Imagenes de Solidaridad/Solidarity images
Samuel Reina Calvo (Sancti Spíritus. Cuba)
Pocas palabras, solamente agradecer a Solidarity Rock por darme la oportunidad. Drew, William, Sandy, las bandas que han venido a Cuba, los amigos que han estado siempre.
Few Words, just to thank Solidarity Rock for the oportunity, Drew, Sandy William, the bands that had toured Cuba, the friends that always had been here.
[Drew McIntosh. Santa Clara, January 2012]
[Douglas, Irina, William. Varadero, January 2012]
[Sandy. Trinidad, January 2012]
[Fernando (Fendu). Habana, January 2012]
[Isabel (Douglas wife), Irina, Sussie. Trinidad, December 2010]
[Sandy, Ernesto, Fendu, Drew. Habana, January 2012]
[Daimel. Varadero, January 2012]
[Douglas, Sandy, Daimel. Varadero Airport, January 2012]
[Kids on Fire + Arrabio members and crew. Varadero Airport, April 2011]
[Irina, Drew, Fendu, William, Dave, Mark, Manuel, Joe, Sandy. Sancti Spíritus, August 2011]
[Hang Loose + Arrabio members and crew. Varadero Airport, August 2011]
[The Vicious Cycles + Arrabio members and crew . Varadero Airport, January 2012]
This is what Solidarity Rock is, and why it’s important
William Garcia - Sancti Spiritus, Cuba
(Photo by Aaron Bocanegra)
I went to the Canary Islands in Spain in October 2006. I was there for three months doing what I could do best working since my second day there till the day right before coming back to Cuba, 14 February 2007. Being there I realized that I wanted to be back home and do music. That is what I do best and what I like the most, do music in every way, play it and help others to play it, work as a sound man, put shows together. When I was there I gat an email telling me that at the AHS in Sancti Spíritus a young Canadian was at a trova show and sang some songs. Everybody liked it and it was the first time we had heard someone from the north singing here.
(Photo by Bryan Kulba)
When I gat back to Cuba, I started working at the AHS as a sound man. I was asked to help with translation for a band coming to Sancti Spíritus Cuba from Edmonton, Canada. It was that young Canadian’s band. The one singing at the AHS at a trova show when I was in Spain. I was so happy I could do something like that, they gave me a CD to listen to the band and I couldn’t believe that it would happen. It did happen. 7and7is gat to Cuba in December 2007, after lots and lots of problems they gat to Sancti Spíritus. I was waiting for them at the AHS for
several hours but I had to go to practice so I went and started practicing. A friend came and told me the band had arrived at the AHS. I went there to meet them, and I was lucky to meet Sean Foster that young guy at the trova show the year before, David Foster his brother, Damian Frackzeck, Kelly Chia, the four members of the band. With them was Bryan Kulba as a photographer and Drew McIntosh to document the tour in video. 
(Photo by Bryan Kulba)
We started putting together a D.I.Y tour in Cuba which is the most crazy thing you can imagine. It was the very first time anyone had done this in Cuba. No one had ever have thought about doing that but we had no alternative. They where here to play rock and roll and so we were here to help them make it. Through the days together we had the opportunity to become friends, and I’m glad I have seen them all again, except for Kelly, after those hard days in Cuba. They are into my best friends list for ever, and after lots of years I had the opportunity to meet some again in Edmonton, their city. That was a nice surprise, another step on the way but that’s another story.
(Photo by Bryan Kulba)
Going from one show in Cienfuegos to Trinidad for the next show, Drew McIntosh and me start talking on the bus about a video cam he had at home and wanted to send to Cuba for artists to use it and some ideas he had about it all. Great ideas. We spent the hole trip drunk talking about dreams and then continued on Trinidad beach the next day. We didn’t have anything to eat, just hanging out with friends and just a big bottle of Havana Club, laughing about Fito’s Speedo. From all those conversations came Drew’s idea to make Solidarity Rock. He asked me if I would be in the idea and here we are today, making dreams come true.
From those three months I spent working in Spain I earned enough money to buy an Silvertone guitar, a Marshall study guitar amp and a multieffect pedal. The Marshall study guitar amp helped us make the 7and7is tour. Damian played through it. At that point it was the only guitar amp in town and all around. The last day of the tour in Havana Damian gave me his Boss ME-50 multieffect, his guitar strap, and the cords he used during the tour, things I still keep and play with. They are like treasures for me because they have a big history and are part of something very special.
