Premiata Forneria Marconi

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Premiata Forneria Marconi
Premiata Forneria Marconi performing live during the "Notte Per Te" festival in August, 2007.
Background information
Origin	Milan, Italy
Genres	Progressive rock
Years active	1970 - present
Members
Franco Mussida Franz Di Cioccio Patrick Djivas, Lucio Fabbri Gianluca Tagliavini Piero Monterisi
Former members
Flavio Premoli Roberto Gualdi Giorgio Piazza Mauro Pagani Bernardo Lanzetti Grigory Bloch Walter Calloni

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) (translation: Award-winning Marconi Bakery) is an Italian progressive rock band. They were the first Italian band to have success abroad, entering both the British and American charts. Between 1973 and 1977 they released five albums with English lyrics for the international market. They also had several successful European and American tours, even playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and appearing on a very popular national television program in the U.S.A.

History

1966-1970

From left to right: Patrick Djivas, Franz Di Cioccio, Franco Mussida.

The original core members of PFM (Mussida, Di Cioccio, Premoli, and Piazza) came together in the mid 1960's while playing together as backup musicians for many different Italian pop, rock and folk singers such as Lucio Battisti, Mina, Adriano Celentano and Fabrizio De André. They appeared on many recordings for other artists during this period and quickly established themselves as top players on the Italian rock and pop scene. Mussida, Premoli, Piazza and Di Cioccio then formed the group "I quelli" (rough English translation "the them", or more precisely "the those guys") in 1968. I quelli released one album and some successful Italian singles.

Premiata Forneria Marconi was officially formed in Milan in 1970 when the members of I quelli met Mauro Pagani from the group Dalton. Pagani helped the group expand their sound to include violin and flute. By this time they were already highly experienced musicians and easily able to play the kind of complex progressive heavy rock played by the leading English and American groups. Their early live performances included covers by groups such as King Crimson and Jethro Tull. Other early influences included Chicago, Ekseption, and The Flock.

They had a long name, as Italian progressive bands tended to have back then, and so were usually referred to as "La Premiata", and later "PFM". After rejecting Isotta-Fraschini (an Italian car maker) the group finally settled on Pagani's suggestion, "Forneria Marconi" (meaning "Marconi Bakery"), borrowed from the sign of a shop in the small town of Chiari, near Brescia. However, producer and friend Alessandro Colombini suggested the name lacked something, so the title "Premiata" (award-winning) was added. Some objected that "Premiata Forneria Marconi" was too long a name, but the group's philosophy stated that the more difficult to remember a band's name, the more difficult to forget it.

Italian and international success (1971-1975)

Franz Di Cioccio.

In June 1971, PFM were invited at the first "Festival d'Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze" in Viareggio, in which they won, along with Osanna and Mia Martini. Later in 1971 the group signed with the Numero Uno division of RCA Records in Italy, and released their first single, "Impressioni di settembre"/"La carrozza di Hans". It received wide recognition as the first Italian hit record to feature the sound of an electronic music synthesizer. Both songs are still regularly performed by the group. Flavio Premoli also did a special demonstration of the capabilities of the Minimoog during a PFM television performance broadcast by RAI.

In early 1972, PFM released their first album, Storia di un minuto. The album topped the Italian charts after only one week and was the first album by an Italian rock group to achieve this kind of success. It contained re-recorded versions of songs from the first single, as well as "È Festa" and "Dove... Quando..." which continue to be essential parts of their live concerts.

Later in 1972 saw the release of their second LP, Per un amico. This album opened the way to broader audience recognition all across Europe. It featured a more sophisticated 16-track production and allowed the group continue to refine their special combination of symphonic classical and traditional Italian musical influences in a rock context. Later, an English language version was re-recorded and re-mixed.

