FIM 2015: FIM Live report, by Atsushi Sofuni

Photo by Enrico Rolandi

Reported by: Atsushi Sofuni

English translation by: Yoshiko PK

This was my second time to attend the musical festival in Genova, Italy, following the 2014 festival. The venue was filled with the strong energy of prog, along with the Italian sunshine and the Genovese sea breeze. The prog section was focused on the final day of the three day event. The first and second days were devoted to the “Riviera Hard’n Heavy Festival”. Among many rock bands that participated, the Rainbow and Deep Purple Tribute show with Joe Lynn Turner as the guest was stunning. Joe’s presence as the star singer turned the stage into a JLT magical world in a moment. The second day’s highlight was Wonderworld with Ken Hensley playing Uriah Heep songs. The majestic Hammond organ played by Hensley was extraordinarily, supported with the finest musicians such as Roberto Tiranti.

The headliner of the main stage of this day was Delirium IPG. In addition to the original musicians Martin Grice and Ettore Vigo, the drummer of Alberto Radius’ Formula Tre, who came to play in Japan, and the singer from La Maschera di Cera. These experienced musicians and the young skilled musicians played the traditional 70s prog with some new touch of modern prog. It was the first time for me to witness this legendary 70s band. No wonder they have great popularity in Italy over the years.

The third day of prog had seven bands on stage. Among the new rising bands, F.E.M., Logos and EL&P Project Band had the privilege to play. These new generation prog bands were all technical and performed well, but there may be some room for improvement with the staging in general, as to how to appeal their performance much attractively to the audience. I do sincerely hope they would improve the entertaining aspect, because all of these bands deserve much bright future.

A nice combination of the veteran and young musicians was shown in the performance of ex-PFM and Acqua Fragile singer Bernardo Lanzetti and Beggar’s Farm. Similarly, the nice mixture of the veteran and young players was seen in Cherry Five, the legendary band that was miraculously reformed. The Genovese veteran UT New Trolls also was invited to play.

The prog night was headlined by Goblin Rebirth. Goblin Rebirth was simply awesome. I was impressed to see all musicians and fans waiting till late to see their performance. Goblin Rebirth consisted of two original members, Fabio Pignatelli (b) and Agostino Marangolo (Ds); supported by two keyboard players and a guitar player who looked like Morante a bit in appearance. These five skilled musicians revealed the true ‘prototype’ Goblin sound. I got goose bumps when I heard the dark and heavy cluster of sounds enhanced by the illusionary lighting. I realized that Goblin Rebirth was the core of primitive Goblin itself.

Cherry Five performed for the first time after the reunion. They could be called ‘the embryonic Goblin’. Two original members, Carlo Bordini (Ds) and Tony Tartalini (Vo) were supported by the super technician bass player and the keyboard player from Taproban. They performed the old Cherry Five songs plus some new repertoire.  I had a feeling that the singer might need more time to get completely blended in the band, but overall, the highly technical seamless flow of dark symphonic prog filled with vintage feel has not been changed since the 70s.

The Genovese UT New Trolls consisted of Gianni Belleno (Ds), Maurizio Salvi (Key) and the popular guitar player in Genova, Claudio Cinquegrana. The other members were different from those who played in Japan at the last Japan tour. They played their classical UT music and ‘Paolo e Francesca’, which I found was very rare. I was so lucky to be able to hear this song live. Perhaps their performance might need some refinement that night, and in my opinion, the new members were not up to the expected standard. I wish they would have played with much refinement as they did in Japan.

The Beggar’s Farm led by Bernardo Lanzetti was astonishing. They played covers of PFM, Jethro Tull and Procol Harum, and the mighty ‘impossibile’ voice of Bernardo that came from body and soul shook the audience’s soul. The Beggar’s Farm played very well and the entire performance was filled with matured entertainment features; I thought this was one of the best performance of the festival. No need to mention that Bernardo received much appraisal from the audience for this performance.

This exciting FIM Festival will be scheduled in 2016 as well.