Spanish Garage & Pop-Rock: GUATEQUE

2011-06-29

GUATEQUE

Guateque is the name that receives a get-together where young people met during the 60s and early 70s Spain. There was not a fixed place for celebrate a guateque. It could be done at the house of an organizer, at the garage, or at the open area, or even at the basements of a church. Participants heard music in the pick up, or “casetes ” in a tape player (the stereo player was a novelty then). Each one carried his own music, or sometimes music could be offered by two or more, but not all people did it. “El guateque” could be celebrated in any occasion, in a weekend, a birthday, a turn of the Army service, some boy friend celebrating anniversaries, in a local party, a national holiday, or any day off. It could be indoors or out in the open. Participants listened to the groups that I have uploaded in this blog. Or somebody sang with his guitar. The people currently drunk and, less, ate. Sometimes, “el guateque” was not the main part of a party, but complementary, and sometimes could assist majors and children. For example I assisted, toward 1973, and being a little boy, to a summer guateque celebrated at the riverbank of my village, in which my fathers, their friends, my uncles, and more people spent a very nice day together. In fact, the guateque did not have a defined and fixed format. And the most people that were assisting were friends and relatives. In a guateque, there were joy and laughs; and music was only a further complement. It was something like sharing a common privacy. The guateque was reproduced, at least in Andalucía, in the local parties during few days. The Town council usually celebrated the festivity of a Saint, or a Virgen with a-week event. Part of this event was celebrated in an open space given by the town council. In this space, the park in my town, or “recinto ferial”, there were a dance floor and a scene in a side. Each day, a famous band, or singer (depending of the money and the economic capacity of the town), played there during +/- two hours. After the show, a local band (e.g. “Horizontes”, with my uncle Alfonso on guitar), or a regional band, played few hours before the daybreak. In the mid 70s, the guateque as such disappeared, gave way to the boite, and later, to the disco.