Dec
Can we translate their name as Armored Hearts? Or something like that?
Corazones Blindados was a Madrid band that was active between 1983 and 1985. They were formed by Danilo Peña on guitar and vocals, Santiago Agudo on bass and backing vocals and Alfonso Lantero on drums.
The band only released one record, a 7″ single that I highly recommend. This record came out on the label El Fantasma del Paraíso (FAN-010) in 1984. This label, founded by José Martínez Pujante, had started their run a year earlier, in 1983, releasing for example the legendary Spanish band Kaka de Luxe.
The 7″ single by Corazones Blindados had two songs, “El Parque Inglés” on the A side and “Tercer Conflicto” on the B side. The songs were recorded at Audiofilm studios in Madrid. The engineer for this record was Luis M. González while the producer was Roadrunner Jak and REDMAN (a team formed by Redi Hevia and German Torrellas).
Aside from this record the band also contributed their song “El Parque Inglés” to the compilation “El Fantastma del Paraíso” (FAN LP-2 / FAN CT-2), released by the same-name label that same year. This comp was released on both vinyl and cassette formats.
It is also worth mentioning that in 1984 the band play an important gig that celebrated the first anniversary of the fanzine “Escala Progresiva de Resistencia” in the mythical Rock-Ola, a venue where so many Spanish 80s legends played. At that gig they shared the bill with Alphaville and Esclarecidos.
Other gigs included one of them supporting Los Ilegales at the San Juan Evangelista school and also one where they played to more than 2,000 people at the Vistillas de Madrid. It is thanks to this last gig that they get approached by their label.
It is said that after the single the band was going to start recording an album. But looks like their was a problem with the band members. Danilo is sacked by Santiago and Alfonso. This seems odd as Danilo was the guitar player and composer, but that’s what I could find online. They replace him by Nacho Pérez Carles and Santiago becomes the vocalist. With this new lineup they record a demo that sadly the label didn’t like. On top of that the name of Corazones Blindados was owned by Danilo and he didn’t want to share it. So in the end there was no album. And the band splits.
It is also worth sharing the band’s promo video for the track “El Parque Inglés” (by the way the name of the songs translates to English garden). Cool to see them playing outside the Temple of Debod in Madrid.
The band members would also be involved in other bands. Alfonso had previously been in Rimmel and after the demise of Corazones Blindados, Santiago and Alfonso would immediately form a band called Dirigidos, and then Alfonso would join Ilegales. On the other hand Danilo, who had been in the amazing Zombies, would be in the band El Refugio. Worth also sharing this video of El Refugio playing live “El Parque Inglés“.
Maybe it would make sense to write about El Refugio at a later day too. The music is excellent.
Other bands Danilo was in include Sidecar and Escándalos.
Santiago would also continue making music after Dirigidos being part of bands like Ciudad Jardín, La Coartada and The Nativos.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
