Gaznevada: the story in history

Referring to the Italian musical environment of the second half of the 70s: “Formidable those years”, paraphrasing and transporting Mario Capanna’s thought later. In a creative but also difficult, stimulating but increasingly violent context, music in Italy (as in the world) in those years had a leap forward, an injection of rock that has evolved into different streets in the following decade.

If from the early 1970s to the early 1980s music, society and protest went hand in hand, in the following years the social passage from political to the hedonistic instances had become the common denominator between the seven notes and the young generations.

To well represent this path there are i GaznevadaBolognese band born between ’76 and ’77 on the wave of the punk of the Ramones and evolved in electronics, reaching the techno passing through the House Music, the “Italo Disco” and pop.

To tell this story he thinks about it “Going underground”, An interesting documentary (in theaters from February 24) with the direction of Lisa Bosi in which the protagonists of the band, Robert Squibb, Bat Matic, Marco Nevada And Billy Bladeretrace those years in which they were protagonists.

But “Going Underground” is not only a musical film but a cross -section of society, the two elements in their narrative are inseparable, the 70s and 80s are two inclined plans on which the Gaznevada slips surrounded by what happens in society .

The story starts from Bologna and has the background the clashes of the square, the heroin and creativity, a cultural broth within which the band grows and develops. In addition to the musical aspect, the documentary frames well what happens, the good and evil that those years have put in place. The four musicians become narrators of themselves and do it without discounts, without hiding their musical passions but also the drug abyss, reaching up to a vivid description (autobiographical) of an abstinence crisis and the effect of a high.

But “Going Underground” also enters the musical details, the desire to make music to become famous and the best group in the world, but at the same time dominated by a spirit, typical of the era of their beginnings, but then modified, that there He wants to stay out of the market, with music seen as a non -“productive” element.

All this was born from the discovery of the Ramones, in the more traditional path followed at the time by many teenagers, the one that saw the transition from the refined rock atmospheres of Pink Floyd, Santana, Roxy Music or Fusion to the creative punk urgency, expressive form that allowed maximum freedom and that has brought a reversal of horizons.

It all starts with the song “Mom give me the Benza”, cataloged in the demented rock school with which, however, the Gaznevada did not want to have anything to do, indeed they were grateful to the “enemies” Skiantos for taking that label on their shoulders.

Their debut is therefore close to the Ramones and behind them there is all the artistic and creative collective Harpo’s Bazarwith its musical part that materialized through the label THETalian Records founded by Oderso Rubini (who appears and tells in this documentary) and born on the wave of Bologna Rock.

But the roads of the Gaznevada, in the creative ferment of that period, cross with those of Andrea Patience and the other Bolognese cartoonist Andrea Scoutall between the walls of the house occupied, a sort of factory, called Traumfabrik (in German “dream factory”).

This is the context in which the band publishes the first homonymous album in 1979.

But things are changing: the political protest has radicalized, violence takes over, the P38 make their appearance but also the heroine reaps victims and anesthetizes feelings (as the Gaznevada tell in the film). The “movementism” of the group ends and the musical context and an electronic “primordial” peeps out, the guitars forgive “power” and from the nihilism of punk arrive its fruits leaving room for the new wave.

It is in this context that the band changes soul, it approaches different, electronic sounds that refer to Clock DVA, Tuxedomoon, Bauhaus, DNA or X. is in this context, at the gates of the birth of the Italian Disco, who arrives their second Work “Sick Soundtrack”, epochal album (from 1980, published by Italian Records), among the best Italian productions ever.

With that album the Bolognese enter a new musical, artistic and promotional context, which will then explode with the single “IC Love Affair” of 1983, a real hit that also brings their music to the cultural, social and musical world that has distinguished The decade of the sequins and wide shoulder straps.

From here the “shot” of the documentary also changes, the protest and the clashes of the square come out, the political and cultural ferment comes out, the heroin comes out and the discos and televisions enter. Everything is done, as a narration and as a story, faster, standardized, less in -depth and music becomes more and more “synthetic”, goodbye punk and welcome dance, house music and pop. On the other hand, as the band says during the film, “In the 80s everything was made for money, not by art.”

Farewell Rabbiosi Gaznevada, here is the dream of youth, to become a famous band and make the money. Farewell Italian Records, replaced by a major who only wants hit from them and that the Bolognese well support.

Between abandonments of original members and related replacements, everything lasts until the end of the 80s, with Ciro Pagano (Robert Squibb) who gives life in 1991 to the Techno Datura project.

This is the story of the Gaznevada, told, with many details, in the documentary “Going Underground” (from the title of a song by the band, the first track of “Sick Soundtrack”). Everything is done without discounts, without reticence, with great sincerity, without denying anything that has been but contextualizing everything, an inevitable evolution of his time for a band that has always considered himself ahead (“always looking elsewhere” ) but who lived and photographed his contemporary and the evolution of times very well.

Some parts, especially those of the 70s, are superfluous compared to the history of the group, but perfectly functional to the historicization of events, they outline the epochal frame. In the first person story of the protagonists there is always a lot of self -indulgence and in general the atmospheres are never solar, but rather painful, reflective and even the moments of success are not reported as joyful.

To enrich “Going Underground” there are many repertoire images (also live for the Gaznevada and a fragment of the “spaghetti” on the stage of the Skiantos). In addition to the images there are the words: those of the narrative musicians are accompanied by the testimonies of other protagonists, collected for the occasion or extracted from other productions. It is a dive and a bath in history, a flash in the memory of those who in some years in certain “formidable” (but also catastrophic) have lived them firsthand, a historical look, an interesting document for those who want to discover them instead. For all, however, described with sincerity and a certain pride, even if a subtle sense of “survivors” shines through.

With the towing of the film I Gaznevada publish a new EP entitled After the Human Race composed of the soundtrack of the film and three unpublished. After the re-work 2024 of “mom give me the benza” The group returns to publish new music with the three songs “The Sentinel”, “Beetle Dance” And “After the Human Race“.