Parchís (group)

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Parchis was a famous child- and teenage music group from Spain in the 1980s. The group came after La Pandilla had success during the 1970s, and just before Menudo's internationalization of the 1980s.

The name is a reference to the board game Parchís, very popular in Spain, where each player pawns are from a different colour (red, green, blue and yellow). In the same way, each member of the group used to dress with one of these colours.

Its members were Constantino Fernández Fernández, the red pawn, Yolanda Ventura Román, the yellow pawn, Gemma Pratts Tremens, the green pawn, Oscar Ferrer Cañadas, the blue pawn and David Muñoz Forcada, the die.

The group split in 1986.

[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. Eventually, the band expanded to have six members at the same time. Gemma Pratts Teremens, David Muñoz Forcada,Oscar Ferrer Cañadas, Constantino Fernández Fernández better known as Tino (singer) and Yolanda Ventura (daughter of the well known trompetist, Rudy Ventura) were the first five kids to be chosen as members of Parchis.

Tino was the heartthrob of the group, Gemma the shy one, Yolanda every boy's crush, Frank who in 1979 joined after Oscar left, was the extroverted red head, and David, a blonde haired boy who was the best dancer and the life of the party.

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 joined the band, after Tino and David left the group in 1983.

Losing Tino 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' considerable 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.

Today Tino is married and works as a high executive in a company; Gemma is a kindergarten teacher and works as a principal in a kindergarten she owns and has a daughter named Mireia; Frank is an entrepreneur and model, he is too married and has a daughter named Ona; Yolanda moved to Mexico to pursue a career as an actress were she had moderate success, she is married and has son named Alex; David got a degree in economics and works in an investment group he created along with his school buddies, he is not married. All except Yolanda live in Barcelona.

On February 10th 2008 Parchis made an appearance on the Mexican television show "Muevete" It was the first time in 25 years that they were all together in the same stage. They were introduced and sang the song "PARCHIS" with everyone in attendance. Tino spoke of a comeback and wanting to sing again. They were interviewed for about one hour and spoke about their romances and adventures during their tour. They announced plans to tour again and come out with a new album. in the opening sequence, they all stood on a colored circle and the curtains came up, but there was a problem with Emma's circled curtain that didn't come up in time, but she continued to sing. This was the highest viewed program in mexico for the year so far.