Super Trouper live at Twenty One

Super Trouper, ABBA cover band, will play live at Club TwentyOne, via Cimatori 13R, Firenze, Italy on Friday 17th April, 2009. Be there :-)

It Bites are back: "The Tall Ships"

It Bites are finally back, with their new studio album, The Tall Ships, since 1989! I've been waiting for this moment for soooo long!

It Bites are one of my favorite bands ever, and I've known them since the eighties when they release 3 wonderful studio albums!

They're a mixture of pop and progressive, and probably in the eighties that wasn't the right time.

In this new album there's only John Beck and Bob Dalton of the original lineup, and the singer/guitarist, Francis Dunnery, is now replaced by the equally skilled John Mitchell.

I may be biased, but I really think this is one of the greatest album in the last few years, and they actually sound like the original It Bites: the style hasn't changed!

I had already enjoyed the Live album they released a few years ago, When The Lights Go Down, and I was already happy at that time, because It Bites were together again.

Enjoy the listening :-)

Super Trouper's live videos

On 8th November 2008 Super Trouper Abba cover band, I play in, did a live concert at Ju Bamboo, Savona, Italy. We really had a great time (thanks to the wonderful organization and to the warm and excited audience)!

Unfortunately, we were not able to record all the performance, but we managed to film some songs (though the quality of the video and audio are not that good); we thus created a space on youtube, hoping you enjoy what remains of that evening:

http://www.youtube.com/supertrouperabba

Finally, here are some photos of the backstage of that wonderful trip!

Extreme's new album

Oh My God, Extreme are finally back! This is one of the bands I was missing more!

When I saw the new CD "Saudades de Rock" at the music shop I had no choice but to buy immediately, and I wasn't disappointed! Extreme seem to be back for good, with basically their original sound :-)

The record of theirs I like most is surely "III Sides to Every Story", while their last record date 1995 "Waiting for the Punchline"... well... kind of disappointed me. With this new record they seem to have found their original energy, and Nuno is still a wonderful guitar player (God he plays sooooo great)!

Welcome back!!!

Tygers of Pan Tang: Animal Instinct (2008)

I finally made it to put my hands on the new CD of Tygers of Pan Tang: Animal Instinct.

I cared a lot about this, since the new singer of the band is my dear friend and music colleague (we play together in the Deep Purple cover band, Purple Sucker) Jacopo "Jack" Meille.

I must admit that I don't know the previous works of this band, but this new record really sounds very good!

I would define it nor heavy metal neither hard rock either, but a good mixture of both; the result is a collection of songs that sound good and pleasant to listen to, even from the very first play, where good melody is always taken care of.

Jacopo does a wonderful job as a signer (and I'm not saying that just because he's my friend :-) and the two guitar players, Robb Weir and Dean Robertson manage to build a solid sound which has a direct impact without being too aggressive (of course the whole band sounds great, but as a guitar player myself, I tend to listen to guitar first ;-)

I know I might sound biased, but believe me I'm not! You guys really rock!

King's X

Wikipedia says about this band:

King's X is a critically acclaimed American hard rock band noted for its sophisticated music that combines progressive metal, grunge, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by gospel, blues, and British Invasion pop groups.

apart from the "grunge" I agree!

I definitely hate grunge, while I really enjoy this band which I discovered lately, and I don't hear any grunge influence in their music.

I'm listening to some of their records and they are really powerful!

I actually already knew some songs from Faith Hope Love (1990) and I already liked them, but also the other records are really pleasant to hear.

Moreover, I remember that I liked the singer Doug Pinnic (who also plays bass in the band) in the song "Lines in the sand" by Dream Theater where he appeared as a guest singer. Now probably I also understand better the choice of having him as a guest star: many songs of King's X remind me of Dream Theater style!

If you like power rock/metal, take a listen to this band!

Hope you enjoy it as I'm doing right now :-)

Musicals in London (December 2007)

I've always forgotten to write this post, shame on me :-)

The Musicals in London goes on!

This time I went to London with my good friends Alessia, Tommaso and Barbara, just for 3 days (two nights). We left on November 30th very early in the morning from the Florence airport, and got to London at about 10 o'clock; so we had the time to get to the hostel (yes, in order to save money for the musicals we chose the youth hostel :-)

Since we arrived from the airport to Victoria station, we could soon see the Wicked wonderful theatre


The musical tour started in the afternoon with our beloved Mamma Mia! Although we were in the very last rows we had a nice visual, and the show is always funny, even from there :-) The evening... Avenue Q! We had quite cheap tickets for the second row! That was the second time I saw Avenue Q, but for my friends it was the first time... we laughed, laughed, laughed til we cried! This show is sooooo funny :-D


Back to the hostel room... well... not so comfortable, but we were tired anyway


The second day! For the matinee we chose the classical Phantom of the Opera! No way I could get tired of that :-) And for the evening, the grand finale. I had seen this musical on August, and I really couldn't wait to see that again: Wicked! The seat was not bad (surely better than my previous time), and the house was full! Unfortunately, Kerry Ellis (Elphaba) was probably having some problems with her voice, but she was wonderful anyway, although she did not sing at her best; Dianne Pilkington (Glinda) was very good and funny as usual. A great show! One of the best currently!


Another night at the hostel, and then on Sunday back to the airport and back to Italy.


Another magical musical tour: 4 musicals in 2 days :-)

hope to get there back soon.

Tommy, thanks for the photos :-)