Júlio Magalhães
Alison Buechner e Kerstin Buechner
Kalú Ferreira
Musician
He is the eternal drummer of the band Xutos & Pontapés, the one who loudly shouts «ai a minha vida» in the famous song Dia de S. Receber. He joined the band through a newspaper advertisement in 1979, and since then he has spent four decades at the service of Portuguese music, including being part of Palma’s Gang, of Jorge Palma, and releasing a solo album. He also has an entrepreneurial streak to him, with two legendary houses to his CV, both linked to music: the melancholic Johnny Guitar, in Lisbon, and the current Hard Club, in Oporto. And the offer stands: if Led Zeppelin wanted to get back on stage, they would have a good drummer here.
What do you do to keep a band together for so many years?
The band has been kept intact for almost 40 years with a lot of respect, friendship and compromise on all sides. All opinions are valid.
An inevitable question: what has rehearsing, recording and being on stage been like without Zé Pedro?
There has been a huge void, not only in terms of music, where Zé was a keystone in the execution and performance of our songs, but also in the development of new songs, not to mention all the encouragement that he always gave us and which led to our success. He was a fighter and a positivist.
What band, past or present, would you like to go on tour with?
I would have loved to tour with Led Zeppelin, without a doubt the biggest rock band ever - in my opinion, of course. As for the present, I’d like to play with the Foo Fighters, even just to keep time.
«I would have loved to tour with Led Zeppelin, without a doubt the biggest rock band ever»
The Hard Club has taken advantage of the dynamic times that Oporto has been experiencing?
Without a doubt. We have taken advantage of it and we are constantly creating new points of interest so that all visitors and customers feel an evolving dynamic every day, without the Hard Club becoming boring. We are talking, of course, as much about the concert hall line-up as about the restaurant. Concerts, exhibitions and interesting fairs, for all audiences and new menus, doing justice to the flavours of our city and the public.
While festivals have taken a prominent role in the music scene, what is the strategy of a venue such as the Hard Club to make its mark on the concert circuit?
The Hard Club’s time to shine is autumn/winter. When it becomes pointless to hold open-air concerts, we become a place of great interest for promoters to hold these concerts, undoubtedly due to the optimal conditions and equipment that we offer. But we are also increasingly successfully investing in the corporate sector, holding various events, such as conferences, dinners, brand presentations, etc. Our venue undoubtedly offers very special and appealing characteristics for the event organisers.
