The Gang
Barricada Rumble Beat

We ask you, allow us the introductions ...

... they are three young lads with good substance and lots of taste, we've been around for a long, long time and if this introduction smells like déjà vu to you, you're off track.

Two northerners and a southerner joining forces, because unity is strength, long live Italy united and liberated on April 25th.

For months, our fervent minds sniffed, sought, and chased each other to give life to an unprecedented adventure: a three-headed review, six ears and as many eyes, three noses, six hands, and also six feet. It was a titanic task to find something that united us – punk and hardcore, brutal metal and growl, arthouse cinema and opera ... constant disagreements and always someone quibbling, «... complaints complaints, what an old bag ...» and don't even try to keep up with the quotes, because before the end you would have lost track seventy times over.

Then, one night, dreams came to show the way; and so, amidst visions of squares in the hands of rioters serenading into the night following the rhythm of Woody Guthrie's guitar, everything became clear.

«Barricada Rumble Beat».

The common passion for brothers Marino and Sandro Severini prevailed, and here we are to narrate their debut on the long distance, dated 1987. Clarifying that at the time, in order, the band of the Severini brothers is The Gang, Marino goes by Red and Sandro Johnny Guitar “Riff”; playing with them are El Kid and Bum Bum.

Having clarified what needed clarifying, finally the hour, the long-awaited moment for us three and millions more, albeit unconsciously, has come.

The cynical and deceitful fate wanted it to be the phenomenal Lorenzo aka Dema, from the high Piedmont (one of the northerners), to introduce everything, starting the story from the beginning, from Marino and Sandro's childhood, in Filottrano Rock City – because if the Roman district of Centocelle has its City Rockers, Filottrano has its City Rockers too!

Maybe not everyone knows that ...

... there is an obvious name for the place where Marino and Sandro grew up: l’Imbrecciata, a tiny hamlet of Filottrano, nestled on the hills of the Ancona province, not even three hundred souls in the good times, a primary school with only two classrooms and barely more kids running around.

A childhood spent racing through fields, hunting lizards, shoveling mountains of snow in winter; the ritual of threshing, the stables, the sheep, and every kind of domestic animal: the wonder and simplicity of an agricultural world that shapes the character of the two.

A rural world gone and forgotten.

They learn to love music and reading early on, thanks to their mother who always sings, along with Otis Redding, and the moon dives into the well of her desires; a matriarchal family, the Severinis, and the father working as a builder for over forty years, leaving home when dawn is still far and returning when Marino and Sandro are tucked in bed.

What else can two young men do in Filottrano Rock City but end up forming a rock’n’roll band?

So, just in their twenties, Marino and Sandro go to London, the London ablaze with the first furious wave of punk; and return dazed and aware that it's time to start a band.

In 1980 they form the Paper's Gang, which becomes simply The Gang three years later; they cut their teeth with an almost exclusively covers repertoire, from the Rolling Stones to Lou Reed, then onto the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. But they want to do something else and more.

So they write their first original songs, those that in 1984 end up in their self-produced debut «Tribes' Union», a mini-album later reissued by the Bologna label CGD, a necessary and heartfelt tribute to the work of the Strummer/Jones duo and the Clash, who in that year are in advanced disintegration and about to self-destruct definitively. A very successful debut, which excites and makes the band known throughout the peninsula and even in Europe: so much so that after two years spent touring supporting the likes of Jesus And Mary Chain, Blasters and Billy Bragg (keep this last one in mind), Marino and Sandro are ready for their first full-length work.

The songs are almost all there, but recording times extend beyond measure because the Bologna recording studio – M.C.M. – is available sporadically and for short periods; so it takes eighteen months to complete the album, released in November 1987.

But the long wait is well rewarded for a solid and poetic album, impetuous and calm at the same time: a basic milestone for the Gang and for their future musical journey, as well as for Italian rock as a whole.

With that cover which could not be more barricader, among barbed wire and blazing flames! And the sound still points to England and pays homage to the Clash, but not only this time ...

The record, like a coin, has two sides, side A and side B ...

... and they are narrated to you by Pin (the southerner) and Gna (the other northerner).

Because Dema is truly right, there's also a lot of America in the grooves of «Barricada Rumble Beat», in the sounds and words and imagery.

Exemplary in this sense is «Going To The Crossroads» which opens the album and from the very title refers to the crossroads where Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil, and it's a bastard blues like a rock’n’roll that flows fast: the voice is Marino's, Billy Bragg leads the dance and his guitar shines like never before, a very liquid organ and background horns sound so E–Street Band, from the beautiful times of «Darkness On The Edge Of Town» and «The River». Then it’s natural to believe how the agent's secret words that sell out for a new haircut and spill to the gang of four about that time Dennis Hopper drowned in a sea of Coca Cola in the Grand Canyon are gold-plated; or those of the shaman urging them to run and not be afraid, because in the memory of their blood the past will be brother.

From this warning, Marino, Sandro, and their comrades will always make treasure and will go forth without ever turning their back on History and every new album will be at the same time different although rooted in the previous, starting from that «Reds» which truly constitutes one of the highest tributes to Italian folk songs. The point is that compared to «Tribes' Union» the sound approach is entirely new and the turn is encapsulated in a very small record, the single «Against The Power Dollar», with on the B-side the definitive version of «It Says Here» returning an unpublished Billy Bragg, like the Bob Dylan unveiled by the Byrds in the days of Mr. Tambourine.

But the words are also different and the lyrics written by Marino are among the most beautiful ever penned by him, making it truly worth investing time to read «Barricada Rumble Beat», not just listen to it. And if «Tribes' Union» is blamed by the poor souls for too much “sloganism,” «Barricada Rumble Beat» is unassailable in this regard even «Against Power–Dollar» and «Rumble Beat» are pure and simple street poetry rather than sterile and childish militancy.

