Armando Molina

Armando Molina, was a Mexican concert promoter, musician and rock music impresario best remembered for being the music coordinator of the Avandaro Festival in 1971. At the height of La Onda movement, due to his constant appearance on media, excellent music marketing skills for the time with the bands he managed as well as his own and the creation of the well-received character Armandaro Valle de Bravo by actor Eduardo Manzano (a parody of Molina and the jipitecas) in the famous Los Polivoces [es] show, Molina achieved the status of cultural icon in Latin America.

Early life

Born as Armando Franco Molina Solis in the Narvarte neighborhood of Mexico City to a middle-class family. A piano child prodigy, he debuted at 8 years old playing Albéniz and others at the prestigious Sala Chopin and at 14 he switched his attention from piano to rock music after listening to the early rock and roll bands from Latin America such as Jopis and Teen Tops. He also excelled in sports, becoming a very competent goalkeeper in High School. He enrolled to study Communication Studies at Universidad Iberoamericana graduating in 1970.

Breakthrough

After experimenting with some rock bands up until the mid-1960s, and after listening to Jefferson Airplane he formed La Maquina del Sonido together with some other rockstars of the time such as Carlos Zaldivar and Roberto Milchorena, who quickly were signed by CBS to make some EPs from 1967 to 1969 and their well-received 1970 eponymous LP, achieving some radio hits with his own version of Iron Butterfly's In agadda da vida and some original songs such as No me Toques, Blowing & Flying and others. Together with pianist Eduardo Toral he toured South America. At the same time, he became editor of the prestigious magazine Mexico Canta and co-founded with Waldo Tena (of Los Rebeldes del Rock fame) the talent agency ArTe which signed some of the greatest Mexican rock bands of the time such as Three Souls in my Mind, El Ritual etc. It was at this point that he had to choose between becoming a professional soccer player or continue as a full-time professional musician/impresario. The fantastic development of the band's stage image and it's rapid ascencion to superstardom due to Molina's enthusiastic hardwork and know-how was noticed by Telesistema Mexicano producer Luis de Llano Macedo who hired Molina as screenwriter to many of his musical shows in Radio and TV such as the legendary La Onda de Woodstock, heavily promoted by Jacobo Zabludovsky and as Director of the Alejandro Jodorowsky's show Happening a go-go.

Avandaro Festival and its aftermath

In 1971 he was summoned by his boss Luis de Llano for a private meeting with McCann-Ericskon Vice-President Justino Compean and Eduardo Lopez Negrete, president of Promotora Go an auto racing promotion company. The executives wanted Molina to hire Javier Batiz and La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata for a rock show that was going to take place during a competition named Circuito Avandaro at Valle de Bravo. As both acts refused to be involved in the show, Promotora Go requested Molina to book his own bands from ArTe. Promotora Go and Telesistema Mexicano decided to organize a giant Festival of rock music and autoracing; hence the name Festival de Rock y Ruedas (Rock and Wheels). Molina was formally appointed as Music Coordinator and in compensation, he was entitled to keep all royalties from the projected Soundtrack that was going to be produced by Polydor Records as they were appointed to capture all audio from the festival.

In the aftermath of the Festival, conservative sectors of society, the mainstream media -with few exceptions- as well as the Government severely attacked it. Rock music enthusiasts, specialized press around the world and La Onda intellectuals such as Parménides García, father Enrique Marroquin and TV personality Jacobo Zabludovsky vehemently defended it. Disappointed with the situation Molina, together with Valle de Bravo's mayor and Promotora Go executives gave their version on National TV at the Julio Alemán program Jueves Espectaculares. He also wrote his manifesto Numeros Negros, Numeros Rojos about the festival and it was published in the book Avándaro ¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! by editor Antonio Elizondo. As with other Mexican rockstars of the era, his rock music career suffered considerably, so he turned his attention to administrative positions such as becoming director of the famous Revista Pop and to conduct TV programs for the SEP while keeping a low-profile, underground Shock Rock career.

TV Production and Festival Acapulco '86

Molina settled and got married in Hermosillo in 1974. He quickly got promoted as producer in IMEVISION a post he held well into the 1980s when he was appointed Music Coordination of the Friendship Festival in Acapulco to aid the victims of the massive 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, booking acts like Quiet Riot, Javier Batiz, Latoya Jackson, among others. Although Molina felt satisfied with the festival, its organization was not well received by the press and writers like his friend Jose Agustin.

Resurgence of public interest on the Avandaro Festival

In the 1990s due to the well-received TV programs about the history of Mexican rock music such as MTV's Nunca Digas que NO and TELEVISA's Mexico Siglo XX: Rock en México series -which contain footage and audios from the festival- public interest among newer generations, both in Mexico and abroad, about the origins of Mexican rock music and the Avandaro festival grew exponentially. In the 2000s Molina was heavily involved in different documentaries produced by IPN, the internationally acclaimed Fito de la Parra/Lance Miccio documentary Rock 'n' Roll Made in Mexico and the remastered release of records of La Onda bands by EMI and Universal. He was instrumental in the release of the long-awaited Avandaro (Soundtrack) released by Bakita/Ludell Records in 2003. The release party of the CD set was on September 10, 2003 at the Hard Rock Café in Mexico City.

