ABANDONED DISCOS

ABANDONED DISCOS

Apr 20, 2024 | MUSIC, MUSIC, VIDEO, VIDEO

Abandoned Discos is Max Pezzali’s new song for Warner Music. 

The title makes no secret of the subject, but what struck me was the video: a sequence of images depicting the crumbling remains of what were once places full of life and joyful moments, now inexorably abandoned.

The suggestion is made even more incisive by the succession of phrases by the Gotha of disc jockeys, see for yourself:

Have you ever been to one of these discos?

I used to like Friday nights at Celebrity: a discotheque near Novara that actually still exists, where my friend Daniela and I would literally spend the whole time dancing, and at the same time managing to chat 🙂

But it was at Vanità where I went to meet the man who later became my husband <3

The Vanità, the disco in Vigevano portrayed in the picture below the title, no longer exists: a mansion complex was built in its place.

This is also why I find that Max Pezzali succeeds in narrating by giving us the sensation of listening to words coming straight out of our own mouths.

It is definitely his trademark, as well as the secret of his success: simply being one of us.

I’ll never forget a summer evening before social media, before even mobile phones: the TV broadcasts the Castrocaro new voices competition and a Jovanotti introduced a duo.

They come in and sing Don’t bother me, I don’t understand what you want, you knew I wasn’t like you...

For me it was immediate and natural to stay in tune.

Soon the songs from the album Hanno ucciso l’uomo ragno (They Killed Spider-Man ) would be the soundtrack of holidays in Sardinia, Daniela was there too 🙂

1993: the following summer. Life has one of those difficult trials in store for my family: having to face destiny that bursts in to make it clear how from one moment to the next everything can collapse.

While I am in hospital watching my father struggle to live again after a haemorrhage, I receive a gift: the North South West East music tape.

Yes: the ‘cassette’ … Who remembers it?

The guy I went to look for at Vanità 🙂 gave me North South West East and North South West East gave us our song to sing embracing each other at the concert in the Pavia arena.

The days of the San Siro stadium were still far away, and the 883 sang at their home: Pavia, exactly, which is also a province in the broadest sense.

Their home, our home.

The days when the dream of the 883 would come true were also far away.

The characters of the Harley Davidson Pavia  staff are known to all those who followed the series Le strade di Max (Max roads), do you know it?

In case you missed it, you can have a good ride here. 

To get ‘on route’ let’s go back to 1994: when Mauro’s dream takes a different path …

On stage with Max are Paola and Chiara but also Michele Monestiroli and Daniele Moretto.

Thirty years ago.

And then?

And then life goes by and today we find ourselves in abandoned discotheques.

What did we miss?

I HAVE SEEN HER

I HAVE SEEN HER

Mar 9, 2024 | A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN, MUSIC, MUSIC, A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN

I saw her win it …

And “it” is the BB Global Force award presented by Billboard magazine during the BB Women in music ceremony. 

Global Force as an award given in recognition of a woman in the music industry who has made a significant contribution to the business and who, through her work and continued success, inspires generations of women to take on increasing responsibilities in the field.

The Women in music event celebrates women at the forefront of all fields of music from composers and songwriters to educators and all other music professions.

I saw her …

She needs no introduction: Annalisa, @nali is Global Force.

I did not follow her debut, and the first time I heard of her was in the measure of “good but second best.”

Until during a play organised by the middle school my son attends, a pupil struck me by singing about a blue cat. 

I then went to research and discovered that the song was by Annalisa.

Annalisa who for all these years has continued undaunted to be “good, but in second place”.

And yet there is not a person who does not know her ‘I saw her …’.

Despite having my radio perpetually on the frequency of Virgin, a radio that only plays rock music, without really knowing how or why, I have found the refrain of Mon amour in my head.

And ‘I saw her…’ has officially become part of my way of speaking: when I find myself describing something mixed, tangled, entangled.

Physics graduate Annalisa Scarrone, Nali, teaches us how to chase dreams and show the world the Global Force.

Did you see her win?

I dedicate this photo to Tony: ultimate Katy Perry connoisseur.

aTUTTOCUORE

aTUTTOCUORE

Jan 27, 2024 | MUSIC, MUSIC

aTUTTOCUORE with all my heart I would like to thank my brother and sister-in-law because after Twelve Notes again this year my birthday present was a wonderful experience.

