1986

Superelvis is formed in october 1986, in Barcelona, by Anki Toner, Meteo Giráldez & Raimon Aymerich. Anki was supposed to sing and play harmonica, Meteo owned a bass and even could play it, while Raimon had to buy a set of drums to join the band. A few weeks later, Meteo suggests the name of the band and Anki writes a Superelvis manifesto. (Only in Spanish, sorry).

October 31st, 1987: The big day has arrived. The first Superelvis concert takes place at the HUMEDAD RELATIVA club. 39 people attended the show. Two of them were so enthousiastic that joined the band for the next few months. Those two people were Wagner Pâ, on guitar, and Santiago Alcántara, on keyboards. The band has thus lost its two only fans.

After a couple of shows as a quintet in early 1988 Superelvis returned to the original trio line-up. Those were the obscure years. The band rehearsed (what?) in a dark basement and released some cassettes on its own label DOPPLER EFFECT MUSIC. Somewhere along the way Meteo moved from bass to guitar and Raimon moved in turn from drums to piano. Anki failed to upgrade. Another guitar player, Carles Barrobés, joined the band 1989, but left it after a couple of shows.

The new decade brought some light. After the release of the RESISTANCE EMOTIONAL MUSIC cassette, everybody seemed to discover Superelvis. Guillermo Castaño (God bless him) was the first to write about Superelvis, in the january issue of magazine ROCK DE LUX.

In april the band signed their first recording contract with a Madrid-based independant label TRIQUINOISE, for whom they record their first album, KISS ME WHEN YOU DANCE.

While recording the album, the Barcelona City Council proclamed Superelvis Winner of the prestigious award BIENNAL'91, for young artists. (By the way, in the "music" category). The price included some cash and the recording of a promotional album. Since Superelvis was already recording an album, they dust part of the Doppler Effect tapes, record some new stuff and gather an early-Superelvis compilation, EN CASO DE DUDA, ROCK'N'ROLL. Since it is a promotional not-for-sale album, it is included for free in the KISS ME WHEN YOU DANCE packaging. These two albums have been released on LP only and have not been reissued on CD yet.

A lot was written about these albums, and about the innovative approach to cover versions/perversions that was the core of Superelvis work at the time. Long words (like deconstructivism) were pronounced but most of the press reviews failed to understand the concept RESISTANCE EMOTIONAL MUSIC, which is what all the fuzz was about.

Some of the people at TRIQUINOISE depart to put up a new (and better) label, POR CARIDAD PRODUCCIONES. They offer us a new (and better) contract. It is good enough since we are still working with them.

The first album for the new company is WRONG SONGS, also the first CD release. One of the best-selling Superelvis albums, and of the most satisfactory to the band. The press was somehow confused with the band not doing covers (or whatever they are or are not), but the record got fantastic reviews anyway.

It was also the first album to feature external collaborations on some tracks. Mark Cunningham's trumpet ("The Best Moments") and Tres vocals ("Too Cold", "A Single Minute") were some of the best moments of the record.

Encouraged by the results of external people's work on WRONG SONGS, the band joins forces with several musicians for the live line-up. The first live collaboration is, again, American trumpet player Mark Cunningham, at the ACTUAL festival in Logroño. Other people who might be found on stage with Superelvis include Danish clarinet player Jakob Draminsky Højmark, Spanish guitar player Anton Ignorant, and Swiss trumpet player Markuss Breuss. The later lives in Madrid, though, which makes playing together a little more difficult.

At the end of that year we did our first Spanish tour, with ACCIDENTS POLIPOETICS (a poetry duo, no kidding) as an opening slot.

Not a specially remarkable year, though we released NECESSARY LIES, our longest studio CD up to now (60 minutes).

In september, we did our first European Tour (a mini-tour, actually), playing some gigs in Copenhaguen and Berlin. The Copenhaghen concert was recorded for the Danish national radio.

The tour was followed, in october, by another Spanish mini-tour which included a gig at the TEATRO ALFIL in Madrid. It may have been our best show (at least, in Anki Toner's opinion)

In february, Superelvis premiered the 50-minutes-long suite "Saturday Night", for two pianos and vocals, at the COMMUNIQUE club, in Barcelona. A few months later the suite would be played in EL SOL, in Madrid. Unfortunately, the suite is still unrecorded.

And then one day this guy comes and says 'Hey, I wanna play with you'. So he is there at one rehearsal and the next day he is a full member of the band. That was Alfredo Costa Monteiro.

