Turf and the early misadventures, when they improvised with Charly García and opened for the Rolling Stones

The round number, in this case, does not matter. 27 years after his departure, Turf recreates his debut album live again a lot of lifewhich will be reissued on remastered vinyl and uploaded to all digital platforms with bonus tracks.

The appointment is next May 24th at the Coliseo Theatreand tickets are on sale now.

To receive the press, the quintet (Joaquín Levington, Leandro “Lea” Lopatín, Carlos “Tody” Tapia, Fernando Caloia and Nicolás “Rispico” Ottavianelli) summoned journalists to speak in an iconic place for the band: the Palermo Hippodrome.

The beginning of the gang

The excuse for the meeting is to remember those good times when they were the new band, with similar successes Casanova, Panorama OR The news sees you.

But Joaquín immediately begins the dialogue, in one of the rooms of the club, with a frontal view of the record of the song, with an anecdote that summarizes the spirit of a group that in its early days was as close to Isidoro Cañones as it was to English rock and pop:

“I remember the day I met my idol Miseria Antosa here. It was actually called Alfonso Picaro, and he was one of those who were with Olmedo. That day I saw him at the vending machines and went to say hello. “Hello Dreadful Misery,” I said. And bang, he kicked me (laughs).

-Let’s go back a little further. You, Joaquín, came from Juana La Loca. How did you let them meet and form Turf?

Joaquin Levington: -This is a good question. I was in Juana La Loca, but I had already played with him (he points this out to Leandro) before. I went to Juana La Loca to record an album entitled Revolution. And I remember telling him, “I’m going away for a while, but I’ll be back.”

Leandro Lopatin: -Yes. You told me on my doorstep.

Joaquin: -So it was. I was little, I was 17, and I went for a while to learn what it meant to record an album, which I didn’t know. And in parallel we put together the concept of what Turf was. We decided on the name and started playing some of the songs a lot of life, which had not yet been conceived. In other words: we didn’t have the album, but we played seven or eight songs.

Light: -My brother and El Facha, a friend of his who was the band’s manager, are very stupid. They know a lot about the business and have infected us. Then we started coming to the Hippodrome, which is a beautiful bohemian place, especially in the afternoon.

Play with Charly García

-At the beginning they played “Enlace” by Ratones Paranoicos and “No se va a llama mi amor” by Charly García.

Joaquin: -That’s when we started with that rumor about the new band that was trending. And we started doing things that were rebellious for the time. One was playing Ratones or Charly songs when music was indie at that time.

Tody Tapia: -At that time the union of the Brit-pop of Oasis or Blur with the Ratones was not understood, they were two very separate things. And there is no song more punk and London than this Connectionthat sounds like the Sex Pistols!

Joaquin: -Or invite Charly García to play, who at that time was also rebellious and strange. He was Charly from Say No More, with his face painted, super artistic.

Fernando Caloia:-All the young bands hated Charly. He wasn’t a boy much loved by Argentine New Rock.

Joaquin: -Another crazy thing was that we, in the midst of all that anti-commercial ideology that existed at that time, came out supported by Levi’s. I remember one time we went to their offices to look for clothes and there was a poster of the brand with Liam Gallagher and Iggy Pop!

Light: -Now it seems ridiculous, since everyone wants sponsors or brands. But at that time you were the Antichrist: it was very frowned upon. At that time everything was bad in rock, there were a lot of cut off denim shorts.

Toy: -We were half marginalized. We were something strange: we were neither with the cut jeans camp nor with Babasónico or Los Brujos.

Joaquin: -And to finish that rebellion fight, we ended up signing with a multinational company.

The first contract and the boom

-How did you manage to sign with Universal?

Joaquin: -It was so easy.

Fernando: -There were several proposals. I remember after the first show someone came to us to suggest we record an album. And at the third recital came Roberto Costa and Daniel Grinbank. Then a kid from EMI followed us all night to get us to sign, telling us “You have to sign with me because if you don’t fire me I’ll lose my job”.

Alejandro Almada, who was our manager, told us “Don’t sign anything with anyone, we have something better”. The next day we went to Roberto Costa’s office, which was located between Av. de los Incas and Zapiola, and signed with Universal. Obviously we didn’t understand anything.

