Sopa de Cabra

Sopa de Cabra
Origin	Girona, Catalonia
Genres	Rock
Years active	1986-2001
Past members	Gerard Quintana Joan "Ninyin" Cardona Josep Thió Francesc "Cuco" Lisicic Josep Bosch Jaume Soler "Peck" Julio Lobos Eduard Font
Website	www.sopadecabra.net

Sopa de Cabra ("Goat Soup") was a musical group from Girona, Catalonia, Spain, active from 1986 to 2002. They are considered to be one of the leading representatives of the rock català movement, though the band preferred not to be placed in the same category as other Catalan-language groups, some of whom had very different musical styles, simply on the basis of singing in Catalan. Sopa de Cabra's hits include L'Empordà, Camins ("Paths") and El Far del Sud ("The Southern Lighthouse").

History

Origins, 1979-1986

Sopa de Cabra's origins can be traced to various bands formed in Girona in the early 1980s, and to the fact that all the members of what became Sopa de Cabra knew each other at that period. The band Copacabana, formed in 1979 by secondary school classmates, included Josep Thió, and some of the early songs, including L'Empordà, were originally written for Copacabana by its lead singer Jaume Rufí and Thió. This band dissolved in 1984 when Thió left to complete then-obligatory military service and Rufí went to study in Barcelona. Upon returning to Girona, Thió set about forming a new band, which would become Sopa de Cabra, recruiting bassist Francesc "Cuco" Lisicic, guitarist Joan "Ninyín" Cardona and drummer Josep "Pep" Bosch. The line-up was completed with the addition of Gerard Quintana as lead singer. Cardona, Lisicic and Quintana had formerly worked together in "Ninyin's Mine Workers Union Band", which may therefore also be seen as one of the immediate progenitors of Sopa de Cabra. The name of the band ('Goat Soup'), was directly influenced by the 1973 Rolling Stones album Goat's Head Soup.

The basic line-up of the band as founded in 1986 remained virtually unchanged throughout its 15-year history. Julio Lobos became the regular keyboard player from 1994, and was succeeded in 1999 by Eduard Font. The guitarist Jaume Soler (‘Peck’) joined the group in 1997, because Joan Cardona's deteriorating state of health began to make it difficult for him to perform regularly. He was diagnosed with a genetically influenced form of colon cancer. Ninyín died on January 20, 2002, less than three months after the band's final concert in Barcelona, where he had managed to appear on stage for a few numbers. He was 42.

1986–2001

Sopa de Cabra’s first album (Sopa de Cabra,) was released in 1989, and already included many songs that continued to be a regular part of the band’s repertoire, such as L’Empordà, El boig de la ciutat, and El sexo, que me hace feliz (composed by ‘Ninyín’ Cardona and his brother Pau, with disarmingly joyful and explicit lyrics in Spanish). The second album, La Roda (‘The Wheel’) followed in 1990, by which time the group was well established as a significant force in Catalan popular music. Most of the band’s material was original, with Quintana and Thió as the chief composers of lyrics and music.

In 1991, the live concert double album Ben Endins (‘Deep’) marked the first high point in the group’s evolution. It includes many classic tracks and two interesting cover versions, respectively Led Zeppelin’s Rock’n’Roll (sung in English), and Bob Marley’s War, in a Catalan translation written by Quintana. 1991 also saw the band take part in a huge concert, along with other popular Catalan groups such as Sau and Els Pets, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.

The decision to record an album in Spanish was perhaps taken in a bid to widen the group’s appeal and sales further, but this experiment (Mundo Infierno, 1993) was not wholly successful; though Sopa was not overtly political in its Catalan identity, some fans saw the change of language as a betrayal, and made their opinions known.

Six more albums followed between 1994 and 2001, during which Sopa’s popularity and success recovered completely. The live album La nit des anys, 1997 (‘The night of the year’) moved away somewhat from the group’s rock’n’roll roots, with the inclusion of additional singers and a wider range of instrumentation than the classic guitars, bass, drums and keyboards (strings, saxophone, harmonica, etc.). The final CD before the formal dissolution of Sopa de Cabra was Plou i fa sol (2001) (‘It is raining and sunny’). A tour culminated in three final concerts at the Razzmatazz club in Barcelona, in November 2001; a CD and DVD of this live performance came out in 2002, under the title of Bona nit, malparits! (‘Good night, bastards!’), a catch-phrase regularly used on stage by Quintana.

Since 2001

All the members of the band have continued their musical careers, probably the most high-profile being that of Gerard Quintana, as a singer, writer, actor and radio presenter.

However, the group has also re-formed on specific occasions, and in 2003, another album, El llarg viatge (‘The long journey’), was released, though this was based on recordings of the 2001 tour. In 2006, five years after the formal disbanding of the group, other successful Catalan musicians compiled a tribute album, Podré tornar enrere. El tribut a Sopa de Cabra (‘Can I go back’), performing Sopa de Cabra’s songs. The final track was a new one, recorded by Sopa de Cabra themselves; Seguirem somiant, (‘keep on dreaming’), with words by Gerard Quintana and music by Josep Thió, is a poignant and haunting song composed in memory of Ninyín.

On March 2, 2011 Quintana, Thió, Lisicic, Bosch and Soler announced at a press conference that they would reunite for a single concert on September 9 at the Palau Sant Jordi. Subsequently the high demand for tickets led to a second, and then a third, concert being arranged, for the three days 9, 10 and 11 September. The timing of this reunion in 2011 is significant, taking place twenty-five years after the formation of the band, twenty years after the major 1991 concert in Barcelona that featured all the leading elements in Catalan popular music, and ten years after Sopa's 'final concert' in 2001.

On July 5, the members of the group announced yet another concert in 2011, to be held in their home town of Girona on September 30, and two more concerts, in Palma and Tarragona, were announced later in July. The rapid sale of over 50,000 tickets ten years after the last public appearance of the band demonstrates Sopa de Cabra's pre-eminent place in Catalan popular music.

Discography

• Sopa de Cabra (1989)
• La Roda (1990)
• Ben endins (1991) (Live)
• Girona 83-87 "Somnis de Carrer" (1992)
• Mundo Infierno (1993)
• Al·lucinosi (1994)
• Sss... (1996)
• La nit dels anys (1997) (Live)
• Nou (1998)
• Dies de Carretera (2000)
• Plou i fa sol (2001)
• Bona nit, malparits! (2002) (Live)
• El llarg viatge (2003)
• Podré tornar enrere. El tribut a Sopa de Cabra (2006)

External links

• Official website