They have been playing for more than 60 years and Los Sírex continue to rock and roll in their 80s as they did in their 20s. Just two months ago, they made even the brooms dance —never better said— at the international Rockin'Race Jamboree festival, which has been held for three decades in Torremolinos, bringing together thousands of unconditional fans of the genre from all over the world. They triumphed with their old hits and their usual rock, and their performances have skyrocketed again. They are as indestructible as the Rolling Stones. And, in addition, a few weeks ago an exhibition titled El tren de la costa (The Coastal Train) was inaugurated at the Museu del Ferrocarril de Vilanova i la Geltrú, taking its name from one of their great historic rock songs.
Thus, El tren de la costa occupies one of the museum's halls, very close to other historic railways, such as the replica of the first one that made the Barcelona-Mataró journey in 1848, steam locomotives, and even one of the first Talgos. The exhibition gathers memorabilia from the Barcelona band, such as album covers, photographs, and other objects that commemorate their career, including a stage with life-size silhouetted photos of the three most veteran members of the group.
Of the five members of the stable band from the 60s, only the singer, Leslie, el Anxoveta from Barceloneta, and Pepe Fontseré, the rhythm guitarist, remain. Lead guitarist Manolo Madruga and drummer Lluís Gomis passed away a few years ago, and Guillermo Rodríguez decided not long ago that it was time to hang up his bass. Along with Leslie and Pepe, Juanjo Calvo also continues, having joined in the late 70s when the group returned to the stage, and has now been in charge of guitar solos for more than 40 years. The three, along with three other supporting musicians, are still in the fray.
The song that gives its name to the exhibition is one of the great classics of Los Sírex. It was Leslie —Antoni Miquel by real name— who heard the original version in the early 60s when a sailor from the US Sixth Fleet played it at the Hawai restaurant in Barceloneta. Its original title in English is Train kept a rollin' (something like The train kept rolling), and it impacted him so much that he tried to buy it from the sailor, who refused in such a rude way that the Barceloneta native, the proud son of the fisherman Anxova, snatched it from him in an oversight and wrote lyrics in Spanish, the one with the chorus "run girl go to the train or it will leave."
The Train kept a rollin' that Leslie swiped from the Yankee soldier was a successful 1956 version by Johnny Burnette, an American rock and roll pioneer, but it was originally composed five years earlier by Tiny Bradshaw, a jazz musician who gave it a jump blues touch, which is a subgenre of blues with a boogie woogie rhythm.
This piece, in Burnette's version, is still a staple in the repertoires of rockabilly bands, although legendary groups such as the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Motörhead, and Metallica have also performed it. And, of course, Los Sírex also belong to this club.
The indefatigable Barcelona group continues at full steam along the coast with its rock and roll soul intact, just like in its beginnings in El Pinar del Poble-sec and the San Carlos Club in Gràcia. They were always more into the Stones than the Beatles, although one of their milestones was opening for the Liverpool band at their 1965 concert in the Monumental. But record labels forced them to continue with the strategy of recording covers of commercial songs from their back catalog. Despite themselves, great hits emerged from there such as La escoba, Que se mueran los feos, and Qué bueno, qué bueno, with which Conchita Bautista failed in Eurovision. Nevertheless, they strived to introduce their stamp with their guitars and their synchronized movements on stage in the style of the Shadows, though with more rock swagger.
Despite them being forced upon them, Los Sírex do not disown either La escoba or their other hits that deviated from their genuine rock soul. They are part of their lives and, as they say, they no longer even belong to them, but are the collective heritage of several generations of this country. Leslie himself understands that the public wants to hear La escoba in their performances. "It's like if I go to a Rolling Stones concert and they don't play Satisfaction. I get up and leave," he jokes.
Almost 70 years have passed since they started playing. They are on the threshold of octogenarianism and remain as active as their idols Mike Jagger and Keith Richards, and they combine La escoba with the purest rock and roll embedded in their DNA, as they demonstrated at the Rockin'Race. How I would like to see them as opening act for the Stones. I'm going to collect signatures. Who's in?