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April/May 2001
Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters (A few shows between Milan and Berghem)
Introduction: Let me spend a few words for those of you who don’t know who the BlueBeaters are (actually, Giuliano Palma & the BlueBeaters). The BlueBeaters are an all-star Rocksteady Italian band; actually, they’re with no doubt Italian’s premier Ska band. Band members include people from former top Ska acts such as Casino Royale and Fratelli di Soledad as well as people from well known reggae favourites Africa Unite. The band formed around 1996 as a one night cover band that soon decided to build up a serious project. In 1999, the BlueBeaters self produced and self distributed thru the internet an amazing album, "The Album", that soon sold about 12000 copies thru the web and with only a little promotion. In December 2000 they released a 3 songs single, covering two old songs by one of Italian most popular songwriters, Gino Paoli and with Paoli himself singing with Giuliano Palma. The single became a huge hit all throughout the Italian commercial radios and the Album itself was reissued and distributed in record stores. They don’t tour much, they don’t play much around. You won’t hear from them for a long time. And that’s a big part of their success.
Here’s a report of a few shows I had the pleasure to see during their spring 2001 tour.
It’s been a while since at the SkabadiP headquarters we’ve been thinking about an interview with Italians favourites Giuliano Palma and his BlueBeaters. They’ve been reaching a huge coverage all throughout the major radio networks and their latest single "che cosa c’è?", sung with Italian original performer Gino Paoli, has been broadcasted tons of times each day. An interview would have been the greatest thing, but even something for our live skaoovie section, a review of one of their shows, a picnic, anything would have been cool to us. Their spring tour was the right chance and we decided to try out something. After a hundred phone calls with their record label, their press office, tour managers and other people I honestly forgot, we got very near with doing an interview, but at the end we’ve been offered to see a bunch of their shows for free from the stage and take almost all the pictures we wanted but no interview. Well, never mind, gonna do it next time. What we had was enough.... got the chance to see four of their shows and take pictures. There’s enough to write a good article about the band. We honestly hope that reading this will give you the chance to know more about this band, their style, their music.
Being the proud owner of one of those "All Areas" pass made me feel like some kind of v.i.p. and was sincerely an honour and a privilege to me to get to see the show so near that even their dentists won’t get that close. Even my two little kids, a Nikon F90X and the old F601 were quite happy about the whole thing.
Before I forget, let me say a big thank you to Elena and Colorsound promotions, Claudio Ongaro, Beatrice at V2 Records, Gigi T-Bone and all the guys from the BlueBeaters.
Well, at the end what I got was the chance to see 4 great shows from the band in almost one month. It was great, took loads of friends at each gig and had the chance to introduce new people to the ska. After all, spreading the ska word is our mission.
My personal tour started in Trezzo, near Milano, at the Live Club, on the 23rd of March and went thru the unforgettable shows in Milano at the Rolling Stone on the 9th and 23rd of April, and ended the 1st of May in Bergamo, my hometown, with an amazing open air show.
The first thing that jumps up to my eyes is that we Ska fans are generally used to go to shows and think of a crowded venue when there’s more than 200 people. Going to a BlueBeaters show you might think you got to the wrong place, since they play in front of thousands of people. Means that Ska got that big while I was sleeping? Nope. The thing is that the guys are having a well deserved success. They’re on commercial radios, they’re on MTV and that simply means that their audience is not just made by original rudies but from a wide range of people who crossover from young students, squatting people, people who simply like any kind of good music. So let’s face reality. We, ska fans, are kinda snobbish concerning our music, its roots, its culture. It’s snobbish in the good sense. We’re proud of what we love to listen. We’re proud to know what’s behind the thing we’re listening and looking. We can feel when ska has a soul, ska has heat. Others can’t feel it, we do. We’re in the middle of a crowd who probably won’t give a nut about roots, history, culture, but, hell, who cares. The BlueBeaters know what they’re into, they cover on 360 degrees ska history like few others can do. They’re proud to play ska, they play it like great musicians can do, they love doing it, they grew with the ska. The thing is that they’re having success. Nothing wrong with that, since they still play what they love just like they used to years ago. It’s like...it’s not the BlueBeaters that had to compromise with the music industry. It’s the music industry that had to get down to the band’s sound.
OK, let’s talk about their shows and their music.
Their first show I saw was in Trezzo, as I said, at the infamous Live Club. The Live Club is a big disco with an awful p.a. system. It was the first gig of their tour. The guys looked in great shape, all dressed up. Too bad about the p.a. Even the stage was a bit too small. The place was packed, boiling hot, the audience went crazy. Actually, that’s nothing new, ‘cos people go crazy at any BlueBeaters show. Everybody dances, everyone was sweating. A guys makes a stage dive. Hell! Kids!! Some of them might call me Dad!! At the end of the show I had the chance to listen to some of the crowd’s feeling. The thing is that few people know that the BlueBeaters are a cover band. Someone is almost sure that at least a couple of songs were Bob Marley’s covers, others wonder who wrote Artibella; that gives sense when I feel a little snobbish about Ska.
