World Wide Mundo Rock: Héroes Del Silencio

Héroes del Silencio was a Spanish rock band from Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain, formed by guitarist Juan Valdivia and singer Enrique Bunbury. During the 1980s they experienced success around Spain and the Americas, and in various European countries including Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Serbia and Portugal. They established themselves as major contributor to the Rock en Español scene. After twelve years and numerous albums, the band broke up in 1996. When the lead singer Enrique Bunbury started a solo project, other members of the band also followed a different musical path. In 2007, as part of a 20-year anniversary celebration and 11 years after their break-up, they organized a 10-concert world tour.

Héroes del Silencio started in 1984 as a band named Zumo de Vidrio consisting of Juan Valdivia, his brother Pedro Valdivia and their cousin Javier Guajardo Valdivia. Later Enrique Bunbury joined the line-up. Bunbury was originally a bass player but after Juan Valdivia had heard him sing a David Bowie song, Bunbury became the vocalist. The band changed their name in 1985 to Héroes del Silencio. At first they played in public places and made demo recordings but their breakthrough came when they participated in a music contest in Salamanca and won second place. An EMI producer, Gustavo Montesano, saw the band in the contest and at a later concert in Sala En Bruto, he signed the band.

Their first EP, Héroe de Leyenda, was released in 1987 and sold 30,000 copies. The following year, the album El Mar No Cesa was released, featuring the songs "Mar Adentro", "Agosto" and "El Estanque", and sold 100,000 copies. The supporting tour followed in 1989, documented on the limited edition live album En Directo. In 1990 they released Senderos de Traición, their best-selling album with 2 million copies, including 400,000 copies in the first two weeks in Spain alone. The following year they started the tour Senda 91 and released another live album, Senda '91. In 1993 the band released the most important CD in their career, El Espíritu del Vino. 600,000 copies of this album, which was played throughout America, were sold. They followed this with a tour for El Espíritu del Vino. In 1993, Alan Boguslavsky joined the band.

Due to tensions within the band, Héroes del Silencio took a hiatus and went to Benasque to take a vacation and heal the rifts within the group. After this break they acquired a new producer, Bob Ezrin (Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Kiss, etc.) and in 1995 released Avalancha. Avalancha was more hard rock than the previous albums, with songs like "Avalancha", "Deshacer el Mundo" and "Iberia Sumergida". The album was followed by the Avalancha tour in 1995 and 1996, which produced the live album "Parasiempre".

The band split in 1996, though this did not stop the release of the album Rarezas in 1998.

Just for the record, I attached an image in which Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) wears an "Heroes del Silencio" t shirt; you can watch it at the documentary on flight 666.