A musical experience but also a visual and sensorial one, because at every concert Claudio Baglioni manages to amaze with different versions while remaining true to himself.

After the debut in Pesaro, the indoor version of aTUTTOCUORE started at the Mediolanum Forum in MILAN on 20, 21 and 22 January and will continue on 5 and 6 February.

A show that you shouldn’t miss.

aTUTTOCUORE opens with E tu come stai? And it is just as if Claudio wanted to pick up the thread of the conversation with his fans: like a long public dialogue but at the same time intimate because of the way he gives himself.

This is followed by Dagli il via… and of course ‘the start’ is only the beginning of a long sequence of surprises.

Then Acqua dalla luna … hurry audience … you will see …

you will see the wonder created by the perfect combination of costumes by and choreography by Veronica Peparini directed by Giuliano Peparini.

I will continue with the set list:
Con tutto l’amore che posso and Quante volte featured by Claudio Baglioni’s funny dance moves and by the powerful peculiarity of this show: the images on the maxi-screens blending with the play of light and the evolutions of all the artists up and down the stairs of the stage set create an enthralling three-dimensionality. 

Then Un po di piu’
Gli anni più belli
Domani mai
Quanto ti voglio
Fammi andar via
Niente più
E adesso la pubblicità
A tutto cuore.

Claudio puts his heart into everything, in the sense of energy, in the sense of wanting to make music at its best, using his heart which, as he said in an interview, can also be considered a percussion instrument, as well as the calendar that marks our time.

And more: Mal d’amore
W l’Inghilterra
Sono io
Cuore D’Aliante
Uomo di varie età
Le ragazze dell’est
Uomini persi
Noi no
Amori in corso
Un nuovo giorno un giorno nuovo
Con voi

and with us Claudio sang illuminating the audience with multidirectional and totally inclusive beams of light.

Unmissable Questo piccolo grande amore
Dodici note
Io sono qui
Amore bello
Solo
Sabato pomeriggio
Porta portese in a current version enriched with a riot of cheerful playfulness.

Avrai
Io me ne andrei
That masterpiece of Mille giorni di me e di te
My favourite for ‘the hair-raising coffee Via

E tu
Strada facendo
La vita è adesso
and concluding with the music of Poster.

At that point, instead of going far away, you just want to stay so as not to interrupt the magic, but on the screen the faces of the countless musicians, choristers, dancers, artists and performers scroll by.

One above all is the dancer Antonio Ciarciello, chosen after an epic casting, given the number of candidates, who all the time dances as a sort of alter ego.

What do you say? The set list is quite long, yet there are always a few songs missing from the poems in music that Claudio has written.

As many as there are songs, as many are the jackets that Claudio Baglioni has worn: a different one for each song, without ever a moment’s interruption, in a constant succession.

Also incessant is the kaleidoscope of images, futuristic and current, as well as evocative and suggestive by light designer Ivan Pierri. 

Paolo Gianolio, who has collaborated uninterruptedly with Claudio Baglioni since the 1985 album La vita è adesso.

Many years have passed since then, and yet … La vita è adesso: life is now … is it?

Which is your favourite?

ADD YOUR VOICE

ADD YOUR VOICE

Nov 11, 2023 | MUSIC, MUSIC

Add your voice is a call to action launched by Coldplay on their website. 

More precisely: Add your voice to a new song:

Hello everyone. We hope you are all doing well in these wild times.

We have almost finished Moon Music. If you would also like to participate, perhaps you could add your voice to a song called One World. (We would love that).

All you have to do is record yourself singing “Ahhhh” for a few seconds at oneworld.coldplay.com.

You can copy the note on the site, or sing a G or C in any octave.

Thank you very much.

Love,

Chris, Guy, Will and Jonny

A concise and meaningful invitation.

One World, the title of the song, two words that for me evoke an extremely important message: I would like the world to be one, in the sense of united, in the sense of the same world equal for all.

We will soon find out what this “world” sung by Coldplay with the voices of so many people will be like.

I find this extended chorus in space a great bridge to unite voices even metaphorically.

But coming back down to earth, concretely this is the required note:

and you can register it by clicking after selecting the country of origin.

What do you say?

Will you add your voice?

As you know I always love to sing and indeed Coldplay’s songs are in general invitations to sing: very different from each other, joyful, at times spiritual, at times evocative enough to make the color come alive.

