Silence 4 was a Portuguese musical group formed in 1996, whose songs were sung mostly in English. The band, from Leiria, consisted of David Fonseca (vocals and guitar), Sofia Lisboa (vocals), Rui Costa (bass), and Tozé Pedrosa (drums).
The band ended up remembering in 2001 and its singer and main songwriter, David Fonseca, began his solo career. Rui Costa was a member of the band Filarmónica Gil and, more recently, the band A Caruma.
It all started in 1995 . David and Tozé already knew each other and used to play together. On one occasion, David showed his cassettes to Carlos Matos, owner of an alternative music store in Leiria. He liked it a lot and the idea of forming a band was getting stronger and stronger. Some time before, David had heard Sofia singing in a bar and had proposed to form a band. Sofia wasn’t too convinced, because at that time there was no shortage of invitations, but nothing ever came to fruition. Exactly one year after this meeting, David contacted Sofia again, saying that the time had come to form the band.
They started to play with terrible technical conditions. After some time, Rui Costa was invited to join the band. He started by telling them that the sound was terrible. So he proposed an experiment: to turn off the amplifiers and play like that, naturally. In order to hear themselves, they would all have to be silent, hence the “Silence” in the band’s name.
They sent a mockup to the Blitz newspaper , gaining some notoriety. They competed in the Thermometer Unplugged Festival and won. They received a prize of 500,000$00 (about €2,500), all of which were spent on recording models. When they went to try their luck at publishing houses, the answer was always the same: sing in English, no way.
Refusing to give in to the demands of publishers who wanted the entire album in Portuguese, they were eventually invited to record a version of an Erasure song , ” A Little Respect ” for the compilation ” Sons de Todas as Cores ” ( 1998 ). Shortly after, the theme begins to be successful in some of the most important radio stations.
The publisher Polygram (now Universal ), eventually accepted them. That’s how the debut album, ” Silence Becomes It “, which reached, against all expectations, the quintuple platinum, spending several months at number 1 of the National Top. This CD had the participation of Sérgio Godinho in one of the themes.
They began their nationwide tour, during which they played 90 concerts in 6 months. On December 18, 1998, they performed the mythical concert at the Multipurpose Pavilion for a large crowd. The following year they continued touring, albeit with fewer concerts.
A period of absence followed, during which they took refuge in London , far from all pressures. It was at Ridge Farm Studios that ” Only Pain Is Real ” was born. In this second disc they used piano and orchestra simulators. This second album was premiered in Leiria ( 2000 ) and reached platinum after 2 weeks. They make a new tour, during which they performed more than 100 concerts. The 2000 tour ended with two unique concerts at Coliseu dos Recreios (December 19th and 20th) that marked the memory of those present. The group ends up with its members embarking on other initiatives.
The Universal publisher released, on November 29, 2004, a double CD and DVD recording the two concert nights at Coliseu dos Recreios, on December 19 and 20, 2000.
In December 2013, the group’s return for some commemorative concerts is announced. The 4 special concerts will take place on the 15th of March, at Coliseu Micaelense, in Ponta Delgada, Azores; March 22, at Praça do Mar, in Funchal, Madeira; on the 29th of March at the Pavilhão Multiusos in Guimarães and on the 5th of April at the MEO Arena, in Lisbon.
The Universal publisher launches in March 2014 the box “Silence 4 SongBook 2014” that includes the albums “Silence Becomes It” and “Only Pain Is Real” and a third with the first mockup of 1996, the remixes of the EP Only pain Is Real :The Remixes , Old Letters ” and “Transplantation”, recorded live at Aula Magna (1999) and the unreleased “Letter To Memphis”, a version of a Pixies theme . The DVD includes the band’s music videos and concerts from the Coliseu dos Recreios (2000) and Pavilhão Atlântico (1998) The edition is accompanied by a 60-page booklet with unpublished images of the band.
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