Sofia and Orlando are 84 years old, they are the parents of Manuel Ricardo Espinosa (Ricky, for most), a day like today but 20 years ago tragedy hit them hard. who was the leader of Phlegm He died after falling from the fifth floor of a building in Avellaneda, he was only 35 years old. That day Sofia and Orlando lost a son, meanwhile, the world of music lost one of the greatest exponents of local punk.
I have known the Espinosa family for a long time, Orlando was dedicated to fixing televisions and from time to time he would come home to see what was happening with our (now almost extinct) tube television. I met Sofia when she was older, this time we were the ones who went to her house with my dad to do some painting, masonry or electrical work. At that time, Ricky was no longer physically there, but he was in the messages that his followers were leaving at the door of his house, he was in the objects that still remained in what was his room, and above all he was alive in the parents of him.
“From a very young age he had something that made him always end up being a leader, from kindergarten, elementary school and that’s how it was with his music groups”assures Orlando remembering it with a smile.
Ricky was born on December 31, 1966 and lived all his life in Gerli (Avellaneda) he was a fan of Future and of Mouth, he never went to the bombonera but he was a regular in the stands of “El Porve”, the neighborhood club. The neighborhood, the friends and the music since I was a child, those are things that resonate over and over again and that have a lot to do with who Ricky was.
“When he started with music I bought him a guitar, he started taking classes. One day they gave her a bad grade and bye, she didn’t want to go anymore. She continued to play the same, by ear, learning from other friends. He composed here at night, we didn’t even know the number of songs he had, the first recordings were made with a radio recorder that a friend lent him, “Orlando comments on his son.
Ricky came to Phlegm from the hand of Juan Fandino, after a while and several changes he became the only active member of the band. From there he occupied the role of singer, guitarist and composer, the brothers joined the band Santiago and Fernando Rossi and Alejandro Alsina.
Between 1990 and 2022, the formation was changing, they released 7 studio albums in addition to live material. At the same time, Ricky formed phlegmite a band from where he took care of giving visibility and spreading the word to many punk bands that were just starting out. Little by little and without intending to, he became a benchmark of the genre.
From his lyrics and style, Ricky was a very critical person with society. “He didn’t like verses, he didn’t like politicians, he didn’t like priests, he said they were all versers… He said ‘Why do they ask you how you are, if you tell them wrong they don’t help you?’“recalls his father about Ricardo’s way of thinking.
In these 20 years much has been said about Ricky Espinosa, of a life of excesses, of an artist tortured by his own demons, and of a perhaps absurd death that even today is hard to understand. As is often the case, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, death elevates people. In the case of people like Ricky, death mythologizes, turning man into a flag, into stories and legends that can often be true, other times exaggerated and, without a doubt, others can be an invention.mere fiction that only serves to profit from someone who is no longer here to give his version.
“Ricky was angel and devil” Orlando reflects on his son. “Ricardo, sober, was a guy who conquered you, he was cheerful, everyone loved him in the neighborhood… But in the other state he could do a lot of harm, but he did more harm to himself.” “He had this split personality, but he was very selfless and generous.”
On May 20, 2002 and after recording voices for what would be the group’s next album (Cinco de copas, released after his death), Ricky Espinosa and the guitarist Luis Gribaldo They returned to the latter’s house, an apartment on the fifth floor of a monoblock in Avellaneda. After drinking, playing and winning the Winning Eleven on the Playstation, Ricky surprisingly jumped out the window, was quickly helped, but died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
“When he died we were going to mourn him at a funeral home in the neighborhood, when the owner found out who Ricky was, he didn’t want us to do it there, he was afraid it would be filled with ‘punks’ and they would break up the place. We finally ended up mourning him at the house of one of my children, indeed it was full of people to the street, it was cold and it was drizzling and they were all there. In a moment I realize the silence… I closed my eyes and remembered the wake house, has there ever been so much silence at a wake? I think not, and that was the ‘punks’“Orlando remembers, visibly moved, on the day his son was fired.
Ricky Flema (1).jpg
“I didn’t premeditate anything, I never wanted to play in Obras and yet I played, it’s also a matter of luck. Life is taking you to the place where you have to be, but I don’t think that one forges life. I did not calculate anything to get to where I am, I still do not think I am in any privileged place, I did not betray myself at all. That I didn’t go unnoticed, yes I know, there are many who hate me for being the way I am and others who tell me ‘hold on Ricky’, but I didn’t set out to do it either, I wanted to do mine and nothing more.” That’s how he spoke in an interview about the music and his own life Richard “Ricky Espinosa.
Ricky Espinosa: The Documentary
Investigating for this note on Ricky, I came across the highly recommended documentary made in 2015 by Juan Pablo Duarte. I was able to chat with him about what led him to do “Ricky Espinosa: The Documentary”.
“The idea of making a documentary about Ricky arose for two reasons, one because I did not see anything similar about him, since many years had passed since his death and as he had experience in television I approached it from the audiovisual side. I always say yes If I had been a musician, I would have made a tribute album to him”.
Regarding how his love for Ricky and Flema was born, Juan Pablo began following the band in 1997, although he had known them since he was younger in his native Cañuelas. “Since ’97 I began to see them live and until Ricky died, I would have missed five shows in Buenos Aires alone.”
“I had the opportunity to chat with him at least three times, on one of those occasions we supported Flema en Cemento with a band he had. I was always very respectful and I didn’t like to disturb the band, I ran into Ricky on the side of the stage and gave him a record by our band and he gave me a hug as a way of gratitude, something that had never happened to me, and that response was genuine, I felt that he valued the effort of the people and that was great“, says Duarte about the encounter with Ricky that he remembers the most.
“Ricky Espinosa: The Documentary” It has the testimonies of dozens of musicians who shared moments with him, as well as the participation of whoever was Ricky’s girlfriend and the participation of Orlando Espinosa. The interviews alternate with images of old recitals, unpublished videos, and audios of Ricky himself, an ideal material for those who want to know more about the life and work of whoever he was and is an absolute benchmark of punk.
Source: Ambito
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