Discografía
Long life to the rock and roll (it plates/sapphire 1981)
Brutal volume (it plates/sapphire 1982)
Metalmorfosis (it plates/sapphire 1983)
Red baron To the Alive one (he plates/sapphire 1984)
In a place of the march (he plates/sapphire 1985)
Stays (always plate/sapphire 1986 there; in direct with leftover material
of 1984)
No-man's land (it plates/sapphire 1987)
It does not go more (it plates/sapphire 1987)
Obstinato (it plates/sapphire, 1988)
Challenge (Wasp, 1992)
Long life to the baron (it plates/sapphire 1995)
Secret weapon (Key Record 1997)
Cost what costs (BMG 1999)
20 + (Zero Record 2001)
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Barón Rojo
Barón Rojo is formed in 1980 after the
Spanish 70's Hard Rock band Coz split up just after releasing their first
LP, called Más Sexi on CBS. It is then when brothers guitarists Armando
and Carlos de Castro form the best Spanish-speaking Heavy Metal band of
all times: Barón Rojo. The de Castro brothers' bandmates are very
experienced musicians: José Luis Campuzano Sherpa, who had played bass on
Módulos, and Uruguayan drummer Hermes Calabria, who had played on Psiglo.
These four musicians, with the help of lyric-writer Carolina Cortés,
Sherpa's wife, made the name of Barón Rojo fly as high as any NWOBHM band.
Their debut LP Larga Vida al Rock and Roll (Chapa/Zafiro 1981) was mixed
and produced by rock DJ Vicente Mariscal Romero for Chapa Records. This
album made a few eardrums burst with songs like Con Botas Sucias, El Pobre,
Los Desertores del Rock or Barón Rojo, very hard songs -both thematically
and musically speaking- which began to build up the legend. Both Sherpa
and Carlos de Castro took charge of the record's lead vocals.
The band's second album was recorded in England after a very successful
English tour under the name of Red Baron, a name the band didn't like at
all -and was changed immediately. In England they met Iron Maiden's brand
new singer Bruce Dickinson, with whom they played a jam session at the
Greyhound Club, one of London's Rock and Roll cult places. During this
first visit to England they recorded the best Spanish Heavy Metal album
ever: Volumen Brutal (Chapa/Zafiro 1982). It was recorded at Ian Gillan's
Kingsway Studios with such special guests as Colin Towns (Ian Gillan Band)
on keyboards and Mel Collins (ex-King Crimson), who played sax on Son Como
Hormigas; as well as a few visits from Bruce Dickinson and John Sloman
(ex-Uriah Heep) to jam between takes. The album quickly reached Platinum
in Spain, as well as reaching good sales figures in Europe and Japan,
where an English version of Volumen Brutal was released.
After a small tour around England, a second visit to the Greyhound saw
them jamming with Michael Schenker, with whom they developed a close
friendship, especially Sherpa, who co-wrote with Schenker the song Red
Sky, which appeared in MSG's Built to Destroy album. After a couple of
warm-up shows at the Marquee, Barón Rojo played in front of 18,000 people
at the Reading Rock Festival'82, sharing the bill with Iron Maiden, MSG,
Yesterday & Today, Marillion, Gary Moore and Twisted Sister, and it was
one of the very few bands the audience asked to play an encore. They are
the only Spanish band that has ever played in such an important Rock
Festival. Later that year, the band embarked successfully in a tour of
Great Britain that confirmed their status as one of the greatest Heavy
Metal bands ever, playing a legendary show at the famous Hammersmith Odeon
in London.
While songs like Los Rockeros Van al Infierno, Resistiré, El Barón Vuela
Sobre Inglaterra or Las Flores del Mal can still be heard on the Spanish
radio, the band goes back to England with DJ Mariscal Romero to record
their third album, called Metalmorfosis (Chapa/Zafiro 1983). This album
was released only in Spanish, but the first 1,000 copies had an extra
7-inch single with two inedit songs, Invulnerable and Herencia Letal, both
very popular among the fans. On the other hand, the LP's two hit singles,
Casi me Mato and El Malo put the band at the peak of its popularity in
Spain and in the rest of Europe, where they played at the Heavy Sound
Festival'83 in Belgium, being co-headliners with Gary Moore.