PFM came to the attention of Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer during an Italian tour and PFM were signed to Manticore Records. The first album on Manticore, Photos of Ghosts was released in late 1973. It contained mostly remakes of songs from Per un amico in English. New lyrics (not translations) were written for the album by former King Crimson member Peter Sinfield, who also helped produce the re-recording and mixing at Advision Studios in London. Photos of Ghosts was released all across Europe, Japan, and North America and represented the first real attempt by an Italian rock band to break into foreign markets. It was one of the first recordings by a European rock group to have significant chart success in the USA. The album also contained a new instrumental "Old Rain", one song in Italian, "Il Banchetto" ("The Banquet"), as well as "Celebration", (a remake of "È Festa") which received considerable airplay on album oriented rock stations in the U.S.A and Canada.

Patrick Djivas.

Following the release of Photos of Ghosts bass player Giorgio Piazza left the group, being replaced by Patrick Djivas, who has remained with the group ever since. The next PFM album release in Italy was L'isola di niente in 1974. Highlights of the album include "Dolcissima Maria" (English title: "Just Look Away") and the instrumental "Via Lumiere" (English title: "Have Your Cake and Beat It".) Again a similar English language version of the album was released by Manticore as The World Became the World. The English album included another remake of "Impressioni di settembre" as the title track. This would be their last collaboration with Peter Sinfield, as the group were not entirely pleased with the content of his English lyrics. Again, the English album reached the U.S. charts, but was not as successful as its predecessor.

Following the release of The World Became the World the group recorded concerts in Cleveland, Ohio and Toronto, Canada (Convocation Hall) on their 1974 North American tour. These recordings were used for their next European album titled Live in USA. The same recordings were also released in the U.S. and Canada with new cover art as their final U.S. album for Manticore re-titled, Cook. PFM reached their biggest American audience yet when they appeared on NBC's Midnight Special program on February 21, 1975. Their nationally televised performance included "Celebration" and the instrumental "Alta Loma Nine Till Five".

1975-1978

The lack of a strong lead vocalist had always been considered PFM's biggest liability so, for this reason, they enrolled Bernado Lanzetti, who was previously with the group Acqua Fragile. Lanzetti had lived in the U.S. and had a powerful and distinctive voice, and could sing and speak fluent English.

The first release by the six-piece band was Chocolate Kings in 1975. Featuring a harder rock sound, it had modest success at home and was their least popular album in Italy so far. The same album was released with different cover art by Manticore in the U.K. and by Asylum Records in the U.S. The controversial U.S./U.K. cover showed a chocolate bar in a partially peeled Stars and Stripes wrapper on the front, along with the crumpled and discarded wrapper on the back. The album reached the U.K. Top 20 but was less successful internationally. Mauro Pagani left the group following Chocolate Kings to pursue a solo career.

Lanzetti also appeared on Jet Lag (1977), an album highly influenced by the Jazz-fusion movement which was recorded in Los Angeles. This was their last album with English lyrics and their last attempt to reach the international progressive rock audience. It was also their last album released in the U.S., also on Asylum. Violinist Gregory Bloch, previously with the group It's a Beautiful Day, replaced Mauro Pagani but lasted for only one album.

Paspartù (1978) added 2 new percussion players and changed direction again, including shorter songs in Italian and being characterized by an international pop music style. The new sound on this album contains mostly acoustic instead of electric guitar and seemed to draw from Italian folk and Latin music as well as Jazz influenced groups like Steely Dan. This was the last album to feature Lanzetti.

Premiata Forneria Marconi during a live performance in Modena.

1979-1987

In 1979, PFM once again played as the backup group for Fabrizio De André. The group contributed new arrangements for De André's songs and the ensemble toured Italy to packed houses. De André and PFM released two highly successful albums during this period, entitled In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM (1979), and In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM, Volume 2 (1980.)

During the 1980s PFM enjoyed continued success at home while concentrating on commercial rock music for the mainstream Italian audience. In 1980 Flavio Premoli left the group and built a successful career writing and performing music for Italian films and television. Multi-instrumentalist Lucio Fabbri joined adding skills on violin, keyboards, and rhythm guitar. Albums during this period were Suonare Suonare (1980), Performance (1980), Come ti va in riva alla città (1981), and PFM? PFM! (1984). The group stopped performing in 1987 following the release of Miss Baker, although they never officially broke up.

