A building with boarded-up windows seems to be waiting for its end, on the corner of number 73 Santa Juliana Street, in Tetouan. On the ground floor there is a metal blind which does not seem to have been raised for a long time and a small sign which goes unnoticed by passers-by. There remains an A, a V, an S and another A. Fill in the gaps: WASPA.
This is the name of a record company from Tetuán, which currently continues its activity in another part of the neighborhood. Under his protection, a good handful of metal bands have recorded albums since the late 80s, such as Saratoga, Burning, Medina Zahara, Lordi or Los Suaves, among other roaring guitar groups.
And it was also the first label of Extremoduro, with which he recorded in 1989 and in the M-20 studios – right there – his first album, You in your house, us at the bonfire.
In January 1989, the three members who then made up the group had already traveled to Madrid to record their legendary demo. Transgressive rock in the Duplimatic studios in the Pacífico district, run by former Pekenikes drummer, Félix Arribas. Then came the legendary recording of the TV show Plastic, where Salo wears a tricorn hat and Robe wears a white tunic; and third place in the national Yamaha competition in the Jácara hall in September 1989.
These first steps – small but firm – allowed the independent label Avispa to sign them. Carlos and Fernando Martínez had founded the label a few years before, they were moving towards the world of rock and did not hesitate to include them in their ranks after their good position in the competition. The money to record the album, 250,000 pesetas, would come from the group itself and would be recorded at the M-20 studios, which were part of the small Avispa network. They agreed to record three albums in three years.
The group has always spoken negatively about this first experience and Francisco Martínez, director of Avispa, has given a version that appeals to the informality and casual customs of the group as the reasons for the sinking.
Extremadura journalist Juan Carlos Ramos –Juancaraes on the networks – has a YouTube channel in which he tells the journey of Extremoduro, its protagonists, its supporting roles and its codas (currently it has been going on for more than sixty hours). Four years ago, he devoted a chapter to the crazy story of Wasp and the first recording (1989), with very interesting information on this legendary first time.
The highlight of the chapter is the interview with JJ Serrano, a sound engineer who acted as producer – in the absence of a regular – of this modest recording made with few resources.
Serrano, who has worked with several heavy groups like Muro, Obús, Niagara or Ñu, recounts in the video the time of the first Extremoduro in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood. “Salo, who was the bassist, the guy had a very good atmosphere; and Robe, very normal, I didn’t see anything I said, what a story,” he remembers.
He ate the most marathon sessions while the group, who also worked long hours, took breaks at “the bar across the street.” It’s hard not to try to imagine who is the heir to this place where Salo, Fanta and Robe gathered at that time. At first glance: Opposite today there is a relatively new kebab and burger restaurant.
The benefit of the album, according to Extremoduro, was albums to reward friends they had convinced to finance the first demo, although Martínez denies the biggest one and states in an interview with EPE that they paid for the albums.
Shortly after, the group returned to the Santa Juliana Street studios to prepare the second album. At that time, Carlos was already accompanying them. The dirty -Carlos melodies, the night in Madrid – who came to take the bass so Salo could take up the guitar.
Extremoduro would eventually break the contract because they were unhappy with the lack of promotion from the promoter and not receiving anything after the first album. Although the technician was unaware of the details of the contract, he remembers that “it was the typical record company contract of the 80s, absolutely leonine.”
But before leaving, they recorded an informal recording of fifteen songs in a single session to prepare for the aborted second album with Avispa. From this work session, the record company will release several albums that the group has always considered pirates, such as Models 90 either like animalswhich was a carbon copy of the album We are animalsthat the group has already released with another company. An unofficial album that passed from hand to hand during the 90s. Among some of the recordings of these albums, which were released on a gas station cassette sub-label, Robe’s voice can be heard: “how bad that went, man”, you can hear it.
Serrano explains to Juan Carlos Ramos in the video on his channel that he heard the brothers, owners of the company, say that, having not yet signed the regulations, all the group’s equipment belonged to them. They were therefore entitled to delete this material, which had been recorded for other purposes. Robe and his men, for their part, did not initiate legal proceedings for fear that legal proceedings would temporarily paralyze the group’s activity.
With the death of Roberto Iniesta on December 10, the last of the four members of Extremoduro who roamed these streets in the late 80s is gone. When we return to the building with the blind windows of Santa Juliana, on the corner of Jerónima Llorente, which no one notices, we will consider it as a sentimental archeology of a generation that was teenagers in the 90s. As a hidden memory of the history of music in this country. And we’ll wonder where these weeks would end the Dress humming Jesus Christ Garcia?
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