Joaquin: -To put an end to that madness, we sold 50 thousand records! It went very well for us, we became fashionable, they asked us for autographs, they rear-ended our truck. It was another thing that didn’t exist even then, because to do well you had to play for ten years.

Nicolas “Rispico” Ottavianelli: -The same, that ten years is more than the 90s. In the 80s this didn’t happen: Soda Stereo or Fito Páez struck immediately and were very young. It was something that had more to do with neighborhood rock, resistance, grassroots action.

Fernando: -Another thing that happened to us is that the album was played a lot on the radio, and rock bands weren’t played on the radio. Casanova, The news sees youthey were themes that were listened to.

Nicholas: -It was also a very MTV era. This was important: the video of Casanova It had a full rotation.

Opening act for the Rolling Stones

-Then they opened for Primal Scream and the Rolling Stones. What do you remember about those shows?

Fernando: -We went to Costa’s office and he asked us: “What band do you want me to bring to play with you?” And we called it “Primal Scream”. A few days later he called us and said: “That day they will play with Primal Scream”.

Light: -Before Paul Oakenfold played. I couldn’t believe it! It was a little after Happy Mondays. Everything was very fresh.

Joaquin: -Bobby Gillespie had a bodyguard so he wouldn’t escape. And he grabbed onto his back and hit him a thousand times so he could escape, because at that moment he was on fire (laughs). After the shows we took everyone out to the field to see River. Bobby managed to escape and appeared the next day in Barracas (laughs).

Toy: -I was fascinated because it was the period in which Mani, the bassist of the Stone Roses, played with them. He was the coolest guy on the entire planet. I gave him the national team shirt and he was happy. He discovered Fernet and went crazy (laughs).

-And with the Stones, did you meet them when they were the opening concert at the River?

Light: -No not at all. We shared a changing room with Viejas Locas: it was a small room in the River Institute’s kindergarten (laughs).

Joaquin: -There was a lot of fear because they told us they would kill us. Meredith Brooks was stoned from the stage, she was horrible. We ate a couple of coins. There was no catering. Then the Old Locas arrived with milky bread, salami and cheese, and they made us sandwiches.

-In the midst of all this, and after selling 50 thousand records, why are they kicked out of Universal?

Fernando: -There was a merger between Polygram and Universal and the entire leadership of Polygram went to Universal. After all, it happened that in two years we made all our dreams come true. We just had to make a psychedelic album.

Light: -Have you seen this strange album that bands make, which is usually the fifth album? It was our second: Always free.

Toy: -The Universal people came to the villa where we were composing. Always free to listen to the songs and they were songs that lasted twenty minutes. The kids wanted songs like Casanova OR Panorama!

The one who brought us to Universal was Walter Kon, who was from Radio Trípoli and is now Maluma’s manager. With the merger he left, and whoever arrived brought his bands.

Fernando: -The one who took the reins was Pelo Aprile, and he didn’t like us at all.

a lot of life

-How do you see “Una pila de vida” today, having to listen to it again and then play it?

Joaquin: -It’s really nice to do it all again. The show will be divided into two parts: the first part with the entire album, with a reconstruction of the era, and the second part with all our hits.

Turf generated the famous “first fans”, who must be grown up today, and who will die listening to those songs that represented their adolescence.

Fernando: -They are simple songs, but very difficult to play, because then we learned to play seriously.

-And what happens to you, as an audience, when an artist returns after many years to play an entire important album?

Joaquin: -I love it. Now, for example, Liam Gallagher will sing Without a doubt perhaps Total. And that’s great, I love knowing that I could listen to the entire album live in the same order. In another era it would have been frowned upon. In fact, if a group separated, it was frowned upon for them to return, because it seemed that they only returned to steal. This was a thinking error and a bias.

Toy: -The Sex Pistols called their tour “Stinking profit”, they whitewashed everything!

Light: -Johnny Rotten can always do whatever he wants (laughs).

-After the “Una pila de vida” show on May 24th at the Colosseum, how is Turf?

Joaquin: -We will tour with the same show: first inland and neighboring countries, then towards the end of the year through Europe and Mexico. And next year we have three projects: two albums and a fiction series. We are starting to sing new songs and imaginary series (laughs).