Los Chichos

Los Chichos
Los Chichos in the Sala Razzmatazz (Barcelona)
Background information
Origin	Vallecas, Spain
Genres	Rumba flamenca
Years active	1973–1995, 1990–2008
Labels	Phonogram
Website	los-chichos.com
Members	Emilio González Gabarre Julio González Gabarre Emilio González García
Past members	Juan Antonio Jiménez Muñoz †

Los Chichos is a Spanish Gypsy band that was formed in the mid-1970s by brothers Julio González, Emilio González and Juan Antonio Jiménez. The band reached its peak popularity in the 1980s and broke up in the 1990s. Los Chichos sold 20 million records, making it one of the best-selling Spanish groups in history. Their songs focused on several topics and themes from Spanish Gypsy popular life, ranging from delinquency, violence, and drugs to love. They performed popular rumba flamenca in the vein of Los Chunguitos.

Emilio and Julio were born to a family of twelve brothers born in Madrid who had to migrate to seeking for work in the countryside. Later, Emilio left the family and headed toward for a season accompanying the Farina brothers, guitarists, and friends of him. He quickly started earning money and turning part of it around to his family. His father, doubting the source of the money, visited Emilio under the belief that his son was committing crimes to earn it.

Back in Madrid, Emilio kept playing the guitar along with his brother Julio in inns. During a presentation, he meets , a manager who currently represents several artists from the 70's and 80's and back then ran a nightclub named "Discoteca Lover Club", the property of and located in .

Soon after, Eduardo proposes to manage the Gonzalez brothers and together start looking for shows in Spain provinces. In they make their first appearance, in a place called "Sala Nuevo Electra". The owner, nicknamed Xuxo, told the manager that the group needed another member in the group to fill the stage. Julio proposes Juan Antonio Jiménez Muñoz, "Jero", for the night.

In , they continued attending to shows. In one of these shows, they present the guitarist Antonio Sánchez, father of , and Pedro Cordero, a long-time friend of the Gonzalez brothers. After the presentation, Antonio suggests making a demo in his recording studio, and a few days later, they record Quiero ser libre, Los Chichos' greatest hit, written by 19 years old Jero in a Madrid jail cell where he served a sentence for a few days.

Appeared in 1973 in relation to a particular interpretation of the rumba flamenca, being pioneers in the music merger. Discovered by the father of Paco de Lucia, they were signed by Philips Records and began to edit their first singles. Its success is such that immediately placed in the hands of the renowned master Torregrosa, which becomes the maker of a unique sound: rumba-rock recorded by the unique strong Dolby-B and a taste of the music appearing in the films of movie kinki and blaxploitation of the time (a powerful bass line, percussion and proud arrangement s orchestra, with the horn section sticking guns), as witnessed in turbulent doing stories that were about to tell: a repertoire that can be described as a song of the working-class neighborhoods in the suburbs, these newly built which housed most humble walks of life and where the drug and crime began to rage. But there were also songs of extraordinary sensitivity, expressed directly by their irreplaceable voices. The author of all of them was Juan Antonio Jimenez, "Jeros", a gypsy becomes one of the best and most prolific figures has given the song Spanish. About the same time they are born Las Grecas, the gypsy-rock paradigm, and made them Jeros three themes for his first feature, highlighting especially "Orgullo" with its memorable electric guitar intro. The first three discs Chicchos represent a milestone in the Spanish pop-rock: spare not a single song and they are all potential singles. From the fourth, Emilio began writing songs, though not as inspired, and begin to include synth sounds, so their presence in all the clubs, billiards and bumper cars is already assured. The hard Hoy Igual Que Ayer has more about Chichos discounted as smoothed (though the lyrics of his hit "Mala ruinas tengas" is priceless, it gives up chills), and some of the songs seem overly melodic, much of the time (remember those films of scantily clad young ladies, as well: the tune of "I knew" or the album's title track could serve perfectly soundtrack). But with Amor y Ruleta, released in 1979 Chichos back on track: fast-paced rumba-rock, worth listening to loud in the cassette s of 1430 or the R-12. From there his TV appearances are constant (with a start scene of the three memorable), sales continue to rise through the roof and the concert s multiply until we have more days.