Madrid

The night they played for Canito

On 9 February 1980, nine bands gathered at Madrid’s Escuela de Caminos to play a concert for a drummer who could no longer join them. José Enrique Cano Leal, known as Canito, had died after a car accident at the beginning of the year. His band Tos were on the bill, as were Nacha Pop, Alaska y los Pegamoides and several other young groups.

Radio España broadcast the concert live, and TVE recorded it for Popgrama. Years later, the Canito tribute came to be regarded as a starting point for La Movida madrileña, the cultural scene associated with Madrid after Franco’s dictatorship. The surviving television recording preserves the bands playing in a university hall in February 1980.

A song with a Madrid address

Later in 1980, Nacha Pop released their first album. Among its songs was “Chica de ayer”, written by singer Antonio Vega. Its narrator recalls a girl and an evening out; one line takes him to El Penta, a bar on Calle de la Palma in Malasaña, to listen to music.

El Penta had opened in 1976, and Madrid’s tourism office still lists it today. The song’s melody, however, began somewhere else. Vega thought of it on a beach in Valencia while doing military service; he later finished the lyrics in Madrid. According to RTVE, he first conceived it at a slower tempo, before producer Teddy Bautista encouraged a quicker arrangement for the album.

Two years later: “Bailando”

Alaska y los Pegamoides, another band from the Canito tribute, released “Bailando” in 1982. Carlos Berlanga and Nacho Canut wrote a song about spending the day dancing and drinking; its narrator counts the movements and the physical toll of all that activity.

The song embraced a disco sound. El País describes Berlanga and Canut working from the pattern of “Cuba” by the Gibson Brothers and other funk music. “Bailando” became a summer hit in 1982.

The rooms around the records

After the tribute, bands had other stages on which to play. Rock-Ola opened in 1981 on Calle Padre Xifré. During its four years, its stage hosted Nacha Pop, Radio Futura and Alaska y Dinarama as well as international visitors including New Order, Depeche Mode and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The venue closed in 1985.

In Malasaña, La Vía Láctea is another place associated with the period, and Madrid’s tourism guide lists it as operating today. El Penta remains in the guide too, with its connection to “Chica de ayer” part of the bar’s history.

Return to the Canito tribute recording and the later songs are still ahead of those performers. Nacha Pop’s first album had yet to appear; “Bailando” was two years away. On that February bill, they shared the stage with Tos to remember their drummer.