BLITZ 40 years old: “They gave the cover to my first band, the Atomic Bees, and it was a huge emotion”, Rita Redshoes
As we enter the countdown to the big party for BLITZ’s 40th anniversary, at Meo Arena, in Lisbon, on December 12th – with concerts by Xutos & Pontapés, Capitão Fausto, Gisela João and MARO –we asked musicians, promoters, journalists, radio hosts and other personalities to go to the trunk to retrieve memories from four decades of history, also leaving us a message for the future.
The first memory that Rita Redshoes has of BLITZ dates back to her adolescence, in the 90s, and is when she asked her father “to stop at the kiosk and buy” the newspaper before going to music school. “It was my company for a few days… I discovered new bands, new records. This memory is the first and then there is a much stronger one: when, with my first band, Atomic Beats, we were on the cover of BLITZ. It was an issue about new, promising bands, and, suddenly, they gave us the cover. It was a great emotion for us.”
The impact, argues the artist, dragged on over time: “there were several reviews for some time about my band’s concerts and this ended up bringing us closer to publishers and even, eventually, festivals and more concerts. It was a great help. It had a big impact there in the near future. And then, solo too, obviously, because of the space they gave me, especially with my first album. Because I was accompanied from the band to a more serious career, I had space to talk about my music and for it to be shared”.
“Even today we have almost no publications exclusively about music. BLITZ ended up being the communication platform or meeting point, without internet yet, right? It was a landmark. The appearance of some news, some criticism, some concert at BLITZ was halfway to, at least among musicians and the industry, there being an open door for anything in the future”, adds Redshoes, “in a small country, where there is in fact no a lot of communication around music, it ended up being almost the only and exclusive channel that promoted and promotes music. And my music too.”
For the artist, BLITZ’s greatest contribution is the help it gave and still gives to the growth of “Portuguese music and bands in its infancy”. “For me, it is a brutal contribution. It really marked the paths of some bands from which musicians left with other careers. BLITZ was there, at the beginning, to witness and to support. To spread the word.” As for what BLITZ can play today and in the future, the artist believes it will be “a very different role, because times are very different and, therefore, we are all also trying to adapt to all of this and understand how to communicate” . “What, in my opinion, is important in a publication about music, which gives space to Portuguese music, is to continue doing so so that the public can have more reliable information, more fair in the sense of being more truthful. Suddenly, we’re not just talking about the guitarist’s jacket at a concert, or the clothes you wear to festivals. This is the most important role: talking about music and the importance that music has.”
