Luca Prodan

Who was Luca Prodan?

Luca Prodan was an Italian-Argentine musician.

He was the son of an Austrian father and a Scottish mother, born in Rome after the return of the Prodan family from China, where Luca's father had set up a prosperous business becoming an expert in ancient Chinese pottery, because of the Japanese invasion. Prodan attended Gordonstoun School, a private boarding school in Scotland, and for some time drifted in Manchester and London. In 1981, after a heroin crisis in the late 1970s London, he moved to an old Anglo-Argentine friend's farm in the central hills of Córdoba Province Argentina seeking peace to try kicking his heroin addiction.

After some time at the farm in the Traslasierra valley, he settled in Hurlingham, where he founded and led Sumo and the Hurlingham Reggae Band.

Prodan died either of a heart attack or cirrhosis of the liver in Buenos Aires shortly before Christmas 1987.

After his death, he became one of the most recognized icons of Argentine rock culture. Graffiti stating "Luca Not Dead" have been spotted around the world, especially in South America and Europe.

Two posthumous records of pre-Sumo recordings are available and show us an "insider's" view of the artist. Recorded mostly in the Traslasierra region of Cordoba, Argentina, they bear testimony to his musical influences and inspiration: Peter Hammill, Nick Drake, Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Joy Division and Bob Marley.