Pooh
L'ultima notte insieme

THE REVIEW

"Finally!" This word has a dual significance, both as something anticipated with excitement and then arrives, and as something that arrives "definitively." The grand finale of the Pooh, 50 even years of music history, is entrusted to what they have defined as "their testament": "The Last Night Together." Initially announced for only two dates, the celebration for the half-century of activity expanded to include other special dates, eventually reaching the arenas (the title of one of their 1982 albums). However, the now five champions of Italian music, after the return of Stefano and especially Riccardo, decided to record only the first two Milan dates of their Celebration. The San Siro Stadium, which the band had never crossed for a concert, was the chosen location. How to celebrate 50 years of career? With 5 members and a whopping 50 songs on the setlist, as many as the years passed since the fateful January 28, 1966, when Valerio, Bob, Gilberto, Mario, and Mauro, who first called themselves Jaguars, started calling themselves Pooh and it all began. It starts off excellently with "Giorni infiniti," with which 30 years earlier they had celebrated their twentieth anniversary, and closes in a somewhat predictable but not unpleasant manner with "Ancora una canzone," a title that is "nomen omen." In between, the best and the "almost best" of their repertoire, among very famous songs, revived from oblivion after years, and others semi-unknown. Concerning the first category, I won't dwell on it, as these are songs from the early '70s and the '90s that everyone now knows. Instead, for the second category, I want to mention "Banda nel vento," which is just hinted at, and with which the Pooh celebrated 15 years of career dedicating it to Riccardo Fogli who returned 43 years after his departure ("in the choir, there you are too"...); "Se c'è un posto nel tuo cuore," from the mid-'80s album "Asia non Asia," which was not sung for years but I would have preferred "Se nasco un'altra volta" from that same album; and "La ragazza con gli occhi di sole," one of Stefano's classics, representing the album "Oasi," whose best song, however, remains "Che vuoi che sia." For the third category, songs dating back to the dawn of time are recovered, especially belonging to the first "beat" style Pooh. They are "Vieni fuori," a cover of "Keep on running," and "Nel buio," a cover of "I looked in the mirror," both from their first LP "Per quelli come noi." Due to time and space constraints, most songs are performed only in the first verse and the first chorus, and some tracks, like the already mentioned "Banda nel vento," are hinted at for just 30 seconds. The result, however, is enjoyable and balanced, yet it would have been fair to represent all 29 of the band's studio albums; instead, a full 7 albums are left out of the Celebration, among them the negligible "Il colore dei pensieri" from 1987 but also the beautiful yet not commercial "Un po' del nostro tempo migliore," from 1975. Nevertheless, Roby and company gave space to some tracks like "Risveglio," "La gabbia," "Parsifal" played in full, "Il ragazzo del cielo" final part, "Viva," with the explicit intention of valuing their instrumental and compositional component. They also gave space to singles from their first collection "I Pooh 1971-1974," as if to confirm the greater importance of their golden period, which spans from 1971 to 1976. The instrumental component is consistently represented also by one of the four unreleased tracks, Le Ultime Quattro Canzoni, namely "Traguardi," which reprises "Ancora una canzone" and other "explosive" tracks of the band like "Domani" (present in the live album), "Puoi sentirmi ancora," "Dove comincia il sole parte 2." The other three unreleased tracks are the predictable "Ancora una canzone," which is nothing more than the flipped version of "Amici per sempre," "La grande festa," "Ancora una notte insieme" and all the self-celebratory songs Pooh have accustomed us to in the last 20 years of their career; "Le cose che vorrei," which seems better without reaching a peak, and "Tante storie fa," same discussion as the aforementioned song. The four songs aimed to represent the four types of songs Pooh have composed throughout their history. It's also impossible not to remember Valerio Negrini, "our star up there (that) will always be with us," without whom nothing would have begun, and whose premature death remains a stain on this Fiftieth Anniversary. Another issue to raise is the presence of Riccardo Fogli. Some would have preferred a finale with four members, meaning Dodi, Red, Roby, Stefano, the Four who were Pooh for 36 years, without reinserting former members. Or who would have appreciated the presence on stage, not necessarily playing, also of Mauro Bertoli, Mario Goretti, Robert Gillot, and Gilberto Faggioli. Pooh thus close their career 50 years after their foundation. However, some detractors might think that the ideas had already run out 10, 20 if not even 30 years earlier, and at the news of the End, they will exclaim, as we began, "finally!"