When Gustavo Giorgi was 17, his friend played him a record that changed his life forever. It was The Smiths.

Gustavo Giorgi stands with the first edition of UltraBrit and his inspiration, Morrisey. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

“I knew the name, I had seen them in magazines, heard about them,” he recalls. “But when I started listening to The Smiths, they really changed everything. With them it was more than just the music, there were other things…”

According to Giorgi, The Smiths “opened a door” for him, to a place he would never leave. Today, a tattoo of the nickname of the band’s lead singer Morrissey (MOZ) adorns the inside of his left bicep, and his office is lined with posters and tour merchandise of the band.

One of the many porteños influenced by imported British music, Giorgi, now 42, is also the entrepreneurial force behind one of the newest publications in Buenos Aires, UltraBrit.

He released the first edition of the new magazine last month – a glossy, Spanish-language focus on British music past and present for local anglophiles.

There is certainly a lot to cover. Politics aside, British culture has maintained a strong influence on Argentina for centuries. This dates back to a wave of settlers arriving in 1806, coinciding with the British invasions of the Río de la Plata region. Initially settlers were mostly businessmen and in relatively small in numbers, but the trickle of immigrants continued, and their influence on local culture was significant. Today there are around 100,000 Anglo-Argentines who tie their roots back to the UK, while British sports such as polo and football are among the country’s most popular.

In the last 50 years, immigration has also taken place on the radio waves. Beginning with The Beatles, and establishing itself with The Rolling Stones, British music took the country by storm, drawing huge followings and inspiring local musicians and movement.

This influence was clearly evident in Argentine pop-culture and music of the era, specifically rock nacional, whose origins, while heavily shaped by North American blues and jazz, featured many translated British numbers, and were deeply affected by the arrival of the Beatles.

A Rocker at Heart

Giorgi with one of his main passions: his motorcycle. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

Giorgi is a music-loving, motorcycle-riding, entrepreneur looking to capitalise on the niche market for British music and culture here and realise his passion for music at the same time. He plans to use UltraBrit to market everything British for the local population.

“The idea is to expand it for those who know British music but speak only Spanish. There are a lot of people who don’t speak English… for them you only have Rolling Stone and Los Inrockuptibles.”

He has always been listening to music, but it wasn’t until his late teens that he realised his passion for British rock. “When I was about 16 or 17 years old, I listened to The Cure a lot. I was a kid who was always listening to music, any music.”

His father was a diehard Beatles fan, his first exposure to the British scene, but Giorgi wasn’t as taken by the “fab four”. Then it all changed with The Smiths and he fell into the scene during a landmark period for British music, picking up Joy Division, Echo and The Bunnymen, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc.

A man with a keen eye for business – he is running a successful insurance company and nurturing UltraBrit on the side – Giorgi feels he is at a point in his life now where he can pursue his passion, having identified a market that he has lived in since his teenage years.

“I live in this niche consumer group, of this British music and culture” says Giorgi. “Buenos Aires is a tremendously anglophile city. Leaving politics aside, there is a huge cultural influence, the music, the literature, everything.

“I think the niche was born with the Beatles, and then was consumed by The Stones. This is a country of The Stones. They come here, and they can fill up five River Plate stadiums. That’s a lot of people.”

Giorgi's love of the Rolling Stones and British music. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

The Rolling Stones themselves have talked about incredible energy when playing in Buenos Aires, leading them to declare Argentines as their favourite crowd.

Targeting this large group of Stones fanatics – known locally as ‘rolingas’ – a feature in the first issue of Ultrabrit is Michael Cooper, the son of the famous photographer Adam who captured arguably some of the best images of the Stones. Cooper has lived in Argentina for 18 years.

The first issue also contains articles on the new music scene in Manchester, profiles of Richard Coleman and Morrissey, and a special review of the life and times of Led Zeppelin. The magazine also reviews up and coming bands such as Yuck and Bombay Bicycle Club. In general, it’s an interesting mix, both looking back and looking forward in terms of British music and cultural influence.

With this balance, Giorgi is confident UltraBrit offers something unique: “Our magazine is about the music [and] the culture. We have reviews of albums you aren’t going to find in these [Rolling Stone and Los Inrockuptibles], you aren’t going to find this stuff in Spanish anywhere else.”

From Radio Waves to Pages

Giorgi’s ambitions reach beyond the new magazine. “The truth is, in Buenos Aires there has always been a very important space to fill in regards of needing someone to start up a multi-faceted business, a 360-degree concept, to sell books, radio programmes, internet [sites], and magazines, within the same consumer niche.”

He has already been running a radio show, also named UltraBrit, for five years now. Like the magazine, the show concerns all things British music and features bands from today and yesterday.

“I began to discover the market for British culture in Argentina when I started the radio show in 2007. It has been on for five years now, though at first it wasn’t just British rock, but also rock nacional.”

The radio show has evolved over time, beginning with just general rock and then moving to a greater focus on the British scene past and present.

“We started doing exclusively British rock about two years ago, but we play and have played a lot of North American rock as well; The Pixies, Nirvana, Sonic Youth all of this, Jane’s Addiction.”

As Giorgi puts it: “It’s the kind of stuff I like to listen to at home.”

The show plays music from the past and present, often getting in contact with the bands via email and discussing both current and historic trends. “We have contacts with one of the biggest radio programmes in Manchester. We hear a lot from them, and we bring bands that people wouldn’t normally hear in Buenos Aires.”

