It`s a well-known fact that a tourist arriving in Spain has at least one flamenco performance included in his tour package. He goes there, pays the necessary pesetas, and is then submitted -- sitting on an uncomfortable chair -- to the shock of his life during the performance. Because the flamenco company which is supposed to entertain him, and which on the whole consists of a couple of guitarists, a few singers, and a number of good-looking dancers, gets through its programme in a routine, bored manner, and leaves the stage with relief as soon as "it" is over. What tourist realizes that this offering had nothing whatever to do with the true art of flamenco? "True flamenco artists who leave the stage after a performance are exhausted. They just can`t go on any further, they have put 100 per cent into the performance." That`s what Paco De Lucia says -- and he should know. He himself is one of the true flamenco artists.

Paco De Lucia comes from Algeciras, a village in the Spanish province of Cadiz. He was born as Francisco Sanchez Gomez and was playing the guitar even before he could talk. His father and an older brother initiated him in the secrets of flamenco, and at barely 12 years of age, he turned up, together with his brother Pepe, in the recording studio for the first time. Two years later, he tried to enter for the famous La Catedra de Flamencologia in Jerez de la Frontera, but the organizers of the festival turned his application down. Paco De Lucia Was too young...

Strange as it may seem, Paco De Lucia`s talent was fully recognized in France only after his concert in the Theatre des Nations in November 1968. After France, Paco De Lucia first conquered the remaining European countries, including Spain, then the Far East and South America, a