Morfi Grei, the name by which the charismatic leader of the cult punk group from Cornellà de Llobregat La Banda Trapero del Río was known, died this Thursday at the age of 64, according to a statement made public today by his family. Morfi’s goodbye also means having to mourn goodbye to the legendary band, of which he was the only active original member.
Miguel Ángel Sánchez, which was his real name, died due to complications from a liver transplant operation. “His mother, his children, and his brothers want to thank you for all your support and consolation. We ask for maximum respect and intimacy in these difficult times,” his relatives stated in the note. .
In this way Barcelona punk is in mourning. The man who was the voice and emblem of the pioneering band of this style in Catalonia and the peninsula is leaving. Born in Melilla on December 14, 1959, his family emigrated to Catalonia and settled in Cornellà in the sixties. The group was born precisely in the working-class neighborhood of San Idelfonso in this town on the outskirts of Barcelona in the mid-seventies as a response to the laietà rock of the time, with which it contrasted with its short, direct and confrontational songs – in Catalan and Spanish – in the image of English punk of the time.
The early 80s were the golden period of the band, especially for their concerts in all types of clubs and stages in Barcelona’s red belt, where they had their largest audience, but also in areas such as Madrid or Euskadi. Ciutat podrida, a relentless denunciation of the marginal situation in the working-class neighborhoods of the metropolitan area, has already gone down in the history of Catalan punk.
Their status as a cult group is also due to the fact that they published a single album during that initial stage, La Banda Trapera del Río (Belter, 1979). They dissolved early in 1982 to develop solo projects although they later returned in several stages, first between 1993 and 1996, and later on a brief tour between 2009 and 2010. Precisely that year, drummer Juan Raf Pulido died, which led to a new dissolution. from the band. Already in 2004, guitarist Modesto Agriarte Tío Modes had died. In total, they have only four studio albums and one live album despite a 40-year career with several interruptions.
In 2015, Morfi Grei returned to the stage alone and in the role of author and theater actor with an autobiographical work titled Memories of a Junkie, in which he himself explained his problems with drugs in the past.
Finally, and thanks to the insistence of the numerous (and already veteran) followers they have always had, the band has experienced new returns: since then, they began a tour in 2016 and have played in venues such as Primavera Sound in 2018. In 2022, with Morfi Grei awaiting a liver transplant, and the only original member, La Banda Trapera del Río ended 46 years on stage, with a four-concert tour.
