The 883 explained to Generation Z

There is a scene from “They Killed Spider-Man: The Legendary Story of the 883” in which the character of Mauro Repetto, played by Matteo Oscar Giuggioli24 years old, he has to rewind a cassette tape. At the presentation of the series, director Sydney Sibilia said that when Matteo was told to do it on set, the actor looked at the crew perplexed: he didn’t know what he should do. After all, when Giuggioli was born, cassette tapes had already gone out of fashion. Not only that: the parable of the 883 had been over for some time.

It was 1993 when Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto recorded the second and last album together, “Nord Sud Ovest Est”: then the first continued alone (“When I heard the start of the song ‘Gli anni’ I understood that I had to leave from 883,” said Repetto), continuing the duo’s brand until 2001 before starting to release music under his own name. Giuggioli, born in 2000, is just one of the many kids of his generation who discovered 883 when the aura of cult group. The Sky Original series, which marked records on all fronts, from record ratings right from its debut (it became the most watched original pay TV series of the last eight years, dethroning “Gomorrah) to the enthusiastic reviews, brought the myth of Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto even closer to Generation Z: just take a look on social media, which have been literally invaded by an overwhelming wave of affection for the series, its protagonists and the 883.

The “kilometers of letters” in the WhatsApp era

“The target of this series was supposed to be 883’s peers and instead here we are becoming fans of Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto as young people in the year 2024,” wrote a user on X sharing a clip of Matteo Oscar Giuggioli and Elia Nuzzolo, 25 years old, who in the series instead plays Pezzali, while they sing “Non me la menare” on Radio2 Social Club.

Meanwhile, 883’s hits jostle among the current hits in the charts. “Con un deca”, dated 1992, appeared in the Fimi/Gfk chart of the most listened to and downloaded singles of the week, in 89th place: to decrypt the lyrics, which joked about how little could be done at the beginning of the 90s in a provincial city like Pavia with a ten thousand lire note, the kids will have had to ask their parents for help. “Come mai” is among the 200 most streamed songs on Spotify in the last week: it was 1993 and Pezzali vented the yearning linked to falling in love in a song destined to become a timeless classic, with those “kilometres of letters” that they resist even in the WhatsApp era.

Hits and albums return to the charts

On Spotify all of 883’s “classic” albums have also returned to the charts: not only the two recorded by Pezzali and Repetto together (“They killed Spider-Man” and “Nord Sud Ovest Est”), but also “La donna il dream & the great nightmare” of 1995 and “The harsh law of goals!” of 1997 “What do I have more than other colleagues of my generation? Maybe there was a sort of perfect storm that I believe my songs from that period are now considered representative of a collective moment.

I told you once. And when you think about that time, you think about my songs,” said Max Pezzali last year, on the eve of the concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome which sealed the success of a tour that made him sell out between 2022 and 2023.520 thousand tickets. A success that seems to have no setbacks: from 28 December to 10 January Pezzali will perform ten consecutive shows at the Forum di Assago, in Milan, for which more than 110 thousand tickets have already been sold (the concerts are all sold out) . And from January 24th to February 2nd he will be at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, for seven dates which allowed him to sell another 52 thousand tickets. Next July 12th, at least three generations will find themselves singing 883’s hits at the top of their lungs at the Imola racetrack.

The province of yesterday and that of today

“They killed Spider-Man – The legendary story of the 883” is a celebration of that world that Pezzali has always sung in his songs, that province where “the nights don’t end at dawn in the street”, made of boredom, bars, discos, arcades, groups. That province which has basically remained more or less the same in these thirty years.

He knows something about it Riccardo Zanottiwho with his Nuclear Tactical Penguins he told it to Generation Z better than anyone: “We like the 883? Maybe it’s true: like them we praise normality. And then Max is a friend, he considers us his younger brothers. We also have the province in common: we are not lounge people, we come from a context in which the ethic is that of hard work”.

And then the one told by Sibilia is above all a story of friendship and redemption: “Repetto and I were two sluts without the physique du role of pop stars. The secret to success? Genuineness – reflects Pezzali – our texts were third grade exams. .But that simplicity is what has allowed songs like ‘They Killed Spider-Man’, ‘How Come’ and ‘You’re a Legend’ to remain: they are intergenerational anthems”.

The tribute of the indie scene and the revenge

A first attempt at “rehabilitation” of Pezzali and Repetto, if we can say so, dates back to 2011, the year in which Rockit dedicated a compilation – published in free download – in which gThe heroes of the nascent Italian indie pop scene paid homage to 883 by singing their hits. Among others, Niccolò Contessa’s Cani attempted a cover of “Con un deca”, Colapesce with a review of “Gli anni”, Ex-Otago with their version of “Sei un mito”. Dimartino covered “No regrets”, Marie Antoinette “Weekend”, the Seltons “How must it go”. Today those songs sound like pop masterpieces: “

I caught traits that put people in communication with each other. A precise and limited moment in time, but which became universal even for those who arrived later”, exults Pezzali. And so after being snubbed at the time because, the words are Max’s own, “those who came from the era of great songwriting could not be enthusiastic about that shallow and superficial world, attentive only to loves, friendships and the province sung by us: but a line like ‘new carpets, Arbre Magique’ is pure zeigeist: the spirit of the times of those years”, thanks to the Sky series the 883 took their definitive revenge. The first season ends in the summer of 1992: the second, which will arrive soon, will instead end with the consecration with “Nord Sud Ovest Est”, 1.3 million copies sold before Repetto’s farewell.