Molina believed that the Avandaro audio tapes were lost for decades, although the filmmaker Alfredo Gurrola kept a copy of the audio tapes as he used them in his 1972 film. The audio tapes were given to Gurrola by Cablevision executive Luis Gutierrez y Prieto after Polydor Records dropped the Soundtrack project in 1972 due to the Government backlash against the festival.

Final Years, Health Issues and Death

In 2011 Molina signed with EMI for the release of his long awaited La Maquina del Sonido comeback CD Kundalini with moderate success. In 2012 he took part on the TV Azteca documentary La Historia detras del Mito: Avandaro and in the Molotov's documentary Gimme the Power where he made waves for his controversial statements about the band.

In 2014 Molina sold all his assets in Mexico City to settle again in Hermosillo, to be close to his family, resuming his radio and columnist activities.

In the same year he was referenced in the fictional story of the Ariel-awarded movie Gueros and had a brief appearance in the Rolling Stones documentary Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America of 2016 playing pool with fellow rockstar friends Ron Wood and Alex Lora.

In 2018 he formally endorsed then presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, writing a song for his political party.

After many years of successfully battling cancer, on November 22, 2019 at 4am he passed away of respiratory arrest due to complications of a thrombosis in one of his legs.

Honors

Right after his death, the president of the Mexican Senate Marti Batres gave his sympathies to Molina's family members via Twitter and made the announcement about the official recognition that the Senate would give to the Avandaro Festival and Molina. On November 25, 2019 the Mexican Senate honored the memory of Molina and issued an official recognition to different bands and musicians who took part on the festival, effectively putting an end to 48 years of Government censorship to Avandaro.

Selected Discography

With La Máquina del Sonido

• La Máquina del Sonido (Perdí Mi Nube / Sandra)

CBS, 1967, Single

• La Máquina del Sonido (Enciende una luz)

CBS Columbia, 1967, Single

• La Máquina del Sonido (Fuego)

CBS, 1969, Single

• La Máquina del Sonido (In agadda da vida)

CBS, 1969, EP

• La Máquina del Sonido (El sonido hippiedélico)

CBS, 1969, EP

• La Máquina del Sonido (Eponymous)

CBS, 1970, LP

• Dorian Grey

Rock and Roll Circus, 1996, CD

• Kundalini

EMI Music, 2011, CD

In Compilations

• Ecos de Avandaro

Sony BMG Music, 2007, CD

As Producer

• El Ritual (Easy Woman)

Raff, 1971, EP

• El Ritual (Eponymous)

Raff, 1971, LP

• Peace & Love (Me extrana que siendo arana)

Raff, 1972, EP

• Historia del rock mexicano, volumen 1.

Sol & Deneb Productions with Sony Music License, 2000, CD

• Festival de Rock y Ruedas en Avándaro (31 Aniversario)

Universal Music, 2002

• Avándaro, 32 años después en vivo

Bakita/Ludell Records, 2003

TV & Radio

As Screenwriter

• La Onda de Woodstock, Telesistema Mexicano, 1970-1971

As Producer

• Cotorreando la Noticia, IMEVISION, 1980-1986

• Humo en el Agua, IMER, 1994-1994

As Guest in Documentaries

• Rock Mexicano 1957-1971, Enrique Krauze Televisa, 1999
• IN MEMORIAM: AVANDARO, IPN Canal Once, 2003
• Rock 'n' Roll Made in Mexico, Fito de la Parra, 2007
• La Historia detras del Mito: Avandaro, TV Azteca, 2012
• Gimme the Power, CONACULTA/IMCINE/Amateur Films, 2012
• Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America, Eagle Rock Entertainment, 2016

In Fiction

• Los Polivoces, Telesistema Mexicano/TELEVISA, 1971-1976
• Gueros, Alonso Ruizpalacios, 2014

Press & Magazines

As Editor

• Mexico Canta, 1968-1971

As Director

• Revista POP, 1972-1973

As Columnist

• El Sol de Hermosillo, 2014-2017

As book co-author/collaborator

• Avándaro ¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!, Editorial Paralelo, 1971

External Links

• Armando Molina entrevista en Séptimo Sol TV. Four-part in-depth interview to Armando Molina recorded in 1993.
• Official Recognition by the Mexican Senate. From the official YT channel of the Mexican Senate.
• Maravillas y Curiosidades de la Filmoteca de la UNAM: Avandaro. Fair use TV special, from TV UNAM's official YT channel.
• Refried Elvis: The rise of the Mexican counterculture. Available as e-book for fair use from the University of California Press website.
• Nosotros. 1972 book by Humberto Rubalcaba, available for fair use in Scribd.