The Pecos excite Sant Jordi
“Tonight we're going back to our teenage years!” promises Encarni Soria, accompanied by her sister Rosa, fans of Los Pecos for fifty years. The husbands at home, the fans filling the Sant Jordi—with a limited capacity and still around 8,000 spectators—and them, Los Pecos, the brothers Francisco Javier Herrero and Pedro José, 128 years old, singing for two hours in an uncomplicated show.
Feeling like a teenager again for two hours, no more, no less. Nostalgia sells tickets, and Los Pecos sold out last night, so they've already scheduled another Sant Jordi for December 28th, the day of the Holy Innocents and of Los Pecos fans, whose dedication remains remarkable. And what loyalty!
Los Pecos no longer sport long hair and bell-bottoms, and over the years they've acquired the face of a reasonably developed country. Today, they're two highly professional artists who dress in dark clothing, like the high-end singers from neighboring France.
Read also Los Pecos: “Our music was much more authentic, there was more effort.” Sergio Lozano
Pedro José—not the blond one, the other one—is moved when he greets Barcelona, “this city that loves us so much.” And adores it! The same city, the same mountain, where a 15-year-old girl lost her life one day in April 1980 when Los Pecos were performing at the Montjuic amusement park theater. A stampede. “I was at that concert, although most of us weren't even aware of the tragedy. I was thinking how sad it was, because that little girl would be here today, like all of us,” Encarni Soria says.
The audience dances, stands up, and is able to hum all the songs, whose lyrics—they say—are beautiful, not at all obscene (unlike some of today's songs) and give credit to love, which, like football referees, sometimes gives and other times takes away.
The brothers, from Madrid, capitalize on their fond memories of adolescence with complete vocal dignity and a sober yet elegant staging, as shoe store clerks used to say to convince customers.
Pedro composed and composes “at twenty, at 30, and at 63, and I'd like to continue writing songs, but none of them have the magic of those from my early years.” And then Juani , pure Pecos, comes on, followed by Y te vas , songs without great complications that, nevertheless, don't lapse into cheesiness.
Los Pecos gave it their all, and so did the fans. Sant Jordi experienced what they call connection, communion, and the like, although it's no exaggeration to say it was a fusion from start to finish, the ultimate expression of which came with two of the most famous songs of the Spanish transition (apart from Madre , dedicated, as its name suggests, to the mothers who gave their all). We're referring to Háblame de ti : an audience jumping and chanting, a five-minute standing ovation, and shouts of "Pecos! Pecos!" In 1979, the song called for listening to others...
And the final flourish with Acordes , that song in which insomnia is praised due to the imperatives of love: “I didn’t sleep and soon I died from being away from you/ The next day I was born and I fought to survive.”
What a way to have fun for Los Pecos and their fans! The years are helping both of them.
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