Álvaro Urquijo: «It was a pleasure to spend some time with Enrique San Francisco»

«We have left a great friend, a better actor and a very special guy. Have a good trip mate », have written Los Secretos on social networks in the last goodbye to Enrique San Francisco.

We met Enrique several times, the last one a few years ago in Madrid, in a dressing room, after a big concert. He was a very endearing person. When you were with him, he made you feel that friendship was lifelong. He was mentally horny and it was nice to spend time with him. I remember one of the first times we saw each other, in the early 80s, when he was dating Rosario Flores. He already caught my attention because of his personality, because of his special grace …

The world of culture is in mourning, for the situation that the sector is going through, and because lately we have not stopped writing obituaries.

The Culture pages of the newspapers have become a death section. On our latest album there is a song dedicated to this, If I Could For Time, in which I say that those who leave, who are the good guys, have no spare: Glenn Frey, from the Eagles; another of my idols, Tom Petty; David Bowie, who was driving me crazy … The artists coming out now don’t have the capacity for musical influence that those who shaped me had: Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Dylan, the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers , Bob Marley, Black Sabbath … We didn’t think music was worse for being of another style. This is how we formed our own musical identity.

And who will occupy your precious place? And your deserted pedestal, “he sings in If I Could Stop Time. Are you keeping track of the new kings and queens of music, those of trap and reggaeton?

In another of the lyrics of the new album I refer to something that happened to my father and that I believed would not happen to me. My father instilled in us music and respect for culture. He crushed us into liking music. Then when he realized that we liked him too much, in those years, late 70’s, early 80’s … it was like losing his children. These are going to ruin, I would think. However, my father understood modern music, he loved the Pretenders and he liked the Police a lot, but when we listened to the Clash and the Sex Pistols, it was closed there. That’s noise, shit, he told us. I don’t want the same to happen to me with new music. Maybe there are supernatural talents out there that I don’t know about, because there are as many artists as there are YouTube channels. Anyway, anything new I hear always reminds me of something. Right now I don’t know who will replace the great heroes who taught us to appreciate music.

The Secrets are back on the road, at last, after the pandemic prevented them from touring America.

It was a small tour, scheduled for March of last year. We are not number 1 in America, but it was a very nice tour, with Pancho Varona. It was suspended because we already saw that what was coming looked very bad. Then, with the restrictions, we resumed some concerts. Our commitment to the rock machinery, to feeding our people, who are 16 families, including technicians and other professionals, brought us back to touring. In the end we did 25 concerts of the 86 that we had scheduled for a summer that was not the dream. Our purpose is not to make cash, it is to continue offering entertainment. We want to continue with music, because music is inherent to the human being. There will be those who take it as an object of consumption, or as a fiscal object. Governments do not give culture the attention it deserves, as something essential. Spain used to export music, it was a generator of culture, with Paco de Lucía and eighties groups that triumphed in America, and now we are little puppets of the big multinationals, Sony, Warner and Universal, which rule the world of entertainment.

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