I came to
the world on October 20 1965, in Sliema, Malta. My
parents say I used to sing before I could talk, so I
guess I was lucky to be born musical! I started piano
lessons at the age of five with a teacher called Mary
Vella, who lived down the road from my house. I was
not a very good student as I never used to look at the
music books, playing from memory and unfortunately
giving my own interpretation to the pieces! This made
me a hopeless sightreader but very successful in my
oral tests! I took exams till Grade 5 with the
Associated Board (UK). At the age of 12 I decided I
was tired of music lessons - I was not enjoying scales
and playing pieces I did not like. This was maybe an
immature decision, but as my Dad agreed, what was the
point of doing it if I did not enjoy it? "Playing
music is only a hobby, not a profession..." (we were
in Malta, after all). At the age of 15 I started
studying music theory with May Lawson and this time I
had more patience. I went on to grade 8 and got the
diploma A.Mus.L.C.M. from the London College of Music.
By this time I was studying advanced theory, harmony
and orchestration with Maestro Carmelo Pace, a well
known composer in Malta.
What
music did I listen to in my teen years? Bee Gees, the
Buggles, ELO, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Genesis
(particularly!), Santana.... At around 17 I really got
into jazz and fusion and listened to most of the
greats. Influential artists were Al Jarreau, George
Benson, Miles Davis, Yellow Jackets, Weather Report,
Chick Corea, Larry Carlton, Level 42.... I opened up a
lot to soul and r&b stuff that I had been snobbish
about in my Genesis days.. When I was 15 Dad spent a
fortune buying me a Yamaha SK20, which was
the only polysynth in Malta!. I got playing with my
first bands. One was called Dune with friends
of mine at school - John Wood, Steve Camilleri, Clive
Zammit and Bert Borg Cardona - we would mainly jam on
rock riffs, had a great time, and drove neighbours
mad! We never actually did a gig, and I only played
with them for a few months, although a few years later
they performed once at a concert in a school. After
that I played with a band called Crux Ansata
for a few weeks, and went on to join a band called Avatar
- Ivan Scicluna, Jesmond Psaila, Carl & Sean
Griscti and Lucia Micallef - , doing prog rock, only
original numbers. We actually became pretty famous in
Malta and played concerts in the biggest venues.
By 1984 we were much more soulful and
even had a guest brass section, the Bond Horns.
I still collaborate with my dear friends Ivan
Scicluna, bassist and now owner of the studio
D-Art Productions , and Jesmond Psaila,
guitarist. I play with them occasionally when I visit
Malta, and am part of the D-Art team, arranging and
programming music for the company even over the web
when I can't be in Malta. I also played a few times
with another band called FOG - we were about
15 musicians and occasionally it was quite a
confusion, but we had a great time and made some cool
music. Some of the musicians in the band were: Mario
Ellul, Paul/John/Peter Portelli, Joe Zammit, Toni
Vella and Kevin Drake.
In 1983 I
finished school and tried getting into Malta
University to study medicine, but notwithstanding my
top A Level grades I was refused entry for
political reasons (my family, as many other
thousands, was blacklisted by Dom Mintoff's socialist
government. The University Selection board was
presided by Alfred Sant, who now leads the same
political party).
I spent
the next two years playing in hotels and at BJ's jazz
club to earn some money. When I finally moved out of
Malta in 1985 it was mainly so I could live somewhere
different...! I got into university in Rome and
studied medicine, but I was soon playing with other
musicians here in my spare time (not that there was
much of it...). My performances with campus friends
became quite a legend at med school! Around three
years later I had already played solo in discos and
clubs around Rome, using an Ensoniq ESQ1
synth and a Roland TR505 drum machine. In 1989 I met a
drummer, David Nerattini through Marco Fullone, a
"nightfly" DJ at Radio Centro Suono, and we set up a
band "10 P.M. BAND" with a kind of West Coast
sound, playing mostly covers. Costantino Ladisa - sax,
Riccardo Sinigallia - voice, Niccolo' Fabi - bass,
Francesco Zampaglione - guitar, Giuliano Ciccotti -
trumpet. We played at most clubs in Rome and also in
Bari.
Niccolo'
later decided to go solo and Giuliano left the band.
By 1991 the band was called Sei Suoi Ex and we had a
contract with Emergency Music and BMG, playing
original Italian songs. That year we reached top
placing at Castrocaro festival on Rai TV and our
first single "Fino A Dove Inizia Il Mare"
(coproduced with Marco Rinalduzzi) did pretty well.
