Gustavo Cerati, the Argentine musician who gained international recognition as the leader of Soda Stereo —and later with a distinguished solo career— would have turned 65 years old on August 11. The son of Lilian Clarke and Juan José Cerati, he was born in 1959 in the City of Buenos Aires. At the age of nine, he began studying guitar and, by twelve, formed his first band, performing at private parties and school events.
By the age of 20, he was performing almost every night at the cabaret El arca de Noé, with the group Savage, which featured two English girls who did covers and improvised songs. Cerati composed and, at the same time, was part of the group Triciclo. When the Malvinas War began, the English girls returned to their country.
“Oh, girl, how are you going to do it?” a song by Triciclo, was frequently played on “El tren fantasma,” the show by Daniel Morano on Radio Rivadavia. “It was Gustavo’s favorite audition, his musical school since military service when he listened to it on a portable radio during the endless guard nights,” Laura Ramos and Cynthia Lejbowicz recount in the now iconic book Corazones en llamas. Historias del rock argentino en los 80.
In 1979, Cerati met Héctor “Zeta” Bosio at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL) —where both studied Advertising— and, three years later, would form Soda Stereo after adding Charly Alberti on drums. Before settling as a trio, they tried different configurations that included Richard Coleman, Daniel Melero, and Andrés Calamaro, among other musicians.
Soda Stereo burst onto the under circuit in the 1980s, performing in iconic venues of the time such as Café Einstein and Stud Free Pub, where bands such as Sumo and Los Twist played.
Gustavo Cerati, Charly Alberti and “Zeta” Bosio
So great was their impact that, in 1984, the band released their first self-titled album with the artistic production by Federico Moura, leader of the legendary Virus. That same year, Moura presented it live at the end of that year at the Teatro Astros.
The album Nada Personal (1985) was next, which had its official presentation at the Estadio Obras. With four concerts that gathered 16,000 people, it quickly achieved a sales record that was awarded a gold disc and another platinum disc.
“Employed in a biochemistry laboratory, (…) Cerati began to think that he would no longer continue studying: music, which mattered most to him, was starting to take up a lot of time in his life. By then the trio, girlfriends, and friends were going out as a group and one of their favorite activities was to go dancing at Fire, a trendy nightclub where Soda Stereo’s songs played for the first time,” Ramos and Lejbowicz continue the story in Corazones en llamas.
After the release of their third album Signos (1986), which featured Fabián Von Quintiero, Richard Coleman, and Celsa Mel Gowland, the band toured the main cities of Latin America, which would open the doors for the national rock to the Latin American market. Such was the acceptance of Soda Stereo that, in 1987, the group toured Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Mexico. All these performances were recorded in the live album Ruido Blanco (1987).
Bocanada. Photo: Gaby Herbstein
The following year, the band recorded the album Doble Vida in New York with the artistic production of Carlos Alomar, who worked with stars like David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, and Paul Mc Cartney, among others. The album was presented at Estadio Obras before 25,000 people and, subsequently, at the massive event “Festival Tres Días por la Democracia” in front of 150,000 spectators.
At the beginning of 1990, the band performed for the first time in a soccer stadium in Argentina: at Vélez Sarsfield with the English duo Tears For Fears before 32,000 people.
They also recorded that year Canción Animal with the conceptual contribution of Daniel Melero, and the participation of Andrea Álvarez and Tweety González, which marked the opening to the Spanish market with their subsequent shows in the cities of Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. The “Animal Tour” was marathon-like, including thirty cities in Argentina, some of which had never hosted a major band before. The high point of the tour was their return to the Vélez Sarsfield stadium before 40,000 people.
In 1992, Gustavo Cerati released Colores Santos together with Daniel Melero, in addition to recording Dynamo (1992) with Soda Stereo, which was presented for six days at the Estadio Obras.
In January 1993, the group embarked on its sixth tour of Latin America, visiting Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, and Venezuela. And, at the end of that same year, Zona de promesas (1993) was released: a compilation of classic tracks from the band with a bonus track of an unreleased song that gave the album its title.
A year later, Gustavo Cerati released his first solo album, Amor Amarillo, which was recorded in Chile and Buenos Aires with the participation of Zeta Bosio. In 1995, the group returned to the scene with the release of Sueño Stereo (1995), which was presented at the Gran Rex theater and in a free concert to celebrate the 113th anniversary of the city of La Plata, gathering 200,000 people.
During a break from the band, Gustavo Cerati created an electronic project called Plan V together with Chilean musicians Andrés Bucci, Guillermo Ugarte, and Christian Powditch. With them, he recorded the albums Plan V (1996) and Plan Black V Dog (1998).
On May 1, 1997, Soda Stereo confirmed the rumors of their separation. To say goodbye, the band organized a tour in Mexico, Venezuela, and Chile, and the historic concert on September 20 at the River Plate stadium in front of more than 70,000. There, Cerati closed the show with the phrase: “Thank you totally!”. The show was immortalized in a double album titled El último concierto A y B (1997).
Since then, Gustavo Cerati developed his solo phase, recording the albums Bocanada (1999), Siempre es hoy (2002), Ahí vamos (2006), and Fuerza natural (2009).
In 2001, he recorded 11 Episodios Sinfónicos, a live album accompanied by an orchestra of 43 musicians. In 2007, he interrupted his solo work to participate with Soda Stereo in the Me verás volver tour, which saw the group perform 22 concerts in nine countries (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, and Peru), and the live album that was released in 2008.
While giving a concert in Caracas, Venezuela, Cerati suffered a stroke in the early hours of Sunday, May 16, 2010. After being transferred to his country, he remained hospitalized until his death on September 4, 2014.
Sources: Official page of Gustavo Cerati and “Corazones en llamas. Historias del rock argentino en los 80” (new edition), by Laura Ramos and Cynthia Lejbowicz. Aguilar. Buenos Aires. 2016.
Cover image: Gustavo Cerati, dressed as a “prince,” by designer Pablo Ramírez, for his symphonic concert in August 2001 at the Teatro Avenida. Source: Official page of Gustavo Cerati.