His name was actually Miguel Ángel Sánchez Tenedor, but for everyone he was Morfi Grei, or El Morfi, an authentic rocker and a genuine character in the history of popular music in our country. He has passed away at the age of 64, due to complications from a liver transplant. In recent times he had returned, in a second musical youth that took him to stages throughout the peninsula, still transmitting the aura of the old and wild times.
Not in vain Morfi Grei was a legendary character, who had been a revolutionary, musical and social, with that anthem that was Ciutat podrida, in front of La Banda Trapera del Rio, also known colloquially as La Trapera, which emerged in the neighborhood of San Ildefonso, the Satellite City of Cornellà de Llobregat. A working-class world that was the breeding ground for an attitude that earned them to be considered godfathers of punk, although they did not really agree, since they began to fight in 1976, before the punk outbreak the following year. Theirs was more of an urban rock very well established on the drums of Juan (1957-2010) and the solo guitar of the no less legendary Modesto Agriarte (1957-2004), better known as Tío Modes, both musicians who came from the symphonic field. -progressive.
After that historic milestone that was the punk festival at the Aliança del Poble Nou – on December 4, 1977, in which Ramoncín and his W.C. were also present – ??and getting started at the self-managed Saló Diana, the group began a conflictive relationship in 1978. with the Belter record company, from the initial dalliances with the single La Regla/La cloaca, prior to their reference album of the same name La Banda Trapera del Rio (1979), which saw its release greatly delayed and which the group considered that the sound of the vinyl did not do justice to his live performance. Despite their complaints, the album became a cult object, both for punks and urban rock fans. Furthermore, their performances in the Basque Country were a decisive influence on the emergence of Basque radical rock.
Their first album is a veritable decalogue of anthems emerging from the most scoundrel underground, with song titles and lyrics as stark as they are humorous: Curriqui de barrio or the closing of traca Born from the dust of a drunk and the pussy of a whore. And also its emblematic song par excellence, Ciutat podrida, a punk anthem in Catalan, normalizing the language before it was talked about. The eventful existence of the group ended in 1982 and then Morfi would begin a stage in which he began to lead projects of different names: Morfi Grei – with whom he released the miniLp Aliento de noche –, Zona Grei or Vox Animal, with which he recorded Live indirect (1992). Shortly after, he reunited with La Trapera to give life to what would be the group’s second album, Guante de guillotina (1993), which would be followed by the live album Directo a los cojones (1994).
But things did not end up coming to fruition and they separated again in 1996. Ten years later, the Munster label would be in charge of rekindling the group’s flame by publishing the compilation 1978/1982 Complete Recordings, a double album and CD that includes their greatest hits. , models and themes from the Saló Diana concerts. Shortly after, journalist Jaime Gonzalo published the biography of the group Escupidos de la boca de Dios. This propelled the band’s return to activity and the making of the documentary Venid a las sewers: The story of La Banda Trapera del Rio (2010).
After the new separation from LBTDR, a divorce and his termination as a restaurant businessman, Morfi returned to Cornellà to develop projects such as Desenchufados or his collaboration with the group Electroputas, with whom he recorded the experimental Cielos movingizos (2011). He then published Letras pétreas, a book with texts, photos and drawings. From the journey through a busy nightlife arises Subtrabelios, a supergroup made up of Morfi, musicians from Decibelios and Subterranean Kids. In 2015 he made a foray into theater with Memories of a Junkie, a work written and performed by himself based on personal experiences.
The fortieth anniversary of La Trapera would lead to a new meeting of the group’s survivors, who performed intermittently until 2019 – during which they released the album Quemando el Futuro -, conditioned by Morfi’s health problems and the pandemic. Tireless, he participates in the Travelings group, an American-style project. As a result of hepatitis he has to undergo a liver transplant, which does not prevent him from releasing the album Más que Jesús Jesús, credited to La Ley de Morfi, a group with which he will still perform in 2023.
