There are many things they share EL PERIÓDICO and Estopa. They both started walking one day in October with the intention of growing up. without ever losing contact with the street. Both have built their respective projects based on the conviction that complex things are better explained with simple words and that closeness makes you go further. They both understand that the real Barcelona is metropolitan and that the only way to always know where you are is to never forget where you come from. And they have both learned that life must be celebrated; if possible, in community.
When Estopa was born in 1999, EL PERIÓDICO had two decades behind it, and it seems that from the beginning it detected something of itself in those two twenty-somethings from Cornellà who, with eyes shining with excitement, composed hymns of a majority vocation based on the little things they saw in the neighborhood. And she decided to accompany them. It is very possible (although there is debate about it) that the first report on the brothers David and Jose Muñoz Calvo published in the general press was the one that Ramón Vendrell dedicated to them in the Sunday supplement of this newspaper following the appearance of the duo’s now legendary first LP. Since then, the paths of Estopa and EL PERIÓDICO have crossed countless times.
A happy culmination
It makes complete sense, therefore, that Estopa, which in 2024 plans to commemorate its first 25 years in a big way, would be the group chosen to put the happy ending to the celebration program for the 45th anniversary of EL PERIÓDICO. Together they toasted the future in a family event held at the Former Estrella Damm Factory (an enclosure painted for artists who have dedicated so many inspired verses to beer) and where subscribers, workers, advertisers and suppliers of the newspaper met, as well as institutional representatives such as the mayor of Conellà de Llobregat, Antonio Balmón; the secretary of Mitjans de Comunicació i Difusió of the Generalitat, Oriol Duran, and the spokesperson of the Government, Patrícia Plaja, among others.
That historical link between the newspaper and the Muñoz family goes back long before Estopa was a more or less well-known name. “My father sent us to the lame newsstand every day to buy ‘Sport’ and EL PERIÓDICO,” David explained during the brief chat with the journalist. Jordi Bianciotto which served as a preamble to the event. Bianciotto, by the way, is, in addition to being a music critic for this newspaper, the author of ‘El libro de Estopa’, which is the closest thing to an official biography of the group that has been published to date (as you can see, the thread of the connections add and continue). Sergi Mas, presenter of the show, and the director of EL PERIÓDICO, Albert Sáez, also highlighted in their interventions the emotional bond that unites the duo and the Barcelona newspaper. “Estopa, EL PERIÓDICO and Damm form an unbeatable triangle,” they stressed. “We feel very at home here,” said the eldest Muñoz.
Eight apotheotic songs
All this happened before the Estopa put on their fatigues and offered an eight-song pocket concert accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, a minimal format that led them to put aside the rock side of their repertoire and fully exploit their more rumbero profile. It was something like an imitation of the acoustic recital that they offered exclusively for EL PERIÓDICO readers in 2013 in the Luz de Gas room. And, like then, the thing was quite apotheotic, because David and Jose had enough charisma and their songs to set the pace, break the ice, break the cord, add fuel to the bonfire of feeling and make the entire audience to clap and sing choruses.
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“Thanks to EL PERIÓDICO for always remembering us,” exclaimed David Muñoz before closing the performance with the captivating ‘Like Shrimp’, which a quarter of a century after its publication remains the brothers’ favorite piece. And he added: “See you at the Olímpic!” Because yes, Estopa’s next live presentation in Barcelona will take place on July 10, at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, no less (tickets flew out in a few hours). This will happen within the framework of an ambitious 25th anniversary tour that a few days before, on June 22, he would have taken them to the Cívitas Metropolitano in Madrid, also with all the paper sold. It will, without a doubt, be one of the highlights of the musical season: just like the red wine in the song, David and Jose will have gotten smarter over the years, but every time they hit the road they continue to take on the world by ‘ snack’. Chunk by chunk, gram by gram.
As always, EL PERIÓDICO will be there to explain it.