TARTAROS, OS – The First Portuguese Surf-Garage Group 1964-1967

Description

In the early 1960s, when rock ‘n’ roll started dying in Portugal, a new trend was already here. Hailing from the UK and headed by Cliff Richard, fast upstaged by his supporting band The Shadows, this would be the first ‘British Invasion’. An entire generation quickly fell under its influence and all across the country dozens of bands were formed, playing rock-based guitar-driven instrumental songs with catchy tunes that were often adaptations of traditional songs. Like the Killer surf garage tune TARTÁRIA, maybe one the wildest surf tune record in Europe in that era. Oblivious to what was happening abroad, the Portuguese press dubbed them ‘Shadows-influenced instrumental bands’. This was the context in which Os Tártaros were formed in an Oporto garage. Featuring Joaquim Gualter on lead guitar, Alberto Abreu on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Hernâni de Melo on bass and harmonica, and Eduardo Alves on drums, the band began touring the country, performing in associations, fairs, and festivals. The early 60s explosion of Shadows-influenced bands grew substantially stronger when The Beatles came onboard and also benefited from the charitable actions of one man, Gouveia Machado, the owner of a musical instrument store who let young people pay for their guitars and drums by installments. From 1964 onwards, with the advent of new influences and instruments, hundreds of bands followed, not just in Lisbon and Oporto but all across Portugal. Some of the tracks were included in the fabulous compilations, PORTUGUESE NUGGETS, this LP is more than a anthology of all their material, its a historical document from a band that runned againts their fate in a time that playing in a rock band, in the portuguese dictatorship, was like a crime.