Primera Persona 2017

Friday 12 May

Session 1 / 7 p.m. / CCCB Theatre

Kate Bolick + Anna Gabriel / Colin Barrett / Bacalao (Jorge Albi, Nando Dixkontrol, Toni Vidal «El Gitano» and Luis Costa)

Starting off the sixth Primera Persona Festival, Kate Bolick, author of the essay Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own (published in Spanish as Solterona. La construcción de una vida propia, Malpaso Ediciones, 2016)—which explores in first person the issues considered in patriarchal society to be crucial for female fulfilment—talks with Anna Gabriel, social educator, lecturer in Law and the most visible face of the political party CUP in the Parliament of Catalonia. To be frank, it would be difficult to find someone better than Gabriel, a staunch fan of Bolick’s book, to do this interview, not only because of her feminist eloquence but also because she has first-hand experience of how suspiciously rattled male chauvinists get whenever she starts talking about the menstrual cup or collective child-raising. Language: English and ­­­Catalan with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

Colin Barrett, author of Young Skins (Glanbeigh, in the Spanish edition by Sajalín Editores, 2016), a moving, harsh and beautiful collection of stories set in a semi-fictional Irish village, takes the Primera Persona stage to speak of the biography of a godforsaken place. Language: English with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

Finally, Bacalao presents a route through all the colours and nuances of the cultural explosion represented by the blooming of dance music in Valencia after Franco’s death. This is described by some of its leading figures: Jorge Albi, Nando Dixkontrol and Toni Vidal «El Gitano», in a conversation moderated by Luis Costa. Language: Spanish

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Session 2 / 10 p.m. / CCCB Theatre

Ana Curra with Joan Pons / The Young Ones (Els joves): Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle / Julián Hernández (Siniestro Total) + Esteban Hernández + Rafael Tapounet (Los Carradine)

Ana Curra, dubbed the “Spanish queen of punk” and the most radical, complex face of the ill-named “Movida madrileña” (Madrid Scene) of the 1980s, opens the Festival’s second session. An essential part of the musical group Alaska y Los Pegamoides and also of Parálisis Permanente, Curra talks about her career with the music critic Joan Pons, scriptwriter for such television music programmes as Sputnik and Cachitos de hierro y cromo. Language: Spanish

They are to be followed by Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle, two actors from the hilarious, subversive BBC comedy series of the 1980s, The Young Ones (Els joves). While it went almost unnoticed in the rest of the world, this sitcom about four useless, violent students was a tremendous hit in the United Kingdom and Catalonia. Primera Persona presents two key members of The Young Ones, Neil “the hippy” and Alexei Sayle who plays different members of the Balowski family, appearing together for the first time in Catalonia to reminisce about the best bits of the legendary series and analyse its amazing success in this country. Language: English with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

Finally, Julián Hernández, founder and leader of Siniestro Total, and one of the wildest, most imaginative minds in the history of Spanish rock and roll, takes centre stage with his son Esteban Hernández, with whom he was reunited when the latter was an adolescent. They come together in an improvised homely jam session to play favourite classics and themes of the famous band. They have the support of an unruffled Rafael Tapounet, who combines his facet as an El Periódico journalist with that of the Los Carradine musician. Language: Spanish

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Saturday 13 May

Session 3 / 7 p.m. / CCCB Theatre

Isa Calderón + Lucía Lijtmaer / Jon Savage / Alison Statton & Spike + Stuart Moxham

The combo Isa Calderón + Lucía Lijtmaer will open Day 2 of the festival. Calderón is popular, almost viral, with her videos like Isa ve pelis (Isa Watches Films) and, more recently, her Reviews Fuertecitas (Heavy Little Reviews). In these, she blows the whistle on the latent sexism in the world of cinema, boldly scrutinising today’s films and analysing them in her irreverent, anti-academic way. Occupying the stage with her is Lucía Lijtmaer who, with her pop but politicised views, is one of the freshest, most lucid figures in Spanish journalism today. She now presents a new book, Yo también soy una chica lista (I’m a Smart Girl Too). Language: Spanish

The session continues with Jon Savage, an expert in matters like British punk, thanks to his unqualified bible on the phenomenon, England’s Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, which was rescued and published in Spain by Reservoir Books/Penguin Random House (2016). Savage has also offered an audacious, innovative analysis of the idea of adolescence, seeking its roots in phenomena preceding the Second Wold War and in the invention of rock and roll with his book Teenage:The Creation of Youth Culture (1875-1945). Language: English with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

Alison Statton & Spike and Stuart Moxham are three Welsh musicians who have changed the rules of pop. Young Marble Giants, the trio which Statton created with the Moxham brothers (Stuart and Philip) in 1978, gave expression to the adjective “minimalist”: post-punk had never sounded so austere, skeletal and non-aggressive. After the group broke up, each member continued with similar projects and, although the bands bringing them together officially no longer exist, Primera Persona has managed to drag them away from their everyday concerns, persuaded them to overcome their modesty and stage fright, and to give this chat-concert which looks as if it could make history. Language: English with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

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Session 4 / 10 p.m. / CCCB theatre

Joe Pernice / Makoki: Miguel Gallardo and Juan Mediavilla / Las Ruinas

The musician Joe Pernice, with two essential bands (Scud Mountain and Pernice Brothers) to his credit, takes the stage of Primera Persona to play some of the compositions that have marked his career and speak of his novel It Feels So Good When I Stop, which has recently been published in Spanish by Blackie Books. Language: English with simultaneous translation (into Catalan)

If one character from Spanish comics has marked a generation, it is Makoki, the antisocial roughneck who, created by Miguel Gallardo and Juan Mediavilla in 1977, spent five delirious years rampaging through the pages of the main publications in the motherland’s counterculture (Disco Exprés, Star and El Víbora). Gallardo and Mediavilla are coming to the festival to reveal all about Makaki, their punkest creation. Language: Spanish

Finally, the Barcelona heavy-pop trio Las Ruinas—consisting of the Peruvian Eduardo Chirinos, the Venezuelan Jaime Bertrán and the Barcelona-born Toni López—will provide a festive ending for Primera Persona 2017. Their lyrics embracing love, urban planning, dystopian science fiction, poverty and (emotional and financial) ruin, are the equivalent of the Barcelona of the previous 2,000 chroniclers, like Gato Pérez for example. Quite a long time ago Las Ruinas set themselves the task of recording one album per year. And they are still at it. Their seventh, most recent album is 100% Maximum Heavy Pop.

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