Los Saicos: why the first punk band was written out of history
There are many different theories regarding the invention of punk rock. There’s The Ramones if you want to be a puritan about it. There’s The Stooges if you want to be a hipster about it. There’s the Sex Pistols if you want to be wrong about it; everywhere you look, there’s a different argument about who got there first.
This makes a certain amount of sense to me, and not just because it’s punk rock, and if you ever agree with anyone, you’re a sellout/fraud/poser/all three and more. Punk is a culture as much as it is a genre of music, so, depending on your definition of punk, any of those arguments can be true. Is punk just rock music played loud, simple and short? Is it more about pissing people off? Is it more about the look? Depending on what you think is important, it could be any one of those bands.
However, there is something to be said for punk rock, at its core, being about classic rock ‘n’ roll music played louder, faster and harder than anyone else. If that’s the case, then the first punk band might not be anyone that your common or garden punker might have ever heard of. Instead, they’re a band that had more in common with garage bands like The Kingsmen and The Troggs, as they formed at a similar time in 1964.
A band that might look today like they have all the fear factor of a glee club. In the context of the mid 1960s, it would have sounded for all the world like the most terrifying music imaginable. A band that came not from Liverpool, New York or any other major rock ‘n’ roll territory of the time, but from Lima, Peru. A band that also has, low key, one of the best names in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, who more than deserve their overdue flowers.
A little band called Los Saicos.
Were Los Saicos the first punk band?
Formed by guitarist and vocalist, Erwin Flores and drummer, Francisco Guevara, shortly after they both graduated from high school, the story of Los Saicos is one common to many garage bands of the time. Inspired by the sounds of early rock ‘n’ roll and the rise of The Beatles, Flores and Guevara decided to give the game a try themselves, calling up their friends Roland ‘El Chino’ Carpio and César ‘Papi’ Castrillón to play lead guitar and bass, respectively.
Finding themselves drawn to playing a harder, heavier version of the early beat music they were hearing on the radio, the group wanted to settle on a name that reflected that. Initially, they settled on Los Sádicos (or The Sadists to us English-speakers) they decided to soften it somewhat for fear of being branded literal sadists. Inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock movie of (nearly) the same name, they dropped the d and went with Los Saicos going forward.
Fortunately, it seemed the Peruvian music industry was looking for a band to do exactly what Los Saicos were doing, and thus, they signed to the label DisPerú after demoing their song ‘Demolición’, which would become their first nationwide hit. They signed to a bigger record label and seemed on the cusp of going global until the band tired of the demands of fame and went their seperate ways. With the hippy movement just about to kneecap the rise of garage rock, this was a savvy move, but one that still robbed us of the possibility of some great music.
Yet despite that, their legacy was kept alive by record collectors all over South America and in 1999, the band’s recordings were reissued by the Spanish label Electro Harmonix. This generated a new wave of interest in the band and in 2006, the surviving members of the band reunited for a series of reunion shows. Versions of the group have been active ever since, the most active of the lot being Castrillón touring as Papi Saicos, playing the group’s old hits to a cult following.
It just goes to show that even if they call it quits at the height of their fame, you can’t keep a good Saico down.