Category Archives: Sondor

Cold Coffee

Leito of Puro Rock Latino! turns us on to another band from Montevideo, Uruguay.

The all-female group Mother’s Worries featured the two Paglia sisters, Lelé and Helena. They had been together from 1967 until 1969 but as far as I can tell they never recorded. After breaking up they formed Cold Coffee with Ernesto Soca from Los Malditos to pursue a ‘West Coast’ sound.

Members changed over the life of the band but included Ernesto Soca (guitar), Pippo Spera (guitar), Quique Cano (bass), Ricky Levy (drums), Daniel Amaro (vocals and guitar), Lelé Paglia (vocals and guitar) and Helena “Pip” Paglia (vocals).

They recorded very few songs, most notably this fine single released in 1970 on the Sondor label (# 50,117). On the A-side they cover the Shocking Blue’s “Venus”, an obvious choice and a great version, with the Paglia sisters’ dual vocals a nice contrast to Mariska Veres’ huskier voice on the original. They chose a more obscure song for the flip, Country Joe and the Fish’s Flying High, which they titled “Volando Alto”. Interestingly their take on the heavy Dutch freakbeat “Venus” has a lighter West Coast sound than their version of Country Joe’s song. Ernesto Soca noodles through the whole second half of Volando Alto with a sick guitar tone similar to Ron Ashton’s on the Stooges’ Fun House sessions.

After Cold Coffee split in 1972, Helena Paglia recorded an LP ‘Magica Luna’ with a band that included Ernesto Soca.