Two Argentinian teenagers were friends and dreamed of becoming the Rolling Stones. In 1976, their families fled to Spain from the onset of a dictatorship, where another dictatorship ended. Here they join three local musicians and already have their band. They had barely turned 18 and had a record; He continued to star in Applause, number one on Los 40, the cover of Super Pop and a legion of fans behind them. It wasn’t easy to assimilate.
The documentary “Tequila: Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll” on Movistar+ honestly addresses how successful teenagers go crazy. Led by Ariel Rot and Alejo Stivel, the band was a phenomenon between 1978 and 1983. Their standard, hooligan and festive rock ‘n’ roll didn’t fit the trends that crossed in Spain during the transition: urban rock (or el rollo), suburban and combative, and La Movida, which would later attract attention. Miguel Ríos says they didn’t have a message, but they had a lot of courage.
They were nerds: their record company abused them and wanted to classify them as a teenage band. In the end, they faced the distribution of rights, and the heroine locked everyone in their world. Promoter Gay Mercader put it in a nutshell: “Too young, too successful, too many drugs, too many women.”
The film reviews this time with the three survivors, their entourage and other artists. Much of the story’s weight is borne by Cecilia Roth, Ariel’s older sister and a keen observer of her adventures. The montage alternates the performances of that time (the mythical one in the amusement park of Madrid) with those of his comeback and farewell tour in 2022 (with only Ariel and Alejo from the original quintet; bassist Felipe Lipe didn’t want to be there and Julián Infante and Manolo Iglesias died, both with AIDS). Sometimes the songs are spliced like they sounded yesterday and how they sounded recently: they stand up to the challenge. But Ariel concedes that Tequila ended in 1983 that what followed was “another reality.” “Tequila, there were five of us full time and full of energy.” He was, like Infante, in another big short-lived band: Los Rodríguez. He knows that glory is fleeting. Although it leaves a lasting mark.
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