As we have seen, the weight of Anglo-Saxon music was important in the popular song of the 1960s, and its influence would be greater among the so-called conjunto groups. In the capital of Alava, the group Amets stood out, which appeared in Catholic environments and evolved into the pop of the time, performed in Basque; later they temporarily returned to the scene and recorded a CD that recalls their pioneering experience. The left-leaning vocal combo Lantzale, in the then highly politicised anti-Franco youth, emerged from a Basque dance group and had a short, active existence. The evening jam-sessions at the Hotel Canciller Ayala, during the local festivities, had an influential importance in the evolution of the music scene in Gasteiz, which has always had an excellent nucleus of jazz musicians, while its summer Jazz Festival was born and consolidated with strong institutional support, following in the footsteps of the Jazzaldia in San Sebastian.
The specialist Roge Blasco tells us that there were some big names in Bilbao's pop pioneering movement, such as Txabi Villanueva (who made the first electric guitar in the Botxo sound), Pascual Pérez Yarza (member of Spectros, the first group from Bizkaia to record songs, an EP in 1964), bassist Iñaki Egaña (who recorded the second Biscayan single with Los Tañidores), and Carlos Zubiaga (who recorded the second Biscayan single with Los Tañidores; an EP in 1964), the bass player Iñaki Egaña (who recorded with Los Tañidores the second single from Bizkaia, with the catchy song Cerrado por balance) and Carlos Zubiaga, who was in Los Mitos and Mocedades. These two groups were the most successful. The former recorded up to twenty singles on Hispavox, 1968 and 1970, they had fan clubs even in Latin America and in 1975 the LP Grandes éxitos (Greatest Hits) was released. Mocedades was a later vocal expression of the 70s and 80s.
The popular announcer José María Íñigo was the main animator of the local scene from his Mr. Ritmo. In addition to the Cuarteto Soroa, modernisers of traditional folklore, there were other more pop-oriented names of the time such as the pioneering rockers Elvis Millán, Sócrates y sus Filósofos, Gatos Locos, Fabulosos, Olímpicos, Atlas, Junkers, Famélicos, Bulbos, Bríos and a long etcetera. There are curious circumstances such as that of the later controversial banker Mario Conde, who belonged to Los Moscas. Or Josu Ortuondo, the former mayor of the town, who was a drummer for the pop band Grekos when he was very young.
One of the most outstanding Basque groups was Los Àgaros from San Sebastian, who released three EPs on Fontana and an LP in 1964, with creative ideas: pop, instrumentals, gospel, Latinisms, etc. Also from San Sebastián were Los Rayos, Los Selene, Spiderman and others. Groups from the interior of the province of Gipuzkoa were, for example, Los Jaguars (Arrasate), Sonidos del Silencio or 96 Lágrimas (Eibar), Expresión Sonora (later Koxka) in Elgoibar, Escorpiones (Trintxerpe), Sombras Azules (Zarautz), etc. These Anglophile groups were followed by popular Basque experiments, known as verbena groups, which are still active and have a very extensive discography behind them: Los Mansos (later Akelarre), in Soraluze-Placencia de las Armas, or Xabier Saldias' Egans in Azpeitia.
To the north of the Bidasoa, the most urban musical activity seems to have been slower in time than in the more industrialised and cosmopolitan cities of the southern Basque Country. The duo formed by Peio Ospital and Pantxoa Carrèrre was one of the most popular. They recorded their first album in 1969 in Toulouse, but always in a folk rather than purely pop style, with songs composed mainly by the also performer Manex Pagola. Another duo from Iparralde would be the one formed by two Eñaut: Etxamendi and Larralde, also still in the key of traditional lyrical folk. But people like Etxahun tried to imprint, in tune with the social thrust of French pop, which mainly attracted young people, a greater rhythmic character on a legacy as bucolic as that of the Ipartarrean Basque song, particularly the most influential: that of Zuberoa. The Errobi group or Niko Etxart and his Ximinorak-Minxoriak, already in the 1970s, would be key experiences in the modernisation of Ipatar popular song.
Pamplona experienced this early pop-rock era with curious activity. There was a dynamic flow of ‘festivals’, such as the Sunday morning programmes at the Teatro Gayarre. The premises of Radio Popular, owned by the Dominican friars, or a nearby assembly hall of a nuns' school, were venues for Saturday afternoon concerts. The Juniors played pop with some ranchera derivation, given the ability of their singer from Falces to reach the high tones of the Mexican song, and recorded some EP records. The elegant Condes had a penchant for Barcelona's Sirex. The younger Breks were for a while the great local hope. The Duendes dared to play the Beatles' She's A Woman in its original language. Los Ánakos, with a girl at the front and a crazy keyboard player imported from Catalonia, did the same with the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.
The restless and pioneering journalist from Caparroso, Joaquín Luqui, who created the weekly Ritmorama section in the conservative Carlist newspaper El Pensamiento Navarro, helped a lot to push the local scene in Iruña, and together with other colleagues, he was the protagonist of advanced radio programmes (Discofilia or Requeterritmo, on the also Carlist Radio Requeté) and was the first promoter of the influential state publication Disco Expres s, in the style of the British music weeklies, until he was hired from Madrid by El Gran Musical de la SER (Sociedad Española de Radiofusión), the radio station where he continued.