Speaking about the British music scene now, Giorgi feels it is going through a period of change, with North American music more dominant now than it has ever been. Giorgi’s contemporary favourites include Muse, Arctic Monkeys, and Kasabian. However, in his opinion the past decade has had something missing in terms of new bands making an impact on the scene.

Giorgio enjoys mate, while discussing his magazine. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

“I think that the rock, the guitars, everything is changing to more electronic influences.” For Giorgi, nothing has topped his all-time favourites, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, etc. Nothing has really made him stop like those bands did when he first heard them.

That said, he has seen glimpses of the ‘onda’ in recent groups. “I think that there are some though, Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ [the third studio album from the British band] was very interesting.”

In his words, “they will get big”.

Issue 2 and the Future

In many ways, the radio show is very similar to the new magazine, developing organically and engaging in the music in depth. It is easy to see the origins of the magazine within the show, a new vehicle for the concept Giorgi is pushing.

In October, Giorgi will travel to London for a creative meeting with the British contingent of UltraBrit. The magazine currently has 15 people working on it, 13 here in Buenos Aires and the other two in London and Liverpool. He aims to get more involved and develop a strategy for expansion.

Giorgi sees this niche as existing across Latin America, a void that he plans to fill in a music-hungry continent. He says the plan now is to expand across the region, first targeting Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. By the time the November issue is released, he aims to have it available in three or four of the countries mentioned and to grow from that in the following issues.

As for where the project may eventually take him, Giorgi draws on the spirit of the British bands that inspired him to get it started in the first place: “This is totally independent, we can do whatever we want.”

Find out more about UltraBrit online at www.ultrabrit.com and look out for September’s issue, featuring a new album by Muse and an exclusive interview with Natalie Curtis, the daughter of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. UltraBrit show is every Thursday from 7-9pm on KSK Radio. 

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. In a new series, the Indy will be featuring and promoting one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams.

This week we have a look at Wicked Mag, an established magazine publication that is an “innovative and multicultural perspective” on Buenos Aires, supporting local artists and pushing boundaries.

With our instant media age it is becoming more obscure to hold something in your hand, revisit it a thousand times, step back and look at a page of art, a photograph, even a format of an article, in a way that is absent from staring a glossy internet page. This is a philosophy that magazine publications, especially small ones, like Wicked Mag stand by and need support for.

They say: “Our pages reflect new trends and anti-trends in the city. In other words, shows those who are new and interesting regarding music, film, visual art, literature, theatre, events, nightlife, fashion, and design.” They aim to be “primarily directed at people at people with interest in new branches of art, innovation and creativity.”

Incorporating interviews, features, artwork, and an annual calendar of what is going on in the city, Wicked Mag intends to be cutting-edge culturally. They consider themselves unique, as “not only are the words that fill the pages fresh and innovative, the format and distribution models break new ground among Argentine magazines.” Articles are in both English and Spanish, opening up the readership to include expats and tourists, giving them a key to a scene that might not be accessible when only skimming the surface of a city.

The magazine is to be published annually, in two volumes and if the project goes ahead be ready to see it in the flesh mid-April. The format is an A4-sized magazine which is FSC certified. Produced using eco-friendly paper and inks, they aim for a circulation of 5,000 copies.

With publishing there are hurdles which crowd-sourcing projects like Idea.me can help jump. It truly renders a publication unique and organic when those with the ideas can put exactly what they want on the page. Paradoxically, this dying art, which is being transformed by the accessibility of the internet, can be produced through a new and innovative approach to publishing via the exact same source. Through Idea.me you can contribute to this exciting new direction of publishing and be part of the movement.

As this venture is crowd-sourced, Wicked mag emphasises the independence that this brings – it is truly created in an un-restricted environment showcasing art which might not get published elsewhere and allows them “to use new journalistic concepts”. Yet, with the benefit of independence comes the burden of independent funding. Magazine lovers should jump at being part of a publication, even if it’s just behind the scenes, think of yourself as an anti-Murdoch, if needs be.

They stress: “Consumerism is not the goal. We have no political sign and believe in the values ​​of the people. We don’t point to the mainstream, but point to alternative individual culture that is born of every person, emphasising on extraordinary cases.”

Through Idea.me, those who are interested can donate any chosen sum, with which there come ‘rewards’ for generosity. According to the amount you donate, you will receive a copy of the magazine and extras.

For those of you who are thinking “Lucas Campodonico – that name rings a bell”, we interviewed the incessant entrepreneur last year about his project ‘Greca’. But this is not the subject of today’s chat. Lucas was one of ten Argentines and Uruguayans chosen last year as part of the British Council’s Climate Generation project, awarding a group of young people the title of ‘Climate Champion’ on an annual basis and providing logistical and financial support to help them get their project off the ground.

Lucas Campodonico (Photo: Lucas Campodonico)

In Lucas’ case, the project is environmental magazine: Ecomanía. He had had the idea for a while, but proposing the project to the Council and then being awarded gave him the push he needed to get it off the ground. The first edition came out at the start of this month, and is packed full of useful information for those wanting to green up their lives.

The contents are a mixture of interviews, featuring cult chef Narda Lepes in the first edition, a focus on biking in Buenos Aires, tips and advice, and reviews of eco-friendly and sustainable products. Central to the publication’s philosophy is that is goes against anything that comes close to ‘greenwashing’ and also the accessibility of the contents: it does not get bogged down in science, and is backed up by a fresh, young design, heavy on images and graphics. It is on the pulse, and cool. And even better: free!

Lucas explains the concept as a “publication whose objective is to give information that allows readers to make decisions and adopt sustainable habits.”