On August the 27th New Goblin closed the second edition of the 'Italian Horror Fest' with a free concert in Nettuno. The show benefited of the 'natural' scenography of Piazza San Rocco (with the Sanctuary as a backdrop!), the usual lighting and video equipment, colored smoke plus, for the first time, lasers, final fireworks and the guest appearance of the actress Arianna Fadda that crazy, bloody, brandishing a knife and a severed head, introduced the tune of 'School at night', before 'Profondo rosso'. The concert began at midnight and Goblin played the usual setlist without any unreleased track from the upcoming album, contrary to what was repeatedly announced by the organizer of the Festival. At the forefront of the audience were Dario Argento (the first Goblin concert for the master), Ruggero Deodato and an excited Eli Roth always filming and appaluding the Goblin performance. Hope that this experience will pay off in the future ...
Great response even for the New Goblin concert at the "prog 2 days + 1" free festival at Veruno. The band took the stage at 11pm and played the standard set list of classics (no new entry) with great power, thanks to the excellent sound system set up by the organizers and calibrated by Giuseppe Ranieri at high decibel levels. The audience appreciated the performance even if someone has pointed out that seemed like a metal concert and not a show of a progressive band.On September the 8th Goblin ... Rebirth held their second concert. The band attended to the Progressivamente Festival in front of a paying audience not too large but very attentive and pleased. Goblin ... Rebirth, who performed for about 70 minutes, had to shorten the playlist from the Crossroad concert to make way for the subsequent exhibition of Murple, a prog band, author of a concept album in 1974 and recently reformed. Goblin Rebirth started with Killer on the train and then played Buio omega, Aquaman, Mad Puppet - Death dies, Dr. Frankenstein, La Chiesa, Tenebre, Goblin, L’alba dei morti viventi, Suspiria, Zombi, Profondo rosso. As usual all eyes were focused on Pignatelli and Marangolo but was particularly appreciated the contribution of Anselmi, whose qualities I had already foretold in 'Goblin sette note in rosso'.
A wild crowd that sang the melodies of the most famous Goblin songs was the setting for the concert that New Goblin held the 1st of October in Helsinki in Finland, a country where 'horror rock' (dark and doom) is always attentively followed.
New Goblin then took part in the 'Prog Exhibition 2011' festival which was held in Rome on 21 and 22 October. Compared to last year's double sold-out, this time the public was far less numerous, about 300 spectators for the first evening with Stereokimono, Oak featuring Maartin Allcock, Jenny Sorrenti with Saint Just Again (and as special guest her brother Alan), UT with New Trolls members Maurizio Salvi and Gianni Belleno, Il Balletto di Bronzo with a special appearance by Richard Sinclair and Arti e Mestieri with Darryl Way. The viewers were 400 for the second evening with Il Bacio della Medusa, Vic Vergeat's Toad with Darryl Way, Garybaldi featuring Marco Zoccheddu (former New Idea), Biglietto per l’Inferno.folk with as guest the great Martin Barre and finally New Goblin.
After a delay of about fifteen minutes caused by Simonetti’s keyboards programming, New Goblin started the show with "Magic thriller" followed by “Mad puppet”. The band seemed to feel the weight of being the headliner of the festival and in front of an audience not entirely 'friendly' with the musicians very concentrated. Simonetti, usually more talkative and joking, offered several well-aimed variation and hints on the Goblin classic themes. The scheduled time for New Goblin was not much, further reduced by technical problems and by the announced final jam session and so were deleted from the set list "Phenomena" and "Zaratozom", also "L’alba dei morti viventi" was reduced by two thirds and merged with "Zombi" and "Suspiria" was played in the shorter version from the 45 rpm. The set list was completed by: "Dr. Frankenstein" (the best performance of the show) “Roller", "Goblin", "Nonhosonno", "Death Farm"(with some problems), “... e suono rock". Than Simonetti introduced "a tune that needs no presentation" and started the arpeggio of "Profondo rosso". By the end of the song entered Steve Hackett, welcomed by a roar, and the guitarist embellished the song with some solos. Simonetti and Morante, both excited, presented the British guitarist that started playing a solo, an intro to "Watcher of the Sky" the song that provided the inspiration for the beginning of "Zombi". I think at that moment Simonetti was taken in a leap forty years back in time, when, twenty years old, he played in a cellar Genesis songs with his friends, perhaps dreaming that he was the keyboardist of the British band. The choice to include Previtali and Tani in the line-up of New Goblin has been much criticized, as well as certain poses perpetually pissed off in a typically metal attitude but I must say that the efforts made by the two musicians are flawless. During "Watcher of the Skies" Morante virtually stopped playing and looked at Hackett, almost surprised by the situation. New Goblin’s concert ended among the cheers with Simonetti and Morante vying to be photographed together with the British guitarist.
Then started a super session with Maartin Allcock, David Sinclair, Mel Collins, Martin Barre, Steve Hackett and Franz Di Cioccio on drums. The musicians gave life to a ramshackle but fun version of "Locomotive Breath" and then played a version of "Crossroads" which was an excuse to make some solos for the delight of the audience.
New Goblin have been very successful in Japan where they played two concerts at the 'Italian Progressive Rock Festival' which was held in Kawasaki from 4 to 7 November at the Club Città , located in the new complex of shops ‘La Cittadella’ (just to make clear their love for our country). The Club Città has a medium size concert room (up to 1300 standing people) equipped with the most sophisticated audio and video recording technology and has a very cool stage lightning.
The first evening was opened by The Trip, which presented a selection from the albums Atlantide and Caronte and then New Goblin repeated the set list from the 'Prog Exhibition' in Rome. The show was concluded by the PFM with "Stati di Immaginazione / Anthology" focused on their more 'cinematic' album but with some classics including 'Celebration', 'Impressioni di Settembre', 'La carrozza di Hans'.
On 5 November (the only date that was sold out in advance) the party began with Il Balletto di Bronzo, beloved in Japan, who wowed the audience with a wide selection from YS preceded by 'Delirio viola'', 'Napoli sotterranea' and ‘La discesa nel cervello’ and continued with a show of about seventy minutes from Arti e Mestieri. Headliners of the evening were Goblin (shown without the 'New' on all advertising material) which virtually replicated the performance of the previous evening but with two more songs as encores, greeted warmly by the audience who then politely besieged the musicians for autographs.
Morante said he was surprised and overwhelmed by the affection and enthusiasm of the Japanese audience. The surprise of Morante and New Goblin is not mine. Just read the detailed discography included in 'Goblin sette note in rosso' to realize that in Japan all the Goblin classic albums (Cherry Five, Profondo rosso, Roller, Suspiria, Il fantastico viaggio del bagarozzo Mark, Zombi, Tenebre, Phenomena), were published in vinyl and, with regard to CD, the Japanese have published the entire discography of the group with an incredible high number of reissues.
In addition to the tickets went completely sold out also all the gadgets that the organizers had made with the proverbial Japanese skill: a beautiful poster of the festival, two chirashi flyer, a brochure opening on the front, a photographic program, a set of seven t-shirts!
I appreciate very much the passion, respect, accuracy and taste that Japanese people put in their actions, so:
Japan loves Italy, Red Goblin loves Japan!
