Ramoncín
Who is Ramoncín?
José Ramón Julio Martínez Márquez, known artistically as Ramoncín, is a Spanish rock singer, actor, writer and TV host born in Madrid on November 25, 1955. In 1976 he joined a band from the Vallecas district after answering an ad in the magazine Disco Express, a lineup that soon became popularly known as “Ramoncín y W.C.” In 1977 the group underwent a lineup change as it turned toward punk, bringing in Carlos Michelini, Roberto Jiménez and Manolo Caño.
Career
He made his recording debut at age 22 with an album whose track “El Rey del Pollo Frito,” sung in the first person, was widely — and mistakenly — taken by audiences as autobiographical, earning him a nickname that would stick with him for years. That was followed by albums such as “Barriobajero” (1979), with its pronounced social bent, and above all “Rasgando el Silencio” (1981), considered by many his best work, featuring songs like “Litros de Alcohol” and “Ángel de Cuero.” In 1984 he released “Ramoncinco,” including the political track “Nicaragua,” co-written with Manolo Tena, and in 1986, on “Vida al Límite,” he brought in Queen’s Brian May as a guest guitarist.
In 1990 he stepped back from music for a time to host the TVE game show “Lingo,” which he presented for five years, without setting aside his work as a writer, producing books such as “Tocho Cheli.” He returned to the studio in 1998 with “Miedo a Soñar” and, through the 2000s, released several compilations (“Ángel de Cuero: 20 años de canciones,” “Canciones Desnudas” in two volumes) surveying his three decades of career, with cumulative sales of more than a million copies and a diamond record in 2006.
He served on the board of Spain’s SGAE authors’ rights society for twenty years, stepping down in 2007; during that period he was known for actively defending authors’ rights against illegal music downloading, a stance that brought him both recognition and public controversy, including a well-known clash with Joaquín Sabina.