Interlude Six: Los Beatles

Out here, I take quite a lot of taxis. Its roughly 3 pounds every 10 minutes, crazily cheap compared to what I'm used to. Anyway, whenever the drivers realise i'm English (usually after theyve said something in slang which makes no sense to me) they always say without fail - 'Ahh Los Beatles, Liverpool'. Every time.

But why? OK, the Beatles are one of the worlds most famous ever bands, and I would expect it from a few of them, but its not like whenever you meet someone from China you say ' Ah yes, that Great Wall is marvellous. I've seen many a picture!' is it, before trotting off for our afternoon tea and biscuits.

So I did some research, and it turns out 'Los Beatles' had a monumental influence on argentinian rock music - so much so they actually released two special compliations just for Argentina in the late 60's/early 70's. Not only this, but the records sold here were played at a slightly different speed (not sure why...) and almost all of the album covers had special Argentina edition sleeves/pictures. Finally, last year they opened up a special Beatles museum here in Buenos Aires - and all this for a country that (as far as I can tell) never saw them live.
The influence was so great that it sparked the creation of one of the more famous Latin American rock bands - Los Gatos (the Cats):


Is it me or do they look just slightly....similar?

The Beatles

Los Gatos