Censurados formed in 1988, by João Ribas (ex-Kú de Judas and vocalist), Orlando Cohen (ex-Peste & Sida and guitarist), Fred Valsassina (bassist) and Samuel Palitos (drummer), and is one of the essential bands of Portuguese Rock of the 90s decade. The band began by playing local live shows and the lyrics were simple and straight-forward, with choruses that reflected the feeling of the “Cavaquista” era youths.
João Ribas often wrote the lyrics, that he adapted for music, on white paper towels at restaurants and cafes. The “C” symbol of Censurados, logo of the band, was created in the same way, by Samuel Palitos. He proposed his DIY (Do it Yourself) logo idea, simple and direct, to his bandmates for consideration, and they soon accepted it.
Another fact is that the band has adopted the ‘blue color’ in their various releases. This choice concerns the same color as the censorship pen used by Estado Novo, the Portuguese dictatorship regime from 1933 to 24 April, 1974, with which the censors marked any text portions deemed improper and “ready to crop”.
Their first vinyl record, in the compilation “Feedback 001”, included the songs “Senhores Políticos” (“Political Lords”), “Não Vales Nada” (“You Are Worthless”) and “T’Andar De Mota” (“Ridin’ The Motorbike”, an instrumental piece). The songs “Tu Ó Bófia” (“You, Cop”), “Não Vales Nada”, “Angústia” (“Anguish”) and “Senhores Políticos” were songs that were shared from tape to tape and were sung in chorus at venues long before the release of the album “Censurados” in 1990.
“Censurados” is an historical album that was acclaimed by the most important fanzine dedicated to Punk and Hardcore at the time, Maximum Rocknroll (USA), despite the lyrics being written in Portuguese, which shows the quality of the compositions and, especially, the musicians’ performances.
In 1991, the band released its 2nd album, “Confusão”, and spent the following years on the road.
In 1993, the “Sopa” album was released, including the homonymous single track and the participation of Jorge Palma in the song “Estou agarrado a ti” (“I’m clinging to you”).
Censurados disbanded in 1994, but not before taking part in a tribute project to Zeca Afonso, entitled “Filhos Da Madrugada Cantam José Afonso” (“Sons Of Dawn Sing José Afonso”), with the reissue of the iconic and politically charged song “O que faz falta” (“What is needed”).
In 1998, the publisher “El Tatu”, owned by Tim (António Manuel dos Santos) from Xutos & Pontapés, re-released the albums “Censurados” and “Sopa”.
In 1999, Censurados re-appeared by participating in a tribute album to Xutos & Pontapés, “XX Anos XX Bandas”. In this context, they took part in a promotional tour.
In 2006, the band’s biography was released by the publisher “Sete Caminhos”, entitled “Censurados até Morrer” and written by Augusto Figueira and Renato Conteiro. The book contains dozens of unreleased photographs of the band and direct testimonials of its members and other participants.
In 2014, Rastilho Records reissued the albums “Censurados” and “Confusão” on CD and Vinyl formats, to commemorate the memory of João Ribas, who died on the 23rd of March that year.