The only thing that probably got me a bit disappointed was the set list. Not the songs they played, because they played almost anything I wanted to hear and eve much more than that. It’s just that the song list was the same in each of their shows. Even in the same order. Ok, that’s not so important, never mind.
There’s lots of new tracks, and the only song out of "The Album" they didn’t play, was "desperate lover". In Trezzo, I counted something like from 5 to 7 new tracks, depending from when was the last time you’ve seen the band live. "Artibella" and "Here I come" are really not that new since I remember them playing those songs in during their last tour in the summer of ’99.
The first song of the show is a new one. They used to open each set with Mancini’s "Shot in the dark", but now it’s a tribute to those without whom all this couldn’t happen, The Skatalites. So, the show starts with "Skaravan", the first new song. Few people know the song but the groove is the right one and everybody starts dancing.
Just one song out of all the new ones doesn’t belong to Jamaican ’60s ska/rocksteady/reggae tradition. It’s Mick Jagger’s "Out of time", sung by Chris Farlowe in the mid sixties. It seems that the song has been written for the BlueBeaters, because it’s hot, catchy, and after a couple of riffs, everywhere the crowd was singing that "baby baby baby you’re out of time.......I said baby baby baby you’re out of tiiiiii-iiimeeeee". Something that makes you chill. The other new tracks show how the guys love to cover in the best Jamaican tradition. So, Dennis Brown is revisited twice with "Here I come" and with "somebody has stolen my girl" with the crowd sing longing and going mad.
"Party Time", originally by the Heptons is played in a reggae style with a touch of soul and the last new song of the set is another Skatalites tune, "Nimrod". Still, only few people know the song, but still, who cares?
On stage, Giuliano has an unique groove. He gets wild and I can bet he’s got the crowd at his feet. I guess he could say any kind of thing, even read the news or the latest bingo results that the audience would simply get mad! To be honest, my friends keep saying that Giuliano is a cool guy. I think they’re right.
Actually, the whole band commands people’s respect. All dressed up, dark sunglasses, real professionals who love what they do. People who love what they do. I guess that’s their strength. They put soul in what they do, as Italian singer Gino Paoli said after working with them in their latest single, "Che cosa c’è".
Anyway, as I said, their first show is not something I have enjoyed so much, due to p.a. problems, sauna like temperature and so on.
I got better thoughts out of the two shows they had in Milano, at the Rolling Stone, on the 9th and the 23rd of April. First of all, as I got in the venue, someone gave me this pass I was very proud of. Felt like a real reporter for the most outstanding European ska site (yeah, that’s SkabadiP, man!!!) and I had the chance to see the shows from the stage. It was amazing, tho, at the show in Bergamo it was even better. Hard to believe but that’s true. Still, the shows in Milano had some kind of particular groove in the air. True it was, since in Milano there’s been a big surprise.
Let’s start from the beginning: the BlueBeaters shows start with Patrick "Mister Melody" Benifei getting on stage by himself, sitting on his piano and starts playing some heavy chords.....in the meanwhile, one by one, all the other members get on stage. All of them, except Giuliano, The King, Palma . While the band gets on stage, the crowd starts clapping and yelling, and the one who gets the hottest ovation is always Bunna, bass player in the BlueBeaters and lead singer for Italian premier reggae band Africa Unite.
Once the guys are onstage, they begin playing "Skaravan", and by the end of the track, they immediately start a long intro of "Tell me now". That’s when Cato, the guitar player, introduces the band.....
-Good evening everyone.........
Crowd replies enthusiastically....
-The BlueBeaters........
Again, the crowd as up above.......
-I said....the BlueBeaters!!!!!
Again as above but even louder......
Cato reaches his goal and starts introducing each member......
-Mr Melody, Cato, Ferdy Bombodrummer, The Angelo Parpaglione, Gigi T-Bone, Bunna.......there’s only one left!!!!! Ladies and gentlemen Giuliano, The King, Palma !!!!! And Giuliano gets on the stage with a perfect three piece suit. He’s wild, his face assumes such funny expressions, he dances every second of the show and jumps, twists, runs up and down. The whole show like that. Amazing!
I remember Giuliano in the mid eighties. After a few years as a loud and proud punk rocker, he became lead singer of what used to be Italians best ska band, Casino Royale. By that time, he already had this great hot voice that made chill the audience singing such songs as sixteen tons. Looks like it was yesterday, but it’s 15 years ago. Hell!!
Oh well, let’s go back to those great shows in Milano....I can’t really remember much about the first 15 minutes of the shows as I was busy exploiting my cameras. So, "Tell Me Now", Skatalites’ "World’s Fair" and "Artibella" run away fast. One thing that caught my attention was that everyone was singing out loud at Stranger Cole’s Artibella. The band has never released that song. Simply can’t believe that Stranger Cole has such a huge crowd of fans. Then I realize that the demo of the song was on Napster since ages. The crowd is part of the Nap generation. The power of the internet....
