One of the best rock bands in Spain, Fito & Fitipaldis, will come straight from the northern Basque city of Bilbao to offer a massive concert in Expo Shanghai next Sunday, August 22nd. At the same time, when the clock hits 18.30pm in Shanghai, three big screens will light up back in Bilbao to show the concert in real time to its itizens. Therefore, while Expo Shanghai celebrates the Bilbao Day on August 22nd, the city of Bilbao will look at China during its annual ‘Great Week’ festival.

Created in 1998, Fito & Fitipaldis is the band headed by Fito Cabrales, a Bilbao-born rocker with an iconic look: flat cap, sideburns, shaved head and the ever-present cigarette. As a musician, Fito is well-known in Spain for his humility, his easy-going nature and the love for rock & roll in all its different styles. His songs always talk about feelings, whether placed in bars or when falling in and out of love.

Organized by the government of the city of Bilbao through the stand in the Urban Best Practice Area of Expo and with the sponsorship of the Spain Pavilion, the concert comes to China framed in the tour ‘Before I Count Ten’, which is also the name of the second best selling album in Spain during 2009, with more than 200.000 copies sold. The last concerts, in the Sports Palace of Madrid, in the Palau Sant Jordi of Barcelona and in the Bizkaia Arena of Bilbao, were completely sold out.

About the band

Born in Bilbao, in 1966, Adolfo Cabrales became a rock fan at an early age. In 1989, when he was already known as ‘Fito’, he started a band with I?aki ‘Uoho’ Antón, Juantxu ‘Mongol’ Olano and Jesús ‘Maguila’ García. With lyrics about bars, love stories, drugs and rock’n’roll, ‘Platero yTú’ became an icon of the rock in Spanish-language during the 1990’s, following the tradition of those classic rockers such as Status Quo, Le?o, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and John Fogerty.

After recording six studio albums, four of which achieved the golden status, ‘Platero y Tú’ broke apart in 2001. Three years before, Fito had already formed another band, Fito & Fitipaldis, a solo project where he could explore other geners such as rockabilly, rhythm & blues, swing, jazz and southern music, as well as perform those songs that did not fit well into the repertoire of the previous band.

In the last 11 years, Fito & Fitipaldis recorded five studio albums and two live albums, selling more than a million copies. Their last tour comprised 104 gigs, reaching an audience of more than a million people. Their last album, ‘Antes de que cuente diez’ ('Before I Count to Ten’), sold 60,000 copies in the two weeks following last September’s release, outselling U2 and Bruce Springsteen in Spain as well as topping Madonna, Pearl Jam and Amaral.

About the concert

The ‘Before I Count to Ten’ tour uses a spectacular set up and the participation of some of the best music players of the Spanish rock & roll scene. Besides the regular Carlos Raya, Javi Alzola and Joserra Senperena, it now incorporates the bass player Alejandro ‘Boli’ Climent (coming from the also well-known band M-Clan), and the drum player Daniel Griffin (from Tequila, and Ariel Rot’s band).

The show will be free for all the Expo visitors on August 22nd, and will kick off at 18.30 pm in the UBPA Square of the Puxi side of the Expo. The Basque Television (ETB) will be in charge of broadcasting the concert live to thousands of homes back in the Basque region of Spain, as well as to the big screens placed in the city of Bilbao. Located in front of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, at the New Square and the Alhondiga Square, the screens will start broadcasting the Shanghai concert at 12.30 pm local time.