| CURIOSITIES | HISTORY TOURS DISCOGRAPHY |
First drummer,
than front man, passing through "Punk e a capo"
FRANZ - At that time I was the talk showman of a TV show called "Punk e a capo" which was the first breaking music TV show. I asked my audience to send me letters with requests and suggestions. In each show I showed the video clips suggested by the audience, because I was trying to respect people's tastes and trends. As "Punk e a capo" was televised by a small local TV, I was quite free: I used to speak using metropolitan slang, that is to say young people's daily language. For example I used to create particular idioms mixing Italian and English language, because at that time English was getting more and more trendy. I created a kind of popular Esperanto. I also used to crate surrealistic and funny metropolitan legends about musicians, trying to fit them into the Italian culture. Thanks to the show I become popular and I proposed my friends to become the front man. I also proposed to find another drummer, who could help me during our live performances, because I wanted to concentrate on my new role. Anyway, even if I was satisfied about my new role, this change was not very easy to do because I had to quit live performance as a drummer and I was at the top of my career. The band had to find a new balance and a new shape; we wanted to communicate directly with our audience, that is why we needed a front man. And above all we wanted to write songs that could have been able to touch people's heart. That is why we concentrated upon lyrics. We also wanted to follow the rock current, which was very trendy in the USA at that time. We did not know that we were anticipating times, trends and tastes in Italy. In fact, some years later a new rock wave would have "invaded" Italian music outline. The result of our ideas and sense of anticipation was "Suonare Suonare".
FRANZ
- Nel concerto in cui io debuttai ufficialmente come cantante, nel 1980, ne
combinai una delle mie. Eravamo a Cesena e volevamo fare un omaggio a De
André. Così abbiamo pensato di aggiungere al nostro repertorio dei pezzi
che facevamo con lui. Uno di questi era Il pescatore. Allora io prendo
un tamburone grande, di circa un metro e mezzo di diametro, forse anche di più.
Era una specie di grancassa tenuta con dei sostegni che si chiama gong drum
e si usa anche nelle orchestre classiche. E su questo bel tamburone un po' inclinato
scrivo i pezzi di testo che non mi ricordavo bene.
Sorpresi? Be', lo ero anch'io. E già lo ero stato un anno prima, quando avevo
visto Fabrizio cantare con il leggìo.
Girava le pagine e leggeva i versi. I versi, non la musica.
Ma guarda un po' che strano, mi sono detto, questo qui è proprio fuori. Ha scritto
Bocca di rosa, Marinella... e tutte queste canzoni che so perfino io,
che sanno tutti, e se ne va in giro col leggìo. Possibile che non se le ricordi?
"Belin" mi diceva Fabrizio "non si possono mica ricordare cinquanta
canzoni!"
"Ma le hai scritte tu…" E’ come se uno ti dicesse: "Dimmi
Davanti S. Guido, la poesia di CARDUCCI", uno la impara da
bambino e la sa..." "E belin! Io non me le ricordo!" Lo guardavo
e scuotevo la testa. Che strano, pensavo, fossi al posto suo me le ricorderei.
E invece no, aveva ragione lui. Non me le ricordavo.Allora mi metto lì e scrivo
sul mio tamburo. Non mi sentivo sicuro perché Il pescatore è molto facile,
nel senso che è piena di rime baciate e assonanze, con versi classici di nove
sillabe, molto ritmici:
All'ombra
dell'ultimo sole
si era assopito un pescatore
e aveva un solco lungo il viso
come una specie di sorriso...
Questa era la prima strofa e me la ricordavo. Ma poi c'era quella storia dei
gendarmi… non riuscivo a essere mai sicuro del tutto. Non ricordavo se
i gendarmi vedevano prima questo o prima quello, se il pescatore sorride e ha
la ruga lungo il viso oppure se i gendarmi non avevano capito che era un sorriso...
insomma, facevo un gran casino. Freddamente, a tavolino, lo puoi ricordare,
ma mentre il ritmo va e la rumba gira, non è che tu puoi fermare tutti e dire:
"Scusate un attimo... qui come cazzo faceva?".
Così scrivo tutto su questo tamburone. Fantastico, avevo trovato l’inghippo
quindi… mi metto lì, con il mio tamburone davanti e… parte la musica:
"All’obra dell’ultimo sole…" e la gente applaude. Evviva!
Ma quando giro la testa per leggere sul tamburone… le parole sono tutte
pasticciate. Avevo usato un pennarello nero e… Durante l’intervallo
aveva piovuto un po’: L’inchiostro si era scolorito e colava sulla
pelle del tamburo, mestamente, come le lacrime, o il solco, o cosa cavolo, sul
viso del pescatore. Panico. Sussulto d’orgoglio: Show must go on! E mi
ritrovo ad improvvisare, aggrappandomi a quel poco che restava scritto. "All’ombra
del… gendarmi… sorriso… pescatore…. d’un cortile…"
Insomma, me la cavo alla meno peggio. Finito il concerto arriva in camerino
un romagnolo. " Mo senti un po’, il testo non l’hai mica detto
come quello di Fabrizio…"
" Sì, lo so, ma sai, a volte te ne sfugge una…"
"Ma hai mischiato una strofa con un’altra! Non la sappiamo mica tanto
bene, veh!"
FRANZ
- Suddenly, one day he told us: "Hey guys, I am not coming". That was typical
of him: sharp, dry. We knew him too well, that was his "style" and we were not
surprised. Flavio was fed up, exactly like Mauro. He could not stand that way
of living anymore. He wanted to stop touring, travelling, sleeping in the hotels
etc.... Ha had always hated travelling, since we were in the USA. Moreover Flavio
did not like the new rock turning point in the band's production.
FLAVIO - It was 1980, we were about to start our summer tour after
the launch of "Suonare Suonare". "Suonare Suonare" was every different LP because
it contained many songs and we wrote lyrics. Unfortunately at the end of the
period we spent recording it I discovered that music business and concerts disgusted
me. Being a musician is hard work and when you loose your "passion" everything
become too difficult. In my opinion our experience had come to an end because
our artistic and personal goals had become very different. One day, while I
was going to reach my friends I turned my car and I said to myself "I have to
stop". After few months spent thinking (I was very confused) I understood that
I wanted to start a new experience, that I needed to create...Whatever I wanted
to, I needed to practice my artistic versatility.
FRANZ – We were very sad about loosing Flavio, but we told each
other we could go on. We had planned a tour and Flavio's role was partially
covered by Lucio Fabbri, who was used to perform with us since the experience
with Fabrizio De Andrè . Lucio was a violin player, not a keyboard player, but
he tried to do his best. Anyway PFM's sound was not sacrificed above all because
of the rock turning point. And the two drummers were really powerful together:
every drum solo was real fun.
When everything was over we felt empty. We were in Turin, in 1987, we had to say each other that our job was not funny anymore. If you don't know exactly what to do, if you do not feel the fire pushing you towards new goals, that means it is not worthwhile anymore. So we told each other: " OK, everyone goes his way, we will see". That was a pause...and it lasted 10 years. Anyway we never broke up.... And I think we did not do that because we wanted to come together again. Later it often happened me that people told me "PFM? Oh, what a pity. Is it true that you do not perform anymore?" And sometimes I told my friends about that... until one day...