"Somebody has stolen my girl" is the first new song and the crowd seems to calm down a little bit. I leave the stage to reach a better point of view, up on a balcony. I didn’t realize how many people there were in the venue. It’s packed!! The Rolling Stone ain’t such a big place.... but the outlook is impressive! You can’t see a single person who’s not dancing. Two guys with a North American accent near me are making a video out of the show and keep saying "cool...wow, they’re cool.....". I mean, there’s plenty of good stuff here in old Europe man!!
The, it’s time for "Let Him Try" and Kiss’ "See You Tonight", with those classic oozin’ "aaaaaaahhhhhs" sung by the audience.
The brass section is getting more and more tough every time I see them. Amazing solos and powerful breath!!! Gigi and Parpaglione have a unique feeling.
It’s just one tenor sax and a trombone, but seems like their twice as much. Their feeling is the same they have while playing as Africa Unite brass section. Gigi must have two enormous lungs to generate such a terrific sound out of his trombone. His solos really catch the crowd and my friend MoMA describes them with a "Goddamn!!" coming straight out her heart. I guess there must be an X-ray of his lungs here somewhere. Another great SkabadiP exclusive!!!
Ok, well, "out of time" is the next song. Nobody knows it, tho it has that catchy rhythm that makes you think that Mick Jagger wrote the song directly for the BlueBeaters. That’s why, after a couple of riffs, the crowd is caught by that "baby baby baby you’re out of time, I said baby baby baby you’re out of tiiiii-me". That’s something that won’t leave your mind even after the show is over.
A short break to let Giuliano spend a few words to thank people for coming and the bands attacks with two more classics: it’s "gimme a little sign" and Black’s hit "wonderful life". Once again, people dance and sing out loud. So you can’t almost hear Giuliano’s voice when it’s time to "just gimme a little sign girl, oh my darling........", and when after all, "don’t need to run and hide.....it’s a wonderful wonderful life".
After "wonderful life" there’s a bit of moving on the stage. Giuliano gets Cato’s guitar. Cato wears Bunna’s bass and Bunna grabs the microphone.
It’s time for Bob Marley’s "coming in from the cold". It could sound like a surprise if somebody has never seen the band playing, but that’s not really all. Yes, cos in the middle of the song, about during the keyboard solo, the band is up to a new exhilarating new dance step that reminds me a mix between Full Monty and the Olympic synchronized swim team.
It’s something too hard to describe......there’s a picture of that topic moment, here somewhere.
And still, surprises weren’t over. Yes, because after "coming in from the cold", it’s time for the hit single "che cosa c’è". Nothing strange with that, if it wasn’t for an old rude boy coming on the stage. It’s 65 years old Gino Paoli himself, and the duo between the two singers is simply outstanding.
Paoli looks almost frightened as I guess he’s not used with a crowd of yelling, sweating, waving kids calling his name as if they were at Wembley. Well, Paoli stays on the stage even for "Domani", the b-side of the single and then leaves after getting one last well deserved ovation. The crowd is a little astonished and as the band puts them self together people talk about the event. A guy near me tells me asks if I ever thought that one day I would be dancing to a Gino Paoli’s song.... Nope, sure I’d never ever thought I would, tho I guess that even Paoli himself would ever believe that one day he’d been singing in front of a yelling crowd of youths gone mad.
Back to the show...... "there’s a reward" brings you down on earth and again they start that Full Monty style dance. Still four more songs, Here I Come, Party Time, I Don’t Wanna See You Cry and the great Italian classic Never never never, and the band leaves the stage.
And since the show must go on, after a couple of minutes of "out-out-out", "moooooooreeee" and stuff, there they go again, for the last six tunes. Once again, Giuliano stays out and the band plays a classic ska-covered instrumental, Mancini’s "shot in the dark". Then again, the king is back, still jumping, running and twisting, with the last five songs: "Stop Making Love", Cher’s "Believe", "How Many Times", Skatalites’ "Nimrod" and last but not least, "I Don’t Know Why I Love You But I Do", with special dedication to the BlueBeaters fans, and with the Angelo Parpaglione blowing a vintage alto sax.
Show is over, an old Italian traditional tune, Guaglione (also covered by Italians Orobians), is aired and the band starts dancing on the stage. A few more bows, some more applause and that’s really it. The end of two hours of pure rocksteady ska played in traditional style like really few bands could do. And the BlueBeaters are one of them.
Last but not least, a few words about the fourth and last show I went to. It was in Bergamo , my hometown. It was a free show on the first of May; open air, with more than 5000 people singing and dancing. Again I had the chance to take some great shots, and I have to say thanks once again to Gigi T-Bone for letting me get on stage and move around with my cameras.
I really know nothing about the future BlueBeaters plans, since they’re all quite busy with other side projects, other bands and stuff, but I really hope they mighty tour Europe , and maybe cross the ocean to spread their talent and get the success they deserve.
Long live to the BlueBeaters!! Let’s do the interview now guys!!
by Antonio Crovetti
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