Reformation (1997-present)

Recent recordings by the group have successfully integrated their mainstream Italian and Progressive rock styles.

The comeback album Ulisse (1997) was widely regarded as their strongest album since Chocolate Kings. Its success helped to bring PFM back to the attention of the Progressive rock audience. Ulisse (Italian for Odysseus) is a Song cycle based on the Odyssey legend by Homer, with lyrics written by Vincenzo Incenzo and with Premoli returning with the other 3 core members of PFM. A 2 disc live album www.pfmpfm.it was recorded with additional musicians on their sellout Italian tour the next year.

Since reformation the group also recorded another studio album, Serendipity (2001). Live In Japan 2002 was released in both a 2 CD and DVD edition. The 2 CD edition contains 2 new studio tracks including a collaboration with Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator. Hammill wrote lyrics and sings on the group's first recording in English since 1977, titled Sea of Memory.

Piazza del Campo (2005) was released in both a single CD and CD+DVD edition. It captures PFM's performance with the one time only return of Mauro Pagani, filmed outdoors in the title's main square of Siena. Italian rock star Piero Pelù also appears on the live DVD. Due to health concerns keyboard player Flavio Premoli left the group for a second time in early 2005. PFM returned to the USA for the first time since 1977 to play the Progressive Arts Showcase at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on July 8, 2005. This concert was held in conjunction with the 7th annual NEARfest Progressive Rock event. Other shows on this tour included dates in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. Premoli's last work with the group, Dracula, was released late in the year. It is an original Rock opera based on the Dracula legend.

Stati di Immaginazione (2006) is an entirely instrumental effort and has an accompanying DVD of video images made for each song. As is typical for PFM, the music alternates serene and calming sections of acoustic guitar with blistering balls to the wall rock. The video content ranges from fantasy style vignettes made with computer graphics to archival black and white historic films.

PFM was the first confirmed act for the NEARfest 2009 festival which will was held June 20-21.

Members

Current

• Franco Mussida: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, mandolin, vocals (1970 - present)
• Franz Di Cioccio: drums, percussion, lead and backing vocals (1970 - present)
• Patrick Djivas: bass, programming (1974 - present)
• Lucio Fabbri: violin, keyboards (1979-1987)(2000 - present )
• Gianluca Tagliavini: piano, Hammond, Minimoog, other keyboards (2005-present)
• Piero Monterisi: additional drums (2006-present)

Former

• Flavio Premoli: piano, keyboards, Mellotron, Moog synthesizer, lead vocals (1970 - 1980, 1997 - 2005)
• Giorgio Piazza: bass (1970-1974)
• Mauro Pagani: flute, piccolo, violin, vocals (1970-1976)
• Bernardo Lanzetti: lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1975-1977)
• Gregory Bloch: violin (1976-1977)
• Walter Calloni: additional drums (1982-1987)
• Roberto Gualdi: additional drums (1997-2005)

Discography

Studio albums

• Storia di un minuto (1972)
• Per un amico (1972)
• L'isola di niente (1974)
• Chocolate kings (1975)
• Jet lag (1977)
• Passpartù (1978)
• Suonare suonare (1980)
• Come ti va in riva alla città (1981)
• P.F.M.? P.F.M.! (1984)
• Miss Baker (1987)
• Ulisse (1997)
• Serendipity (2000)
• Dracula (2005)
• Stati di immaginazione (2006)

English versions

• Photos of Ghosts (1973 - version of Per un amico)
• The World Became the World (1974 - version of L'isola di niente)

Live albums

• Live in USA (1974, also known as Cook)
• In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM (1979) (with Fabrizio De André)
• In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM, Vol 2 (1980) (with Fabrizio De André)
• Performance (1981)
• www.pfmpfm.it (1998)
• Live in Japan 2002 (2002)
• Piazza del Campo (2005)

Compilations

• PFM The Award-Winning Marconi Bakery (1976, Peters International, USA) – the LP cover features a plate of spaghetti because the group is Italian
• Prime impressioni (1976) – selections from Storia di un minuto and Per un amico

External links

• Official site
• PFM on progboard - biography, reviews and ratings