.The minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State, Federico Sturzenegger, surprised during an interview conducted on Infobae streaming when he recalled an unusual anecdote from his youth linked to Luca Prodanthe legendary leader of Sumo. In the midst of a relaxed conversation about his adolescence in La Plata and his years prior to political and economic activity, the official related that during a recital he starred in an episode so effusive that it ended up drawing the attention of the singer himself on stage.
According to what he said, he was a young man with long hair and used to rock concerts in the eighties, watching the shows of Soda Stereo and the locals Virusamong other groups. However, when he attended the date of the band led by the Italian-Scottish vocalist, he had an indelible sequence. At that moment, the teenager got into a pogo, the moment of greatest effusion among rock fans, which was beginning to establish itself as one of the most characteristic expressions of Argentine rock culture.
Sturzenegger recalled that he began to move wildly among the audience until Luca Prodan himself decided to momentarily interrupt the show. “Luca Prodan stopped a recital for me,” he said with a laugh during the interview. According to his story, the musician observed him from the stage and gave him a direct warning: “Skinny, stop a little”. The anecdote caused surprise and laughter among the journalists present, who reacted with disbelief at the scene described by the minister and asked him for details about that meeting with one of the most legendary figures of national rock.
According to this version, the singer stared at him and asked him to calm down before continuing with the show. The anecdote went viral after its appearance on the Infobae program and generated all kinds of comments among Sumo fans and social media users, some of whom questioned the episode and others celebrated it as another example of the musician’s unpredictable character. “When I tell the story, they don’t believe me,” Sturzenegger concluded.
The reference to Luca Prodan also allowed us to revisit the extraordinary story of one of the most influential artists in Argentine music. Born in Rome on May 17, 1953 into a family of Italian and Scottish origin, he spent a good part of his childhood and adolescence in the United Kingdom, where he studied at the prestigious Gordonstoun school, the same institution where the then Prince Charles.
Rebel by nature, he escaped on several occasions from the family and educational structures that tried to contain him, he went through a period marked by heroin consumption and developed a deep passion for music, especially for punk, reggae and the nascent scene British post-punk. After an overdose that put his life at risk, he decided to leave Europe and accept a friend’s invitation to settle in the mountains of Córdoba, thus beginning a new stage that would end up changing the history of Argentine rock forever.
In Argentina he founded Sumo, a band that broke all the molds of the time. While much of the music scene was expressed in Spanish and responded to certain musical traditions, Prodan mixed lyrics in English and Spanish with influences from reggae, dub, post-punk, funk and new wave. His irreverent personality, his defiant attitude towards any authority and an overwhelming charisma quickly turned Sumo into a phenomenon on the underground circuit. During the first years he shared the stage with musicians such as Germán Daffunchio, Alejandro Sokol and Stephanie Nuttal, who would later be joined by Ricardo Mollo, Diego Arnedo, Roberto Pettinato and Alberto Troglio, forming the classic formation that would lead the band to definitive consecration.
Among the most emblematic Sumo songs are “The Dumb Blonde”, “The Old Vinegars”, “Mañana en el Abasto”, “Not So Different”, “Debit”, “Exploding from the Ocean”, “Crua Chan”, “Nextweek”, “Heroína” and “Fuck You”. Many of them became generational anthems due to their combination of irony, social criticism and musical experimentation. Prodan was characterized by an unpredictable stage presence, capable of alternating moments of corrosive humor with explosions of fury or long improvised monologues. His figure was fascinating because he seemed to not respond to any rules of the music business or the conventions of entertainment.
However, while artistic recognition grew, health problems derived from his alcoholism also advanced. After leaving heroin behind in Europe, he developed a strong dependence on alcohol that progressively deteriorated his physical condition. During the last years of his life it was common to see him with a bottle of gin and those who shared the intimacy of the band observed with concern the deterioration of his body.
The last Sumo recital was held on December 20, 1987 at the Los Andes stadium. Those who were there remembered an extremely thin Luca, visibly exhausted and in poor physical condition. Two days later, the December 22, he was found dead in his home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo.. He was only 34 years old. The official cause was cardiac arrest associated with the serious deterioration of his health and the consequences of chronic alcoholism. Currently, in that same place, the Freedom Party a national eighties rock meeting in memory of the artist.
Prodan’s death marked the end of Sumo, but also the birth of two of the most important bands of later Argentine rock: Divided and The Ballsarising from the division of its members. As the decades passed, the figure of Luca became a legend. His influence spans generations of musicians and continues to be the subject of books, documentaries, research and film projects.
Foreigner by birth but Argentine by cultural adoption, he managed in just a few years to build a work that forever modified the sound of national rock. His story combines rebellion, genius, excess and talent in a proportion that is difficult to repeat, which is why he continues to be considered one of the most revolutionary and charismatic artists that Argentine music has ever produced.
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