«Against Power–Dollar», even, rolls out a sunlit and captivating rhythm with a Caribbean scent – almost playful (including an insert of a Donald Duck squawking unintelligibly) – dominated by the insistent sax accompanying a text which is a manifesto of social, solidary, and international commitment by the Severini brothers: if in «Tribes' Union» the line is dictated by «Libre El Salvador», now it's definitely «Against Power–Dollar» that reveals how the Severini brothers have evolved. And it reveals it even more in «Rumble Beat», funk and rock’n’roll hand in hand in an incendiary combination, a voice swears it's impossible to remain still, indifferent: it's time to act but it's also time to dance; it's «The Magnificent Seven» but also «King Kong Five», it's the awareness that descends on the dance floor; it's the changing of the guard, and Tony Manero goes back to the table to sip his drink trying to remember how «YMCA» sounded.

The signals, although strong and clear, unfortunately reach only a few and the echo from Filottrano fades quickly, but Billy Bragg catches it, who forges a solid friendship with the Severini brothers and pushes to participate in the realization of «Barricada Rumble Beat», but also to convince The Gang to accompany him on the 1987 Italian tour; and perhaps by chance or not, in those same days Billy abandons the attire of a one–man–band.

The Gang and Billy Bragg ...

In the 1987 Italian tour, the Gang opens for Billy and in their set, they string together one after the other the tracks of «Tribes' Union» and «Barricada Rumble Beat» and «It Says Here» to introduce the English minstrel; Billy, at the end of the concert, invites the Gang on stage and together they close by singing «Garageland» and «I Fought The Law».

As if this weren't enough, the sentimental liaison with the Clash becomes even more involving when the Gang and Billy handle to close side A of «Barricada Rumble Beat» with a stunning version of «Junco Partner», which is not a Clash song but whoever claims to have known it well before «Sandinista!» is an impostor: that of the Clash is an extremely dubbed dub that takes the first love stories in «Bankrobber» to their extreme consequences; that of the Gang and Billy is a two-faced blues, initially acoustic with lots of slide guitars, followed by the call and response between Billy and the group emphasized by beautiful handclapping, and then an electric choral finale giving chills – and Billy coming out at one point with «... well I wish I had one million lira ...» means a mountain of respect for these Marchigian guys launched at the conquest of the sky.

«Barricada Rumble Beat» thus sees the participation of Billy Bragg, and on the inner sleeve it reads that Billy Bragg appears by his courteous concession and that of the Go!Discs record label, but it's pure formality that does not hide the passion that the Gang and Billy pour over those notes; but many other good folks participate as well, special mention goes to Alan King on sax, to all those who take turns on keyboards and to Andy J. Forest, who maybe doesn't do much as an actor – perhaps someone still remembers him in a small part alongside Serena Grandi in the Maestro Tinto Brass's «Miranda» – but he plays the harmonica like few do and it's heard in «Clyde Warrior And Jessy Colt» and in «Not For Sale».

«Clyde Warrior And Jessy Colt» is there to signify that what the Gang does best is to tell timeless bandit tales like Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash before them; or just stories, their own and those of whoever crosses their path. Even in «Barricada Rumble Beat» the Severini brothers are storytellers more than rockers, they are Francesco Guccini holding a Magnum Les Paul and shooting songs that hurt – paraphrasing one of their upcoming songs. «Barricada Rumble Beat», then, is simply a long story condensed into twelve short chapters, unfolding along the path from Filottrano to New York, encompassing the whole world.

And like two storytellers, Marino and Sandro stop at each camp, grab their guitars and begin to narrate, and a few people passing by stop to make acquaintances and dance and pogo. Because, at least for the moment, The Gang doesn't take their foot off the accelerator, indeed they press even harder, increasing the tempo in «Song Of The Prisoner», a relentless and captivating song among the most engaging in the repertoire, old-style rock’n’roll, bordering on punk, and in an instant, the memory returns to other prisoners, those sung by Mick Jones or Joey Shithead for instance. One is left breathless, literally and in every other sense.

Now it’s time to slow the rhythm, it’s time for «Midnight Serenade», a song among the most beautiful in words and music that the Gang has ever composed and among the most beautiful in the ambit of popular Italian and continental music as a whole – so sees the southerner Pin and insult him and only him if you do not agree. Suffice it to say that Bruce Springsteen wrote a nocturnal ballad of this kind for the last time seven years earlier and it was «Point Blank». And the first moment where every sense of «Barricada Rumble Beat» becomes evident is in the recitative by Wim Wenders as an introduction and in the passage where Marino whispers that only the guitar of Woody Guthrie can capture the rhythm on such a night; and it’s the ghost of Woody Guthrie that Marino evokes in his repeated insistence, this night is our night, this story is our story.

The Gang and Woody Guthrie ...

This is what «Barricada Rumble Beat» is, a great story in twelve small chapters, that traverses a long road from Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, a story that is that of folk music, pop, in broad and noble terms, simply popular.

«I hate songs that make you think you are a no-good. I hate songs that make you think you are born to lose. No good for no one. Because you’re either too old or too young or too fat or too thin or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that drag you down or songs that poke fun at your misfortune or your hard travelling. I’m fighting those kinds of songs to my very last breath and my last drop of blood.».

The legacy of Woody, which Marino and Sandro will preserve until their last breath, until their last drop of blood, is all here.

And this is the end of the story of «Barricada Rumble Beat», and the start of equally essential stories, from «Reds» which is a story from almost thirty years ago to «Sangue E Cenere» which is the story of yesterday.

If you liked the story, tell your friends and also tell them that THE GANG IS NOT FOR SALE!