LOS DESPRECIABLES, as I see them.

I should've counted them. Yeah, I should have. It would've been a good start. Intriguing, esoteric, some kind of cabala. You can imagine it. To have started with 218… or 124… or… I should've counted them.

The people who read it would've questioned themselves for that number forever. Besides, apart from having counted them, I would've never revealed their origins, and all kind of legends on that number would've sprung. Maybe it's the number of times they've played live? Maybe it's the amount of people that have climbed on stage with them? Maybe it's the number of times the band has had to play The Flinstones so the bass player can go to the loo? Nobody would've known, ever. No mind would've ever thought about the amount of sentences that one can think of when writing about LOS DESPRECIABLES, and being unable to choose one of them.

It was a good idea. A web site devoted to LOS DESPRECIABLES. But there are millions of good ideas buried due to laziness. I am a good gravedigger, I'm talking from experience.

It had to be done, and there was only one person able to do it, the very same person who's pulling from the DESPRECIABLES cart from their beginnings, who's pursuing each and one of us to close a date with no casualties, who's recording songs for those who don't have them in order to save time at rehearsals (we rehearse so very little), the man with a never ending patience, specially with me. If there was such a thing as the Patience's League, he would be playing at the Champions', and Job would be just kicking people's patience in minor leagues, and I'm not exaggerating. Yeah, he was the only one able to do it, getting that a guy like me -who, in the past ten or twelve years has written just a few lines and signed some paper-set himself to write something on us. It couldn't be another one: Juan Antonio Despreciable.

"I need the tough wing to be represented", that line has been resonating in my mind for a while, but for someone like me, since something resonates until it becomes true, it can take some… years? But every time the resonance seemed to vanish, he would remind me that line again. And, what the hell!, he deserves this effort and many others.

The tough wing. I've always wondered why Juan Antonio baptised us that way. If the tough wing had only been Cutu and I, it would've been easy to find a reason: they are the toughest, they can stand the gig's three hours on stage (ok, forget my visits to the loo). But, as it happens, Juan Antonio puts in the same wing Seni and Ramón. Ask him for an explanation.

Turns out that I've read what other DESPRECIABLES have written, specifically Ana, Andrea and Javier, and, had you seen the tough wing's look while I was reading, our reputation would've been frankly deteriorated.

I will not talk about our history. Javier Despreciable has a better memory and knows how to use his tongue (no pun intended).

But I do want to go back to a specific moment in the DESPRECIABLE story.
The first rehearsal of LOS DESPRECIABLES meant something very special for me. At that time, I was having a really bad time. And when I got Juan Antonio's phone call, telling me that we were getting together again with Javier and Mauri, my face and guts were lit up again. He told me he had met an exceptional drummer, of the old school, one of those who had educated me (musically speaking), one of those living legends, as Javier introduces him on stage. He told me about Cutu. Then, illumination got mixed with respect -nice word, respect, to mean that you are scared to death-.

I got to the rehearsal with lots of respect -I'm not explaining it anymore. Hugs, kisses and some other fondling with Juan Antonio, Javier and Mauri. We, LOS DESPRECIABLES, are very warm people. And then he introduced me to Cutu. I couldn't believe it. From the very first song, the drums-bass connection worked as a genuine Korean watch. The both of us did miss the beat at the same places, it was amazing. I was playing with a maestro, and it worked.

Besides, there was another thing that left me shocked. Cutu was a normal guy. Those who know any drum player knows perfectly well that normality is a quality that doesn't happen among them. We connected.

That day I also met another Despreciable, one of those guys who leave their imprint: Ramón. A guy whose smile is impossible to remove, although these past months there have been some people -and let me call them people because I'm a foul-mouthed person, and I'm trying to hide it from you-trying to remove it. Probably the best live sound technician in the world, able of turning the sound of the speaker of a cheap radio into Peter Gabriel's equipment.

From that day on, LOS DESPRECIABLES increased in age and number. We're all older, some of us wiser -not my case-and more and more DESPRECIABLES every day.

Some people have become a part of our DESPRECIABLE family, some of them just for a while, and some that still live among us.

Josele, the man with the prodigious hands and a golden voice, who's taught me a lot about the cadence of true rock and roll. Seni, what can I say of that six-string devil… I love dancing with him. Ana, the sweetness and goodness Ortigosa del Monte-style: that's how I would describe her. Yoli, that heavy metal touch we lacked, comes from my favourite part of the world. Andrea, your voice and subtly overwhelming personality made us much younger again.

Of the old DESPRECIABLES, Juan Antonio, Javier and Mauri, I don't want to talk. When Juan Antonio asked me some lines for his ambitious web site project he stated it clearly: the tough wing must be represented. I think that the tough wing has been seriously injured with what I've written so far, and if I talked about Juan Antonio, Javier and Mauri, it's more than likely that, from now on, we would be called the pink wing, so I'm restraining myself.

As the icing on the cake, I just want the whole world to know that it is a pleasure and an honour being a DESPRECIABLE, that sharing the stage with all that bunch is something wonderful and hard to describe; that, even if lately I tend to forget it more frequently, when I get together with them I feel that hot blood still runs through my veins.

I don't know whether those who're reading this will know what I mean, but I'm sure that those who have been on stage with us do know, and I know people are envious of them.

Let's keep being envied forever.

Fernando Despreciable