4 Gatos began to take shape when Jesús Mayo, the band's singer and guitarist, turned up in the middle of 1999. By then José M. Iglesias (now on double bass) and Santos Mayo (now on acoustic guitar) had been trying to put something together with a couple of friends from Mérida, though without success.
When Jesús arrived and showed what he could do as a singer and guitarist, they started looking for a drummer. That was a bit difficult, since there were not many drummers in the region and fewer still who liked the rockin´ thing. A Teddy boy pal from Cáceres, a friend of José M. Iglesias, offered to learn and decided to buy himself a drum kit. He learned astonishingly fast, and by the summer of 1999 Carlos Campos was handling the sticks with ease and they set about looking for a name: "Despistados", "Los Zarpazos", "Rockin´ Remaches", etc... but none of them convinced them, until one Saturday night a friend "christened" us: "4 Gatos". With the name and their ideas very clear, Jesús left for Zaragoza, where he was studying, and many months went by before they got together again. When Jesús came back in the spring of 2000, the rest of the band already had several numbers in mind to play, both covers and their own.
They set to work on it and within a couple of months they had ready what would be their first concert, at the bar "Gringo" in Cáceres on 22 June 2000. The response from the audience could not have been better: the place filled up and 4 Gatos played a two-hour concert with a set of 24 numbers. At the end of the show the crowd urged them to carry on in that vein, and it would not be long before they played more concerts.
In the summer of 2000 they played all around the region, getting as far as Cáceres, Mérida, Guadalupe, Casar de Cáceres, Sierra de Fuentes, etc... Among the covers they play are: "Run Chicken Run", "Put The Blade On Me", "Pink Peg Slacks", "I'm Gonna Love You Too", "Hard And Wild", etc...
They appeared in the most widely read newspapers in Extremadura, the "Hoy" and the "Extremadura", as young hopes for the region's musical future, interviews and photographs included. They also did a couple of radio interviews and their popularity kept growing.
It is at this point that they decided to record their first effort and went into the studio.
During the second half of September this year they recorded 8 numbers, made up of 3 covers: "As You Like It" by the Deltas, "Honey Don´t" by Carl Perkins and a very old "Summertime" reworked to a swing beat. Their own numbers are: "Gata presumida", "Jucton City" (a western-surf-cool number), "Me siento extraño" (rockabilly — very catchy), "Lobos negros" (a very "cat" number, dedicated to Luis-Lobonegro) and, to close, a pretty, romantic surf number called "Midnight Beach" (with waves in the background).
That is something of the recent history of a new Rockabilly band that is trying, with a great deal of enthusiasm and care, to win over the rockin´ fan and anyone else besides.
Contact:
José M. Iglesias
