Frágil (Peru)

In the mid 70's a new band called Fragil appeared in the Peruvian Progressive scenario and they were the first ones to be really popular in a country where most people listens radio music.
Around 1978 they had a big fan base and full auditoriums of Peruvians went to see Andres Dulude dressed like Peter Gabriel singing I Know What I Like, Octavio Castillo playing with his keyboard the dramatic intro of Watcher of the Skies or Luis Valderrama playing the guitar parts of Stairway to Heaven, but that wasn't all, they also had time for some Yes tracks like Your Move/All Good People which was almost an hymn for them and many other famous classics from Prog' bands.
After a few years of full halls and lots of excellent cover versions, they started to include a few songs with lyrics in Spanish, all pure and pristine progressive, in a first moment their fans accepted reluctantly the new songs because we wanted to feel that we were seeing Yes, Genesis or Led Zeppelin or at least the closest version possible for us, but the songs were so good that soon were accepted by all the audience and from that moment FRÁGIL refused to play anything that was not composed by them.
1980 was a crucial year for FRÁGIL, they recorded their first album AVENIDA LARCO, which was released in 1981 by a TV station producer called Pantel, this album was an immediate success, mostly because of the song Viernes Sangriento (Bloody Friday) that mentioned well known places and common situations related with women and liquor on a famous street of Lima.
After this album their fame started to grow but they lost the chance to became international, mostly because they always refused to release songs in a different language than Spanish.
I read reviews about this album saying it has a clear Marillion influence, but this is not possible, because most of the songs were composed before Marillion even was formed, FRÁGIL is a clearly symphonic band, not Neo Prog' as some people believe.
As the years passed the band lost part of their audience mostly because they had some changes in the lineup especially Andrés Dulude who is a very charismatic front man and the drummer Arturo Creamer who was replaced by the very capable Jorge Durand but also because they started to mix progressive Rock with mainstream and Peruvian Black Folk music.
They released SERRANIO in 1990, CUENTO REAL in 1994 and ALUNADO in 1997, none of them really popular because of the already mentioned instability of the line up and the mainstream influence, the re-issue of AVENIDA LARCO in 1999 gave the band a revival and helped to create a new base of younger fans
That same year and with Andrés back again in the team they recorded the great SORPRESA DEL TIEMPO (Surprise of Time) with a 27 piece Philharmonic to enhance most of their early tracks with the great sound of the Orchestra, Sony Music del Perú released this album in 2002 and Musea gave the band the chance to be known outside Latin America..
This is a second chance for the band that I hope they won't let it pass, because they have quality, skills and charisma to compete with almost any progressive band, but most important, they deserve it.