Parchis (group)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parchis was a famous child- and teenage music group from Spain. The group came after La Pandilla had success during the 1970s, and just before Menudo's internationalization of the 1980s.
[edit] History
Parchis was created in 1979, after executives from the Belter Records company placed a newspaper ad in Barcelona, asking children to attend auditions to form a musical group. At first, Belter Records intended to employ the group members during summers only; the company's executives figured out that would be the best season of the year for Parchis albums and concerts to sell.
Parchis was neither a boy or girl band, initially having four members, two from each gender. Eventually, the band expanded to have six members at the same time. Gemma Prat, Oscar Ferrer Cañadas, Constantino Fernández Fernández better known as Tino (singer) and Yolanda Ventura Roman (daughter of the well known trompetist, Rudy Ventura) were the first four kids to be chosen as members of Parchis.
Parchis' first single, "En La Armada", was a Spanish version of the Village People's disco hit, "In the Navy". "En La Armada" became a major hit in Spain, giving way for a number of important music composers to start working with Parchis. "En La Armada" was followed by what was arguably the group's biggest hit, "Durante la Espera de Parchis" ("During Parchis' Wait"). This song became a number one hit in Argentina. Later on, the group also became successful in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries.
Personal problems forced Oscar Ferrer Caňadas out of the band in 1981. He was substituted by Francisco Díaz Terez, known by fans simply as "Frank". Brothers Miguel Ángel (born in Germany) and Jesús Gómez Cambronero soon joined the band, which by then had six members at the same time.
Losing Oscar Ferrer Cañadas proved lethal to the group, however. With Menudo reaching unprecedented (for a Hispanic children's music group) success levels in Latin America as well as in Spain, and other Latin American groups like Los Chamos and Los Chicos also providing Parchis with competition, and with Ferrer Cañadas' cosiderable amount of fans gone, Parchis began to wane.
In Spain and Argentina in particular, however, the group remained popular enough to release a 1983 movie, "Parchis Entra en Acción" ("Parchis Gets Into Action"), alongside Alberto Fernández de Rosa.
In 1985, Parchis broke up. The group had recorded a number of albums that were successful in Spain and Latin America. More than a decade later, the group would reunite for one television show engagement.
