La Guardia (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = La Guardia


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Background = group_or_band
Origin = flagicon|Spain Granada, Spain
Genre = pop-rock, country-rock
Years_active = 1983–1997
2003-present
Label = Tubo Escape Records
Blanco y Negro
Vale Music
URL = http://www.grupolaguardia.com/
Current_members = Manuel España
Jean Louis Barragán
Javier Cano
Paco Villamayor
Past_members = Carlos Gilabert
Enrique Moreno
Joaquín Almendros
Emilio Muñoz

La Guardia is a Spanish pop-rock band. They were especially famous in the late 80s and early 90s, although they are still active today (after a hiatus). They have sold more than 2 million records [cite web | url=http://www.popes80.com/entrevistalaguardia.htm | title=Entrevista con la Guardia |author=Arancha Moreno| publisher= popes80.com | accessdate=2008-07-08 |] .

History

The group was founded in Granada in 1983 by Manuel España (voice), Enrique Moreno "Conejo" (bass guitar) and Carlos Gilabert (keyboard), with the initial name of "La guardia del Cardenal Richelieu" ("Cardinal Richelieu's Guard"). They were only teenagers and they adopted this name because they used to rehearse in the afternoons after they watched Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds on TV [cite web | url=http://www.popes80.com/entrevistalaguardia.htm | title=Entrevista con la Guardia |author=Arancha Moreno| publisher= popes80.com | accessdate=2008-07-08 |] .

Under this name they released a first single with techno and mod sounds. After this, Gilabert left the band, and Joaquín Almendros (guitar) and Emilio Muñoz (drums) joined it, giving birth to the band's most famous line-up. They moved to Madrid, where the Movida was still ebullient, looking for broader success, and in 1985, they recorded an EP, now as La Guardia, after winning the Villablanca pop-rock festival in the town of Fuengirola.

In 1986 they traveled to London to record their first full album "Noches como esta"; but it's in 1988, with the album "Vámonos", when they achieved major success, thanks mostly to the hugely successful single "Mil calles llevan hacia ti", which reached #1 in the Spanish 40 Principales chart in 1989 [cite web | url=http://www.numeros1.com/hit.asp?exito=Mil+calles+llevan+hacia+ti&artista=La+Guardia| title=Mil calles llevan hacia tí, de la Guardia | accessdate=2008-07-08 |] and which became the band's signature song. Manuel España said he had written the song while walking through the streets of the Albayzín in Granada to his grandmother's house. "Vámonos" went on to become a multi-platinum album, selling over 250.000 copies, and the band performed on a tour with more than 100 dates.

In 1990 came their second album, "Cuando Brille El Sol", with its same-titled and, again, very successful single, which kept them at the top of the Spanish pop-rock scene.

"Al Otro Lado" (1991), "Contra reloj" (1993) and "Acento del sur" (1994) were their next works, all three produced by Dusty Wakeman. The latter was recorded in Los Angeles at Mad Dog Studios. Shortly after this experience, Enrique Moreno died from a coronary disease, and this tragic event ultimately caused the group to disband in 1997.

Later, after he had been working for a few years on another band called Chamaco, España tried to revive La Guardia without the involvement of Almendros, which caused the latter to present two lawsuits [cite web | url=http://www.granadahoy.com/article/ocio/120494/la/guardia/celebra/con/disco/duetos/sus/anos/carrera/rock.html | title=La Guardia celebra con un disco de duetos sus 25 años de carrera en el rock |author=Sonsoles Rodríguez| publisher= granadahoy.com | accessdate=2008-07-08 |] . Finally, España won the rights to use the name for his new project and in 2003 he released "Ahora!", an acoustic record produced by Carlos Goñi, from the band Revólver.

In 2007, with a new record company (Vale Music), La Guardia recorded "Sobre ruedas", an album of country-rock sounds, which sold just over 20.000 copies.

In 2008 the band celebrated their 25th anniversary with the album "25 años no es nada", in which Manuel España performed the band's hits with the collaboration of other artists such as La Mari (of Chambao), Álvaro Urquijo, Mikel Erentxun, Ariel Rot or Raimundo Amador.

References and notes

"Much of the content of this article comes from [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Guardia_(grupo) the equivalent Spanish-language wikipedia article] , accessed July 7 2008."

External links

* [http://www.grupolaguardia.com/ Official page]

References