The best anecdotes of Argentine rock, from A to Z

Eight years ago, Pietro Deantoni published the book Pappo, made in the USA and discovered a new calling, after five decades of working as manager of a long list of Argentine rock artists. Now he is also a writer and hosts a weekly program on Radio Moskito.

His new job is called From A to Z with Pietro DeantoniSubtitled In my own way I continue to travel. It is a collection of anecdotes dating back to his entire career, mostly with Argentine rock figures, but also with Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, BB King and the Rolling Stones.

The book is an independent edition of his brand new Editorial Autores de Argentina and that is why he is doubly proud of the result, to the point that he is already thinking about a second volume and in the middle of the conversation every now and then he takes out a piece of paper to write a new anecdote that comes naturally to him. .

“The cover”, he says, “is a creation by Florencia Nicoletti and the paper I chose is recycled, a small and modest way of collaborating with the planet. And to create it I had a genius like Agustín Soria, who interviewed me for to “I work on Cerati and he told me to count on him if I made a second book. Then we did everything during the pandemic.”

Its beginnings

In the book it is clear that Peter Deantoni became a manager because of his friendship with the Argentine rock scene that was beginning to take shape in the 1970s. He also found it a special talent to be able to speak English, therefore he ended up accompanying many international visits and do connection with foreign technical teams.

“My parents were domestic workers,” he explains, “of an American family that had two boys my age with whom we grew up together. So that’s where I learned the language and that’s why they call me Peter, because they didn’t know pronounce Pedro or my other name.” , Laureano”.

-And how did you get into rock, just for a generational question?

-It’s my mother’s fault, she took me to see an Elvis Presley film. I wanted to be a musician but I wasn’t lucky because I can really follow the rhythm, so I gave up. But through my first wife I was able to go to an Almendra rehearsal, I met the band, and when Edelmiro Molinari started Color Humano I lent them my house to rehearse. I also had a truck, perfect for transporting tools.

-Between the Englishman and the truck you had more virtues than many others!

-(laughs) Everything was taking shape. A producer named Jorge Marrero asked me to bill after my friends’ shows, since I was there, and one thing led to another.

From one book to another

According to Peter, the idea for the previous book came from his niece, who heard him always telling the same anecdotes and suggested he write everything down in a notebook and give it to his friends.

Some time later, the journalist Sergio Marchi asked him to tell his anecdotes with Sinatra and he secretly recorded it and then told him that he had a first chapter ready there. They presented the project to the Planeta publishing house and immediately signed a contract.

“Now, knowing a little about the mechanisms of making a book, I started with this second work”, summarizes the author, who clarifies that he does not consider himself a writer: “I am a charlatan who got himself registered by friends, Sergio for first. and now Agustín”.

-At one point in “From A to Z” you confess that you have never seen Sumo or Soda Stereo live. Why?

-At that time I was with Los Abuelos de la Nada and we worked from Tuesday to Sunday, sometimes with three or four shows a night. It’s the band I’ve done the most recitals with in my life. We played in a school at 6pm, at 10pm in a sweet shop for children under 12 and at 2am in a nightclub, we had to use double equipment because we couldn’t set up and dismantle in time! !.

-I imagine those were times of great lack of control.

-Yes. Then I managed to leave the market, but when I got off the street I had too much free time on my hands and I started drinking a lot of alcohol. I have been sober for several years now, although I have started smoking cigarettes again.

Some anecdotes

The grandparents of nothing: “We recorded the third album in Ibiza, but before leaving for the Spanish island I spent many hours with Miguel Abuelo, and we met at my house in San Isidro with my parents to share a farewell barbecue. After ate while we were in a hurry. After a few coffees, we begin to exchange ideas: ‘Don Laureano, what is life for you?’ Miguel asked intrepidly. “Miguelito dear,” my father replied, “life is a useful book for those who can share it.” Miguel didn’t hesitate for a moment, he wrote the sentence and included it in the hit. Hymn of my heart“.

Andrés Calamaro: “While I was in Ibiza with my grandparents, they called me to inform me of the problem Fabio Zerpa is right, from Salmón’s first solo album was a success. Despite the success with Los Abuelos de la Nada, Andrés was a shy and insecure boy, but he had no choice, and had to decide whether to continue on the train called Abuelos or start running alone. «What should I do, Peter?», he asked me. “Look, Andy,” I replied, “no one promised you a rose garden, nor a bunch of thorns.” “That phrase keeps us very close and he occasionally uses it in an interview.”

Gustavo Cerati: “We worked together in early 2000. The new millennium sees him do his first US tour, with the album Blow, printed in Los Angeles, where I lived. He arrived with his whole entourage and I received them at my house, I prepared a grilled salmon and we went to the pool to relax a bit. Then I took them to visit some friends and they went with Flavio Etcheto to a party in a building in the middle of center. The next day we were hitting the road with the Red Hot Chili Peppers microphone and I thought I had lost it forever. But he came only to leave. A pro total”.

Charlie Garcia: “Once the American television network ABC contacted me for a special at the Casa Rosada with an Argentine artist. It was the only time I worked with Charly. The production consisted of filming a show on the stairs of Plaza de Mayo, in front of Balcarce 50. At that time he was living or staying in a country house in the north area, so in order not to leave the gringos hanging, it occurred to me to host the whole gang at the Sheraton Hotel to have them close at hand and close to the place. Gringos were super professional and had scheduled the satellite broadcast at 7 a.m. But with Charly you never know, and everything that was timed like a Swiss watch became an odyssey. He resisted getting in the truck because I didn’t need to a bit of ‘inspiration’… In the end we did the show a few minutes later than agreed and it went very well.”

Ricardo Iorio: “I have an anecdote that is very strong. I was working with Rudy Sarzo and they invited us to participate in the Metal Para Todos festival, Rudy finished his set and decided to go back to the hotel, but I came back because I saw many friendly faces again. Together with Vitico we decided to go and say hello to Iorio, who has known me since the V-8 days, when he sold potatoes. Taking advantage of his career and his attractiveness, the boy ordered a catering pig. And when he saw us enter with Vitico he didn’t hesitate to say hello and gave us the pig’s head as an offering. It was all very bizarre.”

Pappus: “The first time we traveled we stayed at the Highland Gardens Hotel, which is not just any hotel, because thousands of artists like Rudolph Valentino stayed there. They put us in room 105, where Janis Joplin was found dead in October 1970. Everyone wants rent it and the concierge called us every day to change, but we never accepted because we were too settled in. One afternoon I was at the swimming pool and two Canadian girls approached me with guitars. I told them I was with a guitarist from Argentina and they went crazy, very interested in meeting the famous guitar hero. Just then the suite window opens and Pappo appears in red underwear, scratching his ass and shouting: ‘Shorthorn! Is there business?'”

Paranoid mice: “In 1994 we were on tour in the United States and when we stopped in Miami we played at a fantastic place called Billboard and a spectacular party was thrown in Juanse’s suite. El Pelado Cordera, dressed in pajamas, knocked on the door to join the group. party , “Juanse looked him up and down and said, ‘A boy who lives in pajamas can’t go to this party,’ and closed the door in his face.”

Miguel Zavaleta: “With Nito Mestre we toured a lot in Chile and Peru, so we invited Miguel Zavaleta, who always accompanied us on stage. At the Sheraton in Chile he kept ordering room service all the time, without knowing that it was very expensive, so everything what he earned by playing was wasted in the room.”