Chris Martin’s voice is introspective and also highly characterized: impossible not to recognize it.

The same cannot be said about him: after some time I am still very impressed by the time he decided to go to one of his concerts on the subway, among ordinary people, but also his fans on the same route, ready to listen to him, but not to spot him, so much so that no one noticed his presence.

Cold, coldness, detachment?

A “coldness” that they chose to represent to the sound of music.

Undoubtedly they are universal, but I ask you: as much as in some ways they reach everyone, do they then reach deep down?

They certainly reached in a way that I love when they decided to send letters typed to their fans to announce the release of the album Everyday Life.

I want to express my admiration for the tribute to Enjoy the silence, accomplice Anton Corbijn,  in the unofficial video for Viva la vida, which is actually perhaps their song that I like the most, despite the fact that it seems that statistics show Yellow as the favorite.

And your favorite is what?

Going back to the call-to-action, will you sing the note?

DANSE MACABRE

DANSE MACABRE

Oct 28, 2023 | MUSIC, MUSIC, ROCK, ROCK

Danse macabre is Duran Duran‘s new work due out Oct. 27 just in time for Halloween. 

Actually, the idea for Danse macabre came from the Halloween-themed performance at the Encore Theatre at the Wynn in Las Vegas on Oct. 30 and 31 a year ago. 

Yes, I know, I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing either, and yet it’s all true.

Let’s say that from that start to the final album the dance more than macabre was intense and produced three unreleased, three new versions from their discography and six covers.

Covers are always a big risk, that’s a fact, however I regardless appreciate the tribute to pieces of music history.

Paint it black is a song that I like very much and that’s all I’m going to say.

Spellbound by Siouxie and the Banshees thanks to Stranger Things is now appreciated even by non-boomers, who knows if they will even listen to the Duran Duran version.

Definitely Bury a friend by Billie Eilish is a great point of contact.

And with regard to Psycho Killer contact point was the passion for Tina Weymouth that John Taylor discovered shares with Victoria De Angelis.

When you say Talking Heads …

Here is what John had to say about it

Sharing, cooperation are concepts I love, just as I love rock characters, and by rock I don’t mean simply music.

Can a macabre dance be rock?

I don’t know, what I do know is that Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, and on this occasion also Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo somehow continue the thread that we are following together.

If we trace it backwards we go back to Lux Æterna by Metallica, and earlier to Memento Mori by Depeche Mode, all the way to last October with Muse and You make me feel like it’s Halloween. 

So are you ready for the Danse Macabre?

ATOMIC CITY – SPHERE

ATOMIC CITY – SPHERE

Sep 30, 2023 | MUSIC, MUSIC, ROCK, ROCK

Atomic City is the new song by U2 released on September 29.

U2 surprisingly performed a preview in Las Vegas a few days ago

Did you recognize Freemont Street?

That’s right: the location of the video I still haven’t found what I am looking for.

Listening to Atomic City, you recognize something else well too, don’t you?

I immediately thought, “Debbie Harry!” 

In fact Blondie as well as Giorgio Moroder appear in the credits.

From Atomic to Atomic city then.

Although Atomic City is no longer a reference to Blondie but is what Las Vegas was called in the 1950s.

Las Vegas.

Since I saw the movie with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher whenever I hear Las Vegas mentioned I can’t resist without repeating it in various ways like they do in the movie, you know the scene?

Las Vegas in particular was U2’s choice for their residency show “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere.”

Achtung Baby needs no further introduction: simply the fact that it is the album that contains One, makes it memorable.

Sphere, or MSG Sphere is an arena created for entertainment shows at The Venetian Resort in Paradise, Nevada and is currently the most colossal and avant-garde sphere in the world: covered with LED panels that also allow images to be projected outside, as well as a virtual experience inside.

If you love math I recommend you take a look at this page: it contains an explanation of how centuries-old mathematical formulas and 22nd century engineering and technology were used to create Sphere.

Wanting to put on a Residency show as opposed to the tours we are used to in the music business, U2 thought to concretize creativity using the latest technology.

What are your thoughts on this?

According to Heraclitus, invisible harmony is a perfect and pristine sphere. The visible one, on the other hand, continually deforms under the weight of reality.

In this case the weight is of virtual reality …

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