(Photo by Drew McIntosh)
Then it was the time for Slates to come down to Cuba after lots of work on one side and the other of the planet, they brought with them all things that were needed here, two guitar amps, one base amp, a drum kit, guitars, bass, cymbals, cords and more. From that tour I gat Eric’s guitar, a Mann guitar that after lots of electrical problems is back to the fight. I gave the Silvertone I bought in Spain to some one else to use it and Eric’s guitar is part also of history. It’s another brick in the wall of this new world we are all building. Eric and his brother had sent before an Ibanez guitar that has past through different musicians hands here and is still
rocking and shredding hard, right now in Jatibonico. 
(Photo by Aaron Bocanegra)
(Photo by Aaron Bocanegra)
I’m just telling what’s on my side, every one else here in the punk bands have their own histories to tell, their own instruments and stuff coming from Solidarity Rock, also trovadores, metal bands, classical musicians such as the young girl, Yenny who played for Solidarity Rock and The Vicious Cycles this January 6 at the A.H.S in Sancti Spíritus which was her first concert in her own town. That special night we officially welcomed to The Vicious Cycles to Cuba and the 25 Years Award of the AHS to Solidarity Rock in the person of its creator Drew McIntosh.
We gave Yenny a hard case that Vicious Cycles brought with them. It’s a hard case from Sparrow guitars and that is another special step. I gat to say that Yenny is a friend of mine, Osmin Torres’, daughter. I have known her since she was just a little girl and have seen her progress in her career, studying to be the musician she is today. It made me so happy that she played for us and the guys from Sparrow guitars gave her their hard case to protect her guitar.
(Photo by Sandy Phimester)
Ron Reyes ex-Black Flag and other bands sent me his guitar signed by himself and this is like an another award for the project - for everyone of us. It’s what we are doing all together. What we are building and what we are all part of. When I go to shows I see all punk bands playing instruments and stuff coming from your hands and that makes me feel so happy for them and thankful for you. It is the biggest thing everyone will have ever done for rock and roll at any place at any time and you have done that. You have helped the punk movement, the ideas and cultural and human relations to develop and grow up in every way possible. You have donated your time, your money, your possessions, your spirit and believed in this project and been part of something you didn’t even have to bother with. It is more than anyone in rock and roll has ever done anywhere. Is very humanitarian, very
spiritual and inspiring.
We all had heroes when young and teenagers, rock heroes like Kurt Cobain or others on my side, but that is over. I passed that long ago. Those are media heroes that they want us to believe and fallow. I gat real friends and people who I admire now, people that represent a lot in my life and my present, future and past
now. It’s all of you who have taught me lots of lessons and made me a
better man everyday.
(Photo by Aaron Bocanegra)
I went to Edmonton Canada and had the chance to know who you are, people I
just knew by names, where you live and how you live. It made me see lots of things, different colours, different tastes that helped me understand lots of things in a total and honest way. Thanks a lot to everyone, I could never mention names and places, the list will never end.
I have an endless respect and admiration for everyone of you and your actions for us here. There’s a lot to learn yet for all of us here, and I just hope that if not all, at least a few more people can learn to see things in a real way and get to know the value of every single action and not the material stuff but the spiritual in every action.
I just wanted to write very few lines but it came to be more than I expected, in fact what I wanted to express is the admiration I feel for what you do and let
you know that things I have from your hands are with me for ever. They will
go with me and the rest, I’m giving to kids and friends from all around. They’re for all the other bands to keep working and growing. I’m trying to put then in the best hands I can find so they will be put to good use and safe and remembered.
William Garcia.
(Photos by Drew McIntosh)
Here is a write up from the AHS’s national page about the Vicious Cycles show that didn’t end up making it past two bands, because the power blew. They tried to re-route some juice from the street lights, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen. Either way, interesting words from the AHS site.
Banda canadiense Vicious Cycles.
Un viernes 13 con punk-rock en La Madriguera
Lázaro J. González González
La Madriguera, sede capitalina de la Asociación Hermanos Saíz, prepara para este viernes 13 a las seis de la tarde el gran concierto de punk-rock William Fabián in Memoriam. El espectáculo, que tendrá entrada libre, contará con la presencia de las bandas Kallejeros Kondenados, Limalla, Akupunktura, Eskoria, Gatillo, Arrabio y como invitados espaciales a la banda canadiense Vicious Cycles, de gira por Cuba en estos momentos.
El punk- rock es un género musical dentro del rock que emergió a mediados de los años 1970, caracterizado por su actitud independiente y amateur. En sus inicios, el punk era una música muy simple y cruda, a veces descuidada: un tipo de rock sencillo, con melodías simples de duraciones cortas, sonidos de guitarras amplificadas poco controlados o ruidosos, pocos arreglos e instrumentos, y, por lo general, de compases y tempos rápidos. A la vez, el punk ha creado una cultura: la de la libertad individual, que tiende a generar creencias en conceptos tales como el individualismo y el pensamiento libre.