With Alfredo on the band, another mini-tour that leads us to Spanish national radio where we record a live show for the program DIARIO POP (probably Spain's most important radio program). The concert has been played several times.

The same line-up (there were seven of us for the occasion) had recorded another very special gig that would remain unreleased a couple of years. It will eventually see the light in 1997, under the title HAVING FUN ON STAGE.

At the end of the year, Superelvis set up their own recording studio, LIE/DOUBT AREA. One of the band's first productions with the new equipment is the music for the radio program "P.O.BOX", at RADIO P.I.C.A.

The first major production of the new studio is HAPPINESS IS STUPID. The band is finally able to spend as long as they need to make the record, so they spend nine months. At the end of the sessions they are exhausted. The effort is worthwhile, though, and the album is voted "BEST SPANISH RECORD OF THE YEAR 1996" by magazine ROCK DE LUX. Collaborators in the album include French composer Pascal Comelade, Javier Colis (Mil Dolores Pequeños), Javier Piñango (Destroy Mercedes), Juan Crek (Macromassa), Mª José Peña (Claustrofobia) and a discovery, nuara.

The success of HAPPINESS IS STUPID makes some things possible, or easier. One thing made possible is the release of a 1995 concert. Superelvis thus becomes one of the first few Spanish independent act to have a full album recorded live. The album is titled HAVING FUN ON STAGE, after a 1974 Elvis Presley release.

Another consequence of the success is that the band has the chance to play, if not more often (you have to sell over 50,000 to play regularly in Spain), at least in better conditions (and to take home some cash, too). In this sense, Superelvis played the BAM festival at Barcelona in what is probably one of most adequate locations that could be dreamed by the band, the medieval site of Plaça del Rei, in a concert that was attended by over 1,500 people, and that was broadcasted live by local TV and national radio. For that special occasion Superelvis played a 40-minute long suite based on the song "Paraíso", followed by a 90-second long cover of Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn".

1998 was a stupid year in terms of production but a crucial year for the future of the band.

In february SUPERELVIS didn't want to follow POR CARIDAD PRODUCCIONES new contract policy and quit the label. By the end of the spring they were kind of tired of the record labels that offered them a contract. The band felt grateful for the offers but sad about the actual content of those offers. The band refused all the offers that were meant for would-be teenage stars (which means that they refused to sign any contract that would ask them to give away 50% of the royalties in exchange of nothing at all).

By the end of the year, Anki Toner quit the band. Only time will tell if  this is a definitive move or just a temporary situation.

SUPERELVIS buys a CDR machine and put up their own label HAZARD RECORDS. Anki Toner writes another manifesto. Alfredo Costa Monteiro provides the first HAZARD release, "RUBBER MUSIC". In march, the band releases STRUCTURAL PACKAGE DESIGNS, the first SUPERELVIS recording without Anki's vocals. In november comes VEGETAL,  their second release as an instrumental trio.

At the same time, they release WHAT ABOUT BEAUTY?, a collection of songs recorded as a quartet in the spring of 1998. These are the last Anki Toner's recordings with Superelvis.
 

SUPERELVIS gets invited to the 3º ciclo de Música Contemporânea in Porto (Portugal). They give a great concert, which is nicely recorded, and release it as a CD, PORTO 18.3.2000.

Hazard Records organizes a series of concerts at the Teatreneu theatre, Barcelona, in which all of the bands play the same song. (The tune was Francis Lai's "Theme From Love Story", which happened to be celebrating its 30th anniversary that month). Superelvis opens the series of concerts. Anki Toner also gives a concert under the name FILE UNDER TONER. The final show, by Música Veneno, consists of a wild remix/appropiation of the recordings of the previous concerts. Of course, Hazard Records released it (WHOLE LOTTA LOVE STORY)

The band changes its name to TUE-TÊTE for their final album, the double CD LE PAUVRE HOMME ÉPUISE ATTENDAIT AVEC RÉSIGNATION DEPUIS DES HEURES SANS LE CREUX D'UN ROCHER UN SECOURS DE PLUS EN PLUS HIPOTHÉTIQUE.

Six years later, the complete line-up including Anki Toner gives yet another concert.

 

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2020

Anki Toner, Meteo Giràdez and Raymon Aymerich resume rehearsing together.

2023

Superelvis goes public again. Check the details here.