The relationship between Faith No More and the people of Chile in South America began on February 5th 1991.
Thirty years ago FNM played two consecutive nights at Quinta Vergara, in the thirty-second edition of the Viña de Mar international song festival. The band had played in Brazil at Rock In Rio 2 two weeks earlier outshining fellow performers Guns N' Roses and giving an electrifying performance in front of two hundred thousand Latin American people. At the show was radio presenter author Iván Valenzuela who had already become fascinated with the outlandish behaviour of Mike Patton. Valenzuela was disillusioned with Chile's number one music festival and wrote in an article for Chile's leading newspaper El Mercurio, ‘Viña del Mar is so cheesy. When will the Viña del Mar festival and Chile as a country decide to grow up? They should get Faith No More to play.’
The Viña del Mar Festival is Chile's answer to the Eurovision Song Contest, a TV broadcast traditionally only including Latin acts so an American alternative rock band was unheard of.
"We did press conferences where we were just talking shit. When we’d do it in Brazil, people would laugh. In Chile, they didn’t laugh. They were offended. The connection was born at Viña. Most of the people there hated us, but the young people watching on television loved us." - Bill Gould | Small Victories The True Story of Faith No More
Faith No More headlined the first night supported by local favourites Myriam Hernández and Chayanne. La Segunda negatively reviewed the show calling FNM 'thunderous trash rockers' and commenting on the lack of numbers in the crowd, 'When they began their performance, at 1:25, they had 12 thousand people, after seven minutes, there were only about fifteen hundred. The others? They fled in terror, covering their ears.'
During their stay in Chile Patton bonded with local author Alberto Fuguet and on the second night he encouraged the singer to dress as a schoolboy, dedicate a song to Myriam Hernández and to kiss the much loved presenter Antonio Vodanovic on the cheek. All of the above designed to upset the establishment.
The young generation who watched the band on television in 1991 were exposed to something that changed the lives of many and when Faith No More returned to the country in 1995 their set at Monsters Of Rock was, like Viña del Mar, established as a legendary performance. The bond FNM and the South American country has strengthened over the years and Chile has been the setting of more momentous occasions in the band's history.
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