Ernesto De Pascale is one of the most well-known music journalists in Italy. He has written for all the specialised music magazines, has written biographies, he was the voice of the famous radio broadcast Raistereonotte, but he is also a musician (he was the leader of Hypnodance in the 80’s) and a producer (he organised the recent Jethro Tull tribute of last year, for instance, released on his own label Il Popolo del Blues).
All in all, a very important person in the Italian music world, he has always enjoyed music since his early childhood listening to whatever live music; just for this he’s going to give us his recollection about one of the most remote Genesis appearances in Italy.
In fact, Ernesto just 14, went to Viareggio’s Piper on August 20th 1972 to attend both the concerts of our favourite bands…

What pushed you to attend the Genesis shows?
I missed Genesis when they came in Siena in April of the same year, I don’t remember why. But I had known them since the year before when I listened to “The Knife” on the radio, then also “Looking For Someone” and “White Mountain”. I even listened to the Italian version of one of these two songs done by Ornella Vanoni…
Right, it was “White Mountain”.
Just think how far my memory goes back. The first time I heard of Genesis was due to an article on Ciao 2001 by Michel Pergolani, who was talking about the tour done together with Lindisfarne, the one whose ticket cost about one penny or something… I was amazed by that thing, I had “Trespass” and “Nursery Cryme” in my collection, the latter in the English print with the pink Charisma label. I still have both. I went to the Piper like a good little boy who’d done his homework! But I had already been to the Piper, because my family had a house in Viareggio at the time. I had been to some concerts in Rome with my father who went there for work, and I went to Milan to see Led Zeppelin, but summer was just Piper time. I think they were already there, where did they play the evening before?
In Ravenna…
In fact I don’t remember Genesis’ equipment, while I clearly remember a lot of other bands’ equipment because I carried a lot of it …
Did you help with carrying the equipment in the Piper?
Always! I broke PFM’s mellotron through the tiny door of the Piper. And the same happened to Brian Auger’s Hammond, when I recalled the episode, Brian laughed a lot… Back to Genesis, at 2 PM we were all sat down on the ground when suddenly I stood up and everyone followed my example, but the venue was only going to open at 4 PM! I was embarrassed because I had a camera and a recorder. Anyway, I was the first to sit down, within an hour a long queue was made of people coming from La Spezia, Parma and other cities… The Piper had a rectangular shape with the inside all in black and white. I ran to the mock-stage made up from a plateau obtained from the third step on a small stair, the lower part of the stair was the audience room, which contained about 600-700 people.
What do you remember about the musical side?
I remember that during the slow bridges there was a lot of chaos in the audience. This is also due to the band’s poor means; the largest case was Tony Banks’ Leslie, I’m not sure if Phil Collins had some whistles, is it possible?
Yes, he used them.
Everyone was waiting for Gabriel, because we all knew he was dressed in that way. When he appeared everyone was clapping hands. Phil Collins was really young. I remember they had a lot of guitars and it was clear they used to play difficult stuff, but they were surprised from audience singing…
Did the audience know their songs?
All of them by heart! But there was a lot of chaos because it was a Sunday afternoon.
Do you mean that probably there was also an occasional audience?
Yes, some people being there just because it was a Sunday afternoon.
Did the audience pay for the show?
Yes, I think the ticket was 1500 or 2000 lire (about £ 0,50 – ed.).
You also attended the evening show. Is it true that they also played “Harold The Barrel”?
Yes, it is true. Peter came out on stage with a rose in his mouth. The rose was thrown on stage by my friend Daniele Contardi’s girlfriend.
So you can confirm they played it! It’s a really rare thing, because as far as I know that song was never played before during that tour…
I have to say we all were surprised by “Harold The Barrel”.
It was a second encore, wasn’t it?
Yes, it was the second encore. But if they hadn’t played it the Piper would have been destroyed because of the audience’s excitement. It was the last concert of the season, I remember Gabriel had a sheet of paper written in Italian to explain “The Return Of The Giant Hogweed” and “The Musical Box”, and I believe everything is documented in my tape, he was trying to speak Italian … But there was a big noise, even if they weren’t unknown at all, “Nursery Cryme” was in the charts … They started the show with “Watcher Of The Skies”, with a slightly different intro, and they also played “The Knife”…
If I am not wrong, you had some contact with Genesis also the day before or the day after …
The subsequent day.
That famous football match…
We went the subsequent day to meet them at their hotel. I remember they had a beige Transit van, but I think the equipment was in another van. They had a day off, so we proposed to go to the beach. They were in a two stars hotel behind the most important Viareggio hotel, the Principe di Piemonte. The two stars hotel closed last year, it’s so sad… So, we invited them to the Principe di Piemonte where the son of Sergio Bernardini (the owner of a famous venue called La Bussola – n.d.r.), Mario, let them change their clothes in his room. Finally we got to the beach, they were ugly! So pale! We took some photos of both teams (I don’t know if Daniele Contardi, one of our friends, still has these pics). Gabriel had his hands joined and the necklace, you know, the one he used during the show… he put it on only for the photo! He was without any silver make up, his ordinary hair, his hands united and the necklace. On the beach we destroyed them! They were the worst football players we’d ever met! One of them was very impressed by Principe di Piemonte, he said “it seems we are in Brighton”, and he was right because in Brighton there is a hotel designed by the same architect who did the Principe. We stayed all the evening with them and I remember they were very impressed by the Italian women.
Thirty years have passed, but can you still recall something about them (or about someone of them) as people, more than as musicians?
I remember Gabriel trying to speak Italian also the subsequent day. It was very funny because every time he saw a girl he said “un fico”. I don’t remember very much of Hackett and Rutherford (the latter too tall for me…). I remember a friendly Banks and a very friendly Collins. He was the only one who wanted to learn how to play football.
What was the result of the match?
We won 3-0. We were six against six.
Who was the sixth in their team?
A guy with red hair. Maybe a roadie, an Englishman anyway.
Did you aver see Genesis live once again after that?
I don’t think so. Maybe in Rome at the Flaminio stadium, but many years later (in 1987 – ed.). I did not go to Rome the year after for the “Selling England By The Pound” tour. But after Viareggio’s shows I came back to Florence and when “Foxtrot” was released on September 20th I bought it, as I did with “Genesis Live”.
I discovered you were born the same day as Peter Gabriel, even if many years later (in 1958 – ed.), did you know ?
Yes, I knew it… I saw Gabriel live at Parco delle Cascine in Florence in 1980… I was in the backstage with them, I think I have some slides of Gabriel taken directly from the stage! And I have the interview with Simple Minds (Jim Kerr’s band supported Gabriel on that tour – ed..) where I ask them about Joy Division…
Had Ian Curtis already commit suicide at the time?
Yes. In fact I went to Gabriel’s show above all for Larry Fast, because he had played with Todd Rundgren…
He was an experimenter…
Yes, I was actually interested especially in Larry, I wasn’t very into Gabriel at the time. But I was there because the promoter was the same which had organised Patti Smith’s concert at the stadium (in 1979 – ed.), I was her translator. We could talk for hours, I could tell you about the cancelation of Yes’ concert at Rome’s Brancaccio in 1971…

Mario Giammetti

Seventies' Recollection:
Van Der Graaf Generator
Soft Machine
Gallagher
Groundhogs
Marc Bolan
Led Zeppelin