Two more singles
followed, and we did some tracks with producer Claudio
Fabi, and a year later we had an album ready, in a
very powerful cross between soul and grunge rock (sort
of Fishbone). The songs were great and the album was
high level in every sense, but BMG let us down and
decided it was too uncommercial. Later loads of
similar stuff came out from other bands, but we were
eons ahead. Go figure... Anyway, the band split up due
to all the tension. Some songs finished up in the
soundtracks of Italian films... All through this time
I occasionally played with Niccolo' s band at places
like Classico and Big Mama.
1993 saw
the start of a new band, with Niccolo' Fabi on vocals,
Alessandro Benedetti on bass, Lorenzo Salvatori on
guitar, Leonardo D'Angelo on drums and Eleonora
Benedetti on backing vocals. We did soul pop covers in
clubs all over Rome, and Niccolo' and Lorenzo came up
with the name ADIKA PONGO.
| 1 day after
graduation (pic by Darrin).. |
 |
|
 |
...The HAIR
days.... Niccolo' had a hit song about
this...! |
In the
meantime I was still struggling through my medical
course and graduated in October 1994. Niccolò at that
time went off solo again and was replaced by Baruch
"Darling" Chadwick, a singer/dancer from LA with a
truckload of experiences. Adika Pongo broke up in 1995
for a while and at that time I worked in Buenos Aires
and Madrid with Claudio Fabi on various projects, for
Fernando & Manuel Carrillo, Hector Dona and Jesùs
Bola.
 |
Claudio Fabi,
myself, Fernando Carrillo (THE soap opera
star!), Juan Cebrian and daughter living it
up in BA (picture by Jane Rose) |
The band
reformed in summer with Costantino Ladisa on sax,
after a phase without me, and the name "BAA BAA
BLACKSHEEP".... Soon we were touring outside Rome and
started playing our own songs. Lorenzo and Eleonora
moved out and Adika Pongo became a 5 piece band
without a guitar. I did a lot of clavinet stuff around
that time.
Adika
Pongo kept me busy most of the time (we gave over 130
concerts in 1997, and worked on our album-to-be), but
the band were most kind to allow me to work on another
project, the new album by FUNKY COMPANY
"Everytime", featuring Jenny B. My role was as
artistic co-producer, arranger, keyboard player and
programmer on nine of the thirteen tracks. I also
co-wrote two of the songs, "Love So Free" and "Hurry
Up". The album came out with the label Family
Affair and did pretty well in Italy, considering the
limited market for Acid Jazz style releases.
I also
worked on a couple of film scores with composer
Pasquale Filasto', as keyboardist, guitarist and
programmer. The films are "La Bruttina Stagionata" and
"Figurine". I doubt whether these films will ever be
released outside Italy, but "La Bruttina Stagionata"
was pretty successful here. The great experience was
playing with the orchestra at Forum studios,
home of most of the famous Morricone recordings.
Playing to a conductor straight to tape is a daunting
but wonderful experience - luckily I was not the cause
of any retakes, but I had nightmares about having
dirty looks from a whole orchestra after screwing up 5
minutes into the closing theme...!
1998 was
reunion time with Niccolo' Fabi - we did a great live
TV gig on the popular music program "Night Express".
Max Gazzè featured on "Vento D'Estate".
Adika
Pongo played in most important venues around Italy. We
spent the time we have in Rome preparing new songs in
our studio.
1999 was
very gig intensive and we released a single "Wordy
Rappinghood RMX 2000", our version of the Tom
Tom Club hit, for New Music International. We also had
two songs on the Album "Gli Occhi Miei" by Erèsia
on the Sony RTI Italia label.
In
2000, we toured with the singer Mike Francis ("Survivor",
"Friends" and a load of other hits around the world) .
In August 2000 I
was lucky to tour with Mike Francis as his
pianist/keyboardist and musical director - we gave two
sell-out concerts in the Philippines, at Areneta
Coliseum (Manila) and Waterfront Ballroom (Cebu City).
Over 20000 people roaring people came to the shows!
The gigs were double features with the wonderful Fra
Lippo Lippi from Norway. Perr and Rune of Fra Lippo
are great musicians and really nice guys - we all had
a GREAT time there !
THE STORY GOES ON IN THE NEWS SECTION!
(c) 2005 Dr Aidan Zammit Lupi
PIANO MENU BAR and images (C) 2005 Aidan Zammit Lupi