They come back to Spain to record their first live album, Barón al Rojo
Vivo. All the songs were taken from two shows the band played in Madrid on
February 1984 in front of 24,000 people. The production was one of Chris
Tsangarides's best works ever. In these two shows, they played not only
the best songs from their three albums, but five new songs the fans really
loved: Campo de Concentración, El Mundo Puede Ser Diferente, Mensajeros de
la Destrucción, Atacó el Hombre Blanco and the instrumental Buenos Aires.
Shortly after recording this live album, they return to Belgium to play at
the Heavy Sound Festival'84, which would prove a good warm-up show for
what came next: Their first tour of South America. In nearly all the South
American countries, Barón Rojo were compared in quality and popularity to
rock gods like The Rolling Stones or Queen. All the shows were sold out
and the fans treated them like the Spanish Metal Gods they are.
The Baron flies higher than ever. In Autumn 1985 the band release En un
Lugar de la Marcha (Chapa/Zafiro 1985), which quickly reached Gold in
Spain and South America. The band wanted a change of sound, so they mixed
and produced the album themselves. Most fans disagreed with the change,
but songs like Breakthoven, Cuerdas de Acero or Hijos de Caín make this
album one of most fans' favourites. The stage shows also changed. It
became a bit more spectacular with a big puppet Motörhead's Bomber-like
with a big Don Quixote from Outer Space, like the one on the En un Lugar
de la Marcha record sleeve.
For five years, Barón Rojo had succeeded in Spain and nearly the rest of
the world with every record they made and every tour they did, reaching
Gold and Platinum several times.
But in 1986 their record company did not want to renew their contract -and
prevented EMI from signing them. Therefore, the big tours of Europe and
South America were a thing of the past. For the next thirteen years, their
international tour consisted in a few shows in Colombia, Mexico and
France, although they still kept a big audience in Spain. In that same
year, their record company released a live album with 9 tracks not
included on the Al Rojo Vivo album. It was called Siempre Estáis Allí
(Chapa/Zafiro 1986) and it was one of the causes for the band's loss of
popularity in their own country.
From 1987 to 1990 the band release their weakest albums: Tierra de Nadie (Zafiro/BMG
1987), No Va Más (Zafiro/BMG 1988) and Obstinato (Zafiro/BMG 1989), this
last album being a failed intent to return to the original sound of the
band.
In 1990 musical disagreements within the band lead to bassist José Luis
Campuzano Sherpa and drummer Hermes Calabria leaving the band and -due to
their agents' lack of human feelings- start a legal fight for the right to
use the name Barón Rojo. Brothers Armando and Carlos de Castro won the
battle and Barón Rojo became a quintet with Maxi González on vocals, Pepe
Bao on bass and José Antonio del Nogal Ramakhan on drums.
In 1992 -and back as a quartet (Carlos de Castro on rhythm guitar and
vocals, Armando de Castro on lead guitar, Niko del Hierro on bass guitar
and Ramakhan on drums)- the band releases Desafío (Avispa 1992), which is
a very good album, but it was undermined by the company's lack of interest
in its promotion.
On the other hand, their old record company, Zafiro, released without the
band's consent a "Best of" double compilation CD called Larga Vida al
Barón (BMG Ariola/Zafiro 1995) with good sales numbers. Meanwhile, the
touring did not stop, playing in both small clubs and big stadiums. In
1996 the band's formation stabilises with bassist Ángel Arias and drummer
José Martos, releasing an album called Arma Secreta (Clave Records 1997).
In 1999 the band releases Cueste lo que Cueste (BMG Ariola 1999), a
compilation of remastered old tracks with five brand new songs: Cueste lo
que Cueste, El Trepa, Más de Ti, Cielo e Infierno and a new recording of
their 1982 classic Resistiré with their new drummer, Valeriano Rodríguez.
The best Spanish rock band ever is still flying high, thanks to the fans
who had supported them through the years, in their highs and lows, for
richer and for poorer, opening the gates of Europe and America to other
Spanish bands like Héroes del Silencio and writing in gold letters the
name of Barón Rojo in the History of Rock and Roll. Cheers, Barones! |