BLITZ 40 years old: “BLITZ was there at Da Weasel’s first shows and first albums. He followed everything”, Carlão
As we enter the countdown to the big BLITZ 40th anniversary party, at Meo Arena, in Lisbon, on December 12th – with shows 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 oldest memory I have of BLITZ – because at the time it was “the” BLITZ, the newspaper – is being at school with a bunch of friends, in high school, laughing when reading aloud the ‘Preaches and Declarations'” , begins by telling us Carlão. “It was a very fun part of the newspaper, where texts were published that people sent there, with a series of nonsense… And not only that, because there was also an exchange of information, about people who were in bands. But most of it was nonsense. And it was good nonsense.”
The musician, whose work – whether in Da Weasel, solo or in projects such as Os Dias de Raiva and Algodão – was highlighted several times by BLITZ, assumes that the publication “contributed a lot to the promotion of my music, without a doubt”. “He was there at the first shows, on the first records… He followed everything and made it known. It was very important.” As a music lover, he was also: “At a time when Portugal was a desert, we were still very closed to a series of things, there was no internet, it was an oasis in the music scene, because it made known a series of things that, otherwise , it would be practically impossible to know.” “I think this is the biggest contribution to music in Portugal: having given face to a series of projects, having made them known to the general public”, he adds.
For the future of BLITZ, Carlão wishes “strength and perseverance”. “We are living in a complicated time for the press and a complicated time for culture in general, and that is why it is important that BLITZ continues to do its work”, he concludes.
