The current students of the Projecte school will always be able to say: I saw the Rubinoos perform in the courtyard of my school. 99.5% of your interlocutors will make a face like: What the hell are you telling me? The remaining 0.5% will have their hearts racing and ask: The Californian guitar pop group responsible for so many fabulous melodies and vocal harmonies!?
The same. The band offered a concert at the educational center on Tibidabo Avenue this Thursday. At snack time. The story of transatlantic friendship that took the authors of ‘I wanna be your boyfriend’ there deserves to be told.
Sealed courtship
Jonathan and Susana, both from 1977, simultaneously pounced on an original copy of ‘Back to the drawing board!’ (1979), the Rubinoos’ second LP, in an Italian record store. They were 19 years old, it was their first trip together and their courtship was sealed by that common discovery. In 2002 they formed Suzy & The Quattro and they transformed into Suzy Chain and BB Quattro. In 2003 they went to see the Rubinoos at La Boîte, in the group’s first performance in Barcelona. After the pass, BB spoke with them and offered himself for whatever was needed in the future. Since then, through the small promoter Producciones Barbudashas organized all his performances in Spain and has been his agent in Europe.
The Rubinoos performed at Suzy and BB’s wedding, in 2010. “They told us that their priority was to play at our wedding and that we would put them on a tour starting from our date to make it possible,” explains BB. No sooner said than done.
Matilda, the couple’s daughter, studies at Projecte. The school’s assembly hall needs renovation and BB had already brought in acquaintances in the musical field to organize small activities with the aim of raising funds. Agustí Burriel and Los Brioles, for example, have acted in Projecte. Matilda, 9, suggested the Rubinoos could do it too. Magic. This Friday the group’s new Spanish tour begins at Razzmatazz 3, seven nights in which they will present ‘From home’ (2019), one of the many recording victims of the pandemic stoppage. Joining them will be Suzy & Los Quattro, returning to activity after hibernation due to the coronavirus.
Meticulous sound check
We return to the dirt patio of Projecte. The Rubinoos They spend well over an hour on sound check, with special care in the voices. “We want to sound good. Music is very important when we are children,” says Jon Rubin, the lead singer, although little joke with Tommy Dumbar and with the harmonies of Donn Spindt (drums) and Al Chan (bass). The first three are founding members of the quartet. Chan has only been around since 1980.
BB does what he can with the mixing board, Courtesy of Barbara Ann Bar, where the Rubinoos have performed for friends after almost all of their gigs in Barcelona. Rubin approves the sound and BB is going to set up the juice, smoothie, soft drink, water and fruit bar from which the income will come. To which he will also contribute a raffle of records, t-shirts and tickets donated by the Rubinoosthree euros a ticket.
Juvenile delinquent
The performance begins with ‘Juvenile delinquent’, a rewriting of ‘I’m not a juvenile delinquent’, doo wop hit by Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers of which the Rubinoos only respect the titular phrase. “In fact, in our song the character is a juvenile delinquent,” Dumbar clarified before. The typical irony of the Rubinoos, authors of the great rocker ‘Rock & roll is dead’ (1977). “And we don’t care,” adds the chorus.
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It is followed by ‘Honey from The Honeycombs’, from ‘From Home’, their aforementioned latest work. A power pop marvel whose genesis must be recounted. “It was Chuck Prophet’s idea [el productor del disco] that we wrote it, because he heard us talk about the Honeycombs so much,” Dumbar previously explained. It turns out that the British beat group’s drummer was Anne Margot ‘Honey’ Lantree, a true pioneer who had to endure accusations that it was just a publicity stunt by producer Joe Meek, that she did not play on the recordings and that her lack of skill was evident live.. Sexist accusations. And it turns out that, when his mother died, Dumbar found a family film in which his older brother, Robbie, future member of Earth Quake for more information, is given the ‘I Can’t Stop’ single for his birthday. ‘ (1964), a Honeycombs song sung, as well as brutally beaten, by Honey Lantree. From all of this came the irresistible declaration of love for Lantree that is ‘Honey from The Honeycombs’, favorite drummer over “the Charlies” (Watts) and “the Ringos” (Starr).
honey pop
In case it is not clear that the Rubinoos are scholars of modern popular music, they continue with ‘Do I love you’, a song from ‘From home’ that could well be a lost gem of soul from the late 60s or early 70s. What voices, by Apollo. In the number ‘Stingray’ they travel to surfing instruments and Dumbar pretends to be electrocuted when playing the Martian chords. After their version of ‘I think we’re alone now’, first published by Tommy James & The Shondells and converted by the Rubinoos into glorious honey pop In 1977!, the year of the punk outbreak, there is almost no need to write anything else. Except that fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers have a beatific smile on their faces, and that a few children dance and the majority play.