My parents met through music and had individual and shared musical trajectories.
Luis’ Music – The Beginning
I was always fond of music and began performing at home at the age of 4. I played a kind of drum and sang for the family and other victims, who also had to pay to hear me play! Other artists joined me, such as my favourite sister Isabel and my friends, in more sophisticated shows, including acting when we used scenery we had made ourselves, out of cardboard. Here is a programme from 1954.
In 1959, when I was 13, I bought my first guitar. I began to teach myself, using a book entitled “How to play guitar in 24 hours” (or rather in 24 months). I practised until my fingers bled.
Three years later, when I was 16, I had my first group, more or less the real thing, the Baby Faces, composed of Villar de Sousa (rhythm guitar), Manuel Athouguia (rhythm guitar), Diniz (drums) and me (lead guitar). Here is a photograph of a gig in 1962.
After that I joined the Os Ecos, made up of Manuel Athouguia (rhythm guitar), José Athouguia (drums), António Sallaty (bass) me (lead guitar). We played at a lot of parties and three times on television. Here is a copy of a contract in 1963:
We also made a record, an instrumental, produced with very primitive technology. Here is the record label:
Os Ecos demonstrating the Italian EKO guitars at FIL in 1963
In 1964/65, I belonged to a Group called Nova Onda, made up of Gonçalo Lucena (vocalist), Manuel Lucena (bass), Jorge Moniz Pereira (rhythm guitar), Fernando Mendes (drums) and me (lead guitar). We went on television, played at a lot of parties, and on a New Year cruse to Madeira, on the steam liner Santa Maria, playing as the ship’s group (when the ship tilted to the left everyone danced leaning to that side). Here is the ticket for the 1964 trip and photographs of the ship and one of the shows.
In 1965 I began to play with The Saints, composed of Luis de Freitas Branco (rhythm guitar and voice), João Valeriano (bass and voice), Alexandre Corte Real (drums) and me (lead guitar). Later Alexandre had to leave, and José Athouguia joined (drums, he had already played with me in the Ecos) and the group was finished off with another one of my friends, João Ferreira da Costa (keyboard and voice). João Bragança and João Vicente Ribeiro were also part of the group and dealt with the contracts.
We competed in the Yé-Yé Festival at the Monumental Theatre, organized by the great theatre impresario Vasco Morgado. It was a grand event, in which 100 music groups from all over the country took part, selected over almost a year in various eliminatory competitions, and included a group from Angola and one from Mozambique. We won all the eliminatory events and also the final.
Before the final, we thought it better to change to the Portuguese name, Os Claves
After the Claves, in 1967 I began to accompany Pamela and later we got married, forming the duo LP – Luis and Pamela.
Towards the end of 1968, I was called up for my obligatory national service. During the recruitment period I met up with my friend Alfredo Laranjinha, with whom I had been at school. We had learned to play guitar together, and we immediately took the opportunity of organising shows for the end of course celebrations.
After the initial period, I was based in Oporto, where the first thing I did was to go to a musical instruments shop and say I was interested in playing with a group in Oporto. On the same day I received a ‘phone call and immediately began to play bass (which was what they needed) and to sing with the Walter Behrend group, which was composed of Walter Behrend (keyboard), Italo Caffi (guitar and flute, Andrea Tosi’s ex pianist), Jorge Guimarães (drums) and me (bass). We played at many parties in Oporto and even in Spain, and made a record for the Alvorada label, which includes one of my originals.
After one year of national service here in Portugal, I was sent to Angola for two years, where I spent the whole time in the middle of the jungle. This didn’t manage to stop the music. I set up a group The Tigers and with what we had available we made our own set of drums, microphone, and an amplifier made with the only film sound projector on the base. I organised regular local shows, and was invited to take part in shows in other places.
On my return home I went back to playing and singing with Pamela, who came back from England, we got married two months later and have continued to make music together until now.
Besides this, I later participated in a Jazz group called Jazzamataz , with João Olias (keyboard), Michel Mounier (drums) and me (bass), and in the group Rockfellas, from 1992 to 2010, with José Santos Fernandes (keyboard and voice), Alfredo Laranjinha (rhythm guitar and voice), Jaime Pereira (bass and voice), Michel Mounier (drums) and me (lead guitar and voice).
Pamela’s music
I was born a singer. From as early as I can remember I always sang with great passion and enjoyed it. When a baby in my cot, as soon as I woke I began to sing, which was quite annoying for my parents as I woke them very early in the morning. At a very early age I used to hear Kathleen Ferrier singing on the radio and loved to imitate her voice – I copied it very well. I felt the warmth, the grain and deep feeling in her voice and loved her form of musical expression. I used to sing her songs in the bathroom because there was an echo there which made it resound. At Primary School I loved to sing and was in the school choir. In my last two years there I used to sing solo a lot as my teacher, an Irish lady who taught us Irish and Scottish traditional music and ballads, appreciated my voice very much. We had singing lessons but besides the lessons she used often to call me to the front of the class and ask me to sing on my own. This was the beginning of my public singing.
At Primary School I learnt the violin for a year, on an instrument loaned by the School. I had private piano lessons from the age of 10 to 16, and also studied the theory of music. I reached Grade IV level of the Royal Schools of Music examinations.
At Secondary School I was in the school choir and once accompanied the School Orchestra on the piano. We had an excellent singing teacher who even took the school choir to appear on the BBC.
Once I left school I used to sing a lot by myself and began collecting the words of songs I enjoyed. Eventually I sang, unaccompanied, at parties, when asked by friends who liked my singing.
Then the most important event in my entire musical life happened. I met a guitarist with whom I had a complete and total musical union and understanding. I began to sing with him in 1967, when we first met. Our musical life together was extremely varied and rewarding. It was emotionally thrilling for me. We have a tremendous repertoire and he learned most of the tunes for the first time with me. He composed his own music and we made several songs together, composed of his music and my words.
We played in many, many places and appeared six times on Portuguese Television. Most of our activities were as the Duo L.P. but other formations came up, as everyone wanted to play with us.
| July 1967 | First musical contact with Luis. |
| End 1968 | Recordings for Radio programme; began playing in public places |
| 1968/69 | Appearance on Zip Zip television programme with Luis Freitas Branco |
| End 1969 | EP Record Pamela Murphy – 2 songs were our own compositions; 2 other recordings were of other well-known songs. The record company wanted us to make an LP but we had not enough songs prepared and Luis was off to Angola |
| 1972-1987 | Musical activities as a Duo and later with the LP & Company formation |
| 1974 | 25th April – TV appearance scheduled for that date, postponed due to the revolution falling on that day, but at a later date the programme went ahead with Isabel Wolmar as compere of the show – with José Campos e Sousa and John Harman |
| 1977 | Show at the Hit Club, in Lisbon, broadcast on Portuguese national television. We played every weekend at this Club for several years |
| 1980 | We entered the Portuguese television contest to choose the song to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Competition that year. We submitted one of Luis’ originals, which was selected and we sang it on television, although it did not reach the finals |
| 1984 | Julio Isidro’s TV Programme – a regular programme he had with two very well known actresses |
| 1986 | Julio Isidro’s TV Programme with the L P & Company formation |
| 1998 | The First 60s Music Festival at the Carlos Lopes Sports Stadium in Lisbon |
| 1999 | 60s Music Festival in Cascais |
| 2001 | 60s Music Festival in Cascais |
| 2003 | 60’s Music Show in Sintra, at the Olga Cadaval Cultural Centre; The 3 of us played together on stage there: Luis, Pamela and our son Paulo |
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