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Biography

Heirs to "the new wave"
Coincidence seems to always be behind every great discovery, be it the law of gravity, penicillin, or the key to massively succeed in the music business. Just like that, by coincidence, Rafael Gutierrez (guitar) and David Summers (bass and lead voice) met at the studios of Spanish Television, where they were hired for a performance during the TV show "Aplauso". Rafael then asked David to play the clarinet for the band Tequila that his brother Felipe was forming. David had always been a big fan of Benny Goodman, and that's the reason why he learnt to play the clarinet, he accepted and the friendship started. It was 1982, Tequila had just dissolved and Felipe had lots of free time, Rafael meanwhile went from band to band trying to have a successful steady gig, he went from Plastico, to Las Chinas, to Los Zombies de Bernardo Bonezzi without any luck. David then came and asked him to play the guitar on the independent demo he was preparing with his two childhood friends, Daniel Mezquita Hardy (keyboards and guitar) and Javier Molina (drums), all three of them were attending school at the Facultad de Ciencias de la Informacion de Madrid (Information Science Faculty of Madrid). One thing led to another, and before too long Rafael becomes their 4th member, the band goes through several name changes like Los Residuos (The Residues) or La Burguesia Revolucionaria (The revolutionary Bourgeoisie) later on they decided on Bonitos Redford (Pretty Redfords) The name of course is not bringing on the crowds and they end up going back to the drawing board. They watched a James Cagney film from 1935 titled "G Men" which was dubbed to "Contra el imperio del crimen" in Spain (Against crime's empire). G Men was how FBI special agents were known as during the early 1930's which is slang for "Government Men". David, Rafael, Daniel, and Javier immediately fell in love with the name and translated it into Spanish, which is Hombres G, it becomes their name and the crowds began to follow.

It was 1983 when their first two 45 rpm's saw the light, "Venezia" (Venice) / "Milagro en el Congo" (Miracle in the Congo) and "Marta tiene un marcapasos" (Marta has a pacemaker) / "La cagaste... Burt Lancaster" (You messed up... Burt Lancaster), they were aided by Fernando Cabello on the Saxophone, and two of their closest friends, Eva Dalda and Lydia Iovanne for the harmonies. It was very refreshing when the first single was released, because the people in Spain were used to a more slow, US 60's like Rock and Roll imposed by bands like Gabinete Caligari, Paralisis Permanente or Decima Victima. David's song writing style was very vivid and brought on forth what would be known as "The new wave" in Spain, it almost echoed the style of Los Zombies, Los Ejecutivos Agresivos, Los Nikis or Alaska y los Pegamoides, but played with a faster, more steady pace that resembles to that of The Ramones, so it was to no surprise that their first appearances at the Rock-Ola club would become such a huge event, even though nobody knew to what extent their success would follow.

1984-1985
Lollipop was their first record company, but it was going through a very rough path, so there was a moment at the beginning of 1984 that Hombres G start to see no more options to promote their work, the record company was being challenged by the new US corporate companies establishing branches in Spain, and so the local artists decided to sign with the new 'shiny' companies instead. Lollipop unable to bring in the money to promote their artists soon goes bankrupt and Hombres G are offered with a new option from another local record company. It was Paco Martin, whom had just established a new company called Twins and he offers Hombres G the option to be the first artists to be signed by Twins, not only that, but also to record their first 45 rpm Long Play. The lead singer of Pistones, Ricardo Chirinos was who told Paco about Hombres G, he told him to go to Radio España to talk to them, since they were giving an interview about one of their concerts at the Rock-Ola club. What he heard, and then later what he saw at the concert that same night convinced him that Hombres G was the band he was looking for. He signed them the following morning.

Only two weeks later Hombres G start recording their first LP at Estudios Trak, they name it simply 'Hombres G' (G Men). They recorded their previous single "Venezia" (Venice) as well as a new song called "Devuelveme a mi chica" (Give me back my girl) which radio stations would be playing hour after hour for the next 2 years. They also decide to include ballads, such as a cover from Alice Cooper: I never Cry, which renamed in Spanish they decided on "I won't cry". Happy as can be Hombres G record their first project without even imagining that this would be the springboard that would send them to the highest level that no other band had been able to reach in Spain. The success, however, didn't come right away. Pepe Escribano, was Paco Martin's partner at the record company and he was tired of their investment not giving them any fruits, so he decides to count his loses and move on, two weeks later radio stations began to intensify the promotion for Hombres G's LP and record sales go through the roof: 50,000 copies the first six months, 150,000 a year later. As time passes by, the first project that Hombres G recorded with twins reaches over 500,000 copies sold. 1985 would come to be 'their year' as they were invited to perform at a very important TV show, their performance would start at noon, but there was a long line of people who had been waiting since four in the morning to catch a glimpse of them. Hombres G had turned into a huge social phenomenon and their lives were about to change in a way they never imagined.

