There is a moment in the second chapter of ‘La ruta’ – the new Spanish series that Atresplayer premieres this weekend – when one of the protagonists, who is a waitress, explains to a group of tourists, in a crowded bar, what is the appropriate itinerary of the clubs they should do. First they have to go to Malvarrosa -she tells them- then to Barraca and later to Puzzle. “And you end up at the NOD, which my boyfriend plays and there is a 36-hour party,” Toni’s character concludes. She is played by Claudia Salas, who shares a cast with Àlex Monner, Ricardo Gómez and Elisabet Casanovas.
That episode takes place in 1991 when the bakalao route had achieved national fame, trips were organized to spend the weekend in Valencia partying, and the clubs were considered temples, each with its own style, with its own identity. It was the height of a social and cultural movement that was doomed to die of success, tarnished by the excesses committed in those eternal nights. The mythical locals – whose names there is a generation that recites by heart as if they were the peaks of Europe that are taught in school – were revived for a few months for the filming of this story created by Borja Soler and Roberto Martín Maiztegui. The neon lights are back, the sessions are back, the transfer of cars is back, the debauchery of the times when tomorrow didn’t matter.
To make all this possible, a team of more than 20 people worked for months in order to recreate the philosophy, aesthetics and atmosphere of those nightclubs, now converted into the main stages of the new series. “Some don’t even exist anymore and others are completely destroyed inside.” That is the panorama with which Teresa Montanuy, head of art for this fiction, found herself. If she shows credentials, she shows her work in video clips of artists like C. Tangana or Kate Perry, movies like ‘The days to come’ and an episode of ‘Stories to keep you awake’. That of Sorogoyen, who was the one who spoke about her at Caballo Films -producer of ‘La ruta’ together with Atresmedia-.
«Those who lived the route remember it with romanticism and nostalgia. and they are very likely to share their experiences in forums and social networks. I have surfed the internet a lot to soak up everything. And those stories have helped me understand what they felt at that time”, reveals Montanuy, who also relied on the graphic material provided by owners, promoters and DJs of the time, when they were still called DJs. «Each one is a world. There are hardly any photos of some, such as Chocolate, because it was super hermetic, very dark. One of its owners dedicated himself to describing it to me. He sometimes told her that he didn’t know if we were doing the disco that he would have liked to have or the real one », he admits. “They tell it to you with so much passion that they move you.”
Each of the eight chapters of the series bears the name of one of the most popular records, located between El Perello and Sueca. From Puzzle to Barraca, passing through NOD, ACTV, Spook, Chocolate and Spiral, to which two episodes are dedicated. The Face does not appear. And Heaven, just a second. The series goes from the end to the beginning, from 1993 to 1981, from the decline of the route to the first dalliances of a gang of young people who swarmed against the current and took refuge in music, art and revelry. «It has been a work of the time, and it was necessary to find that exact point. Added to this was the complication of showing the evolution of these premises over the years. When they started they were very “do it yourself”, everything looked like a disco made by colleagues. Until they became more professional, becoming more commercial”, argues Teresa Montanuy.
In the book ‘En èxtasi’ -a literary reference of the movement and constant support from the scriptwriters- Joan Manuel Oleaque describes what those rooms were like: «carpeted floors and walls, mirrors on each pillar, a reserved area with a video screen and an adjoining hamburger restaurant, waiters with bow ties, a booth that spit out popular disco music and a procession of clientele that came to the premises ready to go to bed with anyone and in any way». In any case, the ones that opened in the late 1970s had nothing to do with the ones that opened in the 1990s.
Origins of Barraca
Oleaque talks about the origins of one of the most emblematic, Barraca -in Les Palmeretes- the first to rehearse what was later called the Valencia sound. “It became a refuge and a boost for everything new that was being produced outside the dominant gazes, a transmitter of underground trends for a public that had no other access to avant-garde culture.” It was established, he adds, a rupture of limits that gave rise to a completely cross-class party.
As it is still standing, the plots that take place in Barraca could be recorded there. The same thing did not happen with all of them. Puzzle no longer exists, so Spook was tuned to work for both. The same was done with NOD so that it would also house the interior of Spiral. The exterior of this was recreated in the old Heaven, which is now called She. And what happens in Chocolate was shot in Masía. As if it were a tetris each piece fit on one side. “Each club had a color palette, it was important that each one breathe differently and that it be noted that they were different,” adds Montanuy.
The Espiral neon recreated on the facade of the She nightclub. /
To travel back in time, to that 20th century that seems distant to us, the art team recovered lights such as the pink of Espiral, repainted the letters of NOD on the facade of the building, used signs and posters of the time. For this, the exhibition on this subject organized by the IVAM last year came in handy, which gave material. Perhaps that is why, as a wink, there is a character who works in the modern art gallery, which was born precisely in the midst of the bustle of the route, in 1986. «We set up the DJ booths of ACTV, Puzzle and Spook just like they were. Now everyone in the art department knows how to put together a full DJ set,” he confesses.
This professional team even raised a fault. “But one like the ones that were made in the 80s, which have nothing to do with how they are created now.” To do this they turned to José Pascual ‘Paski’, godson of a historic fallero artist, Pascual Carrasquer. «We had to go to my teacher’s workshop to use the molds he kept, we copied structures, we built them like back then when cork was not used. Everything has changed a lot and that’s when I realized it,” says Paski. “None of that practically exists and we had to work day and night to have it available in a month. Even the way of painting has changed, now more garish colors are used. It caught us at a time when it rained a lot and the molds took a long time to dry.
To see the cremà de la falla -which has political messages of the time and some other elements and characters from that time- we will have to wait for the last episode. Atresplayer broadcasts the first two on Sunday the 13th and from then on one weekly. “He burned in a field. That shocked me, it is normal for the Fallas to be located in squares and streets where they look good, but they wanted to prevent any more modern element from sneaking in, which did not exist then, such as a lamppost or a car”, reveals Paski about his monument.
He wants to see the final result. It’s not the only one. It is one of the most anticipated titles of the season. It has aroused expectation. The Destroy route revives for a while. Sounds like Peter Murphy, Stone Roses, Severed Heads, Age of love. And even Chimo Bayo with “That’s how I like it”, but the protagonists despise his success. Fiction tries to be as realistic as possible, it hurts whoever it hurts. And show that the route should not only be remembered for its appearances on the event pages but for its cultural value, although the culture pages discuss it
#reopens #nightclubs #route