sumo shows back in 1987.
It was a historic meeting: Ricardo Mollo, Diego Arnedo, Germán Daffunchio, Roberto Pettinato, Alejandro Sokol and Alberto "Superman" Troglio closed the first night of Quilmes Rock.
It all started when, before Arnedo's complicit gaze, Mollo played with a Sumo riff that the crowd recognized and, without hesitation, he introduced Pettinato -again with the legendary orange jumpsuit-, Sokol and Daffunchio.
Then the excitement increased when he invited "a Scottish drummer" who wanted to join the festivities, and Troglio appeared, dressed in a kilt (the skirt that Scots wear) and his classic T-shirt with the Superman logo. On January 12, 2009, Alejandro Sokol, a former multi-instrumentalist and former leader of the group Las Pelotas, suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest at the bus terminal in Río Cuarto, province of Córdoba. At 48 years old, Sokol was working on a new musical project called "El vuelto S.A.".
Members
- Luca Prodan - † voice (1981-1987)
- Germán Daffuncio - guitar (1981-1988)
- Diego Arnedo - bass (1982-1988)
- Roberto Pettinato - saxophone (1982-1988)
- Alberto Troglio - Battery (1984-1988)
- Ricardo Mollo - guitar (1984-1988)
Previous members
- Ricardo Curtet - guitar (1981-1982)
- Stephanie Nuttal - Battery (1981-1982)
- Alejandro Sokol † - low, battery (1981-1984)
Timeline
Discography
Studio Albums
- Corpiños in the early morning (Demo) (1983)
- Split by happiness (1985)
- Getting the monkeys (1986)
- After Chabon (1987)
- Fiber (1989)
Builds
- Greatest Hits (1988)
- The Collection (1991)
- Summits (2000)
Video Albums
- Volume in Works (9/8/1986) (VHS)
Videography
- The late blonde (1985)
- Kaya (1985)
- Regtest (1985)
- Don't finish. (1985)
- Silver mule (1985)
- The Reggae of Peace and Love (1985)
- The old vinegars (1986)
- Tomorrow at the Abasto (1987)
- I want it now. (1987)
- Crua Chan (1987)
- Not so different. (1987)
- Wailing from the ocean (1989)