That same year Hombres G played close to one hundred concerts almost back to back, add the fact that they had to make TV apperances and interviews for teen magazines, it was indeed what they always wanted, but it was close to getting out of control. Naturally their female audience adopted them as favorites and the four some started to feel very pressured when it came to just try to take a stroll on the park. It wasn't only the streets of Madrid that they couldn't be seen on, but any and all of Spain's cities, that's when they opted to just stay home to avoid the hordes of fans after them.

From Rock-Ola to the world
In February of 1986 the band went back to the studio at TRAK to record their second LP, which would be titled just like one of their first singles, "La cagaste Burt Lancaster" (You messed up... Burt Lancaster), and to make it even more interesting, they already had pre-orders for more than 60,000 units, a number that would be crushed once the LP appeared on stores. For this project they also used one of the first singles from Lollipop, "Marta tiene un marcapasos" (Marta has a pacemaker) which in turn would be one of the three singles that would make it to the top of the sales charts in Spain. The other two singles were "El ataque de las chicas cocodrilo" (The crocodile girls attack) and "Indiana" (Indiana). The second record was even more successful in sales than the first one, and the fans start to get even crazier, if that's even possible. At Twins they get letters written with blood, others where the sender would threaten to commit suicide if they didn't get to meet the band members, or the most common love declarations (a fan from Zaragoza sent more than two hundred letters!, numbered and all). So needless to say "La Cagaste... Burt Lancaster" (You messed up... Burt Lancaster) is a great success, and so, the summer tour is crowned with a performance at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (Las Ventas Bull Fighting Ring), with fans waiting in line since 8 o'clock the previous night.

Spain is in love with Hombres G and so Paco Martin tries something new, introducing the band to the latinamerican public, he then sends copies of the 2 LP's to different companies up and down the continent getting the first response from the Peruvian branch of CBS. Peru releases the album "Hombres G" (G Men) during mid 1986 and in just a couple of weeks the album sells 50,000 copies, following suit a few months later they release "La cagaste... Burt Lancaster" (You messed up... Burt Lancaster) and again it sales like hot cakes. The CBS corporate office calls from New York and orders a plan to distribute the records in every latinamerican country, and just like it happened in Peru, Hombres G are a complete success in Mexico and Venezuela where they obtained gold and platinum records. Later in December of 1986 the band get a surprise as they receive an invitation to attend the Bravo Awards Ceremony in Miami, since they were nominated in three categories and won the award for "Best Spanish Speaking Artist".

Hombres G and the movies.
Hombres G shows the world the kind of band they were, selling close to one million copies of their first 2 records in Spain, and before they even start the plans for their third album, they had an offer to film an autobiographical movie by the summer of 1986. David's Father, Manuel Summers, was the person elected to bring the project to life. Manuel Summers was one of the most popular directors in Spain. His idea for the title "Sufre Mamon" (Suffer you asshole), which was filmed in Ibiza and Madrid, and later released in March of 1987. The workload was indeed heavy, just after the filming was done, they were supposed to go back to the recording studio and start work on their third LP, problem was that they didn't even have time to prepare any new songs. The positive side of things is that their concentration power grew enormously. David took off on his own to a private house his family owns in the town of Huelva, and when he came back he brought twelve songs he composed in less than a week, the band immediately started to arrange them and practiced them constantly right before their appointment with the recording studio. The name of their third LP "Estamos locos... ¿O que?" (Are we crazy... Or what?) and to avoid the pressure that their fans were giving them they decided to go record in England instead, this time with one of the most famous producers of the time, Carlos Narea, who had worked with artists such as Miguel Rios. It was well demonstrated that David was an amazing composer, because even though he created all twelve songs in such a hurry the album contained true jewels that would, once again, go to the top of the singles charts, like the case of "Y cayo la bomba (fetida)" (And the bomb dropped), "Temblando" (Trembling), "Una mujer de bandera" (A strong woman), and "No, no NO" (No, no NO).

The third album's sales shot out through the roof during the first couple of days of being released where they surpassed the 100,000 mark with no problem at all. At the same time they celebrated the release of "Sufre, mamon" (Suffer you asshole) at a theater of the Gran Via (great way) of Madrid, where close to 10,000 people caused the street to be completely blocked off to traffic. Chaos ensued when the band arrived at the theater, with dozens of reporters and photographers trying to get the headline for the next day's paper, so to ensure their safety, their manager was forced to take them into a room of the theater where they spent various hours hoping for the people to come down. The band wasn't able to watch the movie, and the people who bought tickets had a similar problem, because even though they were able to see, they simply couldn't hear due to the deafening noise that came from the street, and also because there were numerous girls singing the band's songs during the movie.