William Fabián era el cantante líder de Escoria, agrupación que lideró ese movimiento musical en Cuba y falleció en el año 2010. A él se rinde este homenaje, el cual se realiza por segunda ocasión.
One Friday 13 with punk-rock at The Madriguera
J. Lazarus González González
El Madriguera, home of the Associacion Hermanos Saiz in the Cuban Captial, is preparing for a great punk-rock concert in memory of William Fabian, which goes on at 6:00 Friday January 13. The show, which will have free admission, will feature the bands Kallejera Kondenados, Limalla, Akupunktura, Eskoria, Gatillo, Arrabio and special guests from Canada, The Vicious Cycles, who are touring Cuba right now.
Punk-rock is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s, characterized by its independent and amateur attitude. In its beginnings, punk music was a very simple and crude, sometimes discounted, a simple type of music, with short songs, simple melodies, guitar sounds and loud, uncontrolled amplification. Few complex arangements or instruments, and generally bars of fast tempos. At the same time, punk has created a culture: that of individual freedom, which tends to create beliefs in concepts such as individualism and free thought.
William Fabian was the lead singer of Eskora, a group that led the musical movement in Cuba and died in 2010. This show is a tribute to him, which is done for a second time.
Vicious Cycles Solidarity Rock tour in Cuba was more than a tour.
William Garcia - Sancti Spiritus, Cuba
In my mind I still gat the Vicious Cycles songs, all the good times we had together in this tour, all the good friends we met on this tour. Lots of pics to show and lots of things to write. In the meanwhile I would like to thank all the people who help this tour happened, all the bands and all the people who went to the SR shows in the different cities, without you it wouldn’t have been possible any of the pics you will see and all the stories to be told. Every one who donated anything, from strings, pics, cords, guitars, base, cloths, thanks so much it means so much for all the kids and for what we have been doing for all this years with the project. I hope more people and more bands have the opportunity to come and see what we are talking about what we have created together. This world will never be the same and this country will never be the same thanks to every little help of you guys, it is really hard but no one said it will have be easy, and if it will have been easy I guess we wouldn’t be doing it. Every single steps on the way counts and be sure all you do is helping people to have a different point of view and is making people get reach as individuals and cultural spirit.
There’s so much more coming from this tour.
We Love You Cuba
The tour was Epic! The people amazing! The shows were all awesome! Still trying to get our heads around the whole thing… here are a few pics to start!
CUBA BOUND!
Ok, well, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Toronto with my friends Sandy Phimester, photographer extrordinaire and our new friend, Calgary’s Jimmy Gamble. We’re waiting for about half an hour to get on the shuttle back to the airport for our 6:15 flight to Varadero.
A lot has been going through my mind lately. Cuba is a country which has been at war for 50 years. It’s a country where the people live in difficult circumstances because of the political situation both inside and outside the country. I think that bringing the joy that comes from punk rock to the young people in Cuba is very important. In fact, it’s the thing which I have seen as the most important thing I could do for several years.
Looking back, throughout the last 4 years, I’ve had an opportunity to interact with a lot of amazing people. This project has allowed musicians, artists and other sympathizers to use their creative talents to make the world a little bit better. In the lead up to this tour, we had a lot of help. Ben Disaster, The Mandates, and the Collapse played a show in Calgary and donated what they could to the cause. We’ve been able to use that money to be able to cover part of the bus costs on this tour. We had a show at the Baby Seal Club in Edmonton, and Diehatsu Hijets, Book Of Caverns, Camembert and Morals played and donated everything to help us take care of our Cuban tourmate’s needs on the road. The kick off show in Vancouver brought the AK-747’s and Rich Hope together with the Vicious Cycles to get them on the bus.
We also had the great support of Matt Jeffries, of Stylewise Media who designed the beautiful poster, and Jen Fritz of Fritz Media who handled press for the Vancouver show. We had a full page in the Vancouver Sun and coverage in the Province and the Straight. If you need media relations work, do yourself a favour and call Jen Fritz.
So, we’re heading out with the best hopes possible and the power of friendship to overcome whatever adversity we find. This really is a great thing. We appreciate everyone who has put their time or money towards ensuring our success. We’ll see you in 10 days!
VIVA ROCK SOLIDARIO.
Drew
Cuba Metal is your portal to all things Cuban and Metal. Seriously, if you ever wondered what a Cuban death metal band might look or sound like, you should check it out.
Metal is pretty big in Cuba, and this site is an amazing catalouge of heavy music on the island. From orchestral death metal to straight up punk rock, you can find it all here.