Impressive Tours
Due to the constant support from their fans, the band felt it necessary to go on a huge tour of sixty concerts during 1987, the venues were the most important soccer stadiums and bull fighting rings of Spain, every single one of them Sold Out. Close to one million people were able to enjoy the band during that summer, and at the same time Hombres G had it planned to extend the tour in October with their first appearances in latinamerica, where they expected to go to Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, USA, and Mexico. When they arrived to Peru, looking outside the plane's windows they could see a huge crowd of more than 20,000 people on the runway of Jorge Chavez Airport of Lima. Without knowing what was going on, the pilot decided not to open the doors until making sure that this wasn't a dangerous activity. It didn't take more than to look at the poster boards that the crowd was holding, to know that what was going on at that airport was nothing but a welcoming committee. The band experienced a sensation that no other artist from Spain had experienced before, to be submerged into something so similar to the beatlemania at JFK was incremented when they left the airport, it was ordered that they needed four bodyguards at every floor of every hotel they were staying at, a security measure to prevent fans from sneaking into the band members' rooms (there were quite a few that were able to do it). In Ecuador, the country they visited after Peru and Chile, they played two concerts where they brought in a crowd of more than 40,000 people at each one. The band went through a total of 2 months of intensive promotional activity where they planted the seed of a fan devotion so strong, that fifteen years later, keeps as intense as the first day they played a concert for them. The record sales up until now show that Hombres G is still one of those rarities that keeps being as strong as when they started promoting their work.

New projects
After a well deserved break, the first one in three years, 1988 started with a new film project, again with Manuel Summers as the director, and with a big number of songs composed by David during the 1987 christmas break. The new movie was filmed between Spain and Mexico, the title of the movie was originally going to be "La cagaste... Burt Lancaster" (You messed up... Burt Lancaster) but they had to change it shortly before release due to the cease and desist notices that Burt Lancaster sent the producers for the unauthorized use of his name. The title for the movie ended up being "Sueltate el pelo" (Let your hair loose), also the title for one of the songs they would be presenting in their fourth album. Shortly after the filming was done they go into the studio to record the album "Agitar antes de usar" (Shake well before use), the idea behind working back to back was to take advantage of the simultaneous release of both projects, this way they had the opportunity to promote both works at the same time and to plan a new extensive tour through Spain, where it would be followed by latinamerica once again, this time paying more attention to Mexico, where they had already sold more than two million copies of all of their albums, numbers that in Spain only reached half of that, but still gave them the title of the only spanish band with most records sold during that decade.

In 1989 a new album hits the market, "Voy a pasarmelo bien" (I'm going to have a good time), a title that could be used to describe the moment that the band was experiencing at the time. With nothing else to prove, with fans by the thousands buying their records, and with a press following them at every second, it was clear that they could work on new songs without any sort of pressure, and at the same time they were no longer teenagers, and due to their agitated lifestyle, they had to learn to live as one and understand every detail about the music business so that they wouldn't be taken advantage of. By that time they're so experienced that they are able to make decisions with their eyes closed and the stress they were subjected to during the past five years disappears. They will start to make music to enjoy themselves, not thinking so much about what the people want, but what they want to show them, reflecting the mature point that was reaching them by composing songs that speak about the world's problems and more serious themes, songs that had never been in any of their previous albums. 1990 rolls around and the band releases their most mature work, "Esta es tu vida" (This is your life), a project that was recorded during the summer between Madrid and London, the album's content took everyone by surprise, it sounded more adult, more inclined to talk about the war, and songs about heartbreaks, behind were the goofy, feel good songs but their fans grew up with them and once again this record became an instant favorite.

The way they chose to say 'see you later' couldn't been more spectacular, on May 20th, 1992 their seventh album was released "Historia del bikini" (History of the bikini), their most classic album, a record produced by famous producer Colin Fairley, a man who had previously worked with artists such as Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. This album could be interpreted in two different ways: The best Hombres G album, or the worst Hombres G album depending on which side you stand. Fans who consider this the best album know that Hombres G are not the kids from 1986 anymore, where the songs were silly and full of energy, instead they're adults who found a way to express themselves using music. In the other hand, the fans who consider this album to be the worst is because they don't like the way they changed, they consider the songs to be slow and boring, but again, it is all subjective and Hombres G once again surprised the world with a very well crafted album.

They didn't formally say goodbye, instead they just quietly left the music world and during their absence the record company issued compilations of their greatest hits, be it with the concept of 'The singles' or 'The ballads' but never offering anything new. By 2002, 10 years later, the band reunites and records two new songs, "En otro mundo" (In another world) and "Lo noto" (I notice) they compile them with unedited songs from their previous works as well as some of their best hits and produce an album that marks the return of the band to the music world. And so the band's second stage starts, from that point up until now they have recorded 2 studio albums and 1 live album, still with the support of the fans that never forgot them, and so the record sales still show us that this band is one of those rare cases that found